Let's Go Away For A While

We're going back! Back to our beautiful cottage on the ocean, in the tiny town on the barrier island where we don't know anyone, barely get cell service, and don't do much of anything.

It's paradise, pretty much. We eat, we drink, we cook, we fish, we walk, we read, we sleep. This year may be a little different, though, because I'm still off the sauce, thanks to my unwelcome companion, the mono. The mono is a tenacious virus, and I'm darn sick of it throwing its weight around. Since nothing's ever simple, the mono's wreaking havoc somewhere between my spleen and my liver, polluting my blood with all kinds of grody chemicals at crazy levels that furrow my doctor's brow and make me conjure doomsday scenarios when I try to fall asleep.

Oh, and sleeping? It's supposed to be a cinch with the mono, right? Not so here. For more than a week now, I've had the most oppressive full-body rash I've ever had. I itch all day long, every day, and am woken up every night (seriously, every night) by it. Some nights Cam and I can't even sleep in the same room, so agonizing is the scratching. My feet are the worst at night, and I've tried everything -- cortisone, Benadryl, oatmeal baths, Aveeno with and without menthol, scratching the sh** out of them, not scratching at all. The only thing that actually works is plunging my feet into ice-cold water and soaking them till they're numb. Then I can usually fall back asleep, but if my feet warm up before I pass out, forget it, we're back to square one.

Woo! That was ranty! Sorry, but it's really one of those things that's simple on its face, but boy does it wreck you. Face, yeah, that's another place I'm rashy, by the way. Anyway, I'm really hoping the mono's gone by the time we head East. I'm sure the sound of the ocean will make me feel better no matter what the mono's doing... But I'd also like to be able to share wine with my sweetie. Hoping that's not too much to ask.

Pips & Spitz & Choo, Choo!

What a blur October was! Following our fantastic week away and kitty-filled homecoming party, we had a quick week at work, a weekend, and then BAM! Enter swine flu.

My poor sister and her husband came down for a visit and a trip the ever-awesome Maryland Renaissance Festival, an annual tradition for more years than I care to count. She wasn't feeling great, and by Sunday, she was getting pretty sick. We didn't know what she had, but Monday, Cam, two of our friends who we'd spent the weekend with, and my Dad all dropped like flies. It was kind of nuts how fast the H1N1 came on, but now that we've seen it through, I can report a couple things. First of all, it's pretty yuck. Across the 5 sickies, the worst symptoms were significant fevers, extremely sore throats, coughs and congestion, and torso and back pain, which seems to be this bug's hallmark. Most of them kicked it in about 4 days, though my sister and my Dad are having a bit of a harder time with it. And, then, my Mom got sick too, after most everyone was on the other side.

What's weirdest to me is that I haven't gotten it. I nursed Cam, working from home, I shared food with my sister before we knew the score, and did everything all the sickies did last weekend. But now, it *seems* I'm out of the woods. I was paranoid as all get out last week, of course, particularly because I had plans this weekend to go to a friends "cabin" (read beautiful 3 bedroom house) in the Pocono mountains. I didn't want to miss out, but more than that, I didn't want to typhoid Emma all my friends.

Cam and psmee convinced me I was being a little crazy with the paranoia, so after taking my temperature 5 times throughout Friday, I got in the car and headed north. I took it twice more on the drive because I'm a total freak, and then, in the clear, met up with the girls. We had an incredible weekend of food and wine and laughing like crazy, and I felt fine throughout. We also played a full game of Mexican Train Dominoes (is the name offensive? It's the official name of the game, like, on the box, but it's got to be offensive, right?), one of my absolute favorite games. Turns out the little dots on the dominoes are called pips, which one chica misheard as spitz, so there's a fun fact.

So, I guess time will tell if I made it through the swine flu unscathed. I'm optimistic, and hopeful I may have even pirated a few of Cam's hard-won antibodies. I'm still getting that vaccine if I get a chance, though!

Vacation, All Is Right

What a beautiful day.



The ferry ride took nearly three hours, which we spent the first part of on the deck watching the mainland disappear. Wary of the sun, we headed to a shaded part on the starboard side, where four men who were traveling together could not get over the awesomeness of this.



