A Lovely Weekend

Here it is, Monday evening and I am finally getting a chance to write about the weekend, which all in all was very lovely.  I always have a wonderful time with my girls, and this weekend was no exception... even if it didn't quite end in a way that we had expected.

Friday afternoon, Adopted Little Sister arrived, used the potty and then we headed to the airport to pick up Little Sister.  She only had to wait about 10 minutes for us... her flight actually arrived early.  After hugs and piling the additional luggage into the car, we headed off toward Hutchinson Island.  Talking and laughing and all sorts of fun, we finally arrived at our destination.  I was proud of myself for resisting the Chik-fil-a stop and eating my Zone Bar and drinking a water instead.  That may very well have been the last of my good eating for the weekend.  There is one meal we're all quite convinced that we ate our full days worth of calories at ... and it was dinner.  But I jump ahead.

The hotel was a Courtyard Marriott right on the beach.  Literally.  We had an ocean view room that had a door that opened and no screen so you could see, hear and almost feel the ocean from our room.  Absolutely gorgeous.  And as I said to the ladies, I am not the type to spit (other than during a run, but that's another story) but if I had been I could have probably hit the beach from our window.  It was perfect.

We got ready for dinner and headed down stairs.  Waited for 1 hour for our cab to actually arrive.  The story was that there was an accident somewhere that blocked all lanes of traffic.  Either way we had fun people watching in the lobby and chatting it up.  Hutchinson Island/Jensen Beach is a very small town, with not a lot of options in way of food, but it was perfect for us all the same.  Completely laid back and wonderful. 

We ended up at Crawdaddy's.  At first we weren't quite sure of it, but we had excellent food even though none of us are what you would call cajun food fans.  Great drinks too.  3 pomegrante martinis later, scallops in lobster sauce and wrapped in bacon, some bread, and a piece of Key Lime Pie later, I was quite inebriated and having a great time.  Adopted Little Sister had steak and potatoes along with 4 glasses of wine.  Little sister had a chicken pasta dish of some sort and a strawberry daquiri and yet she seemed to be as intoxicated as the rest of us.  The band they had was quite amusing to us because the singing was not the greatest thing I've ever heard (I hate to say it but I may have been able to do better) and the singer's body gyrations or dancing reminded us of something you'd see in a movie at an adult entertainment establishment, and evidently she didn't appreciate our laughter when she looked straight through the window at us and mouthed "I'm Michael Jackson, Bitches" which unfortunately caused us to laugh all the harder (several drinks will do that to normally nice mannered ladies like ourselves) but also told us we should pay and head out.  Perhaps the best part of the evening was when Little Sister was in the elevator with us returning from dinner (along with one other guy who stopped on a different floor laughing his keister off at us) and she points to the words "No Fumar" and announces that it isn't Spanish because that can't be No in Spanish and I tell her... "actually, no means no even in Spanish."  We even laughed about that while sober the rest of the weekend.  Of course, we had eaten SOOO much at dinner that we all felt like we were going to explode and venture to guess that our calorie content for the meal was ridiculous, if not ludicrous.

The next morning we were moving slower than usual.  I woke up at 7 am and thought I really should go for a run.  I even sat up and then thought to myself, oh hell with it and fell back on the bed and crashed until 9 am.  We finally hit breakfast about 10:30 or so.  I had an egg white omlet with spinach, tomato, peppers and cheese, a cup of coffee (I needed it for my poor brain - I can't remember the last time I had 3 glasses of anything stronger than water, let alone martinis.), and an orange.  It was awesome.  Then we got set up on the beach and talked and sunbathed (after slathering ourselves and re-applying with 70+).  At one point it was already 12:30 and Adopted Little Sister said she was going for water... and returned with Mango Margaritas (frozen) in addition to water for us all.  All I have to say is yum.  About an hour later and we were ready for lunch... a caesar salad with grilled chicken breast and I avoided almost all of the crutons.  Then we hit the pool and the hot tub, and then headed up for a nap.  I ended up reading for the 2 hours the girls slept - The Girl that Played with Fire is just too hard to put down.  Then it was off to dinner at Conchy Joe's.

I think Conchy Joe's may be overrated based on all the reviews etc that we saw, but it was fine.  I had 2 rum runners that tasted like they had no alcohol in them... until I stood up and discovered otherwise.  Another piece of key lime pie that was supposedly their secret recipe from back in the 60's when they first opened.  Not the greatest either.  I'm a Key Lime Pie coinneseur and it didn't do it for me.  I had a nice piece of fried haddock and good sweet potato fries, but again nothing to get overly excited about.  But we did enjoy the reggae band and the overall atmosphere of casual fish house right on the water.

Sunday we slept until about 9 am again, packed up and headed on our way.  We stopped at a place called "Captain Jacks" in Ft. Pierce for a noontime breakfast, which was awesome.  Pancakes, scrambled eggs, a piece of ham, and potato fries (but I didn't really eat the potato fries and I ate only half of the pancakes).  We all agreed it was exactly what we needed.  Then a stop at the Vero Beach outlets.  On the way to the outlets, Mr. Darcy called for advice.  Angelfish had a rash that was originally on her back the night before and now had started spreading.  Without hesitation, I told him to take her to the urgent care clinic.  So I was now worried about my little lady and I started calling him on the hour and was having to leave voice messages. At the outlets, I found 2 awesome beach hats with the wide floppy brim, but refused to pay $30.  I am cheap, I guess, but $30 for a hat is silly to me.  I was annoyed at Banana Republic because there was a sign placed to insinuate the hat was 40% off and then it wasn't.  I refused to buy it without a discount and they refused to give me the discount.  So none of my money left my hands there.

