Weekend Journal

Steve and I went away for a weekend without the kids, and the first thing that I did we came home was to edge the lawn. I kid you not. I edged the lawn. Why the hell would you do such a thing? Well, we went to Lambertville, NJ and and New Hope, PA, vacationland for bikers, middle aged gay men, and McMansion dwellers. It's two towns of antique stores, decorative lawn ornaments, and nicely groomed boxwood shrubs, which explains my urge to edge the lawn this afternoon.

My parents offered to watch the kids for one night, so we couldn't venture too far. We had decided on New Hope, because I remembered that they had a lot of jewelry stores. I lost my wedding ring a couple of years and figured that we could a find funky replacement there. We quickly decided that funky wasn't worth that much, so we switched gears and bought a teak bench for the foyer of our house. I really don't want a wedding ring anyway. No ring and no name change really freaks out my dad.  Call me a child, but freaking out dad still brings me some joy.

So, we concluded our shopping within fifteen minutes of driving into town. We spent the rest of the time eating McMansion food over looking the Delaware. Don't get me wrong. I do love a warm pear salad with walnuts and gorgonzola cheese, but it's McMansion food. Met some characters in a bar down a sidestreet.

The town is packed with bed and breakfasts, but flowered wallpaper makes me puke, so we stayed at a hotel/convention center in Princeton. We amused ourselves listening to strangers try to make conversion at the breakfast buffet.
"So, you live in Chicago?"
"Yes."
"My aunt's husband's grandmother was born in Chicago."
"No kidding."
"Yeah, it's a great town."
"Sure is."

We had a good time. We needed a break from the high maintenance boys, though I never did get over the guilt of foisting them on my parents.