Went back to Williamsburg this weekend for the first time since Adam and Christy's wedding. Man there's a lot of shit there now. I guess the colonial area is pretty much the same except for the parking garage, but pretty much everywhere else blew me away at how much has been done.
So, half of the reason I wanted to go down to Williamsburg this weekend was to see the Messiah performance at Bruton. The other half became that, the more I thought about Williamsburg, the more I started craving a sandwich from Padow's. Well, come to find out, Padow's is gone, which sent me out on a search for a sandwich. Cuz I wuz hongry. So I decided to trek down Richmond Rd. toward Lightfoot to see what I might find. First thing I noticed was the dilapidated gas/service station across from Staples was now a Walgreen's. I love Walgreens! They have the best snacks! So, my mind being sufficiently warped by the site of the Walgreen's, I go past New Hope Rd. which used to just be a carpet between our house and Dunkin' Donuts. First thing I saw was that Chanello's was right next to IHOP now. I said, "Oh wow. I think I would have liked that," though I don't really have much memory of Chanello's. Then my mind kind of went into overfuckingdrive. Drive past the hotel next to IHOP and all of a sudden there's this giant shopping center looking thing that isn't really populated yet but looks like it would have been my worst nightmare. So I drive through, there's a Firehouse Subs, a Plaza Azteca, and a Five Guys there now, right next to our house, with presumably many more things to fill up those spaces. Are you fucking kidding me?!? I managed to make myself the size of three people with a 1-minute bike ride to KFC and Dunkin' Donuts. And a car that would occasionally get me to a lot of pizza. Or Wendy's. And a lot of Subway Station. And Padow's. This is suddenly not seeming so amazing to have those places right next to me, I think I found the food I was after. But still! Can you imagine what I would have done to myself if there was a Five Guys like 30 seconds away? I would have smelled like peanut oil french fries every minute of every day for 3 years. I was kind of embarrassed when the people at Padow's learned my name because I went there so much, same with the guy at Subway Station, and even more so when the people at KFC knew what I was going to order because I went there so often. (It's fucking KFC! Do you know how many people probably went in and out of there in a day? If I saw that many different people every day I don't think I could remember what ONE was going to order unless he was there way too much. I was there way too much.) So yeah, right next to our house. If Five Guys had been there when we lived there, I probably would not have made it out alive.
But here's what really bowled me over. Remember how hard it was to see a goddam movie in Williamsburg? Kimball or bust most times. Or that one small theater that I can't remember where it is now because I probably went there three times in the dark. I know I saw The Scorpion King there. Anyway, now there is also a movie theater right there. Right. There. Tell me we wouldn't have gone broke. And then I got back to the Travelodge and they actually had a brochure about the movie theater because it's a Movie Tavern where you EAT DINNER WHILE YOU WATCH THE MOVIE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? And you might expect them to be showing second or third run family fare for the family to go out to. Nope. First run movies. It was mostly on the younger side, Twilight, Princess on the Frog, that kind of stuff. But also Blind Side, Invictus. They'll be showing Avatar when it comes out. MAN! How many times would we have driven to Video Update if we had to drive past a Movie/Dinner Theater to get there? Probably not as many. But good lord I would be so much more in debt than I am now.
But I still hadn't found anything I wanted to eat. (You think I wasn't tempted to stop at the Taco Bell on Richmond Rd. just because I was driving past at a time when the Cheesy Gordita Crunch happened to be back for a limited run just for nostalgia's sake? It crossed my mind.) I decided to turn around and go back down Monticello and see what was out Ukrop's way now and perhaps what had become of this New Town that was just on the rise when I was last there. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think when we went there for your wedding (yeah, I know nobody else is reading this so it's pretty much just going to become an email to Adam) the movie theater was pretty much the only thing that was open and there were a few other buildings around but looking uninhabited at the time. I don't remember it being real busy. And now it's pretty much the size of Fredericksburg! Maybe bigger. I mean, I know Fredericksburg isn't the biggest city in the country, but it is a CITY! Not a shopping center! I just kind of drove in where the movie theater was and almost plowed over some people down the main concourse by going the wrong way down a one way street. I thought for a second about getting out and walking around to see what was there but I just said FORGET IT! I don't want to deal with this. So I drove further down Monticello and saw just how far New Town went. Ridiculous. Kept driving toward Ukrop's, noticed another pretty big shopping center between 199 and the Ukrop's shopping center that I'm pretty sure was not there before. Didn't even set tire in that one. Didn't care! Too much to try to take in. Kept driving toward Ukrop's, only thing I really noticed out there was that they had a Cold Stone now. I'm guessing I would have liked that.
Still hadn't eaten. I don't know how I could have eaten with my mouth gaping like that. Anyway, I still really just wanted a sandwich, so I drove past the Subway Station (too many memories) and decided to go get one at The Cheese Shop. At which point I remembered why I rarely went to The Cheese Shop. A little over ten bucks for what amounted to a small turkey sandwich and a root beer. The turkey was good, the bread was good, the roasted tomatoes were the highlight of the sandwich, and they forgot my mustard. Ten bucks?!?
So, that's not even to mention any of the stuff that's been built on campus. Unreal. Then that night I also got a call from my dad and was telling him about all the changes that had been made, and he informs me that they also had a Best Buy now. I was like, you mean the one in Newport News? No! Williamsburg. Wow. That might have been handy.
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