The Un-Vacation
So I have had the last four days off. I was supposed to go to the Boston area but that was canceled. The following is a lovely account of what I did with all that free time instead....
Thursday.
We begin our journey of vacation-ness with a failed attempt to sleep in. *sigh* But it's okay, because I'm a morning person anyhow. After kicking around the house for a bit I decided to go someplace really and truly special. I went to the wilds of Montgomeryville to shop at the rare and elusive Target. Among other things, I bought a lovely new bathing suit which came in handy later. For lunch I decided to go to strange and exotic New Hope where I then spent way the heck too much money on a mediocre veggie burger, which I had to leave too quickly to run across town to my car before the meter ran out. But I considered it all a morning well spent. I then put that new bathing suit to use at my Aunt Martha's pool, where I got to hang out with family, have an interesting conversation with Kirsten which has already been blogged about, and generally relax. That night I made Martha watch Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, my new favorite movie, a movie I have a lot of emotional attachment to ... and her comment was that it was too long. =P
Thus ended Thursday.
Friday.
My second attempt to sleep in was also a failure. *sigh again* But I actually did end up doing something genuinely strange and exotic on Friday morning. I drove out to Islin, New Jersey on rumor that there was an Indian clothing store there that sells real, authentic Indian-wear. ... Um, yeah. I managed to find a small piece of Delhi that was somehow picked up and plopped down in New Jersey. It was the strangest feeling. Every shop in this one little stretch of town was Indian: Indian clothes, Indian food, Indian realtors, Indian stuff. A lot of the signage was in Devanagari script, although just as much was in English. And almost everyone roaming the streets was Indian dressed in traditional Indian dress. Very cool. So I found a store that sold everyday clothing and went in. Well. Let's just say Not American. I found some beautiful clothes, but as soon as I was getting ready to buy them the two shopkeepers came over and started making suggestions, holding things up to me, telling me I had to buy this, I had to buy that, finding more things they thought I should buy, telling me how pretty and tall and thin I was and how I should wear these clothes all the time, etc. etc. It was the hard-sell in the most amusing way possible. I ended up buying three shalwar kameez "suits". But again, Not American, they sort of haggled with me. At first when I walked out of there I thought I had been bamboozled into buying more than I wanted for too high a price. But then I got it home and started really looking at the things I bought in better light ... including the price tags that had been ignored ... and I realized that they really did give me an outstanding deal. These pieces are of a higher quality than the ones I got online, more intricate embroidery and generally better made, and they actually do fit well, just like the ladies said. Plus at least one of them had a price tag of $179, but I got all three for less than that. Good stuff. One of them, pure white cotton, I think is supposed to be something you wear to a funeral. However, it has become my new pajamas. Hmm.
Anyhow, I made it home eventually, my plastic melting in shame, and proceeded to watch a movie that afternoon. ... And I don't actually remember what I did Friday night. All I know is by that point I had spent too much time alone and I was starting to get all anxious and existential about life. I started worrying about the inevitability of me always being alone, about being in constant ethereal pain for the rest of my life, about the fact that I have no friends (don't worry, it's standard-issue Merry-worry that has no basis in reality and I know it). I went to bed in an uncomfortable state of agitation.
Thus ended Friday.
Saturday.
Finally! I managed to sleep in! Woot! To all of about 8:00! I got up and did my laundry as usual, but at this point I knew that I had to spend some time around people or I would probably go crazy. So rather than going to cricket on Sunday as was the original plan I went to Saturday's game. It was played at Haverford College instead of Evansburg State Park. Oh my gosh! Why didn't I go to Haverford for college when I had the chance??? That place is gorgeous! Absolutely stunning. It had an excellent vibe and I knew that I would have loved going to school there. Plus it was a fun trip down memory lane to drive down Lancaster Ave, through the places where I used to live and work when I went to Villanova. And the cricket match was super fun too. James Archer taught me how to hit a cricket ball and how to bowl. Batting is easier than it looks, Bowling is harder. But now I kind of want to perfect my skills at both. I'll spare you the details of an entire cricket match, but we won. There was some great bowling by Kalim and Mike, and both Marc and Rajat (I think it was Rajat) did really well batting. And this time I actually went out to the pub with the guys after the game. At the pub I ended up having a fascinating conversation with Mike and Tahir, both of whom are old enough to be my father, about drinking. They both think I should start drinking. And they had some excellent points too. I plan to write a whole blog post about that conversation at some point. Those guys are just so cool. The entire team is just so cool.
