It's not going to stop, 'til you wise up.

I survived a whole day of some pretty intense work. As with most tasks in life, planning a grade nine orientation with the help of approximately forty student leaders, takes longer than one anticipates. Of course, it would have taken less time if the computer server wasn't down for two hours, and things would be completely under control if half of the locks for the incoming grade nines weren't in Mexico. I made it clear that I'd be more than willing to pick them up, but no one took me up on the offer.

Anyway, I'm really glad that my first day back in the building involved me actually working with students as opposed to just coming in and trying to get organized and prepped for next week, which would have been actually a difficult job because there is a heavy filing cabinet right in front of my own desk/filing cabinet so it's hard to get into my stuff with it there. I tried to move it, but got fed up, and decided that'd be a job for another day. (Too bad I discovered this after all the teenage boys left the building.)

The kids were in super high spirits and glad to see each other and did a great job planning games and other activities. One of my fave students greeted me with a "Miss, it's so good to be home!" which warmed my heart. The funny thing is that I completely agree with her. Despite all of its challenges and frustration, my school is my home, and it was nice to be back.

I have to say that I'm excited for the upcoming school year. I'm excited for my courses; I'm teaching all science, which I don't think I've ever done. There's usually a math stuck in there somewhere, or a special course that I used to teach for kids-at-risk. It was weird that they took me out of there, but I seriously needed the break, so it's a blessing.

I'm really excited for my environmental science class, of course. I have a nice list of kids so far, and I found a great opportunity for us to be trained in measuring water quality in a nearby stream. I really hope that pans out. Also, I've been really enjoying Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" book, which totally relates to the Sustainable Agriculture unit in the course. I think I'm going to find a snippet for the kids to read that was written by the author's teenage daughter. I'm planning on taking them to the park to bake pizza in the oven using ingredients from the gardens there, but I'm also toying with the idea of us borrowing the family studies room to cook a local foods meal. That would be so fun!

So yah, actually I'm so glad that I've written this post. When I started, I was listening to Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" and feeling a bit morose, because even on the first day in the building, I was reminded of the politics amongst staff that makes me frustrated with my job. However, I am reminded of what I love about my job: the kids who were so fun and funny today, and of course, the excitement of planning fun and meaningful courses.

It was good to be home.

However, I'm going stay away from there tomorrow and maybe work from home and/or take myself to a movie and/or go shopping. I like that I can ease out of summer.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'; gathering no moss.

Right now I have the Emmys on as I post. Awards shows are like black holes for me; I'll start watching one with the intent of only watching for 10 minutes, but then I end up watching them for way too long as a way of procrastinating something (dishes today) by saying "one more award" and then I get to the point where I've watched so much that there is no point in stopping. Even though I'm bored out of my skull.

I had a very fun weekend.

On Friday night, I went to the Jays game. They were playing the Detroit Tigers and managed to eke out a 3-2 win in 11 innings. I'm glad that they won since I'm pretty sure they have lost more games then they've won in my attendance. I do really enjoy going to baseball games; I was a hardcore Jays' fan as a kid so being at the Skydome (I refuse to call it the Rogers Centre) always brings back nostalgia. It's too bad that it wasn't today that brought me to the game; it's the 20th anniversary of Dave Steib's no-hitter and they were giving out free bobbleheads. My Christmas shopping for my dad could have been done!

On Saturday, I went with Steve and his family to the Elora Gorge to go tubing. I wasn't really sure what to expect as I'd never really been to the gorge before, nor have I ever tubed in a river. I've done the winter type though...

Anyway, it was rather fun and I managed to escape without injury. I got into the river just past the worst rapids but I still go to go through enough of them. The entire ride down the river took about 45 minutes. There were parts that were fast, but others were quite slow and relaxing. There were lots and lots of rocks to watch out for; again, I'm so surprised that I made it out with no bruises. We had enough time to make two trips!

Today I did a little bit of shopping, and now I'm here sitting on the couch with Rilo hoping that bedtime will never come because I'm going into school tomorrow at 9 am. Ach.

Hope you all had nice weekends and have a nice week! Toronto has a heat advisory! Crazy!

The concert post that's been going around...

Lately there's been a "list 50 bands that you've seen" post going around on galapogos' and wigsf's blogs. I did that meme about a year ago on Facebook. However, I thought that it could use some updating, and I could use a good filler post that requires little thought so why not?

