Saturday I knew was going to be a Very Bad Eating Day™ because of the party we were going to that night.
Thankfully our very nice hotel had this:
It was cold. It was bracing. I did 45 minutes of breaststroke and was glad for it.
Much better!
Friday morning we got on our way from the Bad Hotel™ and drove another several hours to the Hamptons. My aunt put us up in a very nice hotel.
After we got our bags squared away, and got changed into more relaxed clothes, we met up with my aunt, who showed us her lovely home, and toured us around the Hamptons. We met up with an old friend of hers who I hadn't seen since I was about 17, and went to her house which has its own private beach.
I got to put my feet in the ocean. Now that's a good way to end a long drive.
Thursday night Missy and I made half of a very long drive, stopping at some completely random and sketchy hotel.
It was not a great place to stay. We got stalked by a long term hotel resident who asked us if she could use our cell phone (which we declined), the room smelled like an ash tray, and the bed was harder than organic chemistry.
And it was great. Because it was not the car, not the highway, and we were very tired.
My friend Marie Furie shared this poem with me, that her partner sent to her.
"healing comes in waves
and maybe today
the wave hits the rocks
and that’s ok,
that’s ok, darling
you are still healing
you are still healing.”
—Ijeoma Umebinyuo, be gentle with yourself
So I got this whopper traffic ticket the other day. Without realizing I was doing so, I had been commuting with my ez pass on "hov/free ride" mode, with only me in the car - for about 2 months.
Whoops.
I started commuting with it set the right, legal way, and realized using the express lanes round trip each day was going to cost me around $600 a month.
Nope.
Missy knows the local roads really well. She helped me plot out a decent back way. It's not the 25 minute jaunt the hot lanes are. The back way takes about 45 minutes at least.
But it's kind of fun. I'm just grateful I have options.