1. George Washington statue outside the VA State Capitol | 2. Blue Talon Bistro, Williamsburg, VA | 3. That's us, together again | 4. Slashed tire, WTH? | 5. Winter storm on the river | 6. Street art, sort of | 7. Neel's in demo mode again | 8. Sund… — 1. George Washington statue outside the VA State Capitol | 2. Blue Talon Bistro, Williamsburg, VA | 3. That's us, together again | 4. Slashed tire, WTH? | 5. Winter storm on the river | 6. Street art, sort of | 7. Neel's in demo mode again | 8. Sunday supper | 9. Back to the capitol

Here's something I've learned. Talking to a teenaged boy is like trying to get a wild fawn to eat out of your hand. If you dash up to it, arms outstretched, it's ears twitch and it darts off, bounding away into the woods. But if you sit very quietly, a handful of birdseed and peanut butter by your side (or, in our case, a chicken wing), it will come and sit next to you and nudge your hand until you feed and pet it.

So Cal generally calls us before he goes to bed each night for a quick chat. On Thursday he called late, after 10:30, and poor Neel was already asleep! Cal made me wake him up (Neel sort of work up), and any time, as it grew later and later, that I'd suggest, "Maybe you should hit the showers," Cal would say, "I just want to talk to you guys!"

Ask him a question over the weekend when we have him face to face, and we're back to monosyllables. Wink.

It's okay. I know how to do it now. Get myself ready for bed, get my book out and wait for him to come to my bathroom to brush his teeth. That's when he walks around our bedroom and talks to us. He's having an amazing time.

We got some things wrong this first weekend, like eating a late heavy lunch on the way home and then not being hungry for the dinner I had ready. And waking up to a slashed tire Saturday morning didn't help our time management or our equilibrium. Now that was a comedy of errors. We have to take Cal to school for three hours of catch-up work each weekend, so out the door we go. Discovery of totally flat tire on one car. Hop into our beloved elderly Mini Cooper. (I say elderly because she can't go on the freeway any more.) On the way to school, the hot engine light keeps coming on. Awesome. Drop Cal off late. Go get coolant for Blanche (our Mini). Hold our breath on the drive home. Find the neighborhood crawling with police because there are so many reports of cars vandalized overnight that the officers have lost count. (We were lucky. At least we didn't have a window busted out.) Find new tire. Drop car off to get new tire. Hold breath to get Cal as coolant only seems to be partially helping Blanche. Come home and collapse in a heap.

And then Neel and I had to take Cal's blazer to the mall to have some buttons sewn back on!

And then it stormed!

And then we surprised him with dinner with some of his best buds at his favorite wing joint.

And that was just Saturday.

We got Cal back to Richmond in time to watch his team get booted out of the NFL payoffs, but I hope that being with his friends took some of that sting away. He's in his element it seems, and he loves being behind the scenes in the workings of our political process. Today marks his first day with our new Lt. Governor, the man who chose Cal to be his page. This feels as if it's really the beginning, I guess.

I have so much more to tell you, but on Sunday I had a migraine all day, and Neel started demolishing our master bath (so I guess we're finally redoing it), and things kind of got away from me! Clearly his work as a page needs its own post; there are so many great stories to tell! For us, it's a quiet week followed by a lot of laundry, but you know what? I'm okay with that.