Also, after a lean summer concert-wise (only 1), I'm gearing up for an awesome fall concert season. I always find that I go to the most shows in the fall, and this fall, particularly the month of October, is shaping up nicely.

Especially since I now have tickets to Los Campesinos! on October 8th, and my pal from Winnipeg is gonna return for the show. I think of it as a redemption show. Stupid Icelandic volcano grumble grumble.

On to the list: I've added bands that I've seen for the first time since last year on the bottom. And upcoming new bands too. I've put an asterisk besides the bands that I've seen more than once.

One thing I regret is that I didn't start keeping a concert-diary when I started going to shows at the age of 16. I have no idea how many shows I've seen, nor how many times I've seen various bands. For instance, I have seen Sloan, Hawksley Workman, and the Weakerthans probably about 15 times each, but that's an estimate. I really wish I knew, you know?

Here's the list:

1) Melissa Etheridge (first concert ever… not counting Sharon, Lois and Bram)
2) Alanis Morissette
3) Our Lady Peace*
4) Moist/David Usher*
5) Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
6) 54-40
7) Treble Charger*
8) Matthew Good (Band)*
9) Sloan*
10) The Tragically Hip
11) Sheryl Crow
12) Ashley MacIsaac
13) Foo Fighters
14) Smashing Pumpkins
15) Eve 6*
16) Ben Folds (Five) (once Ben with the Buffalo Philharmonic)*
17) Hawksley Workman*
18) Tori Amos*
19) Christine Fellows*
20) The Weakerthans*
21) Andy Stochansky
22) Martina Sorbara* (she's now in Dragonette)
23) Stars*
24) REM*
25) Blue Rodeo*
26) Ben Lee*
27) Bowling for Soup
28) Weezer*
29) The Carnations*
30) Neko Case*
31) Joel Plaskett (Emergency)*
32) Jason Collett*
33) Two Hours Traffic*
34) Hayden*
35) Feist*
36) Damien Rice
37) Danny Michel*
38) Dashboard Confessional*
39) Emm Gryner*
40) Great Lake Swimmers*
41) Tokyo Police Club
42) Hey Rosetta!*
43) The Constantines*
44) Jack’s Mannequin*
45) Rilo Kiley
46) Kathleen Edwards*
47) Kimya Dawson
48) Martha Wainwright
49) Rufus Wainwright
50) Sarah Harmer*

51) Metric*

52) Tegan and Sara

53) Owen Pallett

54) Broken Social Scene

55) Los Campesinos! on October 8th; unless fate intervenes again

56) Dan Mangan on October 28th

Hope that you all have great fall-concert seasons too! Any exciting shows coming up?

ps Thanks for all of the positive hair comments! Love you guys!

A post about hair-dos, eavesdropping, and books.

After a summer of lots of fun, my hair was looking a little bit worse for the wear. Bangs in my eyes, shagginess all over, dried out ends, and colour washed out by the sunshine. I decided that that was that, and I was going to get it overhauled: I'd have it cut and dyed. Basically I'd tell the stylist to go nuts, because I wanted something new.

I've been rather "homeless" when it comes to hair salons since April-ish. My longtime stylist moved, so I went to a slightly pricier place in my neighbourhood. I enjoyed the proximity, the atmosphere, and the free drinks. I decided to make it the location of my overhaul.

Whenever I say I'm going to get my hair overhauled, it never ends up being as drastic as my statement. I wanted my hair darker, but I realized I do like my style (a layered bob that's longer in the front, shorter in the back, with bangs). So really, the overhaul wasn't much. I had the hair trimmed so there are no more bangs in my eyes, and it looks neat again.

As for the colour, it's a nice subtle difference, and no longer looks washed out. The stylist recommended that I get some highlights put it to make my hair look fuller. I have super fine hair, and if someone says something will add body to my hair, I say do it.

I was happy with the end results until I got the bill. I have never ever paid that much for my hair in my life! I had an estimate in my head of how much it would cost, and I though I was being a little bit extravagant, but it was twice that! I'm surprised I didn't faint at the counter! Why was it more than I thought? Well, the only places in my life I have ever gotten my coloured have been in Stratford, and there when they colour your hair, they cut it for free. I thought that was the norm. Here, I had to pay for the colouring + the cut, so hence the heart attack for me. Seriously, what have the rest of you experienced on this matter?? When you get your hair coloured, do you have to pay for the cut too? Or is this a small-town thing?

