There's No Place Like Home

After an 8 hour journey along the east coast, we are finally back in Philadelphia.  It was a beautiful week in the Outer Banks, but I am happy to be home.  I practically had Lazaro's Pizza on the phone as soon as the skyline came into view.

Sharing a house with 30 other people can be a bit much at times, but now that it's all over, I'm really glad we went.  I survived sobriety and Tim got a chance to bond with my family.  My father told him during a round of golf that he could call him by his first name instead of "Mr. Isrut," and even my little brother (who is a man of few words) told me that he "loves Tim" and that he knows he will never need to worry about me or the baby while he is around. 

Mission accomplished.

Overall it was very relaxing.  I spent my days alternating between the beach and the pool, followed by a sunset bike ride and playing cards and games with my cousins by night.   Tim had a ball playing with all the boys.  Every time I saw him he was sailing in the kayak, playing poker or pool, throwing bocce balls or horseshoes, etc.

I was surprised to learn that in addition to the virtual sporting goods store of golf clubs, footballs, basketballs, spikes and cleats that he keeps in the trunk of his car - the man owns a professional ping pong paddle and a bucket of ping pong balls. 

The weather was fantastic, hot and sunny with a few quick thunderstorms that chased us off the beach late in the day, but provided us with rainbows and lightning shows over the ocean.  We saw all manner of wildlife - including a pod of dolphins frighteningly close to shore, diving pelicans, deer, a hawk and all sorts of ducks, frogs and bugs.  It's very wild and natural down there, and there were many times that I caught myself wishing Mischief was around to share it with us.

(I screamed when this guy ran in front of my bike,
scaring myself, the deer and an entire flock of birds)

Pregnancy certainly made the vacation different.  In addition to having to stay sober around a bunch of loud ass drunk people, I had some other difficulties here and there.  It was fairly hard to sleep, so I had a couple tearful breakdowns when I let myself get too tired - one because I was homesick, the other because I didn't want to go home.

Then there was the instance of my cousin choking on a carrot - and everyone in the room screaming, "Heimlich! Heimlich!" It was absolutely terrifying, but luckily one of my uncles managed to perform the maneuver and save him.  I nearly had a goddamn heart attack and for the rest of week was totally paranoid and obsessed with freak accidents.

I was convinced that Tim was going to fall out of the kayak, get hit in the head and drown in the ocean.  I warned him not to trip over the woodpile and land in the bonfire.  I checked that he was breathing in the middle of the night.  I worried any time anybody got behind the wheel.  I was never like this before, and I sincerely hope it goes away so I don't drive us all crazy when the baby comes. 

And one more thing happened.  One night I was awakened by obnoxious drunken people at 4:30 in the morning.  I could clearly hear my sister's voice - through my earplugs, the closed door and the two fans we had going.  I stumbled out of the room, walked over to the pool table and promptly told her to shut the hell up.  Her boyfriend was standing next to her- he had apparently driven down that day to surprise her but arrived after I had gone to bed.  He smiled and said hello to me and I returned the greeting by telling him to fuck off and giving him the finger. 

The next day he proposed to my sister on the beach, and she accepted. 

I kinda wish I had been a little nicer...But she seems happy, so congratulations to them. 

I wonder if she will actually go through with it this time around, and what all our lives will be like the next time we make it down to Carolina.  Here's hoping that we'll all be together and as happy as we are right now, because life is pretty perfect these days.