Too-Short Long Weekend

Oh, my poor little woefully neglected blog. Alas, my lonely bored woefully neglected fans. I am so sorry for letting you down! How was I to know that work would BLOW. UP. IN. MY. FACE? And when I least expected, too, in September! Why is everyone suddenly crazy? Some people have the flu, some people are still trying to drag out summer vacations, parents are freaking out about school starting, we are planning for a December release that is going to go horribly wrong and I’m like, ‘Uh, December is when Christmas is, better be NOBODY messing with Christmas’. My boss is all stressed out and grumpy all the time, my coworkers are overloaded and freaking out; is it still recession fallout? I read something somewhere that said the recession has not only caused layoffs, but productivity issues; people are having to take on more, and are scared and irritated, so doing less. I don’t know, but it needs to change. Mama needs a little downtime during her day. Farkle misses her.

Jelly and The Ta and I returned yesterday from a glorious, 3-day long weekend in scenic downtown Wilmington. The Hilton was a little noisy at times (rotten children running the halls at 1am, perfume-y bridesmaids stinking up the place at 2am, my baby squealing with hysterical glee every time we hit the lobby because she knew it meant either a.) Swimming pool or b.) Breakfast) but was comfy, filled with nice staff who fell all over themselves to rub Jellybean’s head and back (seriously), and had some very breakable stuff in the bathroom (Jelly didn't break a single thing; The Ta would start breaking something and I would finish it). Disappointingly, they do not deliver room service to residential homes in Raleigh, which is a shame, because their Crème Brule Cheesecake was SO GOOD. So good. I’m going to take a moment to think about it again while you look at the updated videos in the sidebar…
We got in around 3ish on Friday afternoon, after a did-the-zombies-invade-and-we-were-too-busy-fighting-to-notice? freakish absence of traffic. Apparently word got out that it was suppose to be rainy and miserable, so the less housebound tourists cancelled plans. We totally lucked out with weather – it was a little overcast, but we had sun and 82 degrees on Saturday morning when we dipped Jellyfish in the ocean for her first salt water, and the rain held off until we left yesterday morning in a flurry of unbuttoned pants and discarded juice boxes.

Despite the fact that BOTH The Ta and I were experiencing the joy that is being a bloody, bloody girl, we managed to not murder each other. Although we did quite narrowly avoid a terrible accident because we were arguing about whether or not a massive tractor trailer was going to hit us or not (for the record – yes, it was going to hit us, so I was wrong. But at least I was the one who had the sense to say, ‘Well, honk your horn!’ before it did hit). I managed to get a pretty bad migraine on Saturday afternoon, but luckily it got really bad right as my good-as-gold napper went to sleep, so I was able to lay and shake and chatter and try not to barf without ruining any major plans.

We ate at a variety of restaurants with a wide range of success. Jellybean is going through some sort of phase where she will apparently only eat French fries, bar cherries, or whipped cream for dinner, so I wasted some bucks on food she either ignored, threw, or massaged into her scalp. The place that had the shortest wait and nicest staff was sadly also the most disgusting meal I’ve ever consumed. I never knew that fried rice could be gray. Probably the best thing I had was Jellybean’s entrée the first night; she had some awesome seasoned fries and delicious popcorn shrimp that were ignored (the night of the bar cherries meal). But hey, I didn’t have to cook any of it or go shopping for any of it or most importantly, clean up after any of it.

If you asked Jellybean what her favorite part of the trip was, she’d have a tough time deciding. The Children’s Museum was kinda lame, but she enjoyed the few activities they did have. The beach wasn’t as great as the lake, due to the constant and cruel saline punches delivered by some pretty forceful waves. I bet she’d say it was a tie between the sleepover parties and the pool. Every evening and at least once during the day we’d all go for a nice cool relaxing swim. There were usually other kids to watch and play with, or she would simply enjoy some time spent playing on the steps. She did some awesome kicking swimming around with Tata, and was extremely brave about jumping off the side (much to my terror). The night swimming was followed up by cozy jammies and milk under the fluffy duvets. We’d pick out something inane on pay-per-view with either Sandra Bullock or Seth Rogen, and plump up a zillion pillows behind us.

Jenny thought this was THE BEST THING EVER! Bedtime, with the TV and lights on, and look, there’s Tata! And Mama! She’d get all settled and cozy, then seem to realize where she was, and pop up, fully upright, bouncing on the bed and clapping her fat little hands in delight with a huge smile beaming on her ecstatic face. Sleepover party! Yeah, the girl loved it. She’d finally sack out around 9ish and I’d toss her into the hotel crib, where she slept like an angel.

There were also a few new skillz that Jellybean picked up; she used the potty pretty frequently, she came up with her own sign for 'Please' (she crosses her arms across her chest, it's VERY CUTE), she can do a 'thumbs up!', and once she tooted and pointed at Tata like, 'OMG, Tata, I can't believe you did that!'. Grandpa will be proud.

Thanks for the awesome mini-break and for bringing sexy back, Ta! Thanks for being you, Jellybean girl.