Where'd you go?
So I've been getting a lot of flak about being MIA. I don't know; I just haven't been feelin' it lately, but the longer I put off writing, the greater the pressure to return with a masterpiece of an entry that'll make up for such a lengthy hiatus. So I'm just biting the bullet, and hoping it'll unleash something that at least gets me interested in writing again. So where've I been all this time?
In the Garden -- I'm like the Little Engine that Could. Everyone I knew who'd planted vegetables this spring was ass-deep in tomatoes, and I just had these towering plants that were yielding zip. But, finally, I found three tomatoes that the Smelmooo and I enjoyed enormously last night with dinner. I could hardly believe that I of the black thumb was able to grow something so yummy.
At the Amusement Park -- Minnams already covered this ages ago, but we had such a fun time at Great Adventure. I hadn't been there in about 10 years -- the last time I was there, the Batman ride was brand-spanking new, and there've been probably half a dozen new rides added since then. I was too chicken to go on Kingda Ka, but I loved El Torro and Nitro. I liked Medusa, but the harness really wreaked some havoc on my breasts (I imagine that's how a mammogram will feel, probably). I liked Superman okay; as Minnams pointed out, it's a very different kind of ride, and it was cool. I think if I went on it again, I'd want to be in the very front row, because the nifty thing about the ride is that feeling of "I'm flying!!!" Which is sort of undermined when you're looking at sneaker soles for 90% of the ride. But it was a beautiful, blue-sky day, with tons of good bad food and great company, and I hope it'll be an annual outing.
At the Racetrack -- we went on our annual outing to Saratoga a couple of weeks ago, and as usual had a great time, although we missed our friends who couldn't make it because they're expecting their first baby in a couple of weeks. So the guys toasted them with that disgusting spring water, and the ladies toasted them with the traditional "champoo" and we enjoyed a lovely day together. And then we hit PJ's Bar-b-q, which is too yummy for words, and topped off the evening with poker at our friend's parents' house. I sucked at poker -- I got knocked out relatively early, so some of the others spotted me so I could keep playing, and then I got knocked out again, which was just pathetic.
In Mystic, Connecticut -- the Smelmooo had a work event in Mystic right on the heels of the Saratoga trip, so we stopped at the Martin Van Buren house (he was the eighth president, for those of you who doubt) and then headed to Mystic, which reminded me a lot of New Hope, Pennsylvania. While the Smelmooo had meetings, I participated in the Spouses' Program, which involved a trip to a castle that might more accurately be called a cottage. It was cool-looking, but really, we drove more than an hour to get there, and you could not spend more than 20 minutes poking around the castle. So the bulk of the day was spent on the bus with the wives, who were mostly 30 years older than I am, and the ones of my generation all have a million babies. So there was a fair amount of, "So, do you have kids?" and then a big gaping silence when I said no, because that was really the point of commonality among most of these women. I try to sneak into the club by talking up my nieces and nephews, but most of them were having none of it, particularly when someone raised the question, "So, you didn't change your name when you got married, huh?" I might as well have been a zoo animal.
But I really enjoyed the ride home with the Smelmooo; even though we see a lot of each other and don't have kids, we still don't always get long stretches of time just to talk, so it felt good to catch up. I also enjoyed the many chocolate-covered treats (graham crackers, Oreos, pretzels) I purchased at Olde Mystic Village, but I did not enjoy the Quizno's bread bowl I had for lunch one day. Really, it's three times the price of a cup of soup, and the bread's not even that good, so it was a big thumbs-down.
Down the Shore -- the early-summer trip to the Outer Banks and the quickies to Saratoga and Mystic weren't cutting it, so we took a few much-needed days at the Jersey Shore to do a whole lot of nothing. Mission accomplished: I took lots of naps; we went to the movies (The Devil Wears Prada -- much better than the book, which I couldn't even finish); we lounged around on the beach; we played bocce ball and mini-golf (we each got a hole in one!); we took long walks; we read; we went out to eat (sadly, one of our favorite restaurants down there was closed, which we didn't discover until we'd walked all the way there); we drank wine and ate ice cream. The weather was gorgeous, and although the ocean was a little gunky -- lots of clear jellyfish, so just icky rather than dangerous -- we got in the water three days in a row, and it felt like heaven to be at the shore.
And now, back to the grind, although tons of people take off the last two weeks of August, so my fingers and toes are crossed that it'll slow down a bit and I can continue to enjoy what's left of the summer that's gone by way, way, way too quickly.
