Labor Day Weekend

PREFACE: I just re-read my post and it seems like my sisters are spoiled and bratty and theyr'e really not, this is just one of those days...

I cannot believe it's Labor Day Weekend already! It doesn't seem SO long ago that I was excited for Memorial Day Weekend! Time really does fly sometimes. I love summer, but I really truly love the fall, it's always been my favorite season. There's something about the crisp (not FREEZING) air, foliage, sweaters... here's to a wonderful fall for everyone!

You all know by now that I have three younger sisters- - that makes four of us, obviously. By the time I turned 16 my mother was so ready to have a break from trucking us all over town that my parents bought me a car, well, technically they bought a third family car, but I was the only one old enough to drive. Let me tell you something about this car- - it was a volvo ((sigh, love)), but it was old- - REALLY old- - a 1984 turbo. This was before even the 240 model so you can imagine what it was like- - turn dial radio, no 5th gear just an overdrive button. It was old, but I loved it.

It looked just like this but it was a Sedan. Hot. I know. We had this car until my sophomore year of college. Let me clarify something though, at my college first-years were ALLOWED to bring cars to school but I was NOT because my parents felt that I needed time to adjust without being able to leave campus. This was their "parenting philosophy". Fine, didn't bother me too much.

The next sister got her license the summer before my junior year and my parents decided that, because there would be two of us driving it and I might be taking it to school occassionally, we should upgrade. And upgrade we did. To a 1990 Saab. Contain your excitement. Because I was away at school 80% of the time and when I came home I ran/rode my bike to and from work this car inevitably became Sister #2's car. No, she didn't pay for it. No my parents didn't give it to her. Yes, she called it "Her Car" and it was always a HUGE issue if I needed to use it to drive to the grocery store or something because. It. Was. HER. Car. DUH. You know what, I didn't even really care. When Sister #2 came to college with me (I was a senior she was a first-year) we got to take the car with US. Aren't I lucky? Because THIS. WAS. HER. CAR. It didn't matter that I never had a car at school and all of the sudden she's a first-year-and HASTOHAVEACAR, so POOF I get a car at school. Great. It was more convenient than not having one.

Cut to NOW. I have my very own, much newer Volvo that I love and that I don't have share or worry about someone claiming as their "own". Sister #2 is a junior at college Sister 3 & 4 are 16 and 17 and seniors in high school. All of them have their license. Sister #2 has HERCAR at school because, IT'S. HER. CAR. REMEMBER? So my parents are left sharing their vehicles with Sisters 3 & 4. Not a huge deal but that leaves the options of,

a. someone driving my sisters to school (this is what I did last year) and picking them up after.

b. someone bringing my dad to work at 6:00am and picking him up at 5pm leaving him at work for the whole day (he usually comes home for lunch).

c. my dad taking a car, and my sisters taking a car leaving my mom car-less and walking to work- it's not too far, don't worry.

None of these options are ideal and beacuse my sisters have Senior Privileges my parents want them to be able to leave school when they have a study hall. So, my dad starts thinking that he needs to buy another car to have in the mix when everyone is going in different directions. He comes home last night and tells us that he bought a 1999 Subaru Outback as the fourth family car- - HA. HA. HA. I think he meants for Sisters 3 & 4 because we know how that "additional family car" thing works out. I'm thinking, GREAT! They are so lucky to have their own car now and it's nicer than any car we've ever had for a "kid car".

Nicer, right? Well, Sister #3 FREAKS OUT. She starts complaining because she HATES STATION WAGONS. HATES THEM. WE KNOW THAT. WE KNOW THAT SHE HATES THEM. AS A SENIOR SHE WOULD RATHER GET A RIDE TO SCHOOL THAN DRIVE THAT CAR. THAT IS EMBARRASSING. CAN'T SHE KEEP MY DAD'S CAR? THAT'S SOOOOO MUCH BETTER! (and on, and on, and on, and on...)

Let's recap:

vs.

No further evidence.

Beyond mad right now. BEYOND MAD.

Craziness

I felt like I had a lot to say to all of you on my way into work this morning, but now I am forgetting everything that I had thought of... oh well! To start, how about some "CRAZY NEWS"? When I first heard/read these two stories I was like, "...". (Picture me, {oh wait, that's hard, you don't know what I look like!} staring blankly ahead- - dumfounded.) What are they you ask?

