Sunday we were going to get up in time to watch the sun rise from the beach. Of course, when the alarm went off, I turned to Sara and asked "Do you still want to get up?" The response was "murflemurflemurfle" which I took to mean, "No thank you, please!" and so we slept blissfully for another couple of hours.
Hey, the sun comes up every day. We'll watch it another time.
When we finally did get up for realsies, we got ready to head down to the beach. That day had been set aside for all beach, all day! Woo-Hoo! We packed up our cooler and our chairs and all of the other accoutrements, and drove down to the shore. One of the surprisingly awesome things about this beach is that it is wide and flat enough that they allow driving and parking right out on the sand. Normally I would hate that, I think, but there was so much room that the cars didn't get in the way and it was very convenient to have your vehicle so close by. I didn't understand the desire to drive along the length of the beach, but I guess people need to cruise somewhere.
Once we got settled, we sat for a while and watched people come and go. It was really very nice. Well, except that Sara's chair (provided by the Air BnB place) had a rip in it that kept getting bigger and bigger until she was barely hanging on for dear life. We read for a while, and then I left her behind to walk around a bit. I didn't feel like swimming, so I only got into the water up to my knees, but it was nice to just be there. It wasn't that hot, and it was a bit cloudy, but it was wicked humid out there. I'd look down and water would have condensed all over me. It was really strange!
We hadn't been there for long, but when I went back to our spot, Sara was looking kind of pale. She wasn't feeling well, and after a few minutes of trying to convince her that I wouldn't be upset if we left, she allowed us to pack up the car and drive back to the apartment. Dunno what was wrong, but she must have felt terrible. When we got back, she fell asleep and stayed asleep for a long, long time. In the mean time, I showered and changed, and sat by the bed reading and hoped she wasn't going to die. Granted, that's a huge overstatement, but I was worried! I finally went out on the balcony so as not to disturb her and I fell asleep out there, myself. Naps are awesome!
I have no idea how long I was out there, but Sara was awake and feeling much, much better, so we decided to drive around a bit and get lunch. We ate at a place called "Yellow Dog Eats" and it was wonderful. They have great barbecue and our waiter looked a lot like Jesus, so it was awesome! We drove around a bit after that, just talking and looking around, until we decided it would be a good idea to go back and clean the place up. That's one of the rules, to clean up after yourself, so we did so and then packed up what we could before the next day so it wouldn't take us as long in the morning.
We decided to eat much later in the evening, so we searched around until we found something still open and settled on the NSB Seashack, which was delightful, even if their live music was, eh...coffee shop level at best. We still had a good time!
Unfortunately, this was our last night there and just like any trip where you're having a good time, the fact that we were leaving the next day loomed. Boo! We resigned ourselves to the fact and went to bed. I wished we'd had several more days, but until I can become independently wealthy and not need to go back to work, I suppose all vacations will have to end at some point!
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Monday, August 28, 2017
BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: PART 3 - BEWARE THE WHITE MYSTERY GOO
Saturday morning we got up early so that we could make it to the local farmer's market that was being held not very far from where we were staying. Actually, almost everything we did was not very far from where we were staying, which was nice, because driving when you don't have to sucks!
The market was fairly small, but it was much more varied than any other one I'd ever been to. There was food, of course, but mainly the rest of the booths were crafts and things. I really enjoyed it. We did one circuit around the place before we bought anything, and once done, we shopped in earnest. Well, Sara shopped in earnest and I instigated her shopping, haha! We had a lot of fun, though. I did buy some yarn made by a local alpaca farm (because of course I did) and got a beautiful lotus shaped candle holder from a local potter. We didn't want to buy any food, because it wouldn't have traveled well, and for that I'm sorry, because there was some awesome fruits, veggies, and prepared foods for sale there.
