The Vineyard

In addition to a degree in theatre (that I don't actually use in my real life), I also graduated from college with a wonderful group of guy friends. To be honest, I didn't expect our friendship to very long-they are boys after all. Right after graduation, they all moved to New York and I stayed in Boston. But, a couple of years later when I finally packed up and moved to Brooklyn, they were there waiting for me. I lived in an apartment with four of them for a summer and quickly realized that these were going to be lifelong friends. Since that time, most of us have left the city and many of them have gotten married, but we still manage to squeak out some time together. Usually it's in small groups of three or four with an occasional wedding thrown in, but last weekend a large (but not complete) group of us met up on Martha's Vineyard. I could only manage to squeeze 36 hours of Vineyard time into my schedule, but I was able to make the most of my time there.

Of course there were games. These boys love games. Games that involve frisbees, bocce balls, wiffle balls, bean bags, uno cards, chess pieces. Every game imaginable. I am not a game player, I prefer to watch and take pictures.

My friend Dan's wife orchestrated an amazing meal that included some of the most amazing appetizers. Martha Stewart and Ina Garten have some serious competition in Stacey. That coupled with some vodka infused with cucumber or blueberry cocktails, ahhhmazing.

These donuts. I can't stop thinking about these donuts. Some time after dinner a couple of the boys hopped on their bikes and headed into town. A few minutes later, they showed up with three bags of warm goodness. Goodness isn't even the right word, they were better than good. It took some serious self-restraint to keep myself from devouring all of them. There is a bakery in town that makes donuts and apple fritters at night and sells them right from the fryer and out of their back door. Isn't that awesome? Don't you wish they lived next door to you?

One of the boys bought Sky Lanterns. Have you ever seen these? They are so beautiful. You light them and they just float up into the night sky. It's almost magical. Plus, for some reason, I love the photo of the three of them working together to get it lit. I was sad to leave, it was a bit too short of a visit, but I do feel like a squeezed a lot into a little amount of time.

Company

When you live here, you get lots of company. Which I love. It has been key to my mental health since moving away from the city. In truth, I moved here knowing a total of three people who lived within 15 miles. Three is not a lot, especially coming from New York where I had established myself socially and was surrounded by new and old friends on a daily basis. I've learned how much I love being by myself much of the time, but I also realize that all that alone time makes me cherish the time I have when folks come up for a visit.

It's safe to say that I get excited for company. There's a prep to it. As much as I would like you all to think that I live a "company-ready" life, that is not the case. That's mostly because I am lazy and easily distractible. And since I am being honest, I still get a thrill from knowing that I don't have to clean up. See, my mother was one of those folks who maintained an

unbelievably clean house.

I'm talking about permanant vacuum lines in the carpets, needless to say, I have yet to move out of the rebellion phase. Aside from cleaning up the place, I also like to bake up a little something to snack on and there's grocery shopping to do and making sure the guest room isn't too covered in cat hair.

But the extra effort is

usually well worth it. It results in me getting "filled up." I get a chance to reconnect with good friends, enjoy cocktails on the porch, eat lobster by the sea, go bowling, mini-golfing, outlet shopping, swim in the local pond, visit the nearest creamery...

basically, I get to be a tourist in my own home.

Replenish

Today didn't go as planned and I am ok with it. When drifting off to sleep last night, I made a mental list of things I wanted to get done today; my first day of vacation. Things that involved emptying the dishwasher, cleaning the living room, making my bed, mopping the bathroom floor, and hopefully go strawberry picking. Things that I have completely overlooked over the last two weeks of school. And then I woke up. At 10:30. TEN-THIRTY! I don't sleep until 10:30. If I sleep in, I sleep until 7:00, maybe 7:30. But that wasn't the case today. So, my plans went out the window. I was so befuddled by waking up so late that I wasn't sure whether or not to eat breakfast or lunch.

As a result, I threw my

plans out the window. I ate some lunchfast, lingered over coffee, went to the library, and instead of picking strawberries I stopped by a local farm and picked up a quart of strawberries that someone else picked.

It's still early in the day, but I am fairly certain that the dishwasher isn't going to get emptied before bedtime.

As a side note, I am making quick progress on one of the baby sweaters that is in the

que. Remind me to tell you the story about this great yarn.

Drying Out

After a wonderful weekend filled with sunny days, warm and sticky kisses from my godchildren, laughter, eating, and hours spent on the lake, I am at home recovering. Unfortunately, my camera was victim to a wayward wave while out on the boat yesterday. (I know your asking, "A wave on a lake?!" It surprised us too!!) So, it is drying out and I am crossing my fingers and toes. Bare with me over the next couple of days, there may not be too many photos....