The Diaper Free Movement
and
Cojones (for real.)

My first night as a sundae slave and creemee twirler went well although I'm SURE I was a little slow. I made $20 in tips though which I thought was pretty great! At least it covers my morning diet coke addiction for about three weeks. It was also the night before school officially started so many parents took their kids in for one last "hurrah". It was so cute to see all of the kids anxious for school!

I've been really anxious for prime-time tv to start but with the U.S. Open (LOVE LOVE LOVE, LOOOOOOVE) and a Red Sox/Yankees series I've got myself some pretty stellar television. When I was in college the U.S. Open was an excuse to to have cocktail parties every night and it always coincided with the beginning of our own tennis season so it was pretty perfect. It was on DURING THE DAY which at least offered a choice from Boy Meets World and Step by Step- - not that I was looking for one. However, my college was NOT in New England (though it was close enough and seriuosly populated by kids FROM New England) so we did NOT get NESN which makes watching the Red Sox slightly difficult. Being in NY I thought, well, at least we can watch Red Sox/Yankee games on the YES network but, we didn't get that either. We could only watch the Sox on Fox and every Sox fan knows that those announcers PALE in comparison.

One last thought- - Lisagh... I'm having withdrawals.

Back to School, Back to School

I wish I was going back to school! This is the second school-year that I haven't been on that schedule and it still feels weird. Being that it's the first day of school around these parts means that there are MANY, MANY more cars on the road this morning. Between 5 colleges/universities and 12 cities/towns in our area (using one interstate system) car population just about triples between September and June. What normally takes me 22 minutes to get to work took me 50 today. Ugh. I know, compared to some of you large city-dwellers this is NOTHING! :)

Half of the employees at the Ice Cream/Coffee Shop near my house (where all of my sisters work) went back to college already so they are seriously under-staffed. Duhn, Duhn, Duhn Duuuuhhhhhhn- - Me to the rescue. I will be working on my scooping muscles and creemee twirls from now until the shop is closed mid-October... and hopefully not perfecting my ice-cream eating abilities.

Oh, I Got My New Shoes On

Has anyone heard that song by Pauolo Nutini? New Shoes? It's one of our Jazz songs. Anyway- - found these shoes this weekend at TJMaxx:

mine are in black though, couldn't find a picture. I'll only be able to wear them for about a week until all of my summer shoes are put to rest but for $10 I don't really care. They're super-cute.

The Polo Outlet is having a great sale right now, everything is 15% off and I had an extra 20% coupon so I did some serious damage there over the weekend, nothing too crazy, but a couple of needed additions to my wardrobe. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea though, I'm in the process of "simplifying' my life- - HA. I'm trying to get it in my head that less in indeed more but I just can't seem to apply that to clothes, shoes, belts, stationary, or jewelry. Oops. So much for purging my closet of things I no longer wear...

I had the worst week last week at work so I've been trying to forget about a slightly devasting decision that was made (nothing huge, don't worry, just ANNOYING), but last night it got a lot better when my aunt called and said that she and my uncle are driving to MI to visit their daughter and her kids for the last weekend in September and asked if I wanted to ride along to see my boyfriend... um, sure. :) It will be a lot of time in the car, but at least I won't have to spend $500 on airfare.

The joys of a (once-again) long-distance relationship. ((sigh)).

Summer Lovin'

"The party's oooooooover!" My mom always used to say that to us in a sing-songy voice once the last guest had departed or at the end of a vacation- - it still makes me shudder. But my summer-long "party" is over. My youngest sister's boyfriend headed off to college (in Florida no less) on Tuesday, my boyfriend headed back home on Wednesday then it's off to MI for him on Saturday and back to his "real" job. Our friend who stays with us in the summer headed out this morning for his job in Spain, and my sister heads back to school on Sunday. Talk about a change of pace.

What a summer though... now we'll see how patient my boyfriend can be until he starts requesting my presence in MI again. :)

A Camp by Any Other Name

A new reader writes in and asked,
"What exactly do you mean by camp? I notice that a lot of the northern girls refer to opening up the camp, etc. For a long time, I thought you all ran children's camps! I'm guessing now that it's a vacation home, but is there something distinctive that makes it a "camp"?

