my weekend that wasn't.

This weekend was full of promise: beautiful weather, my favorite annual block party, and the potential to hang out with a bunch of friends. Too bad I caught the Summer Cold and most of those things were can canceled out by copious amounts of groaning, honey lemon tea, and bed rest.

On Friday night, I felt it coming. I was really drowsy hours before bedtime and, when I finally tried falling asleep, I couldn’t because I had a scratchy throat. After sleeping for maybe four hours, I woke up and felt okay, but not amazing. (I won’t even talk about how I then started getting cramps, at which point I almost cancelled my whole trip.)

Saturday was a mixed bag. The two-hour drive down to the shore was actually tolerable and I felt good when I got there. I chatted with my aunt and her friends, had a drink, and was feeling positive about things. Since I was spending my time mostly with the “adults” for the day, I was glad that I felt comfortable talking to them instead of being the odd one out. We changed into our pirate costumes and were ready to go.

L-R: Uncle Russ, me, Mike, Aunt Laura, Kimmy & Cheryl (my aunt's friends)

The beginning of the party was great – we watched as all the neighbors made their way down the street in various costumes. We posed for pictures, had food and drinks, and it was pretty enjoyable. After dinner, though, I started feeling not-so-hot, to the point where I actually considered going home. I’m glad I stuck it out, though, because I eventually regained my energy and ended up dancing a bit with my aunt and her friends.

My fishy cupcakes!

Even though I felt better physically, I was becoming increasingly annoyed with my cousin. She arrived late with her friends from college and spent the evening playing beer pong, barely offering me an invite to join them. (Looking back, it seems as though it was assumed I would just join the “kids” once they arrived, therefore not needing an explicit invite; hindsight’s twenty-twenty, I guess.)

Once the sun went down, I was having less and less fun. The adults were all chatting amongst themselves, nobody was dancing, and my cousin was nowhere to be found. I sat texting friends on my dying phone when my cousin finally showed up, twenty minutes before the party ended, and went to dance with her friends with nary an invite for me to join them.

At that point, I knew I was being stubborn and could have easily joined them, but I also didn’t want to awkwardly jump in. In a moment of extreme hormonal emo-ness, I walked up the street alone, got changed and packed up in the empty house, and even considered leaving without saying goodbye to anyone. Everyone returned to the house a few minutes later, the kids setting up to play more beer pong and the adults pouring glasses of wine; I made a swift exit before I stewed in my bitterness any longer.

I collapsed into bed Saturday night and on Sunday, I woke up with the horrible cold that my brother passed to me. Instead of enjoying the gorgeous weather, I spent all of Sunday and Monday in bed, playing video games and moaning about how stuffed up my head was. Today I’m feeling a little better, but I think it’ll take another day or two to knock it out of my system.

Hopefully everyone else had a better Labor Day weekend than I did!

labor day weekend.

My new favorite event to go to on Labor Day Weekend is the block party held at my aunt’s shorehouse. I attended last year and had a blast, so I knew I had to do it again this year and managed to convince The Boy to come with me. The theme was armed forces, and earlier this summer my aunt had already come up with a great idea: the girls would dress as army nurses while the guys sported fake wounds with food-dye-colored “bloodied” bandages. Since The Boy was a last-minute addition, he came up with the idea of being – what else – the head doctor in charge of the nurses.

The weekend started off on Friday night when I decided to split up the two-hour trip to the shore and head to The Boy’s house to sleep over. We were up bright and early the next morning at nine, mainly to be awake before his sister arrived with her three roommates and found us half asleep. Our first task was to bake brownies, which we did promptly. Once the girls arrived, we hid out in his room to pick out his “costume” while they all had lunch and rushed out to the beach.

Before we left, I put my finishing touches on the brownies to fit the theme a little better:



Then we were on our way. We didn’t hit much traffic this time around and got there about a half hour before the party officially began. Since my costume was being supplied mostly by my aunt, we freshened up at the house and I got dressed up.


Hellooooo, nurse!

I was surprised to find out that Lynds had decided to come home from college for the long weekend. Her best friend was over for the better part of the day, so I never really got a chance to talk to her.

We made our way down the end of the block where the festivities were centered. Within minutes, the color guard made a special appearance to kick off the party officially.



Then food was served, and as my aunt was one of the people in charge, I fell in line as her helper. Of course, I took time to catch up with my cousin and his girlfriend, say hi to the neighbors, and enjoy the wonderful spread of barbecue food.


My uncle and aunt.


My cousin and his girlfriend.


The Boy and I.

A few games were arranged, the most popular by far being the water balloon toss. Although The Boy and I were out after the second or third toss, my cousin and his girlfriend made it all the way to second place (after the water balloon popped right in the middle of her skirt, making it look like she had peed herself).


That's my cousin the foreground, his girlfriend in the back. Sadly, this is a shot of the losing toss.

As the sun was setting, it was time to put out dessert, and I dutifully helped carrying tray after tray of cupcakes and brownies to the table. My favorite were these adorable cupcakes, which are definitely something I would have come up with:


So cute! My only complaint was that the "beach ball" was a gumball. Ew!

We retreated to the house after this, seeing as the swarms of gnats that were bothering us all afternoon had become increasingly worse. We sat on the back patio and talked about silly wedding mishaps and stories on my dad’s side of the family. After about an hour, we decided to make our return after thoroughly covering ourselves in bug spray.

It was, of course, my favorite part of the day, because now that the sun was down and everyone was thoroughly tipsy, the DJ began playing the fun, danceable music. It didn’t take long for all of us to hit the makeshift dance floor, especially me and Lynds.


All the nurses, getting low, including my aunt!


As you can see here, we're the only two dancing. I have no problem with this whatsoever.


Dancing to Pussycat Dolls, doing the same move for the same part in the song.

By the end of the night, I was sweaty and exhausted. My very patient and wonderful boyfriend was getting antsy as well, seeing as all he was doing was standing on the sidelines and taking pictures (at my request). I changed into pajamas, we said our goodbyes, and were on our way.

Being the weirdo I am, as soon as we arrived back at his place, I was starving. I don’t eat too much in social situations, because I have mild anxiety and am never really hungry, so I’m always ready to chow down as soon as I leave a party. At eleven at night, I was sitting down to a full meal of grilled chicken, pasta, and steamed corn on the cob, followed up by green tea ice cream and leftover Rita’s water ice. Basically, anyone in real life who doesn’t think I eat enough really needs to see me late at night, when I will snack on anything and everything.

The rest of the weekend was calm, but I was glad to get out just for the one day. I love big parties and the sense of community I feel when I’m at my aunt’s shorehouse. It’s definitely a party I’m going to look forward to for years and years to come.

only me.

Only I can...

• be the one sober person dancing like a fool with a bunch of tipsy people.
• get low in a mini skirt.
• look drunk in candid pictures when I most definitely am not.
• forget I'm dressed like a nurse and therefore act really confused when people fake an injury and ask for help.
  
• find a boyfriend who doesn't like to dance when I love it (but I love him anyway).
• not feel hungry all day, then come home to The Boy's house and have pasta, chicken, corn on the cob, ice cream, Rita's water ice, marshmallows, and crackers with cheese in the span of an hour and a half.
• turn on the air conditioning, get too cold, but put on a sweatshirt instead of turning the air off.

I love the Labor Day Weekend block party in Mystic Island. Love, love, love.