Sand, sun, sea...see?

So, the beach was very nice, my only complaint being that it was so salty. For whatever strange reason that fact hadn't even crossed my mind, so when I got splashed in the face with salty water something very suddenly (and rather painfully) clicked. Right. The ocean is salty. I knew that. And salty water in one's throat, nose, and eyes is painful. So I didn't end up going in very deep for very long. If it had been freshwater I would have put up with getting water over my head once in a while, but that was just too painful. I stayed kind of on or near the edge instead.

But the beach itself was still fun. It was nice to get wet, and sit on the edge of the beach, and get nicely sunburnt... Not my back though, I religiously applied sunscreen to my back, but figured my legs never burn anyway, so they didn't need any. Ha. I applied sunscreen later, but probably too late at that point. My face got burnt too, which I'm not sure how to explain because I did definitely put sunscreen on it. But wow, I don't recall ever burning the back of my legs before, and I was pretty much unable to stand up straight Sunday night because it pulled the skin too much. Yeah, don't mind me, I'll just be sitting on the floor. (Yes, seriously.) I think almost everyone in our group got burnt though, even the ones who applied sunscreen multiple times, so I'm not sure what was up with that.

We drove over to the beach (Atlantic Beach) Saturday afternoon, and got there in the middle of a rainstorm. So we checked in to the hotel and proceeded to get settled in and then went down to the lobby area and played games. We didn't end up going out on the beach until after dark, but then we stayed out there until around eleven, walking on the beach and the pier...and then still stayed up later talking and eating popcorn when we got back, I think. We got up Sunday morning and stayed out on the beach until mid-afternoon (yes, decided to be heathens and not go to church), then went to a friend's house and cooked shrimp and potatoes and talked and played Scattergories into the evening.

Then Monday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed at five to go to the beach and watch the sunrise (after stopping in the lobby to get large cups of coffee of course). It was definitely a "Why are we doing this, again??" moment. It was certainly worth it though.

I built a sandcastle. :)

Then after we got back we ate breakfast and headed home, stopping to see friends and drop people off on the way, which made going home seem like less of a bad thing.

All in all it was a great three days, lots of fun and laughter. When I get together with this group I always seem to end up laughing my head off or giggling helplessly. I kind of wonder whether some of them even have any idea how reasonably quiet and sane I can be. :D It somehow worked out really well, all the people we had. We all (nine people) managed to get along well all weekend, so I guess it was a good mix of personalities.

Also, the beach seems to insist on lingering with me...I'm still finding sand in things. Ugh. I'm not a big fan of sand where it's not supposed to be. Oh, interesting note: I think I actually tanned! I thought my legs were tan after the burn wore off, but then they started peeling as bad sunburn always does. But that cleared up pretty fast and when I got back from the gym tonight my mom was pointing out that I am actually at least a little bit tan. Wow, well okay, I've got the beach to thank for the fact that I'm not quite as blindingly white as I usually am. ;)

Valerie's Happy Restroom

I unknowingly wandered into Valerie's Happy Restroom in the Charlotte airport, and thanks to the fact that she also self-promotes, I looked up her video on YouTube like she suggested. ;)

I've been annoyed by bathroom attendants before, but she was actually keeping the restroom clean and was very nice. A couple of the little kids in the bathroom really liked her singing too. :)

Busyness and even more to come

It is...Tuesday. Yes, Tuesday. I finally figured that out for sure, after wandering around the house for a little while last night, holding my alarm clock and trying to remember if I needed to set it so I could get up in the morning or not. Long weekends really mess up my calendar...yesterday felt like another Saturday because Dad was home. Yes, it's Tuesday, and I'm going dancing tonight, which I'm looking forward to, because I haven't been in a long time and the next two weeks I will either be gone or very busy. I'm hoping to maybe go to contra in Cincinnati though...

