Dear Ocean City, I love you, I miss you

OCNJ10

I never thought I would write or think or say these words:

I am beyond sad to be gone from the Jersey shore.

It was an amazing week, spent with Michael's family on Central Ave, between 58th and 59th Street. The walk to the beach was about 87 seconds; forget your cover up, and forget those nasty stinky beach restrooms....the commute is so short, running back to the house almost came as a welcome cooling break from the warming beach.

There was so much sun, and drinking, and food, and laughing...it was such a refreshing break before my grad school adventure begins.

We played Five Crowns on the first and last night of OCNJ, sat on the beach for at least 2 hours everyday, ate tons of seafood (not even enough), went to the boardwalk minimum number of times (I think 4 times), played mimi golf on the boardwalk, ate a whole Mack and Manco's pizza pie (YUMMMM!!!), gambled in Atlantic City, family breakfast, family dinner, Shriver's candy, "key lime martinis", crumb cake and sticky buns, new jewelry, Philadelphia Union game (case of PBR), swimming in the waves, sand everywhere, outdoor shower, lotions (sun screen, then aloe) all the time, dresses all the time, tan, tanning, tanner and TAN!!!! ugggg, I miss you so much, vacation.

That's the beach there, just over the green :)

Michael's sand sculpture

Jana's sand sculpture

Amazing dilapidated old pier...

See those first two poles? When the tide was low, the water was real shallow and warm right through there. I took my low beach chair down there, and sat for hours. The water was clear and the sand was soft. I seriously thought I was in heaven. As I sat, the water would sometimes come high enough to saturate the seat. And I made drippy castles; literally favorite thing to do on the beach (aside from getting a golden tan, but hey I can multi-task!).

Season Ocean City beach tag :)

Cheryl with her beach book

Sisters in the surf

Big beach kites; there were 6 of them, but they were hard to capture all together.

Vacation kitchens are always the best

Red cups for the week: Cheryl, Michael, Jana, and Marge's solo cups

Beach tags: tons of sun

I thought this was the coolest box. Check it out, it has a whole bunch of past seasons beach tags. It's where we kept our tags.

Limes mean drinks :)

Beautiful creamy brie

Saddest thing in the world: an empty beer

Crumb cake, shore essential

Salt water taffy, another shore essential

Shriver's fudge, most essential of the essentials

Salt water taffy

Surprisingly amazing blueberry lager

Must try it with a lime!

Marge with her beach book

Michael was beat...maybe that comes from getting up a 6:30 everyday of vacation

Carmel corn

End of the handle, end of the week

Perfect Five Crowns hand - zero

"It's like what's this? Potpourri?!" ~ Cheryl, commenting on her hand

Erik, drinking to his bad hand

Pop-pop making a move

Tan competitors

Girls came from home to have a beach day with the beach dwellers.

Tonya, Morey-sitter #1

Stef, Morey-sitter #2

I got what I came for...

:)

Counting down the seconds until the next family vacation.

The 4th in DC

I've been gone for a few weeks now...I've been doing a lot of traveling. I started out in DC the weekend of the 4th of July, then went down the shore for a week with Michael's family.

I tend to get that terrible feeling of return-to-real-life dread on the second to last day of a vaccation. DC was wonderful, but since I was only there for 4 days, the dread came a hell of a lot sooner than usual.

The trip was wonderful though. I finally got to see where Rachel lives, I got hair ripped out of my bikini line (which is just now starting to grow back!!), I got to see DC with more traveled eyes (I am not counting the time I drove all night on a bus to stand, delirious, in sub temperature weather with a ton of angry Catholics), I went kayaking for the first time, and I saw fireworks at the nation's capitol.

Mirror portrait!!

Jana, Ruth, Rachel

Make up in the bathroom.

One can basically see the whole apartment through the magic of mirrors ;)

Rachel lives in a glorious little studio on N street. Her apartment has more closets and mirrors than I could've dreamt of. I loved it. It had a little kitchenette, with a little kitchenette sized stove and dishwasher. Most of her exterior facing walls were lined with windows to flood the room with natural light until some time after 7 (God, I love summer!!!!)

The majority of the streets in DC are named after states, numbers, or letters of the alphabet (above you can see the corner of Maryland and 2nd). It's very cute...almost reminds me of Sesame Street. The row houses, or apartments (not sure which name is official for the region) were all very similar and distinct to the area. We traveled miles around the city in Ruth's car, and they all had very similar architecture to the blue and white homes in the picture. And there were so many beautiful pastel colors...not as much at New Orleans, I am sure, but more than Philly.

We went to Eastern Market (which I kept calling "Easter" market) on Sunday, the 4th. It was towards the end of the day, so we kind of had to fly through, but we bought a carton of blueberries for a dollar! The merchant just wanted to get rid of them. We snaked on some that day, and then had blueberry pancakes the next morning for breakfast. What a great deal! I wish everything were that cheap.

We waited with a wapping ton of people for the fire works to start. The capitol is pictured behind us.

Unfortunately, the fireworks started promptly at 9:10 or 20...I can't remember which. They certainly were beautiful, but since they were broadcasted on television, they had to start on time...not when it was completely dark. So we got to watch with first half with the glow of a pinkish sunset, then the rest against a black sky.

They don't call it the reflecting pool for nothin'

Thanks for the mini vacation, Rach !!

off to DC!!

I am leaving this afternoon on my first real 4th of July weekend trip. I have never really made a deal of the 4th, but this weekend is going to be so much fun. I am traveling with Ruth to stay with her sister Rachel who is a DC transplant .

The weekend is going to be packed with pool-side drinks, bikini waxes (before the pool-side part), fire works, and two of the most lovely girls from my childhood :)

little sister's high school graduation

flower girls

little sister

Happy Birthday Momma

Love you

Outdoor Music

all signed up...

I will do it.

positive affirmation

I have found myself asking a lot of questions lately. Specifically the age old question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" It was pointed out to me, by my dear Tonya, maybe seemingly bad things happen, to get us thinking, and moving. I can't agree more. I believe in karma, I believe in the universe, I believe that what ever I put out there will come back to me. Yesterday, on the way to beach, I thought, I must have been a terrible person in my past life based on all these terrible, hateful people recently muddying the waters of my life. Which is what lead to Tonya's statement. I find now, more than ever, it's important to concentrate on positive things in my life. The ugly-hearted people, who will hopefully never grace me with there presence again, are sorry souls, searching for some sort of meaning and love in there life. I am much better off without them in my life. I am much better off without their nasty, hateful, demeaning and thoughtless actions.

I am so grateful for everything I have and everything that I am, and I wouldn't change myself for anything. I am eternally blessed to a gifted artist with a supportive and healthy group of peers. My family and friends support me and my work (even if they don't always understand it). It's time for me to start remembering who I am, and keeping closer tabs on myself. It's time for me to spend four hours in my studio instead of aiding in America's obesity crisis. It's time for me to make, and do, and write, and think, and paint!! No more time to be lazy. No more time to waste. If i keep these things in perspective, I will rise up and meet my goals.

I am...

an artist

a woman

a student

driven

caring

strong

decisive

independent

happy

beautiful

intelligent

healthy

loving