What are these things called, anyway? At any rate, a bit later I headed inside and immersed myself in Born Round, while Cam peered at the horizon through his binoculars. He ran back inside to get me when he spotted a sailboat, and the water tower, meaning we were getting close. By the time we reached the island, it was nearly 90 degrees out.



We had the whole afternoon to do what we would with before meeting my parents and checking into the house, so we made our way to the pub with its beer list as long as my arm and college football all around. A couple beers and a crabcake for me, a couple beers and a tuna steak sandwich for him, and we were sufficiently fortified to explore. We found a little lake access beach and poked around picking up hermit crabs, then had a glass of wine at a cafe with wi-fi -- our phones, somewhat happily, don't work here, so Cam called Dad on Skype to get an ETA.



We met their ferry after poking around in another inlet, then came home for beers on the porch, shrimp pasta, and then, sleep.

This morning I woke up to "Good morning, beautiful. When you're ready, it's a good morning for a run." So we pulled on our socks and sneakers and headed out, then home for breakfast, and now, football.



Next up is a walk on the beach and some fishing for Cam, and tonight, we're grilling lambchops, and roasting Hasselback potatoes. I think my stomach's growling already!

Beach Food

Quite soon (keeping it vague for all the robbers who spy on this quasi-anonymous blog. There are creeps/grebes out there!), Cam and I will depart on an incredible trip south to the beach. The beach in October - possibly stormy, still quite warm, and the fishing should be great. We're just a smidge excited.

We'll be spending a week in a huge, beautiful house on an island with my parents. The view in most directions is acres of marsh, and a ways off, the ocean. Last year we only got to spend 3 days there, but this time, we get a full, luxurious week. Cam just reserved our ferry, and Friday night, over cupcakes quartered and shared, Mom, Dad, Cam and I began to outline the food plan.

The food plan is crucial, of course! First of all, since our destination is an island, grocery items are scant and pricey. And secondly, I'll state the obvious: In my family, the food matters a lot, as does the drink.

Per our rough sketch, Mom and Dad will head up two or three dinners, as will Cam and I, and then 1 or 2 we'll go out for. More on that in a minute. The four of us like to play breakfast simply -- I'm practically married to my oatmeal with pumpkin puree, Mom and Dad like bananas, and Cam likes eggs and toast and bacon. For lunches we'll pack plenty of salad and sandwich supplies, to be supplemented with dinner leftovers. We're packing in steaks and lamb chops, shrimp, and pasta, and we're hopeful for fresh fish caught in the surf. I've got a bag of potatoes and a bag of onions in a bag by the door, ready to go. I plan to make a batch of granola.

Oh, and then there's the wine and beer and scotch. Yes, we've got that covered.

So, a question. What else should we bring? What beach snacks do you consider essential? What desserts would pack nicely, or would be easily made in a well-stocked but not-my-own kitchen?

mea culpa

i goofed! i failed to blog last night. i have a good excuse, though - i'm not blogging from work, which is where i spent most of my day, and right after work i hopped a metro train to alexandria to meet cam. he was out of town all week, and made it back just in time for date night. and i certainly couldn't blog on welcome-home-cam-date-night, now could i? so, i think what i'll do is a make-up blog at some point before the month is over. i think that's fair, and i've been doing well so far so i'm not going to beat myself up for it (an accomplishment in itself).

and now we're in the car flying up the interstate to philadelphia. we're late, of course. we have three parties to attend today, the most important of which is enna & her husband's annual bash, in philadelphia this year! it's always a great time, and i'm excited to hurry up and get there! we first made a (an enna-approved) stop by my cousin miche's annual open house. he's an incredible artist and architect - be sure to check out his work. it's a great event, and right up the road from where we live. and miche's wife bakes the most incredible bread... mmmm! this year he had a painting of some ibis in chincoteague that i particularly liked. he's also got an iconic sycamore that hangs in countless of my family's homes, including mine, dedicated to cam. i'll get a picture of that at some point. anyway, it was a lovely, if too-brief, gathering.