Anyway, here's a picture of the end result from the back. Please tell me it's beautiful.

Anyway, the atmosphere of the salon was really cool. I got complimentary lattes and hand and shoulder massages. Also, there was an interesting older gentleman getting "a little taken off the top" who was seated next to me. As I was sitting with foil on my head, I listened a bit to his conversation with his stylist. She asked him what was the last book that he read, and he commented that he'd read the latest book by Richard B. Wright which is called "Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard".

The "books to read" part of my brain immediately took note. Richard B. Wright is the author of one of my favourite books ever: Clara Callan. I haven't really kept up with his writing since then, but this new one sounds so interesting. It's written from the point of view of Shakespeare's illegitimate daughter. Now, I'm not sure if there's any historical evidence that there was one, but that's an interesting premise don't you think?

I got home and researched the book immediately: it doesn't even get released until mid-September! Older gentleman at the salon apparently has some connections!

Anyway, since I spent a lot on my hair, I vowed to be frugal ASAP, so I looked to see if the Toronto Public Library had it in their database yet, and they did! 37 holds so far, but for the TPL and their bazillion copies of anything, that will only take a month or so to get through.* Unfortunately, my account needed to be updated before I could place a hold, so I hopped on my bike to fix that situation, plus put a bunch of holds on other books too.

So, I'm really excited for that book.

Right now I'm reading a really great book. I picked it up yesterday on a whim. It's called "The Girl in the Blue Dress" by Gaynor Arnold. It's fiction that's loosely based on the relationship between Charles Dickens and his wife. Did you know that he sent his longtime wife and mother of ten children to live in a shabby apartment so that he could conduct an affair with an actress? And, he released a statement to the papers blaming her for the separation because she was an insufficient housekeeper? Neither did I! It's a good book, and I'm zipping through it.

I also have Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" on the go. It's non-fiction about the author and her family's quest to eat locally for a year. It's really good so far, but I took a break from it because I was craving fiction.

Congratulations if you made it through this rambling post. What are you reading these days?

*My estimate for this time is based on experience. Years ago, on a lark, I put a hold on a book with 1000+ holds to see how long it would take to receive. It took about six months. I never got the book because my roommate at the time forgot to give me the message until it was too late to get the book. Luckily for her, it was just an experiment, and not something I really wanted to read. I think I would have been a little bit peeved if that had been the case.

p.s. One last piece of excitement from today: Los Campesinos! are playing in Toronto on October 8th! YAY!!! Hopefully I'll get to see them this time, barring any interference from pesky Icelandic volcanoes!

Post #800!

That's a lot of posts, Batman. I can't believe that I'm only 200 away from the "I'll never get to one-thousand"-th post. Thanks for reading bloggarinos.

Post #800 is going to be an always-exciting weekend rundown complete with recipe links. Recipe links? That's new!

On Friday, I decided it was time for me to go the Harry Potter exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. I love Harry Potter, and I think the only thing that had kept me away for so long was the location. I mean, I'm used to going there with 20-40 teenagers in tow, and it just wouldn't be the same to go on my own, ha-ha.

However, it was amazing, and I'm glad I went. The Harry Potter books, and movies, are one of my favourite things, and it was amazing seeing the costumes and props in real life. I had completely forgotten about the hilarity that is Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart in the second movie. I got to sit in Hagrid's chair, saw Buckbeak and Fawkes, and probably my favourite was seeing little Dobby. I have to say that overall the Harry Potter movies are an awesome adaptation of an incredible series of books. Well done movie people. I enjoyed my afternoon of nerding out.

On Friday night I chilled and procrastinated the inevitable: the cleaning of the disastrous apartment. For the past week, I've had people in and out of my place without warning because of a plumbing situation, and it's been a little embarrassing because of the disaster. I felt like saying "I don't normally live like this" but I still couldn't muster the courage to start the overwhelming job. Saturday morning was when I finally got my ass in gear, and I did a really really good clean. There's still some organizing stuff I need to do, and some laundry, but if the people need to continue coming in here this week they'll be like "whoa! what happened here?"

One sad side-effect of the cleaning is that I realize I have enough clothes and no back-to-school shopping is needed. :( Well, maybe one outfit...

