we planned to leave for long island right after work. dan and cymara would swing by the office and we'd drive out together. before leaving i took some time to load up my mp3 player with some sweet road tunes. finding the right music to play is very important. music can be motivational, and it can also be conversational. for this special west hampton road mix, i went deep down into sweet 80's world for one side (what else is new?), and more 70's tune on the other side, interspersed with random television theme songs.
|
internal
|
external |
|
wiseguys - body in motion lindsey buckingham - holiday road go go's - vacation vanilla, jade and ebony (ghost world soundtrack) - graduation rap different strokes theme song destiny's child - bootylicious go go's - cool jerk kylie minogue - coocachoo bangles - hero takes a fall thompson twins - hold me now bangles - walking down your street billy ocean - when the going gets tough (the tough gets going) charles in charge theme song doctor who theme song soft cell - sex dwarf billy ocean - get outta my dreams (get into my car) blacklicious - alphabet aerobics blümchen - automatisch (live in berlin) christina aguilera - come on over (all i want is you) wonder woman theme song |
brandy - sittin' up in my room trina - pull over kenny rogers - the gambler michael jackson - don't stop 'til you get enough paul mccartney & wings - band on the run cuando cuando (latin american instrumental) lime - babe were gonna love tonight hawaii five-o theme song captain & tennille - love will keep us together debbie gibson - only in my dreams chaz jankel - number one (real genius soundtrack) shonen knife - raindrops os mutantes - baby (1971) three's company theme song comsat angels - falling (real genius soundtrack) gene kelly - singing in the rain salt n pepa - none of your business the real thing - you to me are everything |
i think i was probably overpacked. i had a little carry-on suitcase, my usual bag which contained my newly acquired ibook 2001 edition, and my sleeping bag (which i ended up not using at all). we also took my trivia pursuit.
john and i waited for dan to call us and let us know when he was arriving. i spent the time watering my meadowlark of cat grass and laurie's plant cutting.
to be quite honest, i wasn't that excited to be going to the hampton for the long weekend. i would've much rather preferred to spend a nice, quiet few days lounging around at home. going to long island, i'd be shackled up with a bunch of strangers, and it'd be all awkward and i'd be counting the days until i got back home i thought to myself. but then there was a part of me that wanted to go because i've never been to the hampton before, so it'd be an adventure of sorts. and it wasn't like there'd be all strangers -- if nothing else, i knew at least 4 of the people there. in hindsight though, i'm really glad i did go instead of weaseling my way out of it. i had a great time -- one of the indicators of having a great time is the long weekend suddenly felt very short, like there wasn't enough days to do everything i wanted to do, which was basically to just lounge around and do nothing.
dan finally called, so john and i packed up the car, and then we left the office (surreptitiously giving rebecca a ride), picking up dan and cymara at kendall station. i felt very excited. the trip to any destination is probably the most intense, because there's all this anticipation. you're not sure what's in store, the future is like some fantastic christmas day present waiting to be opened and played with and explored. it was really great, just the four of us in the car chatting, with the sweet mix mp3's playing, speeding towards our destination. 
our route in a nutshell: 93 to 95 cutting through rhode island (make fun of its inferior size along the way) down to connecticut to the town of new london where we took the ferry to long island.
it's been a long time since i took a car-carrying ferryboat. cars were parked in numbered lanes on the dock, like the starting line of some automative race. we had some time to kill, so we got something to eat from the couple of dockside food places. i bought a hot dog (which unknowingly became my dinner). 
when the ferryboat arrived, an announcement was made for everyone to get back into their cars. different lanes were then called and everyone in that particular lane would drive up into the boat and be directed as to where to park. 
space was a little cramped in the parking area of the boat. we sat in the car and watched a large chested young lady squirm her way out of the narrow opening of her car door. then we got out, grabbed our games (trivia pursuit, apples to apples) and went up on deck. once you leave the parking region, you're not allowed to go 
back until we arrive at our destination (i guess for safety and crime reasons). the ferry itself is organized into sections: the bar, the lounging area (sort of reminded me of a friendly's restaurant, with the various booths), the theatre (hudson hawk was playing), and the upper deck, where you could go up and sit and enjoy the evening outdoors. we grabbed a both and played a few rounds of apples to apples, followed by trivia pursuit. 
when we almost got to long island we went outside to the upper deck to catch the view. the nearly full moon was in the sky casting a lane of sparkles on the dark, wavy water down below. despite the fact that we were traveling on a boat at night, it was actually quite a pleasant evening, rather balmy. 
when we finally arrived at orient point on long island, everyone marched downstairs back into their cars and waited for the cars to clear out lane by lane. it felt great to finally be in long island! it took about an hour's drive to get to west hampton. the ride there was very interesting. since it was dark, we couldn't see a whole lot other than glimpses of the moon illuminated landscape. the thing you notice right away are how far apart the houses are from one another (definitely not the suburbs i know) the numerous vineyard signs dotting the side of the roads. we got a little bit lost trying to find deanna's place, but since john's been there before and since i was the front seat navigator with the mini maglite flashlight, we found her place eventually.