In the Garden -- I'm like the Little Engine that Could. Everyone I knew who'd planted vegetables this spring was ass-deep in tomatoes, and I just had these towering plants that were yielding zip. But, finally, I found three tomatoes that the Smelmooo and I enjoyed enormously last night with dinner. I could hardly believe that I of the black thumb was able to grow something so yummy.
At the Amusement Park -- Minnams already covered this ages ago, but we had such a fun time at Great Adventure. I hadn't been there in about 10 years -- the last time I was there, the Batman ride was brand-spanking new, and there've been probably half a dozen new rides added since then. I was too chicken to go on Kingda Ka, but I loved El Torro and Nitro. I liked Medusa, but the harness really wreaked some havoc on my breasts (I imagine that's how a mammogram will feel, probably). I liked Superman okay; as Minnams pointed out, it's a very different kind of ride, and it was cool. I think if I went on it again, I'd want to be in the very front row, because the nifty thing about the ride is that feeling of "I'm flying!!!" Which is sort of undermined when you're looking at sneaker soles for 90% of the ride. But it was a beautiful, blue-sky day, with tons of good bad food and great company, and I hope it'll be an annual outing.
At the Racetrack -- we went on our annual outing to Saratoga a couple of weeks ago, and as usual had a great time, although we missed our friends who couldn't make it because they're expecting their first baby in a couple of weeks. So the guys toasted them with that disgusting spring water, and the ladies toasted them with the traditional "champoo" and we enjoyed a lovely day together. And then we hit PJ's Bar-b-q, which is too yummy for words, and topped off the evening with poker at our friend's parents' house. I sucked at poker -- I got knocked out relatively early, so some of the others spotted me so I could keep playing, and then I got knocked out again, which was just pathetic.
In Mystic, Connecticut -- the Smelmooo had a work event in Mystic right on the heels of the Saratoga trip, so we stopped at the Martin Van Buren house (he was the eighth president, for those of you who doubt) and then headed to Mystic, which reminded me a lot of New Hope, Pennsylvania. While the Smelmooo had meetings, I participated in the Spouses' Program, which involved a trip to a castle that might more accurately be called a cottage. It was cool-looking, but really, we drove more than an hour to get there, and you could not spend more than 20 minutes poking around the castle. So the bulk of the day was spent on the bus with the wives, who were mostly 30 years older than I am, and the ones of my generation all have a million babies. So there was a fair amount of, "So, do you have kids?" and then a big gaping silence when I said no, because that was really the point of commonality among most of these women. I try to sneak into the club by talking up my nieces and nephews, but most of them were having none of it, particularly when someone raised the question, "So, you didn't change your name when you got married, huh?" I might as well have been a zoo animal.
But I really enjoyed the ride home with the Smelmooo; even though we see a lot of each other and don't have kids, we still don't always get long stretches of time just to talk, so it felt good to catch up. I also enjoyed the many chocolate-covered treats (graham crackers, Oreos, pretzels) I purchased at Olde Mystic Village, but I did not enjoy the Quizno's bread bowl I had for lunch one day. Really, it's three times the price of a cup of soup, and the bread's not even that good, so it was a big thumbs-down.
Down the Shore -- the early-summer trip to the Outer Banks and the quickies to Saratoga and Mystic weren't cutting it, so we took a few much-needed days at the Jersey Shore to do a whole lot of nothing. Mission accomplished: I took lots of naps; we went to the movies (The Devil Wears Prada -- much better than the book, which I couldn't even finish); we lounged around on the beach; we played bocce ball and mini-golf (we each got a hole in one!); we took long walks; we read; we went out to eat (sadly, one of our favorite restaurants down there was closed, which we didn't discover until we'd walked all the way there); we drank wine and ate ice cream. The weather was gorgeous, and although the ocean was a little gunky -- lots of clear jellyfish, so just icky rather than dangerous -- we got in the water three days in a row, and it felt like heaven to be at the shore.
And now, back to the grind, although tons of people take off the last two weeks of August, so my fingers and toes are crossed that it'll slow down a bit and I can continue to enjoy what's left of the summer that's gone by way, way, way too quickly.
2 Comments:
Yeah! She is back. Sounds like you had some fun.
By
Carrie, at 7:54 PM
"So, you didn't change your name when you got married, huh?" <-- I get the impression you've never met these people before, so who the hell are they to ask such a question? I hope you told them to mind their own business or something less classy (but I'm sure you took the high road)
By
seth, at 8:33 AM
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