On Saturday night, Steve came over for dinner and I made this delicious Moroccan Chickpea & Vegetable Stew that is from the blog Everyone Likes Sandwiches that I discovered through rawbean and/or Jabba. Then we went to see "The Other Guys" which was funny, provided you find silly Will Ferrell movies funny (I do). This morning, I made haute egg sandwiches for breakfast which were really yummy. I was so intrigued by the interesting combination of ingredients in this recipe that I just had to try it, and I loved it. Cheese, apples, and honey forever!

This afternoon I treated my beat-up hands and feet for a mani/pedi. Fingers are now silver; toes are now periwinkle. My friend Fea was also able to join me which was fun 'cuz we got to catch up about our respective summer travels and commiserate about the inevitable. We met up again at my work spouse's new house in my neighbourhood for a BBQ. The weather sucked, but at least it stopped raining so we could chill outside. Anyway, it was fun meeting up with friends from work, and seeing them on a regular basis is one reason to look forward to September.

Tomorrow, I was supposed to have Mel, the craziest member of the G of 9, visit me but she's postponed until Thursday. I'll have to figure out what to do with a free day now. On Tuesday, I'm getting my hair cut and dyed (!) for back to school. I want to go darker. I'm excited for that. Wednesday is dinner at my fave neighbourhood Mexican place with friends. Yay for having lots of fun stuff on tap for the last proper week of vacation. However, I just ask for time not to fly while I'm having fun.

I'm moving past the feeling again.

Well folks, it's the tail end of summer vacation. Yah, yah, I know. Poor Hawaii!*

I knew my adventures had come to an end when I had to get a car to go pick up Miss Rilo Kitty from my parents' house. I'm enrolled in an auto-sharing program. It's a super convenient way to get a car when I need one: I can book online, and I can even reserve one for just a few hours. Anyway, I was ultra-pumped to listen to the new Arcade Fire album on the road, because I finally got it. I always choose a car with an iPod adaptor, but the cord was missing from the car, so I was stuck with radio. Oh well...

Anyway, I had a nice visit with the 'rents and I saw my aunt too. The part of the drive with Miss Rilo is never as smooth as when she's not in the car. She is not a good traveller. She cries the whole time. This time, however, she was able to claw/chew a small hole into her carrier, and escape into the car. Driving on the highway with a loose cat isn't my idea of a good time, but now I've learned to choose a hard plastic cat carrier, instead of a cute soft one with netting that isn't a match for a pissed-off cat who wants out.

Luckily, Miss Rilo doesn't hold grudges, and she still loves me despite the car trip. She's also taken to sleeping up here a lot:

On top of all of that excitement, there is a leak on the first floor of my building, and they have been trying to figure out where the leak is coming from. My apartment is one of the suspects, so I've had people in and out for three days now flushing my toilet and running my water to figure things out. However, apparently my bathtub taps were leaking (I never noticed), so a plumber fixed them while he was here. This morning I was awaken by a request to put a hole in my bathroom wall so they could continue with the forensic plumbing.

So the good news is that my apartment isn't guilty of the leak: it's the unit below me. They now have to have their toilet ripped out. As for the hole in my bathroom wall, it's gonna stick around until the situation is all clear.

Today I had a dentist appointment. Right now I'm waiting for the freezing to wear off so I can eat. I'm hungry.

As for the next week and a bit, I've made a lot of social and beauty appointments. It'll be busy and fun. In case you are wondering, August 30th is the day I have to go in and start planning. My brain has atrophied and is afraid of going back. But do you know what my calf muscles say to my brain? If we can do a 35 km hike, you, my friend, can go back to school!

*Poor Hawaii! is something I say based upon this Triumph video. (Sorry, Youtube won't let me embed this one.) A teacher whining about going back school is exactly like a cloud or two in Hawaii.

The post-camping post.

Well, I did it. I made it through the wilderness! Oh, I made it through-ooooo. My camping trip consisted of about 35 km of hiking on often hilly terrain in 48 hours. However, despite the scratches, the multitude of insect bites, the perspiration, the exhaustion, the sounds of large lumbering creatures in the night, the rain, the thunderstorms, and the dehydrated food, I think I'd do it again. Let's just see how long these mosquito bites torture me before making the final verdict.

We left Toronto fairly early on Friday morning, faced zero traffic, and got to Huntsville in good time. After looking around for a good brunch place, we settled on a good lunch place, and then had ice cream to fortify ourselves for the day. After we picked up our permit, we realized that we forgot to pack TP, so we drove a bit to a supply store in the park to pick it up.