When I first went to college and talked about my "camp" all of my friends thought that I worked at a children's camp as well- - you are not alone! In fact, just the other day my boyfriend was saying how he's never heard the word "camp" so much in one summer since he's been in Vermont.

I'm not sure the real reason behind calling it a camp, that's what we've always called it! All of my friends who have them too, call them camps. It is not so much a summer house as it is lacking many, many features that it would need to call it house (at least for me). Our camp is not insulated, heated by fireplace, has no dishwasher, no internet, no cable. Perhaps it is most similar to a cottage, but I always think that cottages should be located on the ocean and camps on the lake.

Anyone else have a take on this? I'd love to hear what you guys think.

Big & Juicy

My boyfriend's mother bought me a dress and mailed it to me. She said that it looked "just like me and it was on sale and I just couldn't resist." Very thoughtful. My boyfriend's mom is not particularly stylish, nor do we have (remotely) the same tastes but whenever she picks something out for me she is usally not far off the mark.

I opened the package yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a Juicy Couture dress-- she has *no* idea about labels, etc so this was NOT on purpose. Well, I really love the dress but it's an XL and well, I am not... so I'm not exactly sure what to do now. I want to wear the dress, immediately, but...ugh.

I tried to find a picture of it, but I can't.

Tandem Weekend

It was a beautiful weekend here in Vermont which I got to enjoy because our trip to PA was cancelled at the last minute... (which I wasn't too upset about, there's something about being home with my boyfriend and ALL of his friends that is less than exciting) so we headed up to my camp in the Lake Champlain Islands for a couple of days.

We went swimming, fishing, and out to dinner at this fabulous new restaurant nearby- - got pink grapefruit sorbet for dessert. It was fantasic. We were seated next to the most insecure lady EVER who wouldn't talk quietly enough for me NOT to stare at her the entire time. She was continuously like, "Why are you guys telling me to be quiet?" "Is everyone looking at me?" "You guys, I'm not like an embarrassment- - you need to leave me alone." "I see how it is, I'm on my second drink so you think I'm an alcoholic." UGH. I hate experiences like that.

My boyfriend had to work later than usual on Friday night so I had the groceries bought and the car packed when he arrived which enabled me to sneak the tandem bike- - that's right, a bicycle built for two- -on the back of the car without him knowing. :) Saturday we headed out for a ride and ended up riding 20 miles. It was awesome, being on the lake and just relaxing. My butt is still sore from that bike though.

Hope everyone out there is great!

This is our camp! A view from the water!

And this is the bay, a view from the camp! We are in a bay, and on the point there is a beautiful Lake House where many, many people have their weddings in the area. Saturday night there was a wedding, so we could hear the music over at our camp which was so fun. As you can see, the music attracts of "water-guests" too. Boats from all over come into the bay to hang out for the night and these boats ended up staying all night in the bay.

No Regrets

My "friend" recently wrote a post that I've been thinking about since I read it. I think many of you will be able to relate to this, so I've decided to share it... if you have time to read any other posts of hers, prepare yourselves, she's fantastic. I often find myself thinking... "wow, I couldn't have articulated this any better."

Thanks PJ.

Andre the Lobster

You, my preppy friends, will LOVE this story.

Still Here

Thanks for the suggestions about the Baby Shower. I'll let you know when/what I decide! On a completely unrelated note (nice segue...) I'm thinking about taking this thing private... I'll let you know when I decide.

Lake Champlain & Tea Parties

I spent the better part of the weekend on the lake jet-skiing, swimming, water-skiing and cooking on the grill- - ahhhh, summer. Saturday night we all headed up to my boyfriend's work because he was playing in a tennis tournament. He won! Which, in addition to serious bragging rights, meant $100 too. Not huge, but pretty fun! After that we, in true family fashion, had a nice leisurely 3 hour happy hour.

I need some advice- -I am hosting a baby shower for my cousin's wife in early September and her bridesmaid/best friend would like it to be a tea party theme. Nothing too girly, because they are having a boy, but do you guys have any ideas? I REALLY need help with the party favors. I don't want to do anything tacky, just small and cute. PLEASE HELP!