One incident at the farmer's market has to be told, though, because it's so stupid. Scratch that, I am the stupid one. I think you'll agree. One of the stalls at the market was some kind of hippy-dippy couple selling powdered clay of some kind. I don't remember what it was called, but I think it was supposed to be used as a cosmetic mask. I wasn't sure, because I got distracted by another thing they were selling. They had a small table off to the side that held what looked like small bottles of lotion. There was a sign that had the name of it (I'm not going to put it here, because I don't want anyone googling it and finding this entry) and it had a list of many, MANY, special benefits that included aligning your chakras, finding your soul mate, lucid dreaming, levitation, telepathy and the like. Basically, it was your run of the mill hocus-pocus BS, but I was intrigued. I asked the guy behind the table what it was (to be polite) and he started trying to explain it to me. I asked him if it was a lotion, and he said "No, you put it under your tongue, want to try it?" Now, normally, I'd never, ever do that unless I knew what was in it. However, I was in "Adventurous Vacation Mode" and didn't even think before I scooped some up and put it in my mouth. As soon as I did that, my brain kicked in, and I immediately regretted my decision. It's pretty solid advice NOT to put random white mystery goo into your mouth when it's offered to you at a farmer's market, or really anywhere else, to be frank. It could have been ANYTHING, y'all, and I had voluntarily put it in my mouth! Blerg! He offered it to Sara and she was all "Hell No!" which made me feel even stupider. So for the duration of us standing there talking to these people, I couldn't swallow or spit, so I had this mystery substance in my mouth for what seemed like a year. Do you have any idea how hard it is to spit without anyone noticing? I do! I finally managed to spit it out, and I don't think I absorbed much of whatever it was, so I didn't meet my soul mate and my chakras still feel in the same position as they were before. I'm not convinced that it was a real thing. I guess I'll never know. :)
We left the farmer's market and had breakfast, and then we moved on to Flagler Ave, which was the main street of where we were staying. It was lined with shops and restaurants, so we spent the next few hours of the day walking, talking, shopping and eating. It wasn't so much about spending money or eating, though, we were just enjoying hanging out. It was great fun! I'm pretty sure several of the shop keepers we met thought we were an adorable lesbian couple (and I mean, we would be if that was the case) so that was kind of hilarious! Eh, that's fine with me. Sara should be so lucky! Haha!
I'm not sure how long we were out, just that by the time we got back to the apartment, we were tired. At this point we probably could have just hung out for the rest of the day, but there was one thing that Sara wanted while we were in Florida that we hadn't found while we were out. She told me that when she was a kid, she was never allowed to buy one of the cheesy, air brushed vacation shirts that seemed to be so ubiquitous when we were kids, so she wanted to get one as an ironic souvenir. Used to, air brush shops were everywhere at the beach, but we had to drive 30 minutes away to Daytona Beach to find a place that still did it! That was a mess. I don't know how many of your have been to Daytona Beach, but it's a big, skeezy, crowded tourist trap surrounded by enormous hotels and restaurants that pretty much obscure the ocean view, but it's a POPULAR big, skeezy, crowded tourist trap. We drove down the strip and around and around all of the places trying to find the air brush shop, but we couldn't find it! Sara, who was driving, got angrier and angrier because we couldn't find a place to park, or even a place that resembled where we were going. We almost gave up, but decided to call the number on the facebook page and see if they could help us. Turns out we were driving right by it, over and over, but it blended in with all the rest of the neon, so we never saw it! We finally managed to put our shirt order in, but it was going to take an hour and a half, so we spent the next little bit continuing to drive around and around and around and up and down Daytona, until we stopped at a beach ramp to walk out and take some pictures. We should have done that much earlier, because about three minutes later, the air brush shop called to let us know that our shirts were ready. Oh, they were glorious. You can see the final design here:
We've promised that these will never be worn as functioning clothing, although I'll admit, I wore mine to a drive through window after I got home, but mainly these are just for funzies and to remind us that we are classy through and through! Haha!
It was late by the time we made it back to New Smyrna Beach and we were starving, so we found an open restaurant, which was kind of a bar, I think, and had delicious hamburgers for dinner. Next to us was a family with small children. In a bar. Let that sink in. We were wiped out when we got back to our apartment, and so we got ready for bed and sat up and talked for a long time before we fell asleep.
The market was fairly small, but it was much more varied than any other one I'd ever been to. There was food, of course, but mainly the rest of the booths were crafts and things. I really enjoyed it. We did one circuit around the place before we bought anything, and once done, we shopped in earnest. Well, Sara shopped in earnest and I instigated her shopping, haha! We had a lot of fun, though. I did buy some yarn made by a local alpaca farm (because of course I did) and got a beautiful lotus shaped candle holder from a local potter. We didn't want to buy any food, because it wouldn't have traveled well, and for that I'm sorry, because there was some awesome fruits, veggies, and prepared foods for sale there.