I called Mr. Darcy again and then he called me a bit later.  Turns out it was a delayed allergic reaction to the amoxicilin.  So Angelfish was now on a steroid to help rid herself of the now all over her body rash.  Mr. Darcy strongly assured me she was perfectly fine and there was no need to rush home.  I told him we were leaving the outlets and on our way back to Orlando, but I wasn't sure when we'd get home because we hadn't really decided what we were doing next.  We got to our neighborhood far faster than I expected we would and we were deliberating whether we wanted to try to go to a movie or not when Mr. Darcy called and started asking veiled questions.  I couldn't tell if he was trying to tell me that I needed to come home, that he wanted me to do something, or what, so I asked him what was it taht he needed.  Evidently that was the wrong answer because he started yelling at me about how all he wanted to know was when I was coming home because the house was a complete wreck (despite my cleaning it before I left) and he needed time to clean.  He really lost it when I told him that I was on the main feeder road to our street (but I found out later he thought that I had passed right by the clinic where he was with Angelfish and I hadn't been that way at all).  So right then and there I decided to go to the movies with the girls.  He seemed not to want us to go to the house and again told me that other than having a rash, Angelfish was completely her usual self.

We saw "Letters to Juliet" which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I'm a hopeless romantic, and although the end of the movie was cheesier than the rest of the movie had been and a little over the top for me, I really loved it.  Then we had dinner at our local Papa Gio's restaurant (and I called Mr. Darcy to see if I wanted to bring home dinner for him, which he declined).  The food was great and we had a blast talking and laughing.

Then we got home and Mr. Darcy was in quite the mood.  I told him that we had hoped to watch a movie that Adopted Little Sister had brought with her (and that she had been wanting us to see all weekend), and he said, "Sorry."  At first I thought he was joking, but no.  It turned out that he insisted that if we wanted to see the movie that we would have to watch it in our bedroom because he wanted to play XBox with his father and brother.  I was a bit mortified as these were guests in our home and here he was not only being a bit rude to me in his response but he was rude to my friends in making them sit in our bedroom and watch while laying on our bed.  He says that I had the whole weekend and had gotten to see a movie already so he did nothing wrong, but I completely beg to differ.  But, lesson learned.  We won't come home early from girls' weekend and will end our weekends at the hotel or leaving points for home in the future.  Little Sister told us that her arm was hurting, but we didn't think much of it because she has carpal tunnel and had kind of wrenched her suitcase out of the car earlier.

About 30 minutes into the movie, Little Sister tells us that her arm is still hurting and is now going numb.  She calls her Mom who is a nurse and evidently Mom thought she might be having a stroke or a heart attack.  I made her roll her tongue (it's a tell tale sign of stroke) and she was fine.  Her color was good, but now she was panicking a bit and started having shortness of breath.  In the car we went - 1st to the Urgent Care, which closes at 5 pm on Sunday... which makes me wonder how urgent of an urgent care place is it... and then to the ER.  5 Hours, a chest x-ray, blood work to test for blood clot indicators, a CT scan (because one indicator was slightly elevated and she had just been on a plane a few days before and was about to get on another one), and a lot of waiting later... diagnosis: carpal tunnel and anxiety.

So at 4:30 am, we finally fell into bed.  I was completely physically and emotionally exhausted.  Little Sister is all apologies to which we keep telling her there is nothing to apologize for because we've always said we'd take care of each other as we got older (we've even joked about living together after our husbands have died off)... even if we don't want to admit that we are technically falling into the "older" category for medical issues like heart attack despite feeling like we're not old at all.

At 5:30 am, I woke and took my thyroid medicine.  About 10 minutes later I felt sick. Tingly and nauseas.  And so it was that I vomited.  Alot.  And had other gastrointestinal issues.  And woke Mr. Darcy and told him that he was going to have to stay home for part of the morning because I just couldn't be up at 7 pm with the girls (Angelfish had to stay home to make sure the rash was going away with the medicine today).  By noon I was feeling better at least  (and eating more on the Zone again).  So off he went to work.

Adopted Little Sister and Little Sister left around 10:30, so they got to play with the little ladies a bit.  Our girls love their "Aunties" and Angelfish even made artwork them.  Lots of hugs and kisses later, it was just Angelfish and Ladybug and I.  We had some lunch, took a nap, did some puzzles and artwork, did their Birthday Lists (I'll share those with you tomorrow), had dinner and watched "Kung Fu Panda."  Then it was bedtime and after stories, songs and prayers, the day is done.  Mr. Darcy still is at work.  He has to go to Richmond on Wednesday and Thursday for work, and I have Junior League tomorrow evening.  So it will be a bit of a week without seeing each other.  Thank goodness for the long weekend during which we may have visitors in the form of my Cousin Allen and his new wife.  I hope they take us up on staying with us, but at the very least we will see them for a bit at some point which will be nice.

Tomorrow I will either go for a run, jump on the bike, or swim.  I haven't quite decided.  In part because I am hoping to avoid a repeat of this morning and in part because I've been too busy and too tired to think about it today.

All in all though, it's been a nice long weekend.  I'm glad to say I'll have a 3 day weekend this weekend too.  Let's hope Mr. Darcy gets on his bike (hybrid still at the moment, but better than nothing) before Saturday's TNT practice.  He didn't get on the bike last week (or this weekend, but then that was probably because I was out of town), and with his traveling this week I'll be thrilled if he gets on a stationary bike at the very least. Hopefully we'll get to do some bike shopping this weekend for fit, and then I'll hunt ebay, craigslist, and the other wonderful websites people have suggested.  No rest for the wicked, as they say. : )