62. September 6th, 2010 Picture.

I woke up Monday morning utterly confused.  I was wrapped in my hoodie, still wearing my jeans, with no pillow or blanket with the bottom half of my mattress on the ground and my feet resting on the metal bar of the pull out sofa. Literally, this is how I woke up.  Ratty was next to me, in a t-shirt and shorts, under the covers, with 2 pillows and his feet firmly on a piece of mattress.  What the heck was going on? 

Turns out, which happens actually quite a lot, I fell asleep fully clothed.  I like to do this, what I call ‘just resting my eyes’, when I in fact, fall right asleep and wake up at 5am completely confused and uncomfortable.  I’d decided to go to bed before Ratty and instead of actually getting ready for bed, I just laid down to rest my eyes and wait for him.  Of course I fell right asleep and when Ratty came to bed about an hour later, he was clueless as to what to do with me.  He left me as is, putting the pillow NEXT to me instead of under my head.  Why this was a good idea, I’ll probably never know, and he probably won't either.

I poked Ratty’s shoulder until he woke up and we got up to have some coffee with the rest of my family.  Phil and Katy had stayed over too, and everyone was outside sitting in the garden.  My Uncle Phil and Aunt Lisa are the greatest hosts, they had coffee and muffins for us, which is pretty much all I’d ever need, and we spent the rest of the morning rehashing the stories from the day before.  One particular story comes to mind, and that is the one where someone fell, late into the night, during the bonfire and after I went to bed.  Apparently, it was a large man named Joe, who according to myth, was 6’5” and extremely broad.  He allegedly didn’t see one of the little saplings growing in the yard and tripped right over it, crashing to the ground.  Phil says the house shook, Ratty said the neighbor's house shook, and everyone so shocked that it didn’t wake me up.  Here’s the rub, I had no idea who Joe was, and I am pretty sure everyone made him up.  Ratty combed through his camera, looking for any picture to jog my memory, but there was not one picture of ‘Joe’.  All anyone could say was that he was big, a big man, wearing a black shirt and glasses.  Um, what?  This person doesn’t exist.  There are no photos, people were stumbling over descriptions, and more importantly, I don’t remember him.  So therefore, he doesn’t exist.  Case in point.

After breakfast, we packed up our things, Ratty and I headed down to Peggoty to say hi to Maura and her family. Maura’s cottage is on a small street, directly on the beach, and it’s typically impossible to get to it by car because the sand hasn’t been plowed out of the driveways.  A few years ago they made a new road, behind the houses instead of in front, hoping that it would cut down on beach erosion.  I made my way down the windy, sand covered road, when I came to a sign that said 4x4’s only.  I got nervous.  I’d been down this little road plenty of times, but panicked that if I drove any further, I might not be able to get out.  The moment I decided to leave my car exactly where it was, I got stuck.  Really stuck.   Ratty had to get out of the car, and physically push my front end out of a legit dune.  I had visions of all the neighbors coming out and laugh and point and stare, but thankfully no one did.  Once freed I left the car in the exact same spot, and Ratty and I walked the rest of the way to the beach.  Maura and her family were sitting in the sun, and we went over to say our hellos.  My only goal of the afternoon was to jump in the water, so I convinced Maura to come with me.  She made it to about her ankles, claiming it was too cold and there was too much seaweed, but I made it to about my waist and took a quick dunk.  After visiting for a while, and catching up with the McCarthy’s, Ratty and I hit the road home.

I had been talking about the Hingham Lobster Pound for a while, every time we’d pass it on the way to Scituate, I would gush at how awesome of a lobster sandwich they have.  It is so delicious!  We finally decided to stop in on our way home, and grabbed 2 sandwiches, some fries, and hands down the best can of Coke I’ve had in my entire life.  I don’t really drink soda all that much, let alone Coke, but I was so thirsty and I needed some sugar and caffeine as a pick me up.  I really should have ordered 3 cans because I had to take small sips of my one in order to savor it.  Anyway, we grabbed our food and went across the street to a park and ate our lunch on a picnic bench overlooking Hingham harbor. Check out my awesome lobster sandwich.

After absolutely inhaling our food, Ratty and I headed to Eddie and Christine’s to visit.  We were all exhausted from the day before, so our hanging out pretty much consisted of us all laying in the tv room watching iCarly.  All 6 of us.  Hey, I like iCarly, the blond friend Sam is my favorite.  I actually might have fallen asleep I was so tired – it was definitely still light out and I am sure I woke up to the girls trying to braid my hair.

As if our marathon day wasn’t long enough, we headed into Cambridge to pick up Ratty’s backpack from my cousin Phil’s house.  Ratty and my cousin Tim (Phil’s brother) apparently have the same bag, and when Phil saw it at my Uncle Phil’s house he brought it home, thinking Timmy had left it.  Who is confused with all the Phil’s?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Moving on, Phil and his wife Katy left Sciutate before us, so it took my family a while to catch on that the bag was missing.  We searched the entire house, top to bottom, pulling everything out of my car, hoping it had already been packed under something, but no such luck.  We called Phil’s phone and he pulled over on the road to comb through is carload, eventually finding it.   What makes this story more ridiculous is that I had actually asked Ratty earlier in the day if Phil was holding his bag.  Phil was emptying beer cans out of it - don’t judge, there was a parade involved and it was a long walk!  We needed to stay hydrated.  I thought the bag looked like Ratty’s and asked him specifically it that was his ‘No, that’s not mine’.  Cool, I watched Phil empty the bag and pack it in the car, all the while Ratty firmly declared it wasn’t his.  Fast forward to 8 hours later and we are driving into Central Square to pick up said backpack.

Phew, I am not totally sure if all those sentences make all that much sense to people unfamiliar with my family, heck even if you know my family it seems pretty confusing, but that is the best way I can describe it, trust me.  Labor day was an insanely long day, but it was great and I got to visit with lots of my favorite people.  Hope everyone else had a great long weekend.