headed downeast: day 3
I made myself wake up at 8AM this morning (even though I stayed up late playing Plants vs. Zombies and writing) because I didn't know how early Aunty Ellen wanted to get going and I didn't want to be the person holding us up. I made the bed and then went downstairs first instead of straight into the shower.
Grammy had set up shop ironing in Aunty Ellen's office instead of the kitchen as usual. Uncle Kenny's money manager guy was coming at 8:30 and she doesn't like to be around when he and UK meet because it's not any of her business. So, I had a piece of monkey bread and made tea really quick (we also woke up Robby, he slept on an air mattress in Michael's office, to tell him and ask him if he wanted to stay in there until the meeting ended or if he wanted to hang out in Michael's room with me/have some breakfast). Once I was finished fixing my tea and had eaten my monkey bread (Grammy had set Robby up with the last of the monkey bread) we went up to Michael's room. Robby got on his computer and I took a shower.
I got out dressed and ready to go just as the meeting was finishing up. Aunty Ellen had left to pick up a prescription, get ink from Staples, and mail Michael's packages to camp. Grammy made actual breakfast after the meeting ended (mm, repeat from yesterday, eggs and cinnamon raisin toast, AE introduced me to Chobani Greek yogurt, which I see at work, but never look closely at, the stronger flavors like pineapple and pomegranate are the best, which was good because I'd been thinking about trying to incorporate Greek yogurt into my diet since spring semester, but it tasted so awful to me I just couldn't fathom how).
We had about 45 minutes before UK finished up a different call-meeting he was on upstairs for work so we could say goodbye before we left. I read some of Catching Fire on the front porch.
What a beautiful day it was today. Low 70's, soft breeze (just enough to have leave rustling and pine trees swaying softly), not humid at all. Neighbor across the street was playing a radio station that played a lot of 90's songs I hear at work really loudly so I hummed along a little and listened to AE type in her office while I read.
After we said goodbye to UK we headed straight to Hampton Beach (both my parents lived/worked/vacationed a lot at Hampton beach as young people, so Rob and I have been many times too). It was cool and the wind was strong, ahhh. We walked down the boardwalk, Robby took pictures of the new versions of old things that burned down that Dad wanted to see (there was a big fire in 2010 that got a lot of communally significant buildings). It's changed so much! The bathrooms aren't scary! It's so nice that it reminded me of Short Sands in York. I looked in both arcades for a DDR to do with Robby (we DDR'd at Short Sands a couple years ago, it was the first time mom had seen DDR). One didn't have one, and the DDR in the other was broken. :(
Robby did play a couple games on this really neat pinball machine called Banzai Run that you can either shoot a skill shot/land the ball just right on the field and the machine tows it up to a small playfield in the back glass. It was really neat to see, but really hard to play cause you're fighting gravity on a steel ball with little flippers.
Once we'd seen all there was to see and the rest of the strip was hotels we crossed the street and walked back through the water. The ocean wasn't biting-heat-stoppingly cold, which was good. :) It was high tide so we had to weave through a ton of children and boogie boarders. We passed a couple cool moats/castles/tunnels combos that people were building right on the slope before the surf. Toward the end of the beach we'd parked on there were a lot of rocks with a nice tide pool that I waded in and AE took pictures, goodness.
Then we trudged back up to the car and de-sanded before heading to the Dover Point Newick's for lunch!
(There's construction and the usual way was closed, the detour just took us in a big circle and nowhere neat Newick's, so we had to pretend we were going somewhere else and then cut back to the road Newick's is on, but we finally got there.)
Newick's is seriously my favorite place to go for seafood. It seems less chain-y and more authentic than Weathervane (although Weathervane is really good). Every table is covered in a plastic red and white checked table cloth and everything comes in/on styrofoam/paper and is delicious. No silverware. Plastic forks and knives. Which...to write sounds cheap? But the food is so good and the restaurant is big and locally popular, it was always a special treat or occasion to go when we still lived up north.