One incident at the farmer's market has to be told, though, because it's so stupid. Scratch that, I am the stupid one. I think you'll agree. One of the stalls at the market was some kind of hippy-dippy couple selling powdered clay of some kind. I don't remember what it was called, but I think it was supposed to be used as a cosmetic mask. I wasn't sure, because I got distracted by another thing they were selling. They had a small table off to the side that held what looked like small bottles of lotion. There was a sign that had the name of it (I'm not going to put it here, because I don't want anyone googling it and finding this entry) and it had a list of many, MANY, special benefits that included aligning your chakras, finding your soul mate, lucid dreaming, levitation, telepathy and the like. Basically, it was your run of the mill hocus-pocus BS, but I was intrigued. I asked the guy behind the table what it was (to be polite) and he started trying to explain it to me. I asked him if it was a lotion, and he said "No, you put it under your tongue, want to try it?" Now, normally, I'd never, ever do that unless I knew what was in it. However, I was in "Adventurous Vacation Mode" and didn't even think before I scooped some up and put it in my mouth. As soon as I did that, my brain kicked in, and I immediately regretted my decision. It's pretty solid advice NOT to put random white mystery goo into your mouth when it's offered to you at a farmer's market, or really anywhere else, to be frank. It could have been ANYTHING, y'all, and I had voluntarily put it in my mouth! Blerg! He offered it to Sara and she was all "Hell No!" which made me feel even stupider. So for the duration of us standing there talking to these people, I couldn't swallow or spit, so I had this mystery substance in my mouth for what seemed like a year. Do you have any idea how hard it is to spit without anyone noticing? I do! I finally managed to spit it out, and I don't think I absorbed much of whatever it was, so I didn't meet my soul mate and my chakras still feel in the same position as they were before. I'm not convinced that it was a real thing. I guess I'll never know. :)
We left the farmer's market and had breakfast, and then we moved on to Flagler Ave, which was the main street of where we were staying. It was lined with shops and restaurants, so we spent the next few hours of the day walking, talking, shopping and eating. It wasn't so much about spending money or eating, though, we were just enjoying hanging out. It was great fun! I'm pretty sure several of the shop keepers we met thought we were an adorable lesbian couple (and I mean, we would be if that was the case) so that was kind of hilarious! Eh, that's fine with me. Sara should be so lucky! Haha!
I'm not sure how long we were out, just that by the time we got back to the apartment, we were tired. At this point we probably could have just hung out for the rest of the day, but there was one thing that Sara wanted while we were in Florida that we hadn't found while we were out. She told me that when she was a kid, she was never allowed to buy one of the cheesy, air brushed vacation shirts that seemed to be so ubiquitous when we were kids, so she wanted to get one as an ironic souvenir. Used to, air brush shops were everywhere at the beach, but we had to drive 30 minutes away to Daytona Beach to find a place that still did it! That was a mess. I don't know how many of your have been to Daytona Beach, but it's a big, skeezy, crowded tourist trap surrounded by enormous hotels and restaurants that pretty much obscure the ocean view, but it's a POPULAR big, skeezy, crowded tourist trap. We drove down the strip and around and around all of the places trying to find the air brush shop, but we couldn't find it! Sara, who was driving, got angrier and angrier because we couldn't find a place to park, or even a place that resembled where we were going. We almost gave up, but decided to call the number on the facebook page and see if they could help us. Turns out we were driving right by it, over and over, but it blended in with all the rest of the neon, so we never saw it! We finally managed to put our shirt order in, but it was going to take an hour and a half, so we spent the next little bit continuing to drive around and around and around and up and down Daytona, until we stopped at a beach ramp to walk out and take some pictures. We should have done that much earlier, because about three minutes later, the air brush shop called to let us know that our shirts were ready. Oh, they were glorious. You can see the final design here:
Good Lord, how big is my forehead?