And pretty much thus ended Saturday.
Sunday.
OK, so Sunday ended up being a normal weekend day and not really a vacation-ish day. I went to church and stuck around too long afterwards talking to people. But I did get a dinner invite out of it. I had made cookies that morning to take out to the guys at cricket, which I did. And I discovered that it's a heck of a lot easier to follow a cricket game when you're keeping score. But the cookies were appreciated, the testosterone was flying, and I had other stuff to do, so I left after just a quick stay. I had intended to go wash my car and go swimming, but when I got to Martha's the doors were all locked. So I sat our by the pool reading a little more of the Bhagavad-Gita, which I had bought in New Hope on Thursday. Wow! What a book! It's a Hindu sacred text and it really reads like one. Meaning that every stanza is the kind of thing you could contemplate for days and still not get the full meaning of. I'll have to read it several times. Very, very deep. Then Kristine showed up and we went to Wawa for ice cream, then generally hung out for a while. I haven't just hung out with Kristine in ages! It was nice. Then I went over to dinner at Gail and Scott Coopers, with Aline et. al. present. ... And that was about it.
Thus ended Sunday.
So here I am back to normal life. It was a good break. I still don't really like vacationing without people, I've decided. I think I need people around. I also cringe at how much money I spent randomly versus how much money I don't have in my bank account right now. Ouch. How did that happen? No more spending for me. For a long, long time. I just hope I can stick to that. But yeah, it was worth it in the end, but I'm happy to be going back to work today. =D
Thursday.
We begin our journey of vacation-ness with a failed attempt to sleep in. *sigh* But it's okay, because I'm a morning person anyhow. After kicking around the house for a bit I decided to go someplace really and truly special. I went to the wilds of Montgomeryville to shop at the rare and elusive Target. Among other things, I bought a lovely new bathing suit which came in handy later. For lunch I decided to go to strange and exotic New Hope where I then spent way the heck too much money on a mediocre veggie burger, which I had to leave too quickly to run across town to my car before the meter ran out. But I considered it all a morning well spent. I then put that new bathing suit to use at my Aunt Martha's pool, where I got to hang out with family, have an interesting conversation with Kirsten which has already been blogged about, and generally relax. That night I made Martha watch Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, my new favorite movie, a movie I have a lot of emotional attachment to ... and her comment was that it was too long. =P
Thus ended Thursday.
Friday.
My second attempt to sleep in was also a failure. *sigh again* But I actually did end up doing something genuinely strange and exotic on Friday morning. I drove out to Islin, New Jersey on rumor that there was an Indian clothing store there that sells real, authentic Indian-wear. ... Um, yeah. I managed to find a small piece of Delhi that was somehow picked up and plopped down in New Jersey. It was the strangest feeling. Every shop in this one little stretch of town was Indian: Indian clothes, Indian food, Indian realtors, Indian stuff. A lot of the signage was in Devanagari script, although just as much was in English. And almost everyone roaming the streets was Indian dressed in traditional Indian dress. Very cool. So I found a store that sold everyday clothing and went in. Well. Let's just say Not American. I found some beautiful clothes, but as soon as I was getting ready to buy them the two shopkeepers came over and started making suggestions, holding things up to me, telling me I had to buy this, I had to buy that, finding more things they thought I should buy, telling me how pretty and tall and thin I was and how I should wear these clothes all the time, etc. etc. It was the hard-sell in the most amusing way possible. I ended up buying three shalwar kameez "suits". But again, Not American, they sort of haggled with me. At first when I walked out of there I thought I had been bamboozled into buying more than I wanted for too high a price. But then I got it home and started really looking at the things I bought in better light ... including the price tags that had been ignored ... and I realized that they really did give me an outstanding deal. These pieces are of a higher quality than the ones I got online, more intricate embroidery and generally better made, and they actually do fit well, just like the ladies said. Plus at least one of them had a price tag of $179, but I got all three for less than that. Good stuff. One of them, pure white cotton, I think is supposed to be something you wear to a funeral. However, it has become my new pajamas. Hmm.
