Massachusetts

So, I've totally gone missing. I've disappeared (mostly) from facebook, twitter, blogging and emails. But! There's a reason!

Last week I was on a trip to Massachusetts with my family (minus Mike...booo) to visit Nana!
And this week? Well, I'm still getting my bearings about being home, and part of real life. It's harder than you think!

Seriously, you guys. Before my vacay, I hadn't been to MA since 2008.

Me, sister, sister, Mom in MA in 2008

Let's talk about Nana's house.
It's a ridiculously old house at the end of a quiet street. Nana has lived there for 50+ years, and owns much of the surrounding property. She has a creepy basement (also known as the "cella") and a deliciously large in-ground pool. This was my view for a week:

Behind Nana's house is my aunt and uncle's house. My other uncle actually lives in the basement. Oddly enough, THAT house used to belong to my mom.

When we go to MA, we spent LOTS of time hanging out by this RIDICULOUS pool (well...I hang out in the shade), but we also have a lobster and clam bake that entails eating pounds and pounds of steamed clams, and your very own lobster. It's a disgusting and embarrassing and tasty tradition that Mike became privy to the last time we visited.

On this trip, I learned that I legitimately get a sunburn after 20 minutes in the sun unprotected. I wanted to get a SMIDGE of color, and experts recommend getting 10-15 minutes of unprotected sun exposure a few times a week - so on day 1 I laid out for 10 minutes on each side. On day 2, I went for 15 minutes. The results were lovely, I was warm and happy.

But on day 3, I pushed the limits and went for 20 minutes on each side, and by 7pm, I was a red and itchy mess (but, just on my back where a bra clasp hits). In addition to a usual sunburn, I get itchy. Like, insatiable, unbearable, painful itching. I get it from my dad, who was hospitalized during Vietnam because of a terribly itchy sunburn.

I used to joke that 20 minutes in the sun would result in a burn, but now I know, FOR REAL, that 20 minutes will knock me flat on my ass. After this sunburn debacle, I got mad at the outdoors, and watched a LOT of Bravo for the remainder of the vacay. Which? Is OK by me.

This trip? We went shopping at Faneuil Hall, and rode Codzilla. Let's talk about Codzilla for a moment, shall we? It's this high speed Boston Harbor tour. They play loud music, spin the boat and you have the potential to get wet. Well, as we get on the boat, one of the men working there warns us that we're sitting in the wettest seats. But, we were all "Whatever! It's not like we'll get drenched!" Thinking that since we were so high above the water, we'd just get sprinkled.

We didn't get sprinkled. After the first 360 turn, it was like someone had dumped buckets of freezing cold ocean water on the 2 rows we were sitting in. The rest of the boat? SPRINKLED. We were the only 7 people on the boat screaming at the top of our lungs as we drank salt water.

This picture doesn't do the level of our saturation justice.

This year it was my sister's boyfriend's turn to experience Lobstah and Steamah Day first hand, and he loved(?) it.

I definitely loved it.

One night, our family friends brought over their 2.5 year old baby...well, not baby. But - holy shit, this kid basically ruined my life. He was the most articulate child, with so much personality it was ridiculous. He was doing yoga, he punctuated all his sentences with the word "actually", made fun of his grandfather ("Grandy") by hiking up his pajama pants, saluting my Army vet father. But best of all? This conversation:
Dad: "Ollie, how do you say HI to girls?"
Ollie: "Hello, Beautiful!"

My new life plans includes HAVING BABIES YESTERDAY.

All in all, good trip - even with the obnoxious sunburn. It's NICE to detach from reality for a little while. I got back last Wednesday evening, so I'm STILL working on catching up with my emails, and google reader and whatnot.