portland, pt.2

saturday was an amazing day in portland. i wasn't feeling so hot - i'm fighting some strange bug, or something - but i was determined not to let it get us down. my friend fed us a huge breakfast of oatmeal, fruit, and coffee, and we headed out to pleasant mountain for a hike. she's... pretty nordic. she's incredibly fit, and outdoorsy to the point that it doesn't surprise me in the least to hear she's doing something called "frosty sailing," or some such, sailing in maine till christmas for a team. seriously. she's TOUGH. and amazing. anyway, she said the planned hike was 2.5 miles each way, and i agreed. what we didn't count on, however, was snow! we didn't make it to the summit, but enjoyed a great (challenging for me, breezy for her) hike, stopping to chat every five seconds not just because i was panting, but because we couldn't converse over the crunching of our icy steps. we were out for almost 3 hours, and i think somewhere toward the beginning of the hike i may have sweated out a fever, because i felt quite a bit better by the time we got back to her car. (note to self: heated seats are pretty great, and probably essential in maine)

after a quick stop for groceries and chicken soup for a little snack, we went back to her place for super hot showers and a change of clothes, then headed over to her friend ryan's house for... wait for it... lobsters! when in maine, right? she and ryan and their friends alyssa and aaron and i had an incredible lobster feast (i'm proud to say i went joint for joint with this table of maine-ers, chowing down on the crustaceans like a pro. extra props to alyssa, though, for going for the body meat!), complete with lobster bibs. we followed up the meal with brownie sundays and a game of mexican train dominoes, and i kicked their booties soundly, mt. rainier represent! and, of course, on this perfect maine trip, it was snowing when we left that evening, big fat flakes that we also got to wake up to. just enough to be gorgeous, but not to cancel our trip to boston today.

poking around boston today brought back great memories of the last time she and i and our good friend heather visited boston, years ago. we walked newberry street in the snow, popping in and out of shops, and picking up amazing sandwiches to eat in the car en route to the airport. it was a fantastic trip, a lovely weekend getaway, and it's also so nice to be home with my kitties, my cam, and my christmas tree, ready for another week. if it's not obvious, i'm thankful for friends.

ps. picture to come... my camera seems to be out of batteries, and it's time for bed.

portland, maine

what a night!  after a perfectly smooth day of travel yesterday (bus to metro to plane to bus - it was so luxurious not to drive anywhere!), i hopped into my friend's subaru and after a quick stop by her place, we hit portland.  i got to meet a ton of her friends - realllly nice people - and the boy turning her head right now.  i had a ball being the new girl in town, chatting with all her friends, and just seeing how my she lives here.  portland seems like a pretty sweet city (if FREEZING), and i'm looking forward to seeing more of it in the light today.  this afternoon we're going to hike at pleasant mountain (only time will tell if that's a misnomer or not... i'm in terrible shape!), and rumors continue to swirl about a big lobster dinner tonight.  the only thing i'm worried about right now is the snow in the forecast for tonight and sunday... don't want to have flight issues getting home!

finally, no word from cam yet on how the fishing tournament's going.  this means one of two things: either the stripers aren't biting, or no one's phone is working.  i think the latter's a bit more likely than the former, but we'll see.  fingers crossed for sunday rockfish dinner!

flip-side

time to lighten things up a bit - today i'm thankful for brevity! in typical sarah fashion, i need to leave the house in 40 minutes, and before then, i need to shower, pack, take care of the kitties, and blog. guess which i'm doing?

i'm headed to maine this weekend to visit a dear friend. maine in december sounds a bit insane but hell, i've been there in july, so why not really do it right this time? she's got all kinds of plans for us - a bar tonight, where there's a party her friends will all be attending. i'm excited to meet them! we'll get some exercise tomorrow (she's totally nordic), then there's a possibility of a lobster bake tomorrow night! crazy. i'm flying out of boston, so sunday she and i plan to leave portland with enough time to walk around that city, too. it's a whirlwind, but it should be super fun.

i know i've committed to blog daily, and i WILL blog tomorrow, i'm just not sure it'll show up here till sunday. if she's got internet i can hop on, i will, but failing that, i'll blog on my blackberry and save it for posting sunday. have a great weekend, friends, and i'll see you on the flip!

nesting, and fleeing the nest

whoa. this condo thing is getting serious! $5k has changed hands... with much more to come. my agent has advised me to get the utilities transferred. cam and i have selected a paint color for our bedroom (happy camper, a green). i'm seriously considering a really expensive bed. last weekend, cam and i rocked a series of home store outlets (the crate, the w-s, the pb, the restoration... you know the drill) AND an ikea, all in a matter of hours. we now own things like silverware, a hanging basket for produce, plates, hooks. and yet... friday we return to hatteras, the site of all things wonderful, a return to our cottage on the beach. a respite from faxing and transferring funds and signing documents. we're back monday, and wednesday, if all goes according to plan, i close on my own little piece of DC. our new home. crazy!