It was late by the time we made it back to New Smyrna Beach and we were starving, so we found an open restaurant, which was kind of a bar, I think, and had delicious hamburgers for dinner. Next to us was a family with small children. In a bar. Let that sink in. We were wiped out when we got back to our apartment, and so we got ready for bed and sat up and talked for a long time before we fell asleep.
Friday, August 25, 2017
BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: PART 2 - TEQUILA BAD
Friday morning we got up relatively early and set off towards New Smyrna Beach! Sara drove, thank goodness, and time seemed to go so much faster with someone to talk to! It only took us about three hours to get there, so we got there well before we could check into our apartment, but that was fine. We drove around and got to know the area a bit.
We stopped and got provisions for the apartment, had lunch at a tiny place called Cafe Verde, and wondered about until it was time to check it. We LOVED the apartment. It was small, to be sure, but so cute and perfect for what we needed. We got settled and changed clothes, and decided to ride one of the provided bicycles down to the beach to check it out. Unfortunately, that didn't go so well. There were quite a few bikes in the little shed, but none of them were in great condition. They weren't anything fancy, just regular bikes like we rode as kids, but Sara had not ridden a bike in a very long time. I'd peddled one of the bikes to the end of the driveway to wait on her, when behind me I heard a crash. Sara, bless her heart, and gotten on and promptly fallen off of her bike. It was too tall for her, and the gears were rusted from exposure to salt (I assume) so when she tried to pedal, the bike hadn't gone too far. Oops. To my credit, I never laughed. Ok, yes I did, but only after the fact. She scraped up her leg pretty good, but she got it cleaned up and we walked the 80 or so yards to the beach. Screw you, rusty bicycles!
The beach was beautiful, of course! We walked around and stepped out into the very warm water, and I looked for shells. There weren't that many there, so I don't know if that is normal, or if it's the time of year, or what, but I found a few. We'd brought some beach mats with us, so Sara sat and rested while I walked around some more. It was very nice. We had accidentally sat our mats down too near the edge of the surf, so once I came back and sat down next to Sara, a wave came and surrounded us! It almost made off with my shoes! Haha. After that we decided that we would save the beach for another day and go get something to eat.
We went back to the apartment and looked in the little travel book for a restaurant. One of the great things about New Smyrna Beach was that there weren't any (that I know of, anyway) chain places around, so we'd get to try something new each time! That night we picked Blackbeard's Inn, which seemed to be a very popular local place, and we had such a good time! We also had cocktails, which might have been part of why we had such a good time. Sara said hers didn't seem to have any alcohol in it, but mine sure did. Yikes. Ok, look, y'all, I like tequila. I just do. Pretty much anything else is gross to me, but I like tequila, so I got two margaritas. That was too many for me, due to my low alcohol tolerance, but at least I didn't do anything embarrassing. I did, however, tell Sara all of my secrets and now I can never make her angry, or she'll ruin my life. :) Everything got very fuzzy for a bit and I had trouble walking to the car, but I didn't take off any of my clothes and I didn't French kiss a stranger, so at least there was that! Thankfully, even though the alcohol hit me pretty hard, it didn't bother me for long. By the time we'd made it back to our place, I was only just a little silly and we sat up and talked for a long time before finally going to sleep.
We stopped and got provisions for the apartment, had lunch at a tiny place called Cafe Verde, and wondered about until it was time to check it. We LOVED the apartment. It was small, to be sure, but so cute and perfect for what we needed. We got settled and changed clothes, and decided to ride one of the provided bicycles down to the beach to check it out. Unfortunately, that didn't go so well. There were quite a few bikes in the little shed, but none of them were in great condition. They weren't anything fancy, just regular bikes like we rode as kids, but Sara had not ridden a bike in a very long time. I'd peddled one of the bikes to the end of the driveway to wait on her, when behind me I heard a crash. Sara, bless her heart, and gotten on and promptly fallen off of her bike. It was too tall for her, and the gears were rusted from exposure to salt (I assume) so when she tried to pedal, the bike hadn't gone too far. Oops. To my credit, I never laughed. Ok, yes I did, but only after the fact. She scraped up her leg pretty good, but she got it cleaned up and we walked the 80 or so yards to the beach. Screw you, rusty bicycles!
