Guest post: A smattering of vacation memories.

I had a bluesy sort of day yesterday. I didn’t really feel navy blue. Not even cerulean. More cornflower-ish blue. It was just one of those days when I felt blah and whiney and a little nauseous, with a big helping of put-upon. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I didn’t want to think about anything, and I certainly didn’t feel like writing about anything for anyone. Who knows what kind of drivel I would have thrown down on the page in that kind of snit. Because my sister and I are That Much in tune with one another, she spontaneously emailed me later yesterday with a guest blog. You should thank her, really, because her post is infinitely better than anything I could have written in my fine mood. Without further ado, I bring you her most excellent guest blog…

Remember my big plans to write a charmingly funny, yet touchingly poignant guest blog about our time with Katie and her girls vacationing in New England? No?? That’s because I never got around to actually writing anything. I swear – it was in the Dissertation Reward System! But, well, then I gave in to peer pressure and watched an episode of True Blood. What can I say – I’m a yankee who’s a sucker for Southern clichés and hot, forbidden love.

But now I’ve switched to four ten-hour days in order to smoosh together my weekly allotment of productivity into three-day dissertating boot camp weekends. Which means I have a whole hour or two of guilt free recreation time after work most days! (Well, really only about half of the days out of every week, but still – you go practice the immense self-denial that comes with finishing a doctoral program and you will understand, trust me. I hear it’s like having a child suck away any semblance of free time).[Katie's note: Yes, it does rather sound like that.]

Unfortunately, I also have the world’s worst long-term memory. Seriously: if it weren’t for Katie and my best friend from college, I would forever be stuck half-remembering something that may…have happened…that one time there… So instead of writing a post featuring the usual suspects in any sort of coherent plot, we’re going to savor some choice tidbits of what made vacation so spectacular.

• Getting compliments on how beautiful the girls were any time it was my turn to play kidlet chaperone. Seriously, girls – you generate quite the commotion in the general viewing public! My personal fave were the guys who tried to use my nieces as a pick-up line. (Because nothing says “Airport Tryst” like an almost-three-year-old colliding into your knees?) What I’m really wondering is – how do you moms put up with having to stop for every gushing stranger who feels the need to shower you with compliments?

• Apples to Apples after dinner; long-lived Boggle strategies; 6 a.m. games of rummy on the kitchen table. Games are such a huge part of time with the sibs, but really they’re just an excuse to sit around being funny.  Especially with games like Apples to Apples in the mix! Katie was a bit distraught when she realized she’d mistakenly left Apples to Apples at home (take *that!* hours and hours of pre-packing and packing lists and re-packing!) [Katie's Note: I told you I had forgotten something!] Can I just say, though, that none of the games tickled my funny bone more than the hand of rummy in which Gracie decided she was the Keeper of the Stack – Uncle Joey, of course, was the first to spot a true partner-in-crime, asking her to give him a seven, please.  Auntie Kim retaliated in kind, showing her what a spade looks like, and could you make it an ace, please? Poor Gracie didn’t quite understand why it was so funny, but let’s just say it was the only game Auntie Kim won that whole day!

• “Schmellll my FEET!” I swear, this semi-joking dictate, complete with toes thrust right in the face, is little Bee’s declaration of love…once she got over her very initial shyness with everyone, this routine was worked into each and every day at LEAST four or five dozen times. Per person.

• The Weirs. You know those places that really only exist in your imagination – the places you visit in beloved childhood books or in special memories from times long passed? That’s where we got to go. I mean – actually, physically go. Walking down the Boardwalk the first time was difficult to assimilate into my teeny tiny little overworked mind. I guess for people who have scary-good memories (::coughKATIEcough::) these sort of moments are few and far between, but I hadn’t been back to this most beloved of places since the summer before seventh grade. Sharing the magic of the kiddie bumper cars and the jewelry store and yes, even the beach (yick!) with Gracie and Bee was awesome. But being back there and sharing long-lost memories with the sibs was an incomparable experience. A full week next there next summer might just make me implode with planning excitement. (…we won’t discuss the Lists I’ve already got going…).

• “1-2-3-4 Monsters walk across the floor / I love counting, counting to the number 4!” And oh boy, so do those girls! We may or may not have sung the special Sesame Street edition of this popular Feist tune for a good solid 20-30 minutes on the drive back from the beach. Gracie was very good about varying the selection of YouTube videos she requested on her turn, but Bee! Bee just couldn’t help herself from asking for Elmo (who, by the way, doesn’t even appear in the clip!) any time she so much as thought she heard a laptop coming out of hibernation. Gracie did, however, point out that whoever was having a turn picking a song should ALSO get a turn holding the laptop. Because apparently, those who are 5-going-on-15 are that kind of responsible. Good thing they are so good at taking turns when they know there is immanent YouTube rue-age the first time somebody whined to Auntie Kim! We can take a lot of repetitive singing around these parts, but whining just is not tolerated…

• Which brings us to….SUGAR RUSH! That’s right, this was the Vacation of Yes, a well-deserved reward for all the hard work of the past months, what with the college-attending and the dissertating and the single-mommying (not to mention the 80 hours a week Uncle Joey puts in managing the sale of cheap, legal stimulants…). I barely even made it mid-week before my body starting begging for some greens – please, anything with fiber in it! We need vitamins and protein and electrolytes! I don’t think the girls heard the same cries for help. In fact, at one point, Gracie learned how to help herself to a fluff of cool whip and managed to spray all over the floor…and didn’t even have the good graces to look guilty! But ahhhhh – guilt-free desserts, how I miss thee…

While it was nice to sleep in my own bed (!) and have more than two minutes of sweet silence to rub together, I do miss my vacation days… Anytime I hear Gracie’s  “Why did God have to make us in Texas!?” in my head, it just about breaks my ever-loving heart. But meh – if we lived at Grandma Donna’s house *all* the time, there’d be all sorts of rules and missed opportunities and utter chaos. You can’t really have a Vacation of Yes all the time – otherwise, it wouldn’t be so much fun, now would it?