a dapple of my weekend

Not posted till Wednesday?

Yes, it's that kind of week.

Sigh.

saturday night

Babysitting for one baby on a Saturday night comes with Chinese takeout and dips in the pool and air conditioning and rented movies and peace-and-quiet after 7pm.

I thought it sounded grand. But now--it's not so grand. The Chinese was tasty and the pool was refreshing and the A/C is nice and the movies are entertaining and the peace-and-quiet is to die for. But my Saturday night just isn't as spectacular as I was hoping it'd be.

It's like Christmas morning, once you get to the year when Santa's not real and there aren't as many presents and you wake up and it's light out already.

Some things just aren't as enchanting, anymore.

what I've been up to

Since this is my second-to-last-week of my AmeriCorps term, I've been spending my afternoons refilling my water bottle at the water fountain over and over again, and perusing the site Choosing Raw.

And good thing, too, or else I wouldn't have found this fantastic recipe for almond milk--that's right, homemade almond milk. And all that leftover almond pulp? Perfect for banana nut bites, nothing wasted.

Vegetable-heavy dinners have been recurrent on my menus, happily.

My newly-cleaned cats have reacquainted themselves with my newly-cleaned room, and I've found them snoozing on my bed ever since.

When I was little, I never understood the importance of a garden. All I knew was that it was summer vacation and weeding was not on my to-do list. But now--I can't get enough of the basil, tomatoes, onions, and more. (Although, that might have something to do with the fact that I haven't done a minute of weeding in years.....oops.)

And of course, nights without white wine and Julia Child (I'm addicted!) just wouldn't be complete.

Slowly but surely, I'm getting there.

my dear nana

One of my very favorite pastimes is digging out old photos and getting lost in the past for hours. While in North Carolina visiting my grandparents last week, we couldn't help but uncover mounds of old albums, dust off the covers, and dig in.

Since scanning wasn't an option, but forgetting about all these great old photos as soon as I landed back in Connecticut wasn't either, I took pictures of the pictures.

And I'm so glad I did. Isn't my Nana stunning? I was absolutely born in the wrong decade.

Not to mention, my grandfather (the photographer) was pretty great, too.

And how sweet were their five kids?

My mother's the silly one in the middle. (!)

Go drag out those dusty albums and share your old photos, too! I'd love to see :)

a dapple of my weekend

The reunion with college friends and my cousin's graduation party and the neighborhood lemonade stand didn't warrant a camera for photos, I guess.

However, Sunday at the beach with Steph sure did. I've just decided--an hour and a half away from the beach is much too far. Living closer must be in my future.

I hope your weekends were glorious!

summer vacation, leg two

Summer vacation is not nearly as fun when you don't have summers off anymore. This is my first summer that I've had to work straight through--no school vacation and minimum wage summer job here. It's all traffic and lunch breaks and nine-to-five business.

Phooey. I don't think I ever even believed that regular life carried on when June ended.

On top of that sad reality, this summer vacation opened my eyes to real life. Life where you learn that your family isn't everything your twelve-year-old self thought it was, life where you learn to accept things for what they are, life where you learn to really see what's before you, instead of blinking a lot and pretending you're seeing something else. That's what this summer vacation did for me.

Good, in many ways, and absolutely inevitable. But a bit disheartening, as well.

However, there were many a good thing about this vacation:

Driving in a minivan for over 14 hours collectively, turning drinking games into PG "car ride games" for the little girls (all we had was a bag of Skittles, so "Drink!" turned into "Skittle!"), listening to Virginia's (way more than two) Christian bluegrass radio stations, eating at a Bojangles for the first (and last) time in our lives, dispelling bound-to-come-about feuds brought on by said 14 hours in a minivan, and getting lost in a town off the highway called "The Tulip Town."

Visiting the local YMCA my grandparents belong to and watching the little girls go down the water slides about 469 times, while we waited patiently for "adult swim" and explained to them that it is indeed called "adult swim" and not "parent swim," and that there is, in fact, a difference.

There's not all that much to do at my grandparents' house. Roller blading like a pro takes your mind off of that.

Watching my Nana laugh has got to be one of the best things ever.

Of course, going to a North Carolina beach was definitely on our itinerary, even if I did leave my sunglasses on the front seat of my car at home.

Water towers in the south seem to multiply at alarming speeds the farther south you get.

The above photo exemplifies my goal for the trip: close my eyes and listen to waves. My Nana's gardening hat might not have been part of the plan, but, like I said, I did not remember to check the front seat of my car for left-behind belongings.

Isn't my sister gorgeous?

My grandfather, who we affectionately call Daddy Jim (isn't that strange?), isn't as energetic and involved now as he was when I was little. But when it came time for my little sister and cousin to whip out their fishing poles, he was right beside them to attach their lures and teach them how to cast into the river that runs through their backyard.

While swimming in the creek was totally acceptable fifteen years ago, nowadays it's become so polluted that it's not recommended. But that didn't stop these wild women.

It also didn't stop us from going for a canoe ride (Rachel and I might have lounged in the middle while the little girls paddled us around) and holding on for dear life when boats whizzed past and rocked our little canoe as we tried not to imagine what we'd smell like we were tipped into the murky water.

Alas, Monday rolled around and Rachel and I packed up to head back to our homes for work as the rest of the family stayed behind for another five hot days. (See paragraph #1.) This resulted in a mini-extended vacation, as we had plenty of sister-time in multiple airports, and it didn't involve children or a minivan. Coming home to an empty house was a complete shock from normal life, but this week has gone by awfully slowly.

Mom, you might need to pick up some more ice cream and wine on the way home.

around the corner

Who knew that the tall corner of the wall dividing the lightness peering in and the darkness hiding behind would take so long to turn?

summer vacation, leg one

On our way to North Carolina last week for our annual summer trip, we first stopped in DC overnight to sightsee a bit and to pick up Rachel. Yes that's right--I was just there. After eight hours in the car and another six from DC, I sure was wishing I had just stayed with Rachel that week. Alas, I sillily thought work would be more important. Ha!

Anyways, we loaded up five people and all our belongings into my mom's van on Thursday and made our way to Washington.

While my aunt and cousin and mom and sister trekked out to visit Rachel at her office and stopped by to see the White House, I stayed inside in the air conditioning and napped alone, needing the me-time after a long, close car ride with four other people. Because, you know, I've seen all that stuff anyway--I do practically live here ;)

Later, we ate pesto and drank wine and went swimming and danced after butterflies on Rachel's rooftop patio (in the 102-degree scorching heat, mind you).

The next day, we sweated our way to some typical hotspots in DC: the Washington Monument, American History Museum, and World War Two Memorial.

We tried to pretend we weren't hot and falling apart as we flew kites on the mall beneath the monument. And then we may have bought some ice cream from a cart to alleviate our parched-ness.

And then we packed into the car for leg two of our trip, Rachel included this time.

Almost there!

being stuck in the charlotte airport

.....is good for four things:

1. spending extra time with your sister

2. being sad about the amount of times a flight can be delayed in a day

3. drinking lots at places like The Tequileria and The Rum Bar

4. letting the exhaustion and alcohol go to your head and being silly in said airport

Phew.