and, when I say here - I mean it is 1:43 in the morning and at work. We are in the middle of quarter close and are waiting for the staff to finish, so we can review and then we get to come back at 6:30 to finish to get stuff to the head office by around 10. It's been a LONG day....not to mention that LG and I were here last night till after 11 trying to do some other things that had to be done....so right now, we look like the walking dead. And yes, that means we are looking really pretty.
I know most of you would say "how ridiculous". I say - I do this once a month instead of almost quarterly, and at year end for months at a time. I think I have moved in the right direction. We are also working on making it better....its just taking some time.
SO, while I sit here and wait, I wanted to tell you about our Jersey trip. There were some things going on in the fam and we decided we needed a family trip to remind each other how much we love each other. Since my older sister's husband was supposed to be out of town, we thought we would all go up to NYC for a visit - especially since they are moving back to Texas in a month. Yes, I said it. Texas - in a month. I CAN'T WAIT to have them so close!
So, we all descended on NYC for the long July 4th holiday. The rest of the fam arrived in NYC on Thursday and got an extra day to shop, and I got in late Thursday night due to some ugly rain delays (re: 6 hours in an airport. I was a HAPPY camper!). Of course, when I got in, K and I stayed up gossiping and reading till the wee hours of the morning. Its like we are little kiddos again, sharing a room, giggling and laughing and doing anything BUT sleeping! I had breakfast with the rest of the fam in the morning (minus K - she was too tired to get out of bed!) and then L and J took me shopping. I always have some favorites I like to hit becuase I think they have awesome clothes and usually get really good deals. This was no exception. We hit Filene's basement - I got 2 pairs of 7 jeans, a pair of calvin klein work pants, and a calvin klein skirt for work for $79. Yes, I said that. Can you believe it?!?! I couldn't! It was AWESOME.
Then we ran over to a place called the the frying pan for lunch. It is a historic bar that is basically at Pier 66 in NYC - it is a floating barge where they sell Corona by the bucket, have awesome sangria, and great food. So we sat outside with half of NYC and enjoyed the FABULOUS weather and good people watching! We then did a bit more shopping and then ran home to get ready for the evening. We went to a great little churrascaria in Hell's Kitchen (which was SOOO good) and then over to see "God of Carnage". This was a play that won some ungodly amount of Tony awards this year - and the cast is only 4 people - Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Hardin, Hope Davis and James Gandolfini. It is about two families whose kids get in a fight and the parents come together to try to "resolve the issue". It was H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S....probably more for my family than anyone else. (we'll get to that). It basically delves into marriage and the dysfuntionality of some, and how what you see is not always what you get. It is so stereotypical, but so freaking funny. At one point, they are telling a story about how JG's character threw the hamster on the front sidewalk because he was tired of it and told the kids that it ran away. IRONIC that my mom did about the same thing - but based on my dad's story, it was flung out the back door. AWESOME. My mom couldn't stop laughing and we all just kept saying "mom" and snickering every time it was brought up.
We then went out to the Jersey Shore - in a town called Long Branch. I never thought of the Jersey shore being a destination place for people other than New Yorkers, but I would SO buy a house there. it was AMAZING. My sister has a friend who is on rotation in China and gave my sister a key to be able to use it. It is somewhere like a 7 bedroom Victorian house that is 2 blocks from the train station, two blocks from the grocery store, 1 block from dunkin donuts (the most important - for coffee, not donuts!) and 2 blocks from the beach. HEAVEN I tell you. Plus, did I mention it has a wrap around front porch and rockers? Just that in itself is pure heaven. did I also mention how great the weather is, and that there were blueberry bushes in the back yard where we picked them to make a blueberry cobbler and then for blueberry pancakes? This could be my favorite vacation yet :)
So, for few pictures -- here is the beach (and these are with K's camera - I haven't downloaded mine - which I also broke my camera there - so I will be needing to buy a new one soon!)
Did I mention how much I LOVED the beach? the sand = fabulous. There was enough room to be as close or as far away from people as you wanted to be -- see the empty places on the right side of the pict above - we were on that end. The water was FREEZING - but did I mention that it was so cool that you didn't need to get in the water?!? AMAZING.
I have some other pictures of the house - I will post those when I download my picts. I can talk more about the house then -- but then we went and watched fireworks. They were at the Beach - and we watched from the board walk. We laughed becuase only in NJ would there be an ice cream truck - it was there and J risked his life eating it (I am not convinced it is okay). But we heard it all the time - it played the song "do your ears hang low, do they wobble to and fro"...I wish I could sing it for you :) but you wouldn't want that!!!! (and don't think K and I didn't sing that aloud quite a few times!)
And then it was time for fireworks. they had a decent show - K caught these on camera....awesome. Her camera had a fireworks setting and I swear it caught it every time as it went off!
More fireworks....
So, besides that - I spent a LOT of time on the porch with the fam, drinking coffee (don't think I didn't make at least 2 trips - one for the early risers and the other for the slackers who slept in), eating every meal outside on the porch on in the back yard, laughing and talking on the front porch - catching up since it had been too long since we had been together, talking about K - and hearing her yell from inside "I CAN HEAR YOU - the WINDOWS ARE OPEN!" ....to which I reminded her politely I had already said this stuff to her face so I could repeat in public. It was just funny. All in all, it was a FABULOUS trip. I have more pictures to post - and I promise I will!!!
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