Gran Appetite?

Brace yourselves- - so far today I've eaten:
1 scoop mango sorbet
1 bagel w/veggie cream cheese
1 chocholate donut

In that order. It's 9:23am.

Someone help me. :)

Dog Days of Summer

I have been *so* busy lately. I do some contractual work/moonlighting in addition to my real job and this week is the big culmination of an event that I have been working on all year. Needless to say, it’s been crazy.

Yesterday was just gorgeous here and my boyfriend had the day off so I took ½ day too (unheard of around here) to spend some quality time with him without rushing from one thing to the next. It was really nice, we sat by the pool, had lunch, got haircuts (okay, we’re losers) did a LITTLE shopping and walked on a trail at the nearby river. All before I taught Jazzercise at 5:45. It was a stress-free day. Until 7pm.

We came home from jazz, showered and ate dinner when a friend of the family (also the person who house sat while we were on vacation) stopped by to say hi with his roommates dog. We don’t have dogs, we have a cat, but we’re always pretty relaxed about people bringing their dogs over, even though (sorry dog lovers) I personally loathe having them in the house. I know, I know, I’m SORRY. You all remember my last experience with a dog anyway.

We’re in the kitchen about to eat and I hear this intense panting from the family room- - at first I panic because I thought my boyfriend was having a heart attack after all of that jazzercise (I’m now realizing how stupid that thought was) so I look down the hallway and it’s our friend with this HUGE dog, tight on the leash. He asks, “Is he okay?” I’m like, “Is WHO okay?” He goes, “the dog? Is he fine?” I’m like, “WHAT?” He’s goes, “can I let him off the leash?” I’m like, um, no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO F NO, “oh, sure!”.

The dog comes careening into the kitchen runs around the house, takes a lap around the dining room table then just kind of hangs out. At this point, my boyfriend and I are ready to jump in the pool for a bit so we leave my mom to visit with the friend. My boyfriend is swimming and I’m on the diving board ready to jump in when our friend comes out to visit with the dog, who by the way, is still leash-less.

Well, it took about .0000876 seconds before the dog was in the pool. Did you read that? IN. THE. POOL. IN THE POOL WITH A VERY NICE, THIN LINER. IN THE POOL WITH NO STEPS FOR THE DOG TO GET OUT. IN MY POOL DAMN IT.

Now, let me tell you something about the pool. It’s nice, pretty big, 10 feet deep, 3.5 feet in the shallow end and it doesn’t have any stairs. That’s right, just ladders to get in and out. Not a problem for humans, BIG PROBLEM for unsuspecting dog who is used to just walking out gradually of the lake. He, appropriately, dog paddles for a little bit before he gets nervous and wants to get out. He can’t. So the friend struggles to pull him out enough to he can grab him and then lifts 150lbs of dog out of the pool. Dog shakes off and I throw a tennis ball OUTSIDE of the pool area to occupy him for a bit. Fine. Crisis Averted. Or so I thought.

The friend stays for a while, has a drink, I go inside, boyfriend goes inside, get ready to go out for the night. My mom is walking out to say bye to the friend who is leaving. While they’re visiting the dog is running around again, disappears for a while and then comes back. SOAKING WET. That’s right. The dog ran around the back of the house and jumped in the pool. AGAIN. And he must have managed to get out by himself because, like, he was in the front yard all wet.

My mom and friend panic, run to the back yard and- - (insert sarcasm here) you’re never going to believe this- - there is a HUGE tear in our pool liner and water is GUSHING out. Out of the pool. Like a waterfall in my backyard. A really chlorinated waterfall that I didn’t WANT THERE.

Everyone starts yelling, friend tries to hold the liner together and stop the water while I, lucky me, put my bathing suit BACK on, jump in and perform emergency liner surgery to our pool. If you’ve never performed emergency liner surgery you should try it sometime. It’s really fun. In fact, it’s so fun I still have the adhesive stuck to my stomach and fingers to remind myself how fun it was. And just in case I make a mistake and try to forget, another reminder will come this afternoon when I meet with the pool guy about how to fix the GAPING HOLE in our liner a little more officially that my emergency liner surgery last night.

In a seriously bad mood today. :)