For the holiday I zipped off to Boston to spend it with my dad and his new wife's family. Got in minimal training and maximum drinking. Not really, it just sounded good. I brought swim and run stuff and managed to only use the swim stuff once.
Monday - Rest Day
Thank god.
Thank god.
Tuesday - Spin
The pool is officially closed in my neighborhood so I woke up and did some spinning. I think the novelty is wearing off since about 5 minutes in I am kinda like, ugh, 55 more minutes of this. But then good music comes on and before I know it I'm done.
Wednesday - Track
Left for Boston. Flight was not so early but early enough that I couldn't get a run in. The airport was surprisingly calm. I dropped my bag at the curb and headed for security (I checked in on line the night before). At the gate I ran into Manlio. I don't see that kid enough. Another Bostonian. I lucked out with the Economy Plus section which was awesome. As soon as I got on the plane I passed out for about 3 hours. Planes do that to me. It must be the drone of the engine or the air or something. I did hear that when I was a baby and couldn't sleep my mom would drive me around in the car. Maybe that's it. Got into Boston around 5pm, got to my dad's ate and passed out.
Thursday - Thanksgiving
Determined to stay on my "diet" and not over eat the entire day or drink too much. Started out with cereal, then carrots then I was pretty god damned hungry and scarfed about 3 deviled eggs when they showed up. Then some chips and spinach and artichoke dip...which turned out to be not so good so ditched that. Then dinner. My Dad started a new thing of grilling the turkey. It was pretty kick ass. Another turkey was also roasted in the oven. The guests were all of my dad's wife's family. I met them at the wedding. Not an entirely comfortable situation. If you can imagine everyone knowing everyone else and being the one person who no one knows and trying to act, um, like it's not a big deal. heh. Quote of the day, in regards to the hot tub my dad installed this summer, as said by David, the husband of one of the wife's sisters, who is a tried and true New Englander AND a cop: "Aww, Pam, lookit that hot tub...I can just imagine sittin' out theyah in a blizzahd drinkin' a bottel-ah wine...tha' be friggin' awwwsome!" It doesn't get any better than that, people.
Dad with grilled turkey
Dad drove me to the YMCA in Worcester (or if you're from the area Wuh-stah). I swam for about an hour in the four lane pool where there was only one other person. It was nice. Then my dad picked me up and went back to the house to do some attic cleaning (while my dad went to play in a disc golf tournament...uh, really) and to get ready to go into Boston. That attic is a friggin' goldmine people. I look at the boxes and boxes of stuff my mom saved from my childhood and am simultaneously pissed and stoked. Pissed that she saved EVERYTHING and now I am forced to go through it to get it cleared out of my dad's house and stoked because...I am so selling that complete Barbie Swing Set that is in it's original box on eBay. Cha-ching! Although, there is a lot of stuff to sort through. I would really like to know what my mom was thinking when she decided to pack up and save my entire lip gloss collection. What also makes the sorting through of one's life complicated is that it seems I was a pretty, um, paranoid child. Maybe paranoid is too strong. Let's just say that I probably didn't trust anyone since, as I go through the stuff, I start to remember my old habits. That seemingly plain, innocuous miniature basket is more than just that. Inside it is a smaller basket, inside that a smaller box, inside that a packet and when the packet is opened there is money. I did this with everything. That is why it's so difficult to go through this stuff. I can't just say, oh this old music box and toss it because, as I discovered last year, inside a secret compartment was a stash of about 20 silver dollars. Oh that silly little Hez. What a weird little girl.
Caught the train into Boston and Karen picked me up. She drove me straight to this woman's house to look at a 1974 Raleigh that I found on Craigslist. It was perfect and beautiful and in much better condition than mine was. I was so grateful that this woman held it for me for a month. Bought that suckah. Went back to Karen's and ordered Thai food and had an evening of playing Canasta. Back in the day, Karen and I were like an old lady couple. Wednesdays we played Canasta, Thursdays we went to Bingo, Saturdays we went to Joe's Bar and Sundays we went to brunch at Johnny D's...every week. Then for one week each summer we vacationed on Martha's Vineyard. Yes, people thought we were gay. That is probably why neither of us ever had a boyfriend. In fact it was realized, quite unexpectedly, after one of Karen's co-workers approached us at lunch one day (I used to walk over to her office and have lunch with her) when he asked, "are you guys dating?" We were all, bwaahahahaha! Then he walked away and we just looked at each other like, SHIT.
Hez and Ren
Our old pal Laura, who was also part of the brunch club, met us at Johnny D's and it was like I had never moved. Oh Boston. Sometimes I miss you and sometimes I think...never again. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Laura and then Karen drove me back to my dad's with my new bike. I walked right into the beginning of dinner with my dad, Pam (the wife) and their neighbors. In about an hour everyone was wasted on Bourbon and wine. I managed to avoid that combo. My dad was really stoked about my new bike. At one point I thought I would join him outside to help with the grilling and I caught him in the act of taking my bike off the porch. I was like, are you going to take it for a ride!?!?! He sheepishly grinned and said, I was gonna! Busted. I let him do it anyway and he came back just raving about how it handled. He'll be shipping it out to me this week. After dinner and some ridiculous cheesecake and eclairs I decided to get in bed and read while the adults goofily undressed and made their way to the hot tub. I was staying out of that situation.
Reunited
Dad with Bike
Spent the morning boxing up some stuff from the attic that I absolutely needed shipped to me pronto. Including all of my metal LPs. Yeah! Seems like I need to get a turntable...and a stereo...oh and speakers. Hmmm. My dad drove me to the airport and again I sailed right in. There was no line at security. Ran into Manlio again and chatted. Was dismayed to see I was in a row with a mom and her sick 3 year old. Turned out to be not an issue because I had the outside seat. Flight was really long. Glad to be home with the kitties. Photos here
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