While Steve was paying for it, the girl said "just so you know, this is final sale." I had to go hide behind a rack of coats to cover up my laughter. Seriously? TP is final sale? WTF? That's the kind of thing I want to return if it doesn't work out for me! Anyway, whenever the hiking was getting long, one of us would randomly say "do you think we can return the TP if we don't use it all?"

We had about 10 km to hike the first day, and got to our campsite in good time. I really liked the site because it had a nice beach where it was easy to get water, and nice lake views from where the tent was set up, but Steve found it creepy and gross that someone had left a bunch of broken coats/tarps/sleeping bags by a tree. I was able to ignore them because they had also left a comfy camp chair was also left on the site, which was really nice for fireside sitting. Here's a picture of the lake.

Here's a picture of the loon that was hanging out on the lake. At first he was really far away, but Steve was able to call him over so he was closer (talented boy). I named him Larry.

In the evening, we had a really nice campfire, and sipped some fortified orange Kool-Aid to make things more fun. Here's a shot of the fire.

We even went down to the beach where we could get an amazing view of the stars, and got to see some of the Perseids too. I think that was my first time seeing shooting stars. It was incredible to watch.

When we were almost ready to go to bed, we heard some loud noises in the woods near us, so we headed back to the beach area until they stopped. Steve was pretty sure it was a moose, and we heard it snort a couple times. It took a long time to pass by, and in the morning we could see the massive trail it left through the brush.

Anyway, Saturday was a more tiring day of hiking (15 km), and I didn't like the campsite as much. It didn't have random crap left behind, but the access to the water wasn't nice at all. Steve was clever enough to use a metal grate on the site in the water to make it a bit accessible to get drinking water. We had another fun night of dehydrated food and an abbreviated campfire. It started to rain, so we called it an early night, which was OK since we were both exhausted.

Of course, I can't say that I fell asleep right aways because we were in for another evening of large woodland creatures walking by our campsite. This time, they were going right through the site, and it sounded like there was one about four feet from the tent.

On Sunday, we had another 10 km of much easier hiking to do. When we had about 1.5 km left, it started to thunder and pour, but I kind of liked it because it made me feel less sticky. Thankfully it was very close to the end of the hike when the downpour occurred, because my shoes got soaked.

By the time we made it back to the parking lot, it was sunny. We sorted our stuff, and drove to Huntsville for a celebratory lunch of Harvey's and Dairy Queen. The nice thing about doing so much hiking is that you can eat unhealthy food after without feeling the least bit guilty.

And the worst part of the whole experience was driving through the awful cottage country traffic on the way back home to Toronto. I deeply hated anything that stood between me and a shower at that point.

And there you have it: the city girl survived the woods.

Camping!

Let's play the fun game of where in the world will Christielli be for the next three days? Well, the title of this post gave it away, but it's one of the least likely activities you'd expect *me* to be doing.

However, I am a fan of trying new things (albeit reluctantly), and since I am an environmentalist, I should probably get out into the environment every now and then. Right? And, since I am dating a super fun cute guy who loves camping, and he actually agreed to go with me enthusiastically (even with the caveat of "it'll be like camping with a five-year-old"), it's probably the right time to get my outdoors on.

We leave tomorrow morning, and are doing about a 35 km hike over Fri/Sat/Sun. I'm going to have to sleep in a tent for two nights. I think the last time I slept in a tent was in high school, and it was most likely on my friend Sandee's lawn during one of her infamous May 2-4 parties. I'm going to have to eat dehydrated food. I'm going to have to go to the bathroom outdoors, which I've never done before.

This upcoming camping trip has provided much laughter to my friends. When I was telling my work spouse about it, she said "Christy! You are going to have to wear running shoes!" (What, did she think I was going to do it in heels?) Now she's actually someone who is *less* outdoorsy than me. She asked me if there are little houses along the path where you can take a break, charge your camera batteries, go to the washroom, and have a nap in a proper bed for a bit. She was appalled that there weren't.

More than one person I know has wished for the ability to turn into a fly to watch me camping. I'm going to be extra cautious around flies, because I wouldn't want to accidentally smoosh a friend of mine, just in case they were granted that power somehow.

Also I have been reminded that I've made the statement "I don't camp" on more than one occasion by more than one person.

However, since I do have an army of people praying for me and wishing me luck, I really think it should go well. If there's one thing I've always had a plethora of, it's well-wishers. And their well-wishes will help me get by, I know it.