vacation, all i ever wanted

last week's sojourn in tortola was both the most and least remarkable vacation i've ever been on. least remarkable because it was just that - when people come up to me and ask me "how was your vacation? what did you do?" the answer is very simple: it was amazing - i laid on a beach with a book and a pina colada every day... not much to tell! but most remarkable in that it's the first time in my life i've ever done just that, and only that, for an entire week. and let me tell you, it's well worth it. my mental state is vastly different than it was when i left. when i left, i was feeling dull around the edges - happy about happy things and sad about sad ones, but everything had lost its luster, and my job irritated me more than usual, and my road rage was more than was warranted (or healthy), and my physical health, or lack thereof, was a constant worry.

now, though nothing's actually changed, i like my job again, i shrug off the mcdonald's semi riding my ass for mile after mile on 395, and though i'm still not healthy, i'm handling it better. and the happy things? the happy things are that much happier. the thrill that you get in your chest, that happy bubbling when you're thinking about something good, or anticipating something exciting, has returned just when i was sure it never could. that, more than anything, was the best thing about my vacation.

home

president's day weekend was one of the best times of my life.

i realize what a huge statement that is, but it's absolutely true. maybe there are better times to come, and there have been comparable times gone by, but i feel confident this one will stand firm in the timeline of my personal history. i mean, what could be better than this?

cam and i went to buxton in cape hatteras, on the outer banks of north carolina. we'd been planning a friday-sunday trip to a local cabin, but when that fell through, we brainstormed a plan b over duke kebabs and my trusty road atlas. we started out looking west, but since that was the direction of the cabin we still plan to visit, we entertained other options. north, in february, didn't sound appealing, so we both cast our eyes south. cam said, "what about hatteras? ever been there?" and that was all it took. hatteras is the reason i cannot live without the ocean, the place i learned to swim, the site of my earliest memories of what a vacation should be. and i haven't been there in 20 years. every spring for at least a decade after our two visits my sister and i would pester my parents to reserve "our" cottage at the beach, and every year it didn't happen, for reasons i'd probably understand now but couldn't possibly at the time. so hatteras became a treasured memory and the template for my ideal vacation, even as an adult - a cottage on the beach in a sleepy town, where the sand is steps away and the crashing waves lull me to sleep and ease me awake.
clearly, i was in, and cam too had fond memories of fishing and camping on the cape, so we consulted my AAA guide, selected some potential motels, and started talking about a longer trip. up friday night after work and back late sunday morning became taking friday off, leaving early that morning, and not returning till late monday. i told him that since he was driving, i'd take care of our lodging. after a quick call to my dad, i got all the information for the place i'd stayed as a little girl, and when the proprietor of the outer banks motel picked up the line in buxton, i hardly needed to hear the rates - i was sold. i secretly booked a cottage instead of a room, and told cam we were all set.
the entire trip felt charmed, from the call i received with good news i was already too blessed to need , to the elderly gentleman dispensing mints and kind wishes to the diners at the chick-fil-a where we lunched, to the call from a friend offering a chance to see one of my favorite bands. as we drove down the outer banks i got a little anxious, hoping the place would be like i remembered, that cam would like it. we pulled into the lot and i knew everything would be ok - it looked exactly the same, a tidy, well-maintained (if larger) group of small buildings and cottages right on the beach. we checked in and the office smelled exactly like i remembered, and when we got our keys and directions to our cottage i knew we had the best one. 107 was all the way on the end, secluded, beachfront. perfect.
everything was just like i pictured my dream vacation - the ocean a constant companion, drinks on the porch under the stars, dolphins and pelicans always in view, sunrises over sparkly waves, sand underfoot, seafood dinners and warm coffee and swedish fish. and the best part: cam, whose idea of a perfect vacation so closely matched my own. it was incredibly difficult to leave (as evidenced by the splitting headache that hit cam as soon as we hit the district), and we've already made plans to return. i can't imagine it'll ever be as amazing as this first, revelatory trip, but i can't wait to find out.