H-Bomb! (Or Sun, You Decide) (Originally Published 17 Jun 2008)

Current mood:blah

 

I spent the day yesterday with Meredith.  She was looking for a summer dress to wear to a beach wedding and we were all over the Hamilton Mall area.

It was hell going to the mainland with the heat although the island wasn't much cooler.  Yes, New Jersey is part of the East Coast heatwave and we have been sweltering in record temperatures. Yesterday, I was happy to get off the island because I would be in lovely air-conditioned stores and malls and would be shopping with other people's money.  That is always a plus. 

The day started out looking a bit shaky.  Mere had to go to work at the Rainforest Café for a bit and take care of some things and said she'd come collect me at one o'clock and we'd go to lunch.  I had woken up rather early and I was really hungry but I thought I could wait it out and feed the monster that was my growling stomach once she was done.  I puttered in my room, taking things slow because of the intense heat, at eleven in the morning it was already hitting the nineties and there was no ocean breeze to speak of.  I found a packet of peanuts in my "man bag" when I was transferring a few things, which helped my hunger pangs once I consumed it, practically in one gulp.  I did my home workout, which I have been keeping to because I can't afford the gym and I am so frustrated, I miss working out.  The little home workout really does nothing but it keeps me happy.  Also, I want to look half-decent in my swim trunks at The Water Club when I dive into those NINE pools on Wednesday!  I worked on my geranium, I have been stunting its growth and forcing it to grow leaves on the stalks instead of the ends so it will fill out.  It seems to be happy, though, because it just sprouted some flower buds this week.  I ironed a white short-sleeved shirt and a pair of plaid shorts, I thought I'd look sporty for the day, finishing it off with sandals and my aforementioned "man bag" and then waited and waited and waited and waited. 

Okay, I must confess, writing this entry is really hard because the workmen who are redoing the porch on the house right out my bedroom windows have their shirts off and they are all TOO DAMN HOT!  I am constantly getting distracted!

Back to the entry:

At ten minutes till two o'clock, Mere finally rang me up and told me she was on her way.  I had put on my sunblock three thousand practically from head to toe and went out on the boardwalk waiting for her arrival. 

And I waited and waited and waited.

I finally wandered up the street to Atlantic Avenue and waited for her there. She drove up and found me in a pool of sweat and sunshine, I got in, changed her musical selections with one of the CDs I brought and off we went to Chili's.  What luck, it was Fajita and Margarita Monday, which means two dollar fifty margaritas, and I was in bliss.  We ordered our food from the eight-year-old waiter, my gods; when did they start hiring such young children to staff these places (for that matter, I always say Meredith is twelve)?  We ate and ate, the food was delicious and then we walked over to her travel agent to discuss a trip she wants to plan for her grandmother to the lovely emerald isle that is Ireland.  Of course, she's going with her but not until well into the next year.  We sat and chatted there for a bit, got the appropriate brochures and off we went to shop!  We hit a few places over in Consumer Square, after she picked up her paycheck from BJ's, but we didn't find anything that looked good on her.  We ended up going over to the mall itself and went to J. C. Penny's.  Once there, she grabbed a half-dozen summer dresses off the rack and we did the requisite fashion show, finally agreeing on a dress, a pretty little thing, mid-calf length with a full skirt and red/pink posies patterned on it.  Very Donna Reed!  She looked so cute in it and was bouncing around when she had it on.  We got a bonus at the counter when the saleswoman told us it was half off! 

And off we went, to Macy's, to find matching shoes but, alas, we couldn't find anything that was just right.  We did find a fabulous pair of red square-toed pumps that I wanted to buy but then I remembered I gave up that whole drag thing awhile ago.  Damn!  I kept asking if there was champagne service in every store we went in, she kept answering that no, there wasn't so, I got pissy and rang up my friend Jose at Ruby Tuesdays and off we went to have a few cocktails!  I stayed with the margarita theme and we decided on getting desserts, she got the warm blondie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and I got the strawberries and cream, which was fresh strawberries over a flaky pastry bowl with vanilla ice cream and fresh whipped cream.  DELICIOUS!  It was actually a good compliment to the salty and tangy margarita (or two or three).  We ate and drank and I got a bit tipsy.  We decided on going to the movies and off we went after saying our good-byes to Jose.  We drove over to the theatre and looked over the menu, deciding on the latest installment of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", a rather unwieldy title, if you ask me.  The showing wasn't for nearly an hour so we pre-purchased our tickets and wandered over to Shitty Circuit (read: Circuit City) and she bought way too many DVDs.  We grabbed some candy and off we went back to the movie theatre and I purchased the popcorn and drinks, which was only two dollars less than the bloody movie tickets!  She had never seen an Indiana Jones movie (remember, I said she's like, twelve!) and we sat down and enjoyed the ride.  It's not the best of the series, I think the first one was but, Shia Labouf was cute in it and the idea was right up the Spielberg/Lucas tree.  We left the theatre and she drove me home, where I lied down on my bed, in a pool of sweat and passed out promptly!

Today, I work!  Woohoo!  See you at the Westside for some afternoon cock…tails, the weather here on the island is quite nice, far nicer than yesterday!