Anyhow, I made it home eventually, my plastic melting in shame, and proceeded to watch a movie that afternoon. ... And I don't actually remember what I did Friday night. All I know is by that point I had spent too much time alone and I was starting to get all anxious and existential about life. I started worrying about the inevitability of me always being alone, about being in constant ethereal pain for the rest of my life, about the fact that I have no friends (don't worry, it's standard-issue Merry-worry that has no basis in reality and I know it). I went to bed in an uncomfortable state of agitation.
Thus ended Friday.
Saturday.
Finally! I managed to sleep in! Woot! To all of about 8:00! I got up and did my laundry as usual, but at this point I knew that I had to spend some time around people or I would probably go crazy. So rather than going to cricket on Sunday as was the original plan I went to Saturday's game. It was played at Haverford College instead of Evansburg State Park. Oh my gosh! Why didn't I go to Haverford for college when I had the chance??? That place is gorgeous! Absolutely stunning. It had an excellent vibe and I knew that I would have loved going to school there. Plus it was a fun trip down memory lane to drive down Lancaster Ave, through the places where I used to live and work when I went to Villanova. And the cricket match was super fun too. James Archer taught me how to hit a cricket ball and how to bowl. Batting is easier than it looks, Bowling is harder. But now I kind of want to perfect my skills at both. I'll spare you the details of an entire cricket match, but we won. There was some great bowling by Kalim and Mike, and both Marc and Rajat (I think it was Rajat) did really well batting. And this time I actually went out to the pub with the guys after the game. At the pub I ended up having a fascinating conversation with Mike and Tahir, both of whom are old enough to be my father, about drinking. They both think I should start drinking. And they had some excellent points too. I plan to write a whole blog post about that conversation at some point. Those guys are just so cool. The entire team is just so cool.
And pretty much thus ended Saturday.
Sunday.
OK, so Sunday ended up being a normal weekend day and not really a vacation-ish day. I went to church and stuck around too long afterwards talking to people. But I did get a dinner invite out of it. I had made cookies that morning to take out to the guys at cricket, which I did. And I discovered that it's a heck of a lot easier to follow a cricket game when you're keeping score. But the cookies were appreciated, the testosterone was flying, and I had other stuff to do, so I left after just a quick stay. I had intended to go wash my car and go swimming, but when I got to Martha's the doors were all locked. So I sat our by the pool reading a little more of the Bhagavad-Gita, which I had bought in New Hope on Thursday. Wow! What a book! It's a Hindu sacred text and it really reads like one. Meaning that every stanza is the kind of thing you could contemplate for days and still not get the full meaning of. I'll have to read it several times. Very, very deep. Then Kristine showed up and we went to Wawa for ice cream, then generally hung out for a while. I haven't just hung out with Kristine in ages! It was nice. Then I went over to dinner at Gail and Scott Coopers, with Aline et. al. present. ... And that was about it.
Thus ended Sunday.
So here I am back to normal life. It was a good break. I still don't really like vacationing without people, I've decided. I think I need people around. I also cringe at how much money I spent randomly versus how much money I don't have in my bank account right now. Ouch. How did that happen? No more spending for me. For a long, long time. I just hope I can stick to that. But yeah, it was worth it in the end, but I'm happy to be going back to work today. =D