We managed to get the last table on the back wall of windows. All the windows were open so the breeze could come in off the water. The back of the Dover Point Newick's is seriously picturesque. Skinny dock with lobster pots stacked neatly in a line down the center leading to moors for boats and a little hut on the boat platform. Small boats and yachts are sailing around all over the harbor.
Omg, and AE whipped out the big guns and got us all two large orders of fried mushrooms, a large order of calamari, and my cup of fish chowder for appetizers. Plus the rolls they just bring you. Augh, so good! I did get orange soda. Express train to childhood. I took a picture out the window of the dock, lobster pots, and harbor full of boats and texted it to Dad's work email.
I guess he had just come back from a meeting when I sent it because he saw it and called me immediately to tell me how jealous he was. We actually all talked to Dad. Me, Robby, Aunty Ellen (because Grammy's mouth was full, and then Grammy).
I had a Fish Sandwich (which is just a fillet of fried HADDOCK! that comes with a bun and lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup, and fries, when I was a kid I just put ketchup on it, then just lemon, and then lemon AND ketchup, screw the vegetables), which was my default when I was little before I knew I liked other seafood.
Grammy had lobster pie, AE had haddock nuggets, and Robby had some huge shrimp and haddock combo. We stuffed ourselves.
We texted mom as we rolled out of Newick's and left for Bowl-O-Rama in Portsmouth which was the bowling alley where Dad worked (AND mom worked there too we found out!). AE and Grammy didn't want to bowl so they watched and laughed and coached (mostly just me) and Robby while we worked our candlepin mojo. Mom came in about half way through our first game. We played two, Robby legitimately scored a...70 something and an 83. AE cheated a lot for me so I scored like...a 50 and a 60. XD
Then we hugged AE and Grammy a lot (haha, I remembered to Snoopy-kiss Grammy on my own and grossed her out, lol) and moved our bags to Mom's car. Then more hugs before we all drove away. :(
Mom was really tired from work, but we only had to sit in traffic until we passed the toll and then cruised on home. Robby set up his computer and I looked at mom's Avon catalogs while she made her dinner. I started falling asleep in the chair I was sitting in, so I set my alarm for 7:30 and napped for a half hour.
While I was sleeping Robby and Mom were facebooking with Kelly, who I hadn't contacted directly yet and asked her if she wanted to meet up with us at Lone Oak! She did!
Lone Oak (and for some reason I've always heard it drawn out as 'Low-en Oak') as a popular locally run and owned ice cream place. Lebanon Children's Garden (omg, they have a website, holy crap, all those play structures in the first picture are the same ones from when I went there, whoa, I remember the summer I spent every day holed up in the bottom of the space ship listening to my Greatest Hits of Queen tape again and again on my walk man, the castle used to be up the playground further right near the trees, one time Kelly, her sister Molly and I all showed each other our training bras or something and Katherine caught us, but I was the only one who got in trouble, we jumped off that swing set so many times, I can see the exact place in the second picture were I lost my glasses in the snow right before a big ice storm and I didn't find them again until spring came and thawed the playground and I found my glasses sticking diagonally out of the ice, ALSO, I cannot believe Lynn IS STILL THERE, what an evil woman she was, but that is another story) took us there once on a tour. We watched this guy who seemed really old at the time because we were like 9, but he was just a teenager with a summer job, take us through the process of making cookie dough ice cream (he realized he's forgotten the chips after he'd locked up the machine and set it, oh well), and had samples after. I picked one of their kind of unique flavors, Muddy Sneakers, which is vanilla swirled with a ton of caramel and giant chocolate chunks.
They still had Muddy Sneakers on the menu, so I got their giant medium in a waffle cone and went to town while talking and catching up with Kelly. Everything was wonderful.
