We Say our Farewells

We spent today with Autumn and Mike, then had a very small going away party with some friends back at our hotel.

The evening would not be complete without some food and alcohol so four of us walked down to the nearby BevMo (a huge liquor store) to get some drinks.

BevMo - An alcoholic's dream come true

The shopping excursion did not go as planned. After about 30 minutes we all went up to the counter and the clerk announced that he would need to see ID for everyone under the age of 50 -- which left me out, but unfortunately, Mike (who is 30) got carded and didn't have his ID with him.

"It's okay", I said. "He's not buying anything. I'm buying all of this."

The clerk shook his head. "I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to do that."

Smiling broadly I said, "I don't even know who that guy is... he didn't come in with me."

The Bevmo guy was having none of it. "I'm sorry, I saw you come in together."

Crap. We argued for a few more minutes but to no avail.

I sighed and said, "Okay, I guess we'll just take these cold sodas and snacks..."

"Since this is a liquor store I'm not allowed to sell you anything without ID."  At that point I was pretty flabbergasted and it must have showed on my face because the clerk shot back, "You can look at me like that all you want but I'm not allowed to sell you anything without seeing his ID."

The guy was just doing his job, but it was a pretty frustrating experience. We left about $200.00 worth of merchandise on his counter and walked out. We eventually found a supermarket with some of the same stuff and this time we shunned Michael completely and had no trouble checking out.

We had to get up early and drive to Wyoming in the morning, so eventually it was time for everyone to leave.

Melanie and I had been dreading this goodbye for a long time, but I think doing it in the motel room the night before driving away made things easier on everyone.  Autumn and I both tend to yawn a lot when we are upset. "I'm not crying, my eyes are just watering because I'm tired. See?" We were both stifling yawns, but Melanie has no defense mechanism so she burst into tears.

We're going to miss Washington, our house, the United States, our friends and relatives (current and future); but what we'll miss the most is a charming, intelligent, funny, and delightful young woman we're so proud to call our daughter.

<yawn>