A Smeddling Kiss

In Which I Talk About Life Getting Very Busy and Also Have a Lovely Anniversary Getaway.

Last week kind of sucked.

Monday, I got a call from the nurse at Pepper's school. "Nothing to worry about, she fell backward and bonked her head, we're putting ice on it, we'll send her back to class in a little while."  15 minutes later: "Hi, actually, I think you need to come get her." Upon arrival at school: "Well, she's dizzy and nauseous and I really think you should take her to the doctor." Off to the hospital we went. Long story short, she's fine and we even had the same triage nurse who treated Peanut when he smushed his finger last fall. She saw us walk in and said, "Oh, you're Dr. (his first name)'s little girl!"  Ah, life in a small town.

Tuesday was uneventful until Dr. V. arrived home and called me out to the garage to show me the back end of his car. Recipe for Disaster: take one 17 year old boy, give him his license and a pickup truck and wait 5 months. Now, mind your own business while stopped for a vehicle in front of you to make a turn and voila! You now have a nicely crumpled sedan! 

Wednesday, the new fridge showed up and I discovered more evidence that the workmen who built our house weren't really "detail guys." Let's just say a hacksaw and a chisel were involved in making the 35 3/4" wide fridge fit into the existing cabinetry. I had measured quite carefully the 36" width at the top, but it turns out that the casement molding had been attached at a slight angle, leaving only a 35 1/4" opening at the very bottom. And while the workmen may not have been detail guys? Hoo boy, they sure knew how to attach that molding securely! It's not pretty, but the fridge eventually fit.  

BUT! It all floated away in a haze of awesomeness when I was informed by my wonderful (and popular with the E.R. staff) husband that he was taking me away for the weekend to a mystery destination for our anniversary. His sister and her husband came down and stayed at the house with the kids and spoiled them rotten, and we took the fast ferry over to Nantucket and had a dreamy mini-vacation that felt like far longer than 30 hours.

We walked from the ferry to the fabulous Veranda House admiring all the historic houses and cobblestone streets and were able to check in early, which was nice since I desperately needed a nap.  We walked around town in the afternoon, had lunch on the soda fountain stools at the pharmacy/general store on Main Street, and wandered in and out of stores without buying anything because it all looked exactly like everything for sale back home on the Cape.  We headed back to the inn and read for a while, and then we got all dolled up and went to this restaurant and splurged on the tasting menu with wine pairing, one of our favorite "big event" things to do. 

Unlike other wine pairing-type meals we've had, this one (thanks to the friendly and heavy pouring bartender) included a full glass of wine with each course.  All SEVEN of them.  At one point, I had 4 nearly-full glasses of various types of wine arrayed around my plate, but seeing as how I would have to walk back to the hotel in heels in the rain, I exercised restraint. Ah, practical middle age! It was delicious, though, and very relaxing - there is something wonderfully decadent about a 3 hour meal, even when you don't drink all the wine.

The next morning we enjoyed the inn's twee little continental breakfast and then took a bus tour of the island, because we are Huge Dorks. Honestly, though - I always enjoy the place I'm visiting more after getting a little historical info about it, and Nantucket has lots of quirky and interesting tidbits to keep you entertained. Did you know there are only 9 approved house colors on the entire island? Plus, Maureen the tour guide was terrific. She's a special needs teacher from the Cape who gives tours on the weekends and summers, and she's funny and friendly without being corny or smarmy - a rarity on the tour bus circuit. (Island Bus Tours, get your tickets at the Hy-Line office on Straight Wharf. And no, this is not a sponsored plug.)

Then we settled in at one of the restaurants on the wharf leading to the ferry and enjoyed watching the people as we ate lunch... all of the blonde, tan, preppy people.  Let's just say that there is not a lot of diversity in the visiting population.  But, man - if your fashion sense runs to the prep school/New England WASP/sailing mode, Nantucket is your kind of place.  

The people watching was great, though - the sun-weathered guy at the table next to us who could have been a Kennedy drinking his pint and pushing his over-long gray fringe off his forehead while he read an anthology of "Best Sailing Stories;" the towheaded kid who walked the handrail of the wheelchair ramp like a balance beam while his dad alternately yakked on his cell phone and yelled, "Grayson! DOWN!" like the kid was a bad, bad dog. My favorite was the group of wedding attendees headed for the ferry, herded by the hyper, wired guy talking a mile a minute to his massively hungover lurching zombie friends while obliviously trailing his groomsman's tuxedo, boutonnière and all, from the overstuffed hockey duffel bag he was using as luggage.

And with all that? This week is even busier.

BEST. MOM. EVER.

 

Getting Kinky in Our Nation's Capitol

We took the kids down to DC for a few days last week.  Pepper has been working on a research paper about Abraham Lincoln all year and Peanut is crazy obsessed about all sorts of facts and figures about US history. We figured they were finally old enough to remember some of the national treasures they would be exposed to. What we didn't count on them being exposed to was the casual bedroom kink that is apparently the norm in our nation's capital.

Let me first explain that the handcuffs were NOT MY IDEA. In fact, when I reunited with my little nuclear unit after they'd spent the morning at the Spy Museum without me, I was slightly appalled at the items Their Father approved for purchase at the gift shop. I would have okayed a spy camera, or periscope pen, or some such non-weaponry gadget, but handcuffs? My first thought when the kids excitedly pulled out their matching pairs was, "Oh, dear Lord. That is SUCH a DAD purchase." Of course it's a sweeping generalization, but there are just some things moms would think twice about purchasing, and I dare say dual sets of handcuffs, despite the safety levers supposedly preventing them from truly locking, would be such an item.  

In the 10 seconds it took for the kids to open up the boxes and demonstrate for me their new souvenirs, I wondered how long it would take for the EMTs to cut Peanut loose from the Metro train handrail when he accidentally jammed the lock on those suckers. Would we cause a giant commuting nightmare? "Orange line train service was interrupted today thanks to a freak accident...." The image of Pepper's tear-streaked face peeking out from behind a serious and concerned accentless field reporter flashed through my brain, and I pictured the pub stool sitters watching the news segment on the plasmas lined up in the bar shaking their heads and debating the parental fitness of those who would purchase such things for their cherubs.

I rolled my eyes at Dr. V., signed dramatically, and confiscated the keys immediately. Then we headed off to yet another museum, and back at the hotel that night I was proven correct in my assessment that the cheap things were a DAD purchase after I had to jam a fork into one pair to release the "non-locking" lever which had - DUHHH!!!! - become stuck.

We spent our last day out in the suburbs with wonderful old friends who we don't get to see nearly often enough. The children got along well, the dinner was terrific, and it was a wonderful wrap-up to our 5-night trip. When we got back to the hotel, the room had been tidied up by housekeeping.  (I should mention that we like to stay in hotels with kitchenettes (due to the food allergies) and multiple bedrooms when not too exorbitantly expensive, and I'd found us a sweet deal at a Residence Inn.  We had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a pull-out sofa in the living room and a full kitchen, and it was awesome to have so much space for a fairly long visit.)

I mention the layout because I distinctly remembered piling all the various toys and gift shop crapola on a coffee table in the living room, including at least one set of the handcuffs, so when I stepped into the master bedroom, I burst into laughter at the sight of one shiny set of handcuffs carefully arranged on each nightstand. 

Thank you, housekeeping, for confirming my suspicion about the special kind of people our nation's capital attracts!