September 1st

Hi it’s Christina –

Good morning! First I want to wish a very Happy Anniversary to my amazing in-laws. Love you guys! Hope you enjoy your special day while in AC!

Happy September everyone! Can you believe it? Where did the summer go? I don’t know about you, but I am SO not ready for it to be over yet!

The weather today isn’t looking so great, so we very well just might pack it up and head home. I’m going to let everyone sleep until 8:30, and then I am going to roust the troops. We need to be out by 10:00 and I’m not doing it all by myself.

Yesterday was a banner beach day, and I have the red face to prove it. I used the wrong sunscreen – because I was being lazy and didn’t feel like digging in the bag for the correct one – so my face also has a lovely itchy rash under the sunburn. It’s my own dang fault, no one to blame but myself.

It was noon by the time we finished our breakfast at Samuel’s, which was as yummy as I remember it, so we didn’t get on the beach until 12:30. Even though the temp yesterday was only 82, it felt a whole lot hotter, so I knew I would be spending most of my day in the water. Lucky for me, the water wasn’t clod yesterday, but boy was it rough, wave after rolling wave. You would duck under one, come up, then barely have enough time to wipe the water from your eyes before you had to dive again.

It got tiring quickly, so even though it was a little further out than I wanted to go, I decided to try to get past the breakers. That didn’t work out so well, because at waist deep the water under the waves was calm, at chest deep, there was a rip current. It took all of five minutes for me to drift into the current.

One of PJ’s friends, Billy, was out there with me. He started swimming straight toward shore, and I headed in a slight diagonal. When he noticed I wasn’t with him, he stopped and swam back over to me. Because I’m still nursing that shoulder injury, I knew I wouldn’t have the strength in my arm to even attempt a straight swim, and the last thing I needed out there was for it to cramp up on me. So I kept swimming along, almost parallel to the shore, only getting marginally closer as I went, until I was free of the current. No panic, totally relaxed, it only meant a longer walk along the water’s edge back to our blanket.

I may not be as strong a swimmer as I once was, but I do know my limitations, and I will make every effort not to put myself into a situation I can’t handle. Future trips into the water yesterday stayed at waste level, and I just dealt with having to duck under every twenty seconds. Well, one other time I ventured deeper so I could get a little closer to the dolphins, but the tide was going out, so the current had receded and there was no undertow.

Dani’s friend Adam and I started to build a sand sculpture, but we ran out of time and couldn’t finish it. We made a Mako, and the head came out really good, but the body was just slapped together. I wish I had gotten a picture, but my husband and Dani had already headed back to the room, and the camera was with them. Other passersby on the beach took pictures of it though, so I guess it wasn’t half bad. If we had more than half an hour, it would have turned out good.

We did go to our friends Ben and Bernadette’s house last night for dinner. It was nice to see them, but it was too short. We tried to coordinate a time to be able to come down for a proper visit, but between their schedule and ours, we may have to wait until next year, and that’s really sad.

Oh well, I know it’s only seven, but I’m going to go get dressed and start packing up. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

August 31st

Hi it’s Christina –

Good morning! First I want to wish a very Happy Birthday to my Godmother. I love you Aunt Mary, and I hope you have a wonderful birthday!

I am currently sitting on the balcony of our motel, watching the sunrise over the ocean. Not too shabby! It’s breezy, pretty cloudy, and a little chilly, and I’m thinking I should have grabbed a sweatshirt before coming out here, but I am SO not complaining. Okay, I will make a slight grumble over the lack of coffee, but other than that, I’m a happy camper.

We got here by ten yesterday morning, and that’s with leaving half an hour late and making two stops. One stop was at the midway point for a bathroom break, and the second one was when I pulled into Wawa when I noticed we were turning onto a friend’s street, so I gave her a call to ask if I should turn left toward the beach or right toward her house.

I didn’t realize I would be right there because I usually hop on the Parkway in Avalon, and this time I decided to take Route 9 all the way to Rio Grande. I did this for two reasons. One was because I caught a glimpse of the Parkway and said “Uh uh, Not sitting in traffic!”, and the other was because I’m cheap. There’s a toll to get off at Rio Grande from the Parkway, and I didn’t want to pay it.

Bernadette didn’t answer, so we went straight to the hotel. I pulled in and went to the lobby. I told the owner I knew I couldn’t check in yet, but I was hoping he would let us park there so we could go to the beach. Surprise, surprise, our room was ready – five hours before check in time – and he handed me the keys. I was shocked.

The room is tiny, just your basic seaside motel, but it was cute, and more importantly CLEAN. I lucked out. You never know when you’re picking blind and settling for the only available room on the whole island. The owners of the Mark I on E. Atlanta Ave in Wildwood Crest, Chris & Kathy, are really sweet. The pool is great, and we are one small hotel away from being right on the beach. When I come back to Wildwood, I’ll be coming back here.

So we unload our junk, and head for the beach even though the clouds had rolled in. After what happened the other day in Sandy Hook, our usual beach, I wanted to be close to the lifeguards. We find a little patch of sand, set up our area, and go stick our toes in the water. It was a bit chilly, but not terrible. That hurricane reeked all sorts of havoc even though it was over a hundred miles off shore.

