September Update

Well, hello again, everyone.

Sorry, I admit I’ve been neglecting my blog on account of A) being on Facebook, B) being sick for a good chunk of last week and C) now having an inoperable laptop computer. But that doesn’t mean everyone needs to remain in the dark as to the various goings-on in my life!

Three weekends ago now, Shelly and I took a spur of the moment Labor Day trip down to Wilmington, NC, a place the two of us had never really experienced (I had gone there for 15 minutes or so for work one time, and Shelly had been there circa 1986, but I don’t think either of those are really worth counting). Anyway, despite the last minute nature of the trip, Shelly and I found comfortable lodging at the Comfort (or Country, who can remember after over two weeks?) Suites. We got down there Saturday morning, checked in, and then hit the beach. Or, rather, we headed for the beach; after 20 minutes of circling, I was despairing of finding a spot. However, in a random act of kindness that actually managed to reinvigorate a faith in humanity I’d long thought dead in myself, a departing beach-goer flagged us down, offered his spot, AND gave us his daily beach ticket so we didn’t have to pay.

OK, so I guess it WAS Country Inn and Suites after all...

If the streets were crowded, the beach was mobbed. Given Aunt Tick’s aversion to having other beach-goers within 50 yards of her, I’m pretty sure her head would’ve exploded had she been there. We finally managed to squeeze ourselves in next to a massive family with several pop-up tents and a scad of children, and set about enjoying our day. It was beautiful beach weather, actually, hence the over-abundance of late-season bathers, and the water was perfect, though a bit rough for Shelly’s taste.

We hung out there for several hours, then went out to dinner at Elijah’s, which had a coupon in this book we found and came highly recommended by the concierge. It was quite tasty, though a bit pricey, and afterwards we took a twilight walk along the riverfront, where I got several good pictures… which I regrettably can’t show you, as they’re stranded on my malfunctioning laptop (I’m using Shelly’s, in case you wonder how I’m communicating with you).

We collapsed back at the hotel somewhat early, only to be awakened by the arrival of the Zambrano’s at 11pm. A groggy Yours Truly assisted them with their luggage, then returned to bed and promptly fell back asleep.

The following day yielded less beach-friendly weather, but we all made a go of it. Unfortunately, this time we had to fed the meter at a ridiculous 25 cent per 10 minute increment rate. We put in about 2 ½ hours worth, and even left before that was up due to the lousy weather. It never exactly rained, but it never cleared off either, and tiny droplets pelted us at steadily all afternoon. Also, it was incredibly windy, to the point that hungry seagulls could pretty much glide in place if they wanted to. Breaking yet another Aunt Tickie rule, I fed them all of our lunch scraps, which seemed to spontaneously generate seagulls out of nothingness; within 10 seconds, I had gone from feeding 2 seagulls to about 45.

After leaving the beach, the five of us came back to the hotel, changed, and then went out to dinner at The Pilot House, which happened to be right next door to the place we’d gone the previous night. Of course, we didn’t go straight there; we walked around for forty-five minutes first to make sure we weren’t missing out on something better. For all intents and purposes, the evening ended up being a clone of the previous one, with the exception that we had Stephanie, Julius, and Aaron with us.

The following morning, after partaking of the continental breakfast, Shelly and I hit the road for home, stopping only briefly (2 hours) to have brunch with former-roommate Nancy Dayton, who was in town shopping for wedding dresses. Two hours wasn’t nearly enough time for the girls to catch up, but Nancy had to brave the 95 traffic home, and was anxious to get started. Here’s a picture of the two ex-Alexandria homemakers:


I know you’re all wondering, so I’ll ruin the surprise: Yes, she found the dress she wanted.

The next week saw a miserable descent into illness on my part, but let’s not dwell on the negative. Let’s skip ahead to the following weekend, when Shelly and I attended Matt’s 30th birthday party.

By Sacrinty party standards, it was rather subdued; Martha actually made it to midnight this time! ;) When first we arrived, Martha, following a thought process of “Hey, Chris likes geese, ergo, he’ll like this story”, shared how she witnessed someone deliberately plow through a flock of them on the road one day. Pretty sickening, really, but she did extract a promise from me that I’d post her goose-related story on my blog. Promise fulfilled- now, rest easier, everyone, knowing such monstrous individuals cohabitate the world with you.

Regretfully, I still wasn’t 100% from the preceding week, so we didn’t stay all that long. In fact, upon arriving, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Matt and Martha both knew, to a level of detail one can only describe as “clinically thorough”, all the minutia of my various toilet-huggings, etc, from the last couple of days. Matt, having once gone through several procedures that I’ll be enjoying over the next month, could only squeeze my shoulder in sympathy and shake his head sadly.

OK, that catches you up through last weekend, when Mom and Dad came to visit. I'll fill you in on that next time.

Hope everyone's had a good September so far.