enter illness, stage left....

weeks of working too hard and too much and not getting enough sleep finally took their toll on me. late last week i woke up with a sore throat and, within 3 days, had a bad chest cold/bronchitis. i've been diligently resting and staying home, doing very little (i spent all of labor day weekend/salimah's birthday in bed, in fact), and i'm finally starting to get some energy back. as i've been doped up on codeine, it seems the world has continued on its merry way, and i gotta say—i'm not enjoying feeling so disconnected from my life and from other people.

but, despite all of this, i'm at home on a friday night doing laundry, working, and trying to rest up as much as possible. one week from tomorrow i leave for the ocean, and it pretty much can't come soon enough. i am LONG overdue for some time out of dodge and i'm hoping the sound of the waves will give me some much-needed perspective.

between now and then, there are miles to go....and with that, the dryer just buzzed. there's my cue!

apparently you CAN go back home again....

technically it is saturday in the wee small hours of the morning, and in about 10 more of those hours, i will leave this lovely home of mine for the last week and head back to the place that feels like 'real' home to me these days. if my calculations were correct, i will come back to a newly cleaned apartment with clothes that are already washed and most of the week's homework already under my belt. then i will go about the business of unpacking, finding homes for all the fun new things i bought here (oy, my wallet may rebel against me!), and restocking my fridge with healthy foods that don't contain nearly the level of carbs, fat, or calories that i ingested over the last week of my life (cocktail hour at 11:30 a.m.? i'm on vacation!).

this has been a fantastic week away. the one major downside has been that on the very same day that my parents arrived, so did torrential rain and gale-force winds that pretty much meant no outside enjoyment for the better part of the last 48 hours. today was muggy but at least not raining, so that meant one last shopping trip for me and salimah (my parents had taken the cape may-lewes ferry over to NJ to visit my uncle who is in failing health) and then a lovely dinner out with the 'rents at the pig and fish in town. great, great meal.

during much of the afternoon today, salimah and i hung out at home while i did laundry and we packed most of our stuff (old and new) into my now VERY full car (i'm still not sure it's all really going to fit in the morning) so that we have very little to do except get up, shower, and dress before locking the door and heading out.

i will miss rehoboth and really, i hope to come back again before too long. it's a rather pleasant drive down here, replete with roadside stands (the tomatoes were DIVINE) and open fields. everything in this town is charming; the people are friendly; the ocean is RIGHT THERE; and there's no tax on the shopping. people, do you hear me on that last one?!

mostly, it's been beautiful to have no constraints on my time (or my brain) and very little else to think about except when the next cocktail hour is, what lovely thing we shall have for our next meal, whether or not to watch this movie or that, and how to cozy myself into the soft leather couch in the living room for the next nap of the day:).

once i return to crabcake corners, i shall post photos. for now, however, i'm going to enjoy my last sleep in a huge bed, in a quiet house where three other people i adore are also sleeping away the cares of the world.

oh, ocean air, i shall miss you the most....

goodnight.

the halfway mark

it is now wednesday...halfway to the end of our vacation, and i cannot say enough good things about being here in rehoboth. the town is charming, the people are friendly, the beaches are clean and wind-swept, the food is delicious (most of it, anyway), and the night air is invigorating. in general, i sleep soundly and wake up ready for more adventure and the seeing of new sights.

to recap, here is a brief rundown of the events so far:

• late-night movie watching
• several meals out (including one last night at this restaurant, the fat tuna, which has fantastic food and a sushi dinner at the cultured pearl two nights ago that was some of the best i've had)
• getting attacked by a wave that left the lower 2/3 of my long skirt soaked (thankfully the beach wind is a quick dryer)
• gambling away nearly 60 bucks of my money in various slot machines at dover downs (blackjack really IS my game, though) surrounded by lots of older folks and shiftless looking dudes who, i suspect, were trying to make money off of their disability or unemployment checks.
• listening to some loud-mouthed man yammer on and ON and ON (and on....) at the not-that-great mexican place in town while we drank cheap rail margaritas and a fake sangria with lunch
• me getting rather intoxicated off of what turned out to be nearly 2/3 of a bottle of cabernet and then apparently later crying about how salimah is, in fact, my best friend before passing out in bed. good grief. i'm really not sure how i got all the way up to the fourth floor to bed. i was later informed that i also stopped a few times along the way to take pictures.
• my first trip to ocean shitty city to eat dumser's ice cream (coconut chocolate chip) and get marauded by hovering seagulls (all while fighting indigestion from the night before's indiscretions with the aforementioned red wine)
• salimah and i misreading most of the roadside signage as we drive from place to place (a restaurant in OC called 'bayside skillet' became 'bayside killer')
• eating THE most perfect breakfast on tuesday morning that i made us (seared steaks; an egg scramble with green onions, portabellas, and cheddar; buttery english muffins; and strawberries)
• dropping some bank on coach purses (SALE!) and new underwear (outlets!)
• the sand in my shoes, the wind in my hair, and the kind of tired that comes only from being near the sea with no schedules, no deadlines, and only our whims to lead us from one place to the next

my parents have now arrived and the rain is coming, so stay tuned for further adventures!

respite

finally, my long-awaited vacation is here. this morning i awoke in my lovely, huge bedroom on the 4th floor of a house and ambled down two floors into the kitchen where i now sit in near silence telling the internets that i heart rehoboth beach.

last night, salimah and i arrived, got settled, went for a little drive through the town to see what there was to see, had dinner at a seafood restaurant along route 1 (where we had some passable crab cakes), and then went grocery shopping to get sundries for the week (and by sundries, i mean, along with our food, 8 bottles of smart water - we are such yuppies). once arriving back home, we unpacked, made our beds, and hung out for a bit before sleep.

who knows what adventures this week will bring? i can tell you one thing, however: i am decidedly in a place where relaxation is certain to occur: leather sofas, big-screen TV with lots of DVDs, tasty treats in the fridge, soft beds for napping, and my best friend who always makes things like this worthwhile (n.b.: this woman, btw, just tried to put our 1.49-per-bottle smart water in the coffee pot; methinks the crazy followed us to our vacation...ahh, the comforts of home;) ).