Beach, Casino, DWTS Sunday!

Not sure what happened yesterday. I did decide to go to the beach with FCR and her daughter (soon to be 30 yr old) and to go to “their” beach – Ocean Beach. I am having trouble posting pictures, but I hope you looked up the New London Ledge Lighthouse to see what it looked like – it is very distinctive. But back to Sunday. I was out of the house by 8 a.m. and stopped at my parents to tell them about the boat ride/lighthouse visit and to tell them I was off to New London so no one would be leaving their car in their driveway. I got to my pick up spot and we were off. Minutes into the trip, my FCR’s friend – recently retired teacher and limo company owner – was called to see if he could get tickets to Kanye West concert at Mohegan Sun Casino for FCR’s daughter. He seems to have a contact for free tickets from his limo role in life. So he said he would look into it and get back. Then minutes later he called and said, “still working on Kanye, but would she want two tickets to the Dancing with the Stars tour show tonight”…my FCR said sure!!! The daughter did not want to go, so guess who said “I’ll go!” Me…

So our day was a bit thrown up in the air. So now instead of a leisurely, leave about 4 p.m. day at the beach, we would now 1) go to beach 2) leave the beach by 2 p.m. 3) go back to my car 4) drop me off, FCR and daughter go home 5) I head to a location to buy something to wear to Mohegan Sun 6) go to parents to shower and change 7) FCR picks me up at parents at 5:30 8) We meet our free ticket connection at Mohegan at 6:45 p.m. (which we made in plenty of time) 9) go to show 10) go home FINALLY! I pulled in to my parking spot at 11:30 p.m. and in bed by midnight. The good news is that I did not have to drive any of the legs except from my pick up location back to my parents. So Hartford to New London, New London to Hartford, Hartford back to the casino (very close to New London)…

The beach was great. It was a high 90’s degree day, so the crowds were out and the water was great. The show was great! You know I am a DWTS fan and it was very entertaining and MUCH better than the American Idols’ tour show I went to before via more free tickets – it was the Taylor Hicks’ tour so it must be at least a year ago now.

I did set my alarm this a.m. just in case I did not wake up automatically but I woke up at the same time – no problem. This week will be interesting – tonight I am hoping early to bed; Tuesday the Hepburn film festival at Wesleyan; Thursday – CCW (current co-worker, but not FCW – favorite co-worker) kids’ swim meet; Friday – sister #1 lands in town and a weekend ahead of family get togethers.

I was very happy with my Burlington Coat Factory purchase of a pair of pants to wear last night. I am NOT a shopper and RARELY buy new clothes – but $4.49 for black Capri pants!!! Even I cannot begrudge myself that! I don’t know why they were on their 3rd markdown round…they were definitely “me”. Maybe I just answered my question as to why they were on their 3rd round…there are not too many “me’s” out there.

What a weekend. This morning’s walk may lack a bit of energy but I am glad I took advantage of all that was out there for me. Two beach days; boat/lighthouse trip; Mohegan Sun Casino/DWTS night…I think I have “filled up” enough to get through the family weekend ahead. It was amazing to me how crowded the casino was on a Sunday night at 10:30 p.m. when we were leaving. We live in a silly world.

A bit of Bird by Bird to maybe bring my life back to “regular”, non-casino thinking: After talking about the post published time of a writer’s life:

“Sometime later you’ll find yourself at work on, maybe really into, another book, and once again you figure out that the real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point.”

“When is she going to talk about joy?” the people in the back row whine. Haven’t I? I certainly meant to mention that good hours at the desk are as wonderful as any I can imagine. But joy for me is Sam and my church and my buddies and family, and more often it is felt outdoors than at my desk.”

I think you can imagine I identified with that passage!

Have a good week and keep a good thought for me that I make it through it!