tv turn-off, day 6

this has definitely gotten easier as the week has gone by. i think the key is to make plans, instead of leaving the evening open, so that i'm not wandering aimlessly around the apartment staring at the remote. even if it's something as simple as going for a walk... if i plan to do it, i'll do it.

speaking of planning... last night, after i planned to go dancing, was totally different. ::grin:: i got a call from my buddy J (he of the political and religious rants) in the morning, asking if i wanted to see "harold and kumar go to white castle" that evening. i didn't, and begged out by telling him i was going dancing. turns out the movie was starting at 7:30, and would be done just as the dance started, which was down the street. ::sigh:: since i had dragged him to "dodgeball", i decided to be a good friend and go with him to this one. we made plans to meet around 7:15 at the theater, and L1 was coming too. just as i finished making dinner (the "chicken rundown" recipe was good, btw), he called... turns out the listing he'd read for the movie was wrong, he was at the theater early and it wasn't playing. so we had to finagle another movie, all calling each other on our cellphones, and decided to see "napoleon dynamite". i didn't mind seeing it again, and i figured it'd be fun to talk about it with them afterwards.

well, "talking about it" turned into a 2-hour discussion afterwards, because J just didn't get why it was funny. he was really baffled. the rest of us in the theater laughed our asses off, and he just sat there with a puzzled expression on his face. so after the movie, we went to a local thai restaurant and sat outside on the patio and hashed it out. "i... i just don't get it..." J stammered over and over again. "i mean, there was no real 'good guy' to root for, everyone was just average. there was no big drama. and there was no real bad guy. even the people i wanted to be bad were just... regular people. there was no real bad guy." finally L1 raised her martini and said, "honey, the bad guy was... idaho."

the outdoor patio was absolutely lovely last night. the moon was almost full, it was a cool evening and there was a good breeze blowing over us as we talked. L1 and i found our new favorite martini, a speciality of the house: raspberry vodka, cointreau, ginger liqueur, lime juice, pineapple juice, and a float of champagne, poured over a fresh raspberry. no lie, it tasted like key lime pie. YUM. even our waiter, a sweet baby-faced 20 year old named michael who was new, thought it was amazing (he tried a taste of one in the back, after he saw us order like 20 of them, and raved about it to us with a sheepish grin). we ordered some thai appetizers, most of which were deep-fried tempura vegetables. i was joking about it being my last night of deep-fried food, with my new tummy diet starting saturday... and how anything deep-fried, veggies or otherwise, was a good thing... which brought up my story about the deep-fried oreos from a couple of weeks ago. but later, michael brought us the dessert menus... i wasn't going to have anything, because i was getting full... then i decided to take a peek, and my heart almost stopped.

deep-fried twinkies.

awwwwww, yeah, baby. L1 and i split an order (which meant we each got one). final verdict? not as good as the fried oreos, but okay. i think partly it was all the other tempura we had just downed... a tempura twinkie just wasn't the best idea after. we finally headed home close to midnight, with a fond farewell from michael... i guess he must have really liked us as customers... you know how a lot of servers will write a little note on your dinner bill, like "Thx! Julie" and a smiley face? well, michael wrote "thank you very much!!! have a great night and drive safely. come back tomorrow night for more martinis!!! michael (smiley face). it was like a whole conversation on the check. lol and he actually followed us out to thank us for the tip, which was sweet considering it was only like 30%, and as a thank-you taught us how to say "shit" in thai. hee hee.

so, a good night in general. no dancing, but that's okay. i'll take laughing my hiney off with my friends any day.

tv turn-off, day 7

::sigh:: what a fantastic day. this was the day i was worried about, 24 hours with nothing scheduled and no tv allowed. instead, it's been one of the best days i've had this summer.

i awoke early (damn cats), 6am, and did my usual morning coffee thing. breakfast was an egg on a mini whole wheat pita, trying to be good to the bad tummy. as i ate my sandwich, i ran through all the possibilities for today, and realized... i haven't been to the beach even once this year. i absolutely love the beach, even though i hate the feeling of the sun on my skin and i burn like a mo-fo. there's something about looking out at the ocean that just puts me at peace. years ago, a psychic told me that she saw me looking out at the ocean a lot for comfort... what she didn't know is that at the time, i was working on cape cod, and would go at lunchtime to the beach and spend 20 minutes looking at the ocean, even if it was february. i just love it. and ever since i moved to the city last year, i haven't been anywhere near a beach. so that was the plan for this morning -- head to the ocean and get grounded.

