I Need A Weekend To Recover From My Weekend...

Thursday - M got here, landlord started fixing the fence that's been broken for 2.5 years - with much banging and bothering of the cats. As soon as she got out of the car, I dragged her off on a walk / geocaching adventure and we found two caches less than half a mile from my house that I've been meaning to find for over a year.

Friday - she wandered - and found a zoo nearby that no one here even knew existed - while I worked. After work, to the studio! For wine! And painting! Then to dinner, where we froze in a draft and had to send dinner back 3 times before they finally got it right.

Saturday - breakfast WAY too early at IHOP (I'm convinced that a single molecule of syrup can - and does - make an entire building sticky. How does that work, physics??) then to Shackleford Island. We were here last year as well. I love the beach and the water, she loves the wild horses.






I found toadstools growing in the sand on the beach - which seemed very strange to me.

Why am I so attracted to dead things on the beach?




I am fascinated with visual textures. Sooo cool.


And why can't I just enjoy the place without even noticing all of the detris that no one else seems to pay any attention to? Witness - hauling 3 trash bags of litter and sand out with us. A best friend is someone who thinks what you're doing is probably pointless and stupid and STILL brings another trash bag and pitches in... on her vacation. Seriously people, plastic beverage containers are EVIL and must be stopped. Also, keep better track of your flip flops.


I took the opportunity to chase some birds around. I took two pictures of the pelican, so close together that they're the same picture except for wing position, so now I can flip back and forth between the pictures on my computer and make the pelican fly!




We ate at Finz - food and bait in one convenient location! - and then headed home for Parcheesi, wine and her fudge. She makes the best fudge ever. Yummy!

Sunday - another day of up-too-damn-early and then to the store and then off to go horseback riding on the beach. It was wonderful but my horse was slow as molasses in January and wouldn't move for anything. A N Y T H I N G. Made me slightly nuts. If you go, do not request Sarah - the rest of your party will be miles ahead of you. It's a beautiful ride, but really quite desolate.




There are also wild horses roaming around at Cedar Island. They let us get pretty close, all things considered.



Also? Saw dead dolphin on the beach. If I hadn't have been about 400 feet off the ground, I would have investigated further.


(When we got back, I dismounded onto the tailgate of a full size truck, and it was a large step down from the horse to the truck. The mare was half Belgian and HUGE.)

To get to Cedar Island, you drive FOREVER and then, in the middle of nowhere, there's this huge, beautiful bridge. It was surreal.


Then we headed to Texas Steakhouse for dinner, primarily because they were open in my small Southern town on a Sunday and headed for home. M needed to replenish her stock of Spanish moss, so we ventured out to the cemetary and found fireworks! We zipped over to watch them then came back and fell asleep.



Today - she left at 7:00 am. I zoned on the couch until I was late for work. So very tired... So far, not as sore as I thought I'd be, but things are a bit uncomfortable. Now, to bed to try to recooperate enough to make it through the rest of the week.