I’m out in the water about thigh deep and I hear Dani screech. I turn around and my daughter monkey jumped into the arms of another woman – I was far enough away I couldn’t make out who it was. As I neared, I hear, “Hey Mama!” It was Lisa, one of my son’s friends, and as I got closer, I see she’s with Pam, one of my former cheerleaders, and Maggie, another friend of my son’s.

After a flurry of hugs and kisses, we start chatting. Their hotel is right across the street from ours, and their blanket is right in front of ours on the beach. When we dropped our stuff, we just noticed a bunch of bathing beauties in front of us, but not who they were. (It’s not like I was actively looking for them.)

It turns out, a whole bunch of my son’s other friends were coming down later, and we did get to see them before they went out clubbing. It was so nice to see them all, even for a brief time. The pack of them were always at my house, and since PJ’s moved out, I never get to see them anymore, and I miss them. When he moved out, it was like I lost a dozen of my kids all in one swoop.

My battery’s about to die, and there are no hook-ups out here, so I have to wrap up quickly. We found a bunch of hermit crabs while walking the beach, but the guy at the store told us they were the wrong type of crabs so they wouldn't survive in the cages he sold. We had dinner on the boardwalk. I grabbed a sausage sandwich from Hot Spot, Paulie and the kids grabbed pizza, and then we got a bucket of fries and orange and lemon drinks from Curley’s. After dinner, since the rides held no appeal to either kids, we played some Fascination, and then we dropped Dani and Adam off to meet up with some of their other friends for an hour. Everyone was home and in bed by 11:30.

Since I’m on vacation, there will be no writing challenge today or tomorrow. I hope you have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

(Sorry, no real pictures today. The camera is somewhere in the room, and I don't want to wake everyone trying to hunt for it. I'll post pictures tomorrow.)

August 30th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good morning! Today is going to be a crazy short blog. I was up at 4:30 so I could grab a quick shower, because Dani asked me if I was getting up at 5:00. She said she needed me to wake her up so she could shower. Yes I was planning on getting up at 5:00, but I had planned on taking a shower, then doing my blog, and then waking everyone up at 5:45 so they could get in the car and we’d be on the road by 6:00.

Wildwood is only a 3½ hour drive, but it’s a holiday weekend and traffic is going to be a nightmare, so I wanted to leave early. I did find a home for Colby for the weekend. My friend Sharon has him. I felt bad asking her because she just came home from a cruise yesterday, and she’s getting company for the weekend, but I was stuck. Colby loves going over to visit Aunt Sharon. He gets to play with his cousin Lexi, and he has five acres to run around on.

I hope he behaves himself better than Lexi did the first time she stayed with us. Lexi is a wonderful dog, the sweetest thing ever, but the first time she stayed over by us, she ate every piece of bread in our house while we were out. It was mostly our fault. We were used to small dogs, so we didn’t think to put the bread up high, and she was still very young, so she didn’t have the manners she does now.

Colby is still young, and he has not quite mellowed yet…and he likes food. There have been several occasions where he’s pilfered food. Hopefully he won’t do that at Sharon’s.

Now I don’t know if this hotel has wifi, so I have no idea if I will be able to post anything while we are away this weekend. Chances are you may be getting a mega post on Tuesday again.

I am taking my computer with me because I LOVE to write in the early morning, before everyone is awake, while sitting on the balcony, watching the ocean. It would be the perfect time to work on Simply By Chance since the characters are currently at sea, but I have to finish up Faerie Tale Queen. The publisher is calling me on the twelfth and I’m still not finished.

Okay, I really have to get going. I hope you have an amazing holiday weekend, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

Toes in the water, a$$ in the sand…

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

August 29th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good morning! Today I am going to be scrambling trying to find a hotel for Saturday and Sunday. My husband decided he wanted to get away this weekend because Dani hasn’t had a vacation all summer. Yeah, on FRIDAY of LABOR DAY weekend, I have to find a vacancy at the beach. Good grief!

If I manage to find a hotel, then I need to find a house sitter, a pet sitter, do laundry, clean out the car, and pack, all before six o’clock tomorrow morning, because I want to get ahead of the holiday traffic. One of the things in life I have absolutely no patience for is sitting in traffic. I don’t care if we are inching along at 25 mph, as long as we’re moving; but sitting or stop and go gets me twitching real quick.

One other thing I need to get done today is an 11:00 appointment at Dani’s school. This year, every student in the high school is being issued a chrome book. Now Dani was part of the pilot program, so she has had a chrome book since 7^th grade. Other than an initial orientation program on how the project was going to work, we, as parents, didn’t have to do anything other than sign a release form. The kids showed up for school on their first day, and they were issued a chrome book.

This year, we have to pick up the chrome book at the school. Tell me, does this make sense to you? Granted it is only a fifteen minute appointment, but doesn’t it seem like a colossal waste of time and money? These appointments have been going on for at least two weeks now. During that time, they are having to pay people to sit there, collect the paperwork, and distribute the chrome books. Parents have to take time off from work to attend these fifteen minute meetings. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to MAIL the paperwork to each student (what’s a stamp cost now, $0.50?), and have the student bring the paperwork to homeroom, hand it in, and receive their chrome book?

Okay, I took a break, and managed to find a hotel, got a house sitter, cleaned out the car and started a load of laundry. Now all I have left to do is find a home for Colby for the weekend and pack. We’re leaving in fifteen minutes to go to the high school, so I should wrap it up for the day. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

How did we end up here?

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.