So, hopefully, that will reduce the anxiety of my brave camping buddy 'cuz he was a bit worried when I described some people's reactions. However, the ones who did laugh the hardest are the ones who are less outdoorsy than I, so it's not like camping experts were laughing at me. I think I avoided this by not knowing very many camping experts...

Anyway, again, wish me luck, pray for no rain (the forecast isn't great, but I refuse to believe it), and stay tuned for the hilarious post-camping post.

Vacation's come and gone.

Well, after a twelve-hour trip from door-to-door, I'm back in Toronto. We actually made very good time from our hotel in Dedham (guess how many times I made fun of the name of the boring suburb our hotel was in) to Hamilton, but then I had to take the GO bus back to Toronto, so it made for a long day.

Anyway, I guess I haven't blogged since leaving Cape Cod. Salem was really cool, however we got soaked in a torrential rainstorm in the midst of our sightseeing. Luckily it cleared up in time for us to do a ghost walk around town.

The two days we spent in Boston were really fun. I really liked the city a lot, and we spent a lot of time walking around and exploring Boston Common/The Public Garden, Beacon Hill, Quincey Market, and the waterfront. We even trekked out to Cambridge to check out Harvard. On our second day, we were supposed to take a whale-watching cruise offered by the aquarium, but it got canceled because of boat problems, so we ended up going on a corny high-speed boat tour of the harbour called "Codzilla" instead. It was fun.

Anyway, I'm just going to leave you with some of my fave photos from the trip. Yes bloggarinos, you are guys are getting them even before Fbook does, because after this, I'm hitting the sack. I love traveling but I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

1) Here are my feet as I'm lounging on a beach chair on our hotel's private beach in Cape Cod.

2) View of the lighthouse and the cliffs at Aquinnah, Martha's Vineyard.

3) Some birds (cormorants?) that I spotted during our Cape Cope bike ride.

4) A view of Boston's skyline that I took when we were out on the waters of Boston Harbour.

5) Sailboats on the harbour at sunset.

p.s. I just noticed that my five fave pics all have the ocean in them. I guess you know what my fave thing of the trip was. Although, I do have lots of pics of really old graveyards too. But I guess the ocean even trumps those, ha-ha.

Quick Trip Update

Martha's Vineyard yesterday was lovely. We were up early to catch an 8:15 ferry over, and more or less saw the whole island. We got a lot of use out of our $7 VTA bus pass. I think my fave part of the island might have been the iced mocha I had at Mocha Mott's, but there was a lot of pretty scenery too.

Today was a fabulous day too. We rented bikes and rode the entirety of the Shining Sea Bike Path, which added up to 33.6 km. It was mainly flat, but there was a really tough wind that you had to face when going south.

After we returned our bikes, we had a lovely lunch in town, then did some shopping. We had some amazing chocolate peanut butter ice cream, and bought some AMAZING cupcakes that we ate tonight.

We then drove back to our hotel to relax on the beach. It was cloudy by then, and the waves were a little bit rough. I swam (okay, played in the waves for a bit) and then read on a beach chair for awhile.

We tired of the beach at about 5 pm, and decided to drive an hour to an outlet mall. I was well-behaved: all I bought for myself was a sweater and a new pair of running shoes. No designer handbags this time.

It was a busy day so I'll sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow, we'll take advantage of the beach one last time, then go to Salem. I love trips.

Oh, I'll share pictures probably when I get home. I am too tired after these busy days to upload them.

If it feels good, do it.

One of the things that you have to do on vacation is to really just do what you feel like.

After a second day of lots of driving, we finally arrived in our really nice beachfront hotel in Falmouth, MA. After immediately taking advantage of the beach, and spending a long time in the ocean, we decided to head to town for dinner.

We found parking on the main street right in front of a cute little Italian restaurant. We checked it out, decided why not, and proceeded to eat a really decadent dinner. I had the lobster and asparagus ravioli.

So what to do with the rest of our evening? Well, what we both really wanted to do was watch the finale of the Bachelorette and eat dessert. So, we ordered dessert to go (tiramisu and cannoli) and then drove back to our hotel and indulge.

And it was pretty much perfect.

Tomorrow, it's an early morning where we are taking a ferry across to Martha's Vineyard to explore the island. We'll probably do a bus tour to get oriented, and then maybe rent bikes, or walk around, or just do what feels good. I love laid-back vacations. More later. :)