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Take two, they are small

May 1, 2012

Yesterday, we went through DC, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. The states here are tiny.

 

Looking at the route for going to Boston on Friday, I was concerned that we’d miss Rhode Island but I’m told that if I agree to go to Mystic Seaport we can pop over to RI in less than ten minutes. And then C said I could circumnavigate the state on foot in about fifteen minutes.

 

Snicker.

 

I’m sad to discover he was kidding. I wasn’t planning to make a big fuss to check off as many as possible states (we are not driving 90 minutes just to cross off New Hampshire and Maine!). Still, ten minutes seems worth it to go to a state I have never been to. 🙂

 

In that list above, the only state I’d been to was New York. All the rest were new. Wheee…

 

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Homesick now

May 1, 2012

I miss home. I miss being home. I miss the warm weather and the comfy bed and the soft ears of my beagle. I miss a couch where I can drop food and only feel like I need to clean it up. I miss knowing what is valuable and what isn’t so I know how to feel when I break it.

I miss walking up to my house and looking at the flowers in the garden and smiling. I miss thinking the lemon tree needs to be watered (the lemon tree never actually gets watered, only mentally). I miss the lounge chairs in the backyard under the umbrellas. I miss kicking the dogs off the lounges, sitting down and having them join me again. I miss watching the bees buzz while I slack, watching clouds form shapes as they travel across the sky.

I miss walking around the block, waving to the neighbors. I miss walking the dogs, knowing where they are going to stop and sniff. I miss Bear trying to sit my lap, even if I’m standing up. I miss Zoe looking at me like I’m an idiot and the gleam in her eye when there is a treat at stake. I miss Dylan’s kitty kneading on my leg when my hip aches and his ridiculous yips of excitement when he gets fed. I miss Anakin’s fascination with Star Trek and her soft, furry tail.

I miss watching television with no commercials and watching shows I actually like. I miss reading books on the couch and walking through the house with my nose in a book until C makes fun of me for not looking up.

I miss knowing what to do with myself if I wake up cranky or sad. I miss being able to go to the kitchen and getting a glass of water or a cup of tea after I have a nightmare. I miss being able to wake up, let the dogs out and in, get a cup of coffee and start my work day. I miss solving problems and planning projects. I miss making mistakes that I know how to fix when the compiler tells me I’m wrong.

I miss my giant bath towel, the pink one with polka dots, the one that makes me happy just to look at. I miss having a hair dryer to use when I’m cold.

I miss knowing when we are going to the grocery store and what we are going to get there. I miss not having to plan my next meal because there will be food in the pantry. I miss having enough protein.

I miss having lunches with friends. I miss trying to figure out where I fit in their worlds and whether they’d like to hang out, maybe play some board games. I miss being able to say that I don’t want to go out today.

 

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It is a choice

April 30, 2012

We are driving through NYC but we made the conscious choice not to stop. Like the art yesterday, New York
City deserves more than a driveby visit.

Still, as C drive across the GW bridge, I was madly snapping photos of the skyline in the distance, hoping to get a good one. Sigh, here’s one of the better shots…

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Look! A cliche!

April 30, 2012

After toll road after toll road and a seeming eternity on the New Jersey Turnpike, we landed in at an Italian place in New Jersey. The bread is fantastic, chewy outside and soft inside.

The restaurant is halfway filled with a loud crowd of nice older Italian speaking men. All of them are wearing cycling clothes.

Stereotypes exist for a reason, not always a good reason but always some reason.

In Texas, I pointed out cows collected around a windmill powered pump (that was when I actually pointed out the window, exclaiming to a dozing C, “Look! A cliche!”). Duh, of course cows will congregate near water. And the silos and farms visible from the freeway were adorable in their iconicness.

It was in Memphis that a cliche annoyed me. I admit I was curious about race tensions. But I didn’t notice anything about that. Despite the fact I held out the credit card, the man checking us in asked every question to C. He deferred to C excessively and didn’t seem to acknowledge my existence. At the restaurant, the maitre d’ courteously held the door open for me but ignored my “two for dinner, may we sit outside?” in favor of greeting C and getting his opinion on dining.

A DC area friend said she finds it annoying when she hands the waiter her credit card, from her purse, and he hands it back to whatever man she is closest to.

I found this in dealing with men only and only when I was with C; women seemed to make fewer assumptions.

To me, the cliche is the men who treat me as though I’m too helpless to be in the real world. To them, I suspect he sees a different cliche.

OMG, this pizza is fantastic. Oh! Gotta go!

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On the road again

April 30, 2012

Hey, the light comes on when the car is nearing empty. How did it get so empty when we didn’t drive it in the last few days?

We went 400.4 miles and filled up in Maryland (Laurel). We put in 17.207 gallons. Don’t we have a 20 gallon tank? See it wasn’t that empty. We spent $67.09.

MPG: 23.27

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Check out the expression on the tiger’s face.

Oh, and we are going to see the ocean today! The Atlantic!