Ahh… That time of year again…  For the past 15 or so odd years my family has been taking a trek to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to spend a week killing coolers of beers, devouring plates of fried tomatoes and corn fritters, getting kite strings tangled, capsizing on kayaks, spying on neighboring families with binoculars, and burning one another with sparklers.  This is that fateful time of year when my family holds meetings to discuss the merits of bringing one car or another, whether to buy 10 or 20 pounds of tomatoes, and performing a cost risk analysis on the merits of leaving at 4 am vs. 5 am.

Whether or not Butterfinger and I were going to be able to come along on this annual adventure had been a topic of conversation over the past few months.  After foreclosing on the house, moving, selling most of our possesssions, having Tucker recouperate from knee surgery, trying to work for ourselves, and being hit with a few unforeseen monetary setbacks, our status was unknown at best.  The longer I live with Butterfinger, the better I get at making it a plan not to plan, and that is what we have done for the past few months.

The thought of missing out on watching my sister steal people’s carts at Harris Teeter, being deprived of AP cake, drinking Bud Lights with Pop-pop, singing goofy songs with my cousin, finding roaches in the bathroom (no… not the Periplaneta americana variety), and taking various photos of a magic squiggle worm have upset me to no end.  And so, I had to make a difficult decision - spend fake money and spend a week with my most favorite people in the world, or save said fake money for something unknown.

At this point I am pretty sure my choice was clear, Butterfinger and I will be in OBX to spend the week with all of you!  And not only that, as an added bonus, we are flying in and out of our home airport so we can torture you with our psuedo-intellectual babble and poor jokes for 8 hours there AND back!  Aren’t you so excited?!  I know I am:)  The only drawback, and really the only part that made this decision even somewhat hard, was leaving the puppies behind, but I think we have found a suitable solution to that problem and they should actually sleep for the majority of the 10 days we are out of town (the sleep:awake ratio for the dogs creeps up somewhere close to the 20:4 range during the warmer summer months - maybe next year guys:).

So now for the disclaimer - I am going to be enjoying my vacation as much as possible and drinking as many hours out of the day as possible, but I will need to get some work done at rather frequent intervals during the day.  I have not yet found a way to waterproof Worthington, so I prolly will not be as deep brown as I have gotten in past years, but I would be more than happy to show you all what I do all day long if anyone cares to hang back at the house with me for an hour or two while I do my work.  Also, in the time leading up to this magical adventure, I will probably be writing nonstop, so do not be surprised if I do not respond to phone calls (sorry Jenn - I saw you called the other day and I just have not had a chance to call you back), emails, or instant messages, this is all in preparation for optimal enjoyment, and I am sure you all understand.

Ok, so now that those items are out of the way.  I can not wait to see everyone, and I know Butterfinger shares those same sentiments.  I have heard that in addition to the airline baggage restrictions there are also some car baggage restrictions, which should not be a problem as we usually only take carry ons, but if someone could find room for the rice cooker in their car it would be awesome - then Butterfinger and I can make some fried rice for everyone one night:)  I will be abstaining from alcohol until the trip to give my liver and kidneys some time to prepare for the onslaught of adult beverages, although calculating from the time of my last drink, I am not sure 2 weeks is enough time to allow the liver to begin the regeneration process, but its better than nothing.  Cheers to sunburn, Trivial Pursuit, black bottom cupcakes, cb radios, emergency bathroom breaks, breakfast buffets, Wawa, the North Carolina state line, and getting yelled at by the cleaning people for arriving too early!  See you all in about a week:)

July 23rd, 2008 | Family, Karma, Nostalgia