There are many nice things about my current campground (aka my dad’s driveway), but not the least of them is that there was a chocolate bunny waiting on the kitchen table for me this morning. Happy Easter!
I feel the tiniest bit of guilt that it didn’t even occur to me to send my own kid a chocolate bunny, but he probably would have been very surprised and maybe even skeptical if I had. I’m sure he wouldn’t worry that I was poisoning him, but he would definitely wonder about my inspiration: I was never much good at the candy holidays. Or rather, I was never much good at remembering the candy on the candy holidays — I’d be perfectly happy to be cooking him a nice Easter dinner, it just wouldn’t come with sugar attached.
Last night, I had dinner with my whole family, missing only my own kid. My brother and SIL and his two kids were visiting FL and my sister and her kids live here, so the ten of us went out for pizza. It was definitely a belated birthday celebrations: balloons and flowers on the table and I, at least briefly, wore a tiara celebrating my 50 years. Everyone filled up on delicious-looking pizza, except for my youngest niece and me — I don’t know what M’s inspiration was, but I knew there was gluten-free chocolate cake waiting for me. And now there’s lots of leftover chocolate cake waiting for me. 🙂
On Thursday, I went to Universal with my brother and his family. Universal has these express tickets, where you can pay extra (on an already expensive day) to shorten the lines. I’d say skip the lines, but in fact they sell so many of these passes that you’re still in line, just not for hours. But my brother got two of them for the kids, with the idea, I think, that the kids would go on all the rides together.
Good plan. Except M wanted to spend more time at Diagon Alley, so H and I took the passes and went off and rode roller coasters together. After lunch, we met up with the others at Hogsmeade, and went on the big Harry Potter ride over there. Unfortunately, H and my SIL were really not feeling well, so at 2 or so, my brother took them back to the hotel, and M and I took the express passes and played.
And played. And played some more. Twelve-year olds have a lot of energy. I can’t say that we did ALL the things, because I don’t do rides that spin, but we came as close as we could manage by about 7:30 at night. Spiderman, Hulk, the dueling dragons, all the water rides… we got completely soaking wet, ate ice cream, got a henna tattoo (for M), bought candy in Hogsmeade… had a really good, classic theme park sort of day.
Yesterday, I really deserved to sleep late. Or maybe spend all day sitting by a swimming pool. But instead my dad and I washed the van, put air in the tires, I took care of email and bills, and then I took my nephew and niece Pokemon-hunting. Poor H, who is going to remember Universal through a blur of nausea, at least got to put a Pokemon in a gym in Lake County. I hope it lasts for more than a day or two.
I still haven’t figured out the next stage of my travel plans. I’m hoping that Serenity gets her fixes sometime this week, which means I should be deciding where I’m headed next. Georgia? South Carolina? Beaches or mountains? North Carolina? There are so many places I’d like to see, but I’m still really tempted to just find someplace to sit still and write, write, write.
Maybe you should follow your instincts and write and write, at least til the feeling subsides.
Meanwhile, as summer approaches (it’s 80 here today), remember, there is always room for you in our driveway.
I wish I could teleport there! Your backyard would be exactly right. But I have to be back in Florida on the 12th of May so I don’t want to travel that far north. I’d love to visit when I’m north this summer, though!
I can so identify with your forgetfulness in sending candy to your son — I forgot to do anything for either of my grown kids or my grandkids — not even a card, for goodness sakes! I’ve worked a fix with the younger son for the next time they come up to visit. I’ll get some Easter Egg dye kits and we’ll do a belated Easter Egg hunt in the back yard. Should be fun! 😉 If I were to choose a place to sit and write, I’d opt for a mountain scene — listening to the wind blowing through the trees, the birds chirping… you get the picture. Have a very Happy Easter–enjoy that chocolate!
Easter egg hunts are fun — if I still had a kid around young enough to enjoy one, I definitely would not have forgotten Easter! I hope you enjoyed your day!
We had a very rare family dinner also. Rare because there’s rarely a time when we are all off work at the same time. I baked a real German chocolate cake for my brothers birthday (4/19). It was a good day except it rained too much and we didn’t get our long walk in.
Where can you picture yourself holing up to write, write, write?
Excellent question! I will consider it and answer it when I have an answer. 🙂 But glad you enjoyed your family dinner!