How to Beat the Winter Blahs

It’s laughable, really.

This morning is a typical seasonal ‘straddle’ type of day, cold and drizzly, where you aren’t sure whether to wear a winter coat or rain slicker, and you huddle with your hands around a warm mug of something steamy.

The day before yesterday Jenny trickled warm sand over me while I watched the sun sparkle over tumbling waves, and I got a little hot so I grabbed an icy drink and Jenny ran back and forth with her shovel under the shrill call of the gulls.

My cousin can only shake her head at my all-powerful mastery of the weather, that meant in between snow and rain we got 80 degrees of sun in the middle of February at the ocean. Jelly, the ungrateful wretch that she is, was disappointed that I couldn’t heat up the ocean a few more degrees. I’ll work on that for next time. The hotel was pretty crappy, now that we’ve been spoiled by Dunes Village; the room was obviously meant to be a 1-bedroom with a living room rather than a 2-bedroom, so both me and MommieV were in close quarters, luckily for only a short stay.

It’s always interesting, meeting someone IRL whom you’ve developed an internet friendship with. It’s not the first time I did something like this, although finally might be the last (I’m really getting too old for this sort of thing). It’s interesting because despite the fact you have never met them in person, you already know things about them; you have something of a ‘shared history’; some bits and pieces of conversation may come easier. It’s interesting because although you have ‘talked’ to them via blog or email or text for months or even years, you still don’t really know them; there are still going to be things you learn about them, and things they learn about you.

I had all kinds of fabulous blog ideas, like doing a ‘Stupid Questions with MommieV’ interview, where I even got so far as to come up with a few stupid questions. But in between all the trying to catch up on freaking sleep (I saw every @#$% sunrise) and chasing a very happy ‘I go Myrtle Beach!’ (‘yes, sweetie, you are, in fact, AT Myrtle Beach’) toddler, I found it kind of hard to actually find time to sit down and, you know, do the actual question-asking part. But I guess the good news is, we didn’t run out of things to talk about. I learned lots of exciting interesting things that I didn’t know about her sordid dramatic past. Neither one of us turned out to be pervy middle-aged balding men, as the hotel towels did not leave much to the imagination. The girls got along swimmingly, although I think Jelly may ease up on asking for a brother for a while now.

So I think the MOST interesting thing about a trip like this is observing how someone else Does It. You know, another mom. And not just another mom, another Single Mom. Because I don’t hang out with too many of those. Being around a (relative) stranger means getting yourself reflected back much more clearly than normal, because you’re paying more attention to how you look through their eyes. And you are also paying more attention to them, because you’re trying to figure them out. There are lots of things that MV and I have in common, yet as moms we are completely different people. It’s just fascinating to me. I’m going to write a separate blog post about it, because I have a perfect example, but it warrants a whole separate discussion. I come off looking like a crazy person, but that should be no surprise to anyone.

So it was an interesting experiment, one that I will never in a bazillion years repeat in a room that size, and I will never again force Jenny to go back to that hotel with the ‘too yucky’ Lazy River. Poor little princess. As you will see from the photos, she was totally miserable. The check-in experience was interesting, though. I went totally blank on MommieV's last name, and when the receptionist raised an eyebrow, I hurriedly explained, "No, you see, we haven't actually met in person, I only know her from the internet..." then I kind of trailed off because I realized I was just making things much, much worse. To make it BETTER, I THEN said, "This isn't some seedy internet hookup, I bet you get all kinds of crazy things", to which she just kind of said, 'uhm hmmm' like she didn't believe me whatsoever. And then she asked if it was ok to give her the room number when she checked in, and I was like, yeah, of course. And felt kinda dirty. So then I told her a story about when The Ta and I were in Vegas, and asked the maintenance guy to tell us stories about the kinds of stuff he'd seen. That did not help my case any. So I finally just shut up and grabbed the 'I go Myrtle Beach!' dancing kid and left.