On the way home I made mom stop at Hanaford's so I could buy breakfast food because there is almost nothing in her house. We also rented It's Kind of a Funny Story from a Redbox, which mom was too sleepy and grumpy to stick around for, but that's okay. Rob and I really liked it. I got one aspect of the map thing from the book, but I suddenly, duh, got the really big-and-should-have-been-obvious-part of the map thing about 1/3rd of the way through the movie.
Then I hooked up my computer to mom's internet and futzed around before checking my student email (Dad had called before we went to Lone Oak to tell me he'd gotten an automated call from KSU telling me to check my student email/owl express). Thank god I did, because, man, have I screwed the pooch this semester with the loan. I thought I did it right and was accepting a loan for this semester for the correct amount, but I really accepted that amount for this semester and next semester. God damnit. So I'm only getting half of what I need. God freaking darn it. I've done this before at GPC and I can't believe I did it again! I'm going to be over 1000 dollars short. I think I'll have to ask to borrow money from Grammy again (she helped me out the last time I did this, ARGH, so mad at myself!) and pay her back by December.
I tried to check on/fill out/something/ANYTHING my FAFSA, but every browser on every computer I used was incompatible with FAFSA. Everything. I tried multiple browsers. I tried downloading older versions of browsers, JACK SQUAT. I cried a little I was so frustrated. Bruce's laptop is an ancient dinosaur that shut down before I could even type 'FAFSA' into the search bar.
And the kicker is that the FAFSA-your-browser-is-not-compatible page says that you should check and update your browser(s) with the latest versions for ease and security.
WELL. FAFSA is, like, five versions of Chrome behind, one or two behind on Firefox, one behind IE, and some behind Safari (I even ganked Robby's computer). I remembered mom's computer and pulled that into my room. It still runs XP and her Firefox and Chrome were too new for FAFSA, so I clicked on IE with a feeble, dying hope and FINALLY got a OS/browser combo that was compatible with FAFSA, thank god! I put in my information to find out that I was current and up to date with everything.
So frustrated and mad at myself. I'll have to email Dad before we leave for Aunty Diane's house for the Family Reunion (Aunty Diane lives in the middle of nowhere and has no internet, for reference, Mom lives here, and we used to live here in Lebanon.
Grammy had set up shop ironing in Aunty Ellen's office instead of the kitchen as usual. Uncle Kenny's money manager guy was coming at 8:30 and she doesn't like to be around when he and UK meet because it's not any of her business. So, I had a piece of monkey bread and made tea really quick (we also woke up Robby, he slept on an air mattress in Michael's office, to tell him and ask him if he wanted to stay in there until the meeting ended or if he wanted to hang out in Michael's room with me/have some breakfast). Once I was finished fixing my tea and had eaten my monkey bread (Grammy had set Robby up with the last of the monkey bread) we went up to Michael's room. Robby got on his computer and I took a shower.
I got out dressed and ready to go just as the meeting was finishing up. Aunty Ellen had left to pick up a prescription, get ink from Staples, and mail Michael's packages to camp. Grammy made actual breakfast after the meeting ended (mm, repeat from yesterday, eggs and cinnamon raisin toast, AE introduced me to Chobani Greek yogurt, which I see at work, but never look closely at, the stronger flavors like pineapple and pomegranate are the best, which was good because I'd been thinking about trying to incorporate Greek yogurt into my diet since spring semester, but it tasted so awful to me I just couldn't fathom how).
We had about 45 minutes before UK finished up a different call-meeting he was on upstairs for work so we could say goodbye before we left. I read some of Catching Fire on the front porch.
What a beautiful day it was today. Low 70's, soft breeze (just enough to have leave rustling and pine trees swaying softly), not humid at all. Neighbor across the street was playing a radio station that played a lot of 90's songs I hear at work really loudly so I hummed along a little and listened to AE type in her office while I read.
