9/16/06 - ONE YEAR SINCE MY FIRST ENTRY! o.k., I'm one week late

*****NOTE: photos will be posted separately on a later date*****

My vacation plans included several wonderful intentions. One of them was to compose a spectacular one year anniversary blog entry that would be ready to post on 9/16/06, the day of our return from 10 days on the northeast coast. That didn’t happen. As terrific as our trip was, my reading, writing and concentration efforts were thwarted by an ugly case of poison ivy or poison oak – I don’t know which. In order to refrain from scratching my arm off, I had to be actively doing something: jogging along Commercial Street, riding bikes amid the sand dunes, walking the beach, perusing art shops, eating excellent food, talking with my mom and her friends, or participating in a long list of other gerunds – or are they present participles? I always get those two confused – perhaps "Tenacious Teacher", who commented on my last blog entry, can help me out here? We sat by the pool and on the beach a few times but I couldn’t even concentrate on reading the books I had brought along with me, let alone write a blog entry. Doc. B. suggested I try her Sudoku puzzles for a while which did help me focus long enough to enjoy some of the sun’s rays. An added plus - the sun felt good on my forearm where most of the poison ivy/oak juice was concentrated. Don’t look for this in your grocer’s freezer.

Sadly, this is not the first time Doc. B.’s been on vacation with me when I’ve been under the influence of nature’s wrath. Thank goodness this time I was not on a tapering dose of Prednisone. That stuff literally makes me crazy with mood swings. It can cause suicidal ideations for the affected person as well as homicidal ideations toward the affected person. I’m exaggerating of course – well, maybe I better ask Doc. B. if I’m exaggerating about the latter. I made it through the vacation with over-the-counter medication and, upon return to Atlanta, promptly took the fat of my left hip to the dermatologist to get me a cortisone shot. So far so good – no mood swings and no changes into the Incredible Hulk yet. Guess I better not enter any professional sporting events over the next two weeks. That’s how long the physician’s assistant said the steroids would be in my system. I wouldn’t want my name on the cover of any local papers for doping.

Okay, enough about the dang poison ivy/oak, well, other than how I got it. Before we went on vacation, we took an extra few days off of work to spruce up the yard. This included trying to save the beautiful, old, oak tree in the alley behind our house. It’s half ours, in that we split the alley with our neighbors, and it provides some much needed shade for the hostas my dad so lovingly gifts us. Not knowing what was back there in the alley, but knowing how deathly allergic I am to poison leaves, I covered every inch of my skin with a most attractive (HA!) work in the yard "outfit" – some might refer to it as a "get up". One of our neighbors is famous for saying: "that’s not poison oak, it’s just Virginia Creeper". And another neighbor is famous for telling her: "you roll around in it naked and then tell us if it’s just Virginia Creeper". During the entire time we were out there cleaning up brush, Doc. B. only saw one little bit of poison ivy. It was never knowingly touched by me as Doc. B. took great caution to ensure it was carefully placed way in the bottom of a leaf bag. I guess my new routine now will be to simply come in from doing yard work, do not pass go, and head directly to the shower. And it wouldn’t hurt for me to go ahead and put on some of that ivy block lotion before venturing into the yard. All of you out there, stop saying "duhhhh".

Despite the bubbles of itchiness on my arm, the vacation was still relaxing and fun. Day one took us to Martha’s Vineyard for the first time via numerous modes of transportation: car (ride to the airport from the second of the two famous neighbors referenced above), airplane, car rental shuttle bus, rental car, ferry boat and taxi. We stayed in a cozy bed and breakfast for two nights where we awoke to the smell of freshly made bread each morning. We motored around the island on a $6.00 bus pass and saw the three major towns plus the starfish-covered beach and clay cliffs of Aquinnah, my favorite part of the visit there.

Then it was on to Cape Cod where we had done a time share trade to a converted motel in Provincetown. The place was small, but our sliding glass doors opened up onto a patio deck that overlooked the ocean. Can’t beat that even if we did have to cook our breakfast while standing in the bathroom (okay, I’m exaggerating again). I really don’t know what to say about Provincetown without sounding like a Jehovah’s Witness talking about "The Watchtower" – I’d recommend it to anyone. Hmm…sometimes I think I sound that way about yoga. Anyway, Doc. B. and I love it there and have visited three times in the last 5 years. If we could afford it, we’d probably live there. The highlight of this trip was the synchronicitous fact that my mom just happened to be vacationing there at the same time. She gets together with three of her high school friends every year for a "girls’ week out" and this year they picked Truro, just 5 miles from where we were staying. One of her friends has access to a family beach house so they arranged to stay there for a few days. We arrived on Saturday and my mom and her friends were to call us on Monday night when they got in. So when Monday came around, we went on to one of our favorite Provincetown restaurants, Napi’s, for some seafood. As we were finishing our meals, guess who walks in - my mom and her friends. She said "oh, you got my message!" And I said, "what message?" She had left me a voicemail on my cell phone to tell us they had arrived and were going to eat at a restaurant called Napi’s if we wanted to join them. I had not yet listened to my voicemail. Another synchronicity. We had the true pleasure of dining with my mom and her very cool friends two more times during the week.

Now we’re all back home, safe and sound, ready to face the world in a much more relaxed fashion. Let’s hope the effects of vacation last for a good long while…

p.s.

Favorite bumper stickers seen while in Cape Cod:
1. "Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?"
2. "Bush’s last day: 01.20.09"