Winner winner...

...chicken dinner?

We had a great time getting lost on the way to the Statute of Liberty (and this was my second trip in about a year's time). I'm convinced they want people to feel as if they've arrived in the country for the very first time and don't know where the hell to go. When we finally got there and saw license plates from all over the country (as far off as Texas), I had to wonder how long it took some of these people to find Liberty State Park.

The sun really took a beating out of us, but I so loved being on the water. And what could be more perfect than ice cream after a day of feeling like you were melting? The experience at Holsten's was delightful. I sat in THE booth, me in Tony's spot and Chicago in Carm's spot and together we kept an eye on the door for Meadow to show up. He consumed a 2 scoop banana split and I had a coconut walnut malted chocolate shake. Easily 3000 calories and totally worth it.


Getting home was nearly a nightmare. The lovely google maps on my half-functioning crackberry told me to go a certain way and I'm pretty sure I misread it or the evil Jersey traffic demon decided we just weren't going to get home quickly. But I prevailed, using some good old "Hey I've been here before, this looks familiar" way of thinking and only swearing a few thousand times.

We rested, caught up on some Entourage, and hung out with the dogs. And then, just like a pair of rockstars, we took off for the Sands Casino. Showing up just as everyone else was winding down, we had a very empty room of slot machines all to ourselves. Although the guy's been to Vegas more than 20 times already, he's not much of a gambler. Go figure. I won about $100, he lost about $100, we called it even. We had a lot of laughs, and I told him I would definitely need other things to do in Vegas so I didn't become a complete degenerate.

Here are some funny things we either overheard or said ourselves yesterday:

"I think you damaged my straw. Oh it is a flex straw, we don't have those in Illinois..."

"He can't get lost; he's on an island!"

"I've seen a guy still functioning without an arm or leg..."
(They were talking about Dungeons and Dragons behind us.)

"If I don't make it, Leo DeCaprio should play me in the movie."
(Totally deadpanned as we pull away from the ferry dock.)

"This is what I look like on zombie nights....do you still think I'm sexy?"

_______________

And now for a moment of seriousness...because you know that's just how I am right?

Well, I have always advocated living in the moment since Sena died, and I have been pushing off dreams of living a life with someone else since L screwed it up. But I can tell you that my heart still dreams of the future when I have someone by my side.

And I can say that Chicago has a good chance of being that someone. He has a few quirks that make him unique to be sure (he can't swallow pills of any kind, he's allergic to something in beer, he has a nervous laugh that might drive me insane). But it is WAY too early to think like that and certainly WAY too early to express it to him. But then he'll go and say something like "Well, when we go to Vegas," or "Well, next year maybe we'll be living in the same place..." and I think whoa, he's thinking ahead. Then I instinctively feel the walls coming up and the warning message flashing in my head that says "Don't trust anything a guy says ever ever again." (Thanks L, for the lingering BS, really.)

So I'm just trying to pull myself back to the middle of the road by telling myself to enjoy the moment.

Enjoy the moment!