After we said goodbye to UK we headed straight to Hampton Beach (both my parents lived/worked/vacationed a lot at Hampton beach as young people, so Rob and I have been many times too). It was cool and the wind was strong, ahhh. We walked down the boardwalk, Robby took pictures of the new versions of old things that burned down that Dad wanted to see (there was a big fire in 2010 that got a lot of communally significant buildings). It's changed so much! The bathrooms aren't scary! It's so nice that it reminded me of Short Sands in York. I looked in both arcades for a DDR to do with Robby (we DDR'd at Short Sands a couple years ago, it was the first time mom had seen DDR). One didn't have one, and the DDR in the other was broken. :(
Robby did play a couple games on this really neat pinball machine called Banzai Run that you can either shoot a skill shot/land the ball just right on the field and the machine tows it up to a small playfield in the back glass. It was really neat to see, but really hard to play cause you're fighting gravity on a steel ball with little flippers.
Once we'd seen all there was to see and the rest of the strip was hotels we crossed the street and walked back through the water. The ocean wasn't biting-heat-stoppingly cold, which was good. :) It was high tide so we had to weave through a ton of children and boogie boarders. We passed a couple cool moats/castles/tunnels combos that people were building right on the slope before the surf. Toward the end of the beach we'd parked on there were a lot of rocks with a nice tide pool that I waded in and AE took pictures, goodness.
Then we trudged back up to the car and de-sanded before heading to the Dover Point Newick's for lunch!
(There's construction and the usual way was closed, the detour just took us in a big circle and nowhere neat Newick's, so we had to pretend we were going somewhere else and then cut back to the road Newick's is on, but we finally got there.)
Newick's is seriously my favorite place to go for seafood. It seems less chain-y and more authentic than Weathervane (although Weathervane is really good). Every table is covered in a plastic red and white checked table cloth and everything comes in/on styrofoam/paper and is delicious. No silverware. Plastic forks and knives. Which...to write sounds cheap? But the food is so good and the restaurant is big and locally popular, it was always a special treat or occasion to go when we still lived up north.
We managed to get the last table on the back wall of windows. All the windows were open so the breeze could come in off the water. The back of the Dover Point Newick's is seriously picturesque. Skinny dock with lobster pots stacked neatly in a line down the center leading to moors for boats and a little hut on the boat platform. Small boats and yachts are sailing around all over the harbor.
Omg, and AE whipped out the big guns and got us all two large orders of fried mushrooms, a large order of calamari, and my cup of fish chowder for appetizers. Plus the rolls they just bring you. Augh, so good! I did get orange soda. Express train to childhood. I took a picture out the window of the dock, lobster pots, and harbor full of boats and texted it to Dad's work email.
I guess he had just come back from a meeting when I sent it because he saw it and called me immediately to tell me how jealous he was. We actually all talked to Dad. Me, Robby, Aunty Ellen (because Grammy's mouth was full, and then Grammy).
I had a Fish Sandwich (which is just a fillet of fried HADDOCK! that comes with a bun and lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup, and fries, when I was a kid I just put ketchup on it, then just lemon, and then lemon AND ketchup, screw the vegetables), which was my default when I was little before I knew I liked other seafood.
Grammy had lobster pie, AE had haddock nuggets, and Robby had some huge shrimp and haddock combo. We stuffed ourselves.
We texted mom as we rolled out of Newick's and left for Bowl-O-Rama in Portsmouth which was the bowling alley where Dad worked (AND mom worked there too we found out!). AE and Grammy didn't want to bowl so they watched and laughed and coached (mostly just me) and Robby while we worked our candlepin mojo. Mom came in about half way through our first game. We played two, Robby legitimately scored a...70 something and an 83. AE cheated a lot for me so I scored like...a 50 and a 60. XD
Then we hugged AE and Grammy a lot (haha, I remembered to Snoopy-kiss Grammy on my own and grossed her out, lol) and moved our bags to Mom's car. Then more hugs before we all drove away. :(
Mom was really tired from work, but we only had to sit in traffic until we passed the toll and then cruised on home. Robby set up his computer and I looked at mom's Avon catalogs while she made her dinner. I started falling asleep in the chair I was sitting in, so I set my alarm for 7:30 and napped for a half hour.