Ah, let's see. For starters, I'm going to the beach next weekend with some friends! I'm very excited about this because I haven't been to the beach since I was about two, and of course I don't remember that. Mom was sort of feeling bad about that, but I pointed out that this trip will be all the more exciting because of that.

I'll get back Monday night and then I'm leaving Wednesday to fly up to Ohio to see my cousins, drive to Chicago with them for a wedding, and then back to Cincinnati for a few days before I fly home again. I'm quite excited about this too. :) I get to see a new airport in the process and see all the interesting people in the airport. Interesting/weird/however you want to put it.

So that's what's up with that. Travel! And I think my cousin Rebecca is just a bit excited that I'm coming... See? :D

On Saturday I went shopping because I realized that not only did I not have a nice dress to wear to the wedding, but I was rather low on dressier summer clothes anyway. Most of my summer stuff is skirts that I've made and such, and some of it is...well, more casual. So I went to Goodwill first of course, got up way too late for such a venture and was there at the busiest time of the day. I found a pile of dresses to try on, then found that the dressing rooms were all very full. *sigh* Finally got one (with no mirror), narrowed down the selection to four dresses, and was able to come back later and find a dressing room with a mirror...and got one dress out of the deal. :P It's a nice pale blue sleeveless linen dress that is a little bit too big, but I washed it and that made it shrink a bit. I also found a men's shirt to use as a swimsuit coverup.

But still I didn't have anything that would really work for the wedding. So I went to a few more places...found a pair of black sandals, which is nice because all I had were some with about 2.5 inch heels, and you know those weren't comfortable! But still no dress. I finally went back home, picked up Mom, and we went to a consignment store near us. The lady (and her daughter) there helped us look around and I ended up finding one dress there. It's a sort of burgundy...tunic sort of thing. I'd post a picture here, but the photo didn't turn out very well. Mom and I decided to still go look at Target too, and I found a black sleeveless dress that fits very nicely and looks very classy. Score! Two nice dresses, a pair of shoes, and I'm all set now! And both dresses are material that won't wrinkle much, so I should be able to smoosh them into my suitcase without worry.

Friday night we all went to watch the fireworks after the baseball game downtown. That turned out to be a disappointment. We watched from the parking garage up at the hospital, so we had a good view, but the fireworks were very insignificant. So Dad and Colin and I went up to King on Sunday night and saw some much better ones! I took pictures (of course).

You can see all of the pictures here: Fireworks 2010

In other news, we visited a church Sunday morning. Now, I don't mind more modern worship, as long as what they're singing has good words, but oh my. I felt horribly out of place because I didn't know most of the songs, so I couldn't sing, and the music was VERY loud. You know, music that's almost concert-level loud, and you can feel your whole body vibrating so that it feels like your heart can't beat properly? I don't find that particularly enjoyable. Goodness knows I listen to music fairly loudly, but nowhere near that loud. So yeah, that was a bit different. They finally sang two songs that I knew, "Blessed Be The Name" and a hymn with the tune modernized a bit. I want to say it was "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross", but that doesn't sound quite right. Anyway, the sermon was very very good, which I was quite honestly a little surprised by, but I don't know if I could deal with being deafened every Sunday. But anyway, that was an interesting first experience, and I'm going to be gone the next two Sundays, so I don't know where the rest of the family is planning on going.

Ah, what else? Oh, I'm trying to sew a sunhat, and I'm hoping to have it done by this weekend. I figured out last night that I needed some stiffer interfacing to get the brim to stay up, so I got that this morning. With any luck I will have a hat by the end of Wednesday.

Now, I need to take a quick nap and then find some paper and starting writing a packing list. No, make that two packing lists. Packing is going to be logistical nightmare, since I'll have a suitcase of stuff when I get back from the beach and will probably need to wash and repack some of it, adding it to other stuff (which I should have packed already) in my suitcase to go to Ohio. So yeah, I need to find some paper and start writing. Yes, I have a computer but I cannot write a packing list on the computer. I have to have real pen and paper. :D