The beach was beautiful, of course! We walked around and stepped out into the very warm water, and I looked for shells. There weren't that many there, so I don't know if that is normal, or if it's the time of year, or what, but I found a few. We'd brought some beach mats with us, so Sara sat and rested while I walked around some more. It was very nice. We had accidentally sat our mats down too near the edge of the surf, so once I came back and sat down next to Sara, a wave came and surrounded us! It almost made off with my shoes! Haha. After that we decided that we would save the beach for another day and go get something to eat.
We went back to the apartment and looked in the little travel book for a restaurant. One of the great things about New Smyrna Beach was that there weren't any (that I know of, anyway) chain places around, so we'd get to try something new each time! That night we picked Blackbeard's Inn, which seemed to be a very popular local place, and we had such a good time! We also had cocktails, which might have been part of why we had such a good time. Sara said hers didn't seem to have any alcohol in it, but mine sure did. Yikes. Ok, look, y'all, I like tequila. I just do. Pretty much anything else is gross to me, but I like tequila, so I got two margaritas. That was too many for me, due to my low alcohol tolerance, but at least I didn't do anything embarrassing. I did, however, tell Sara all of my secrets and now I can never make her angry, or she'll ruin my life. :) Everything got very fuzzy for a bit and I had trouble walking to the car, but I didn't take off any of my clothes and I didn't French kiss a stranger, so at least there was that! Thankfully, even though the alcohol hit me pretty hard, it didn't bother me for long. By the time we'd made it back to our place, I was only just a little silly and we sat up and talked for a long time before finally going to sleep.
BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: PART 1 - HELL IS FULL OF SEMI TRUCKS
Hello, friends and random Internet people who've never been here before!
I went on an adventure last week! Sara (one of my best friends in the world) and I have been wanting to go on a girl's only trip for some time now, and after talking about it for a year or two we finally decided to do it!
Sara, who is used to organizing things for her family, basically planned it for us. I'm very grateful for that! She found a nice Air BnB apartment (this one, which was awesome and you should go and stay there too) which is located in New Smyrna Beach, FL. I'd never even heard of New Smyrna Beach. It was charming and small, had all kinds of shops and restaurants, and it wasn't anything like Panama City Beach, which is a plus. Trust me.
My part of the adventure actually started on Thursday morning, because I was going to be driving down to Sara's house, which is located in Valdosta, Georgia. I'll admit, I was a little nervous about driving all that way alone. After getting my license, I was never allowed to take long trips by myself (I was quite sheltered. Heh.) and even when I became an adult, driving long distances my myself was heavily discouraged by my family. I'd love to say that I thumbed my nose at them and went where I wanted anyway, but when you have people who you love and trust telling you all kinds of horrible things, it can get in your head. HOWEVER...I finally decided that I needed to be an adult and do this thing, because I'm way too old to have people telling me what I should and shouldn't do, don't you think? (Yeah, 39 IS a little old to come to this conclusion. I know this. Bite me.)
At first the drive was fine. I had my audio novel going and my GPS directing me through some twisty little north/east Alabama roads. I was so chill and wondering why I had waited so long to do this. Then I hit I-75 and was transported into straight up flaming hell, and hell is full of semi-trucks. I've driven on interstates before, and I've driven next to 18 wheelers, but I swear to you, almost the moment I merged onto I-75 I was surrounded by these things, and I was not prepared. It doesn't help that this particular road is very wide and full of traffic, all going much faster than I had anticipated, but Brunhilde is a small car, and being surrounded by giant trucks unnerved me. I know it wasn't anything horrible, really, but since it was the first time driving I-75 myself around all the traffic, I was very nervous. Actually, I did pretty well, all things considered. I managed to make it to Atlanta and take the proper exit to the perimeter roads so that I didn't have to drive straight through the city (another level of hell altogether) and had just made it to the other side of Atlanta when I almost died. It was my fault, because I didn't realize the lane beside me was a merging lane, and I was trying to speed up to get ahead of this big semi. He sped up too, and I had to slam on my brakes to keep from getting destroyed. It rattled me so badly that I had to take the next exit and sit in a parking lot until I could stop shaking. Once I got back on the road, and further away from Atlanta, things got a little better. It was still unnerving to get surrounded by semi-trucks, but at least the traffic thinned out a little. After that, my main issue was that the last leg of my journey was 127 miles of straight road, and I'd catch myself sort of zoning out while watching the lines go by. I know road hypnosis, but I'd never experienced it like that before. Bleh.