i threw on a bathing suit and comfy shoes and headed out to get my supplies: a bottle of water, magazines, sunscreen (like an idiot i'd thrown mine out way too early in the season). then i stopped at my storage unit to get the cute matching beach blanket and pop-up shelter i'd bought at target back in june, that were still in their packaging. then i had to decide which beach to go to, out of the dozens of beaches in the state. i decided on nantasket beach, in a little town south of boston called Hull. i'd heard of the beach a million times, even used to live near it, but had never been there. so i headed south to hull, and by 8:30am i was parked and staking my claim on a little chunk of beach.

even at 8:30, there were a lot of people there. the forecast today called for temps in the 90s, so folks were getting an early start. i set up all my stuff and popped open my little shelter (it's one of those things that automatically springs open when you take it out of its bag, and then you just twist it shut when you're done). the shelter thing was really cool -- besides keeping me from burning to a crisp, it blocked my view of the people around me, so it almost looked like i had the beach to myself. aaahhhhhh. i settled down, slathered myself in sunscreen, turned some disco-y tunes on my headset, and opened one of my magazines. heaven. i was interrupted a few times by a locust flying in and getting confused, but i took it all in stride and took those as opportunities to head down to the water's edge for a little wade until he was done. but besides that, it was just me, the ocean, my music and magazines.

around 10am the water, which had been about 20 feet out the whole time, suddenly rushed in and touched my toes, and i looked up from my magazine. it was as if the ocean itself was giving me a little nudge, going, "uh, hellooooo... you drove out here to see me, how about putting down the rag and looking..." so i took the hint. i put the magazines in my bag, put the headset away, and just sat and looked around. the beach was now completely packed with people of every age, shape, and size. to my left was a young couple in their 20s, both incredibly good-looking and very much in love. the girl had stunning curly hair halfway down her back... it's like my co-worker lori's hair, where it's just so dense with curl that she can pin it up in a heartbeat. like, all she needs is to grab a random office supply like a pencil or a paperclip, and swoop! she has an amazing chignon. sure enough, i turned back to the ocean for a second, and when i looked again, the curly-haired girl had swept her hair up, probably incorporating a handful of rocks or a boogie board or something.

and the TANS... good lord, the tans... unlike anything i have seen in a long, long time. back in the early 80s when i was living in kuwait, no-one cared about skin cancer, it was all about how dark you could fry yourself at the beach. a man who worked with my dad used to head to the kuwaiti shore with a bottle filled with a mixture of baby oil and iodine, and he'd come home the color of old rust. well, some of the people on the beach this morning were giving him a run for his money. i just sat in my little shade hut and slapped on more SPF50.

i decided to leave around 11am. the sun was getting strong, i was feeling uncomfortable from the heat (i know, i was on the beach, shut up), and i wanted to head home for lunch. so i packed up all my stuff, and then went to collapse my cute little shade tent. but the damn thing wouldn't collapse the way the instructions said it would. you had to fold it in half, then move the wires inside so that the sides coiled in on each other, and then the whole thing was supposed to slide into itself to form a neat little disc. instead, i found my pasty ass straddling this thing, trying to wrestle it into submission, while the bronzed sun worshippers around me watched out of the corners of their eyes. after 10 minutes of trying, i gave up... i gathered all my other belongings, and carried my big honking shelter down the beach and to my car... where i unceremoniously stuffed the damn thing in the trunk and slammed the door shut. it's still in there, i'm afraid of how it's going to spring out when i open it.

i headed slowly down the little beach road, checking out all the shops along the way. an ice cream stand, a fried clams shack, t-shirt store, arcade... wait, an arcade??? my mind raced for a second. i remembered hearing that this arcade had a dance dance revolution machine! ::gasp:: i found a parking spot, grabbed my wallet, and rushed down the sidewalk. and there it was, in its own little alcove inside the doorway, and no-one was on it! wahoo! i fished some quarters out of my purse and jumped on. i pretty much sucked, it's been at least a year since i've played so i barely passed all 3 songs... but it made my day. i let some of the now-gathered kids take a turn, and headed to play a round of Time Crisis, but i suck at that even worse than DDR. 30 seconds and i'd been shot to smithereens. time to head home.

i took the long way back, cruising up along the coast so i could keep the salt air in my lungs. the windows were down, the radio cranked, and i munched on a peach i bought at a roadside stand. and i just felt so... relaxed. and alive. so i'm sitting here typing this, with my hair stiff from sunscreen and salt... i smell like coppertone, and i have more freckles than i did yesterday... and i am blissfully happy. i know where i'm going next weekend. ::grin::

tv turn-off day 7 has been a rousing success.