biscuits and gravy GALORE

Can I brag for a second and say that I had the most wonderful weekend? Special and satisfying from every angle. Perhaps it was especially great because it involved a lot things I don't normally do, making it unlike most weekends where the days fly by and you always feel like a nap around 4:00. Or is that just me?

Friday started nicely with taking a half day off at work. Nice. I laid in the park for awhile (with sunscreen on!) to ease my freckled skin into a weekend chock full of sun. Then M. and I went to see a friend we hadn't seen in awhile. M. helped him get past a particularly difficult level on a video game and M. demonstrated his mad PS2 skillz.

Saturday we went to see my parents at Innsbrook. It was 90 degrees and we were dying for a swim. But wait! Before the swimming we attended Innsbrook's annual anniversary party and got a lot of wonderful and totally sinful food FOR FREE - corndogs (many, many corndogs), nachos, funnel cake, corn on the cob, and cotton candy. Beer and lemonade. It was splendid. They had a petting zoo set up for the kiddies that we totally crashed. We were all up on a baby camel and some baby goats. Too precious. I was reminded how happy I am not to have fur. After we stuffed ourselves we went swimming. I convinced M. that in fact the lake does not have alligators. Or sharks. That is by far the sissiest I have ever seen M. Very amusing.

Sunday started in an unbearably hot apartment. We escaped to Mokabe's for brunch, which was fantastic as usual. We got back here and started whining. The AC unit had yet to be moved from the kitchen where some previous jackass tenant put it behind the refrigerator. Oh! Wait! We have an out!

Last week the other receptionist at my office gave me an invitation for a local hotel's open house/luncheon. The open house was designed to entice local businesses to use their rooms for future needs. She couldn't go so she said I was welcome to use it. So I went and got a free lunch, and was given a coupon for a free night's stay anytime! (Blackout dates may apply.) So I called the hotel expecting them to tell me I couldn't use it because it was a holiday weekend. Lo and behold, they say it's fine and make me a lil reservation for a king's sized room for that very night! EIEEK! Grab your shit and let's go, M! THEY HAVE A POOL!!

We spent the rest of Sunday marvelling at the wonder that is absolutely freezing air conditioning. We flopped our sweaty selves on that massive bed and didn't move for a couple hours, watching a COPS marathon, which - why do I love COPS so much? I really could watch it for hours. Evidently I'm not the only one because they just had their 1300th episode or something. Then we went swimming, and it was one of those 1/2 inside 1/2 outside pools where you can swim under the wall and go back and forth. Big fun. We dried in the sun and I felt the freckles blooming and beginning their annual spread-and-darken thing. We retreated back to the room, put on dry clothes, and went downstairs for the free alcohol. Granted, the servings were exactly what you'd get on an airplane, but it was free and we were allowed three each. And what does one do after drinking three tiny Bloody Marys? She suggests dinner at the Cracker Barrel, because it's right next door! Oh shit, they're racist, aren't they? Damnit! But it was right next door! And we decided we were on vacation!

They really did have a lovely meatloaf. I highly recommend getting the blackberry cobbler a la mode to go and gobbling it up in the cool confines of your hotel room, preferably on your stomach on a king sized bed with your feet wrapped up with your honey's while watching Lingo.

M. passed out in that 65 degree paradise around 9:00. I watched two more hours of COPS, read about building your own pond and what fish to stock in it in a magazine M.'s sister lent me, and then shivered my way under a bunch of blankets. It was heavenly. When I was little my room was the coldest in the house and to this day I can't sleep happily unless I'm under blankets. That becomes a very dramatic situation in the summer time, especially since I haven't had central air in a few years. I was loving the shit out of that hotel room.

The next morning we woke up and went to the hotel lobby again, this time for FREE BREAKFAST, and I'm not talking about that Continental shit. They had biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage, french toast, Belgian waffles, cereal, bagels, juice, and coffee. People, we were at a DRURY INN. That breakfast was nothing short of a miracle.

Once again stuffed and happy, we laid around smoking cigarettes until checkout at 11:00. We hopped on the highway and headed to Onondaga State Park so we could swim and play Frisbee in a cold, cold river. Of course, there were people everywhere, but we managed to find an empty spot of beach and kick back for awhile. The river couldn't have been more refreshing. M. and I formed a pretzel-like arrangement of limbs and butts that allowed us to sit in a decently fast part of the river and let the water flow around us. Little fishies huddled behind our legs to get a break, have a cig, relax a little because that damn river doesn't ever stop and fish need to kick their fins up too sometimes.

Sufficiently sunned and swimmed out, we drove back the city and immediately decided the AC situation needed to be fixed. We tore that bad boy out of the kitchen and set it up in the bedroom. The bed was shoved over so that we're right underneath that motherfucker. The room is now cold, and the happiness, it is flowing over. I noticed with some great satisfaction that after a couple cigarettes and a couple hours of the AC pumping, the bedroom smells like a hotel room. Nirvana.

Update: After chilling it in the fridge for a couple days, M. and I cut open a honeydew melon late last night. I have always been a canteloupe kind of girl, so I didn't have great expectations for this honeydew. Let me tell you, I have never enjoyed any fruit as much as I enjoyed that crisp, juicy, and insanely sweet honeydew. It was PERFECT. Which means I was definitely right when I thought this was the best weekend I've had in a long, long time. And you know how I really really know? I didn't dread coming to work this morning. That's all about getting satisfaction out of your weekend!