Anyway, as you can see, I finally made it to Sara's house in one piece! Thank goodness! She and her family had just moved into this house last summer, and so it was all brand new and gorgeous. Her three dogs tried to eat me the minute I stepped into the house, but they are all small, so I wasn't too worried. We sat and talked until Ron, her husband, came home and then we all set out to Parent Teacher night at Sara's stepson's high school. Yep, I went to parent teacher night. I told them I'd just pretend I was Sara's sister wife if anyone asked. Ron liked that idea, haha! When we got back, we all sat around and talked until bed time. Sara and I needed sleep because we were heading out to Florida the next day! Woo-Hoo!
I went on an adventure last week! Sara (one of my best friends in the world) and I have been wanting to go on a girl's only trip for some time now, and after talking about it for a year or two we finally decided to do it!
Sara, who is used to organizing things for her family, basically planned it for us. I'm very grateful for that! She found a nice Air BnB apartment (this one, which was awesome and you should go and stay there too) which is located in New Smyrna Beach, FL. I'd never even heard of New Smyrna Beach. It was charming and small, had all kinds of shops and restaurants, and it wasn't anything like Panama City Beach, which is a plus. Trust me.
My part of the adventure actually started on Thursday morning, because I was going to be driving down to Sara's house, which is located in Valdosta, Georgia. I'll admit, I was a little nervous about driving all that way alone. After getting my license, I was never allowed to take long trips by myself (I was quite sheltered. Heh.) and even when I became an adult, driving long distances my myself was heavily discouraged by my family. I'd love to say that I thumbed my nose at them and went where I wanted anyway, but when you have people who you love and trust telling you all kinds of horrible things, it can get in your head. HOWEVER...I finally decided that I needed to be an adult and do this thing, because I'm way too old to have people telling me what I should and shouldn't do, don't you think? (Yeah, 39 IS a little old to come to this conclusion. I know this. Bite me.)
At first the drive was fine. I had my audio novel going and my GPS directing me through some twisty little north/east Alabama roads. I was so chill and wondering why I had waited so long to do this. Then I hit I-75 and was transported into straight up flaming hell, and hell is full of semi-trucks. I've driven on interstates before, and I've driven next to 18 wheelers, but I swear to you, almost the moment I merged onto I-75 I was surrounded by these things, and I was not prepared. It doesn't help that this particular road is very wide and full of traffic, all going much faster than I had anticipated, but Brunhilde is a small car, and being surrounded by giant trucks unnerved me. I know it wasn't anything horrible, really, but since it was the first time driving I-75 myself around all the traffic, I was very nervous. Actually, I did pretty well, all things considered. I managed to make it to Atlanta and take the proper exit to the perimeter roads so that I didn't have to drive straight through the city (another level of hell altogether) and had just made it to the other side of Atlanta when I almost died. It was my fault, because I didn't realize the lane beside me was a merging lane, and I was trying to speed up to get ahead of this big semi. He sped up too, and I had to slam on my brakes to keep from getting destroyed. It rattled me so badly that I had to take the next exit and sit in a parking lot until I could stop shaking. Once I got back on the road, and further away from Atlanta, things got a little better. It was still unnerving to get surrounded by semi-trucks, but at least the traffic thinned out a little. After that, my main issue was that the last leg of my journey was 127 miles of straight road, and I'd catch myself sort of zoning out while watching the lines go by. I know road hypnosis, but I'd never experienced it like that before. Bleh.
Anyway, as you can see, I finally made it to Sara's house in one piece! Thank goodness! She and her family had just moved into this house last summer, and so it was all brand new and gorgeous. Her three dogs tried to eat me the minute I stepped into the house, but they are all small, so I wasn't too worried. We sat and talked until Ron, her husband, came home and then we all set out to Parent Teacher night at Sara's stepson's high school. Yep, I went to parent teacher night. I told them I'd just pretend I was Sara's sister wife if anyone asked. Ron liked that idea, haha! When we got back, we all sat around and talked until bed time. Sara and I needed sleep because we were heading out to Florida the next day! Woo-Hoo!
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