While I was sleeping Robby and Mom were facebooking with Kelly, who I hadn't contacted directly yet and asked her if she wanted to meet up with us at Lone Oak! She did!
Lone Oak (and for some reason I've always heard it drawn out as 'Low-en Oak') as a popular locally run and owned ice cream place. Lebanon Children's Garden (omg, they have a website, holy crap, all those play structures in the first picture are the same ones from when I went there, whoa, I remember the summer I spent every day holed up in the bottom of the space ship listening to my Greatest Hits of Queen tape again and again on my walk man, the castle used to be up the playground further right near the trees, one time Kelly, her sister Molly and I all showed each other our training bras or something and Katherine caught us, but I was the only one who got in trouble, we jumped off that swing set so many times, I can see the exact place in the second picture were I lost my glasses in the snow right before a big ice storm and I didn't find them again until spring came and thawed the playground and I found my glasses sticking diagonally out of the ice, ALSO, I cannot believe Lynn IS STILL THERE, what an evil woman she was, but that is another story) took us there once on a tour. We watched this guy who seemed really old at the time because we were like 9, but he was just a teenager with a summer job, take us through the process of making cookie dough ice cream (he realized he's forgotten the chips after he'd locked up the machine and set it, oh well), and had samples after. I picked one of their kind of unique flavors, Muddy Sneakers, which is vanilla swirled with a ton of caramel and giant chocolate chunks.
They still had Muddy Sneakers on the menu, so I got their giant medium in a waffle cone and went to town while talking and catching up with Kelly. Everything was wonderful.
On the way home I made mom stop at Hanaford's so I could buy breakfast food because there is almost nothing in her house. We also rented It's Kind of a Funny Story from a Redbox, which mom was too sleepy and grumpy to stick around for, but that's okay. Rob and I really liked it. I got one aspect of the map thing from the book, but I suddenly, duh, got the really big-and-should-have-been-obvious-part of the map thing about 1/3rd of the way through the movie.
Then I hooked up my computer to mom's internet and futzed around before checking my student email (Dad had called before we went to Lone Oak to tell me he'd gotten an automated call from KSU telling me to check my student email/owl express). Thank god I did, because, man, have I screwed the pooch this semester with the loan. I thought I did it right and was accepting a loan for this semester for the correct amount, but I really accepted that amount for this semester and next semester. God damnit. So I'm only getting half of what I need. God freaking darn it. I've done this before at GPC and I can't believe I did it again! I'm going to be over 1000 dollars short. I think I'll have to ask to borrow money from Grammy again (she helped me out the last time I did this, ARGH, so mad at myself!) and pay her back by December.
I tried to check on/fill out/something/ANYTHING my FAFSA, but every browser on every computer I used was incompatible with FAFSA. Everything. I tried multiple browsers. I tried downloading older versions of browsers, JACK SQUAT. I cried a little I was so frustrated. Bruce's laptop is an ancient dinosaur that shut down before I could even type 'FAFSA' into the search bar.
And the kicker is that the FAFSA-your-browser-is-not-compatible page says that you should check and update your browser(s) with the latest versions for ease and security.
WELL. FAFSA is, like, five versions of Chrome behind, one or two behind on Firefox, one behind IE, and some behind Safari (I even ganked Robby's computer). I remembered mom's computer and pulled that into my room. It still runs XP and her Firefox and Chrome were too new for FAFSA, so I clicked on IE with a feeble, dying hope and FINALLY got a OS/browser combo that was compatible with FAFSA, thank god! I put in my information to find out that I was current and up to date with everything.
So frustrated and mad at myself. I'll have to email Dad before we leave for Aunty Diane's house for the Family Reunion (Aunty Diane lives in the middle of nowhere and has no internet, for reference, Mom lives here, and we used to live here in Lebanon.