hello again

OH MY GOD our internet is finally working!  It's been a frustrating few days without it.  Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly happy to cut myself off, like at the beach, but when I need to start getting things organized for school, it's a pain to not have it available.  Our rental office just switched us from NTC internet to High Speed Link, and the nice part is that it's now included in our rent (holla!) but we shall see if it works as well.  I've managed to get it plugged into my computer (necessitating a purchase of a longer internet cord) but haven't managed the wireless yet.  That will come with time and this is a good start.

Since we left off I believe I was in NYC or had just returned from NYC to my parental's in State College.  While home I slept, ate really well, sneakily scanned photos of my parents from the past 25 years of marriage (I can write about it now, party's over), slept some more, read some books and tried not to use my brain.  Considering that I would sleep from 11pm until 3pm the following day when not setting an alarm, I would say that I needed some R&R.  I did get to visit SPRA, where the summers of my youth were spent, only to arrive and have a thunderstorm decide to show up too.  Didn't get to swim there, but got to look around, examine the record board and relive some memories.

From State College, we rented a van from Enterprise because my parents downgraded from the mini van to a prius, to get us and all of our stuff down to the beach.  This car was a nightmare.  Barely out of SC we discovered that there was no oil cap, thus returning to Enterprise to get one and trying to leave again.  Alex and I were in my car, mom and dad in the van.  Heading over the mountain, apparently the van was having some break issues, not a good thing when planning to drive 14 hours and over many mountains.  Calling every Enterprise between SC and Harrisonburg, our next stop, produced no vans to switch with, and thus we ended up in Harrisonburg for dinner, delivered my new bookcase and half of my stuff, dropped off my car and headed south, all together in one white mini van.  Another couple mountains and a sudden crazy rainstorm around Danville and we arrived in Chapel Hill, only to have google maps put the hotel in the wrong location.  Finally found it around 11:30pm and discovered that we had a queen bed and pull out couch, rather than the two double beds we requested.  We completely unloaded the van into the hotel room and went to bed.  Mom and Dad got to take the van the next morning to the airport to get the brakes fixed, and we got a second rental car for the day, packed up all of our stuff, left it in the hotel office so that we could change rooms (that pull out couch was a nightmare) for the second night and went to collect Poppa and head to Chinese food.  Some of mom's family was driving through as well so they stopped and we had 10 people plus a 4 month old for a Chinese buffet.  It was great! The food was good, the company was good, lots of laughter, it was a relief from the crazy trip stuff.  We even gave Patrick (age 4) and Poppa (age 86) WarHeads and have videos of the resulting faces.  ;o)  After a 3 hour lunch we dropped Poppa back off, picked up the fixed van, moved hotel rooms, took naps, got dinner and went back to Poppa's to watch a movie and eat.  I think we were all ready for bed that night.  Sunday we got up early to pick up Poppa for breakfast at the Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe, yummy grits and bacon and pancakes and heart destroying goodness.  Breakfast took a while and then we dropped Poppa back off and drove off to the beach.

Oh the beach was lovely.  We had one of the top apartments, and some of the cousins were in the apartments below.  After dropping off all our stuff we walked down the beach to find the house where the other half of the family was staying, got lost, met our neighbors for the week and ran into the ocean, which was a balmy 80-something degrees and felt like heaven.  Half of the clan had arrived, and the other half showed up on Monday, but we made sure to get the waves to the correct pitch for boogie-boarding, bought the booze, and started the traditional puzzle for them.  By Monday night (BBQ night) we had 28 of us there.  Grandpa got a sign that said "Doll Beach House," and we hung it up out front as our lighthouse.  We do family style dinners, so on Sunday you sign up for a night if you want to cook, and then others sign up as crew.  It's one of the best things because then we're all eating together and can sit around and catch up.  Tuesday was the surprise party for the parent's 25th Anniversary at dinner time after taking family pictures.  I don't think they suspected anything.  Aside from a little issue playing the slideshow on the TV, it all went really well.  Wednesday was Beach Shrimp, with 9 pounds of shrimp to feed us all, Thursday was Thai and Friday we had Uncle Jack's Firehouse Style Italian.  In the morning a bunch of us went to water aerobics.  I was the youngest by about 20 years or so, but it was a fun workout and a great way to start the day before hitting the beach in the afternoon.  I got sick on Wed night, some weird fever and stomach bug that kept me off the beach on Thursday.  I always wish that we could have more time there and our week always seems to end too quickly.  Hope to do it again next year!