Notes From The Weekend (Happy Anniversary!)

Married for 12 years. Our anniversary... we spent the weekend in Boston being tourists, with a bonus of staying at the most luxurious Park Plaza Hotel (up on the top floor with our own personal concierge, cocktail lounge, and elevator!) I have a blog post about marraige, but this one is just notes from our weekend:

• in a fancy luxurious hotel bathroom, with a marble floor, double headed shower, soft towels and fancy robes and slippers, don't you think you could have planned it out so that the toilet paper roll dispenser was within arms reach of the almighty throne? It certainly added that "zip" to the experience to have to get up and leeeeeaaan over to reach the TP!


• Dear Girls, please excuse this personal note, but really, please, do you know that when you wear those beautiful white skirts on your beautiful tanned long legs, with your perfectly flat bellies and tiny round belly buttons peeking out, that God and EVERYBODY can see right through your skirt? Yep, I mean YOU... YOU, the one without any undies on! I could tell you had on, ahem, nothing. Are you a fan of Brittany Spears or what?


• Dear Beloved, thank you for owning up to the fact that if we'd have followed MY directions, we would have gotten where we were going much sooner. I didn't want to cause a fight on our special day, so I sighed, grit my teeth, and walked with you the extra mile (or was it three?) to our destination. I love you...forever and ever.


• I can't believe that in order to get into the Red Sox Gift Shop, you have to first buy a ticket! Thanks to the wonderful Security Staff person who, after a brief moment of "discussion" with my hubs, let us slip past the gate and into the gift shop.


• Holy Canoli! That Red Sox Gift Shop is wicked eck-spens-uhve! Are you kidding me? $75 for a pullover cotton hoodie just because it has a Red Sox logo on it? Wheres the nearest Target?


• Dear Parents with Children in Strollers: your kids are so cute! So adorable! Especially the tiny ones with smears of ice cream all over their faces and their chubby little hands gripping a mangled cone, or the one that excitedly cries, "Da Twain! Da Twain Mumma!" But please - dont' feed your precious babies Coke, and don't stand with them in your arms while you smoke, and don't, for the love of Pete, let them out of your sight in such a big city... please, take better care of your babies.


• You tell me, is it worse to be walking behind someone who is smoking, or in front of 3 adults who are totally drunk and using the F word every sentence and stumbling and falling and wondering which one is too drunk to drive and which one is only drunk a "jus' a lill, lill, lill bi'"


• At a certain age? Stumbling around drunk in public and trying to Hi-5 strangers becomes not amusing so much as just plain stupid and childish. It was obvious to us that you, all 3, were well into your 20's and possibly even headed into your 30's. Definitely beyond the age of amusing.


• I loved the city and the amazing mix of people and culture. I loved hearing French, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Asian of all kinds, mixed in with English speaking heavily British accented voices and the funny "southie" accent that labels you as a lifelong Bostonion but did you know that the word F*ck is identifiable in almost any language? Or that I guess I heard it from nearly every age and race in normal everyday conversation? "Whah's the f-ng Loo, mahn?" "Doode, you f-ng totally like almost stepped right into that f-ng pile man! Like, totally!" "You-ah f-ng crazee, you no see dat cah o' there?" Wow, all this time I've spent trying to never use that word only to realize it's THE word to use. Shall I teach it to my 9 year old?


• Ok, totally, one particular high light was being in Fanuel Hall/Quincy Market and seeing all the street performers. The 7 young black men doing gymnastic style flips and breakdance style moves, right there on the concrete walkways? A-MAY-ZING! (should I say, F-ng Amazing?) They held themselves parallel to the ground on one arm, their whole body twisting and flexing (ohhh, those abs! And the biceps! Whooo honey!) seemed nearly impossible. The running leap tuck and roll thing? Over 6 bodies? Wow...


• Dear Boy, I'm sorry, maybe I'm an old lady now, but I have to say, if I see you in Plaid shorts and a white button down shirt (completely buttoned up to the collar and sleeves rolled to the elbow) wearing flip flops? I'm pretty convinced you are gay, in spite of the lovely tanned beauty walking next to you in her see thru skirt and wedge heels. Also? It must be said, I don't care how macho you think you are, men just shouldn't wear pink. I don't care, I don't care, just, don't wear pink. Please.


• I don't know how often my chubby cheeked face and gray streaked hair will show up in other peoples videos or photographs, but judging by the amount of strangers in my own photo's and videos? I'm sure there are random tourists from every locale who will see me (that's me on Saturday in the too tight denim capri's and the white tee-shirt and sneakers, and that's me on Sunday in the loose flowing black Rayon Capri's, the white tank top and the flip flops) in their videos and photos. Hi Ya'll, I've got white yankee southern blood and also some good ol' tequila drinkin' hispanic in me - momma had a southern accent most of her life and daddy had a beer in his hand most of his. Send me any photo of me that you'd rather not have in your own collection!


• I didn't get ID'd once. Not Once! You see, at 37, I've been carded everywhere I go when I order a drink or buy wine at the liquor store. Even by young people, old people, and people who look my own age. But I just realized that I haven't been carded in a couple of months and not once in Boston was I ever asked for my ID. Tsk Tsk Tsk... I must finally look my age. Well, the last 6 months have been a little rough on me I guess.
• My apologies to the woman who caught my hubs and I smooching in that dark corner - it couldn't be helped!
• I can't believe it, but I finally got my Chickadee something she truly appreciated. It's this. Yes, we worry about her. But really? Some of those are dang funny!


• That about sums up the weekend. Lunch at McCormick and Schmicks, appetizers at Cheers, dessert from Finale, and tasting avocado-split pea puree (it was good actually, really really good!) and discovering a liking for Pinot Noir and luxury hotels... and also knowing that 12 years later I love my husband more than I did on the day I married him, deeper and stronger and more intense and oh so much better and being filled with the wonder that in another 12 years my love for this man will be even more than now - wicked cool!