here's how i remembered it: the swath of headlights panning across the house, the crunch of the car tires pulling into the white pebbled circular driveway, a wild rabbit chewing grass on the front lawn its eyes reflecting in the darkness as it runs away, the jiggle of the car keys, the sound of the engine coming to a complete stop, and us getting out of the car, stretching our legs, seeing deanna's silhouette in the front door, there to greet us.
i don't know about the others, but when i got there, i was sort of shellshocked from the many hours of traveling. we left the office at around 6pm, and we got to deanna's place close to 11pm. we sat outside by the pool, sort of aclimating ourselves to the new surroundings. the moon was in the sky, round, white, occasionally covered by clouds. a beach ball dances around in the swirl of the pool.
deanna showed up where we'd be sleeping that night. dan and cymara had one room, john and deanna another, and i had a room all to myself with two twin sized beds. or so i thought. a phone call later, deanna came up to me and asked, how would you like to spend the night with two ladies? come again? some of her friends were soon to arrive, and they'd share the same room i was staying in. 
john and deanna attempted to inflate an air mattress, in preparation for the eventual arrival of some more houseguests. it wasn't until they read the instructions were they able to inflate the mattress, and by that time megan and roseanne showed up. megan's an old friend of deanna's, roseanne a friend of megan's. both ladies were actresses, but in their spare time dabble in secretarial crafts. it was very interesting to meet these two young women. i've never met actors before, real people who aspire to act for a living!
while everyone was getting ready for bed, i downloaded my photos into my ibook. friday finally came to an end when i closed my eyes and slept with two actresses. i was exhausted yet tingling with anticipation for tomorrow.
tomorrow: part ii, more guests arrive, first day of lounging, and what we did after dinner!
when everything was finally done, we had a great dinner outside on the deck. we ate under the dim incadescent glow of the porch lights and the illumination of the full moon in the dark sky. near the horizon, there would be an occasional random burst of fireworks (megan, you weren't lying!) celebrating some unknown occasion.
after dinner we proceded to have some chocolate fudge cake along with some fresh hot coffee. with dessert done, it was time to play games. we first started with apples to apples, a game where you pair up adjectives with a suitable noun. 
sounds like some sort of elementary school english drill, but the game is easy and fun to play once you start it. we played two rounds, christina winning the first round, megan the second (although christina almost won again, which would be proof that she was using some sort of mind power to steal our thoughts). 
we also came up with a rule that says the adjective cards you win actually describe what kind of person you are. megan, the final winner, won with filthy, animated, scary, extreme, fabulous, and cool. next we started a drinking game called i never, where the premise is someone says something they've never done, but anyone who has done it has to drink. 
cymara and i were exempted from drinking so we played with cans of coke. it didn't take long for the game to turn sexual, and i think i was the person to cast the first stone by declaring, "i never slept with an animal before." 
so we went around the table, each time learning a little bit more about our fellow players, usually of a sexual nature. as the night wore on, the questions got crazier, steamier, sexier. 
i will not repeat any of the questions, but suffice to say that there became a strain between john and deanna as we all started to piece together deanna's sordid past, and john went to bed before the game came to a close. when the game finally ended (it sort of fizzled out of steam) with all participants thoroughly drunk, everyone crawled back to their respective sleeping quarters and went to bed (dan and cymara moved to the cabin out in the backyard).
when we got to the beach, the first order of business was to apply some sunblock. while the girls helped each other out in the application of sunlight protective cream, the boys basically opted for an "every man for himself" approach to putting on the sunblock. 2 hours later, back at the house, we (the guys) realized what a terrible mistake that was not asking for each, as each and every one of us had bands of sunburnt flesh on our backs from where we missed a spot. my back was like a cave painting, you could actually see the palm prints from where i put on sunblock and the burnt area from where i didn't.
we had to take two cars to wine country because not everyone could fit into just one. megan drove her vehicle with deanna and roseanne, while john drove dan, cymara, and myself. we had actually driven through this area on our way to deanna's place friday night, but that was in the dark and we couldn't see very much. 
marilyn monroe, babe ruth, joe dimaggio, marx brothers, w.c.fields, etc. the place was dimly lit except for colorful stained-glass tiffany lamps dangling from the ceilings. it seems to be a haunt of local senior citizens, as most of the patrons were of a significantly older age. after a long wait and no appearance by john or megan, deanna went outside to investigate. turns out they turned out of a one way street and was nabbed by the police. apparently that place is a favorite police trap to catch people accidently coming out of a one way street. both john and megan got ticketed, and when john finally arrived at the restaurant, it was all he could talk about. the waitress overheard our conversation and told us that the police had been heavily patrolling this area for driving infractions, and although it was kind of too late to say it now, that we should be careful around this town. i ordered the blue cheese steak, which came with homefries and a small soup. everyone else had the burger.
dan walked in on his own power, albeit rather gingerly. inside the emergency room, it was empty and almost seemed like there was nobody around. we saw some nurse, who, when asked, told his to register at the front desk. while dan filled out the prerequisite forms, john and i went looking for a bathroom. walking around this little hospital, 
it almost seems like a ghost town, nobody around. apparently they don't get a lot of action around here. we went back to the emergency room waiting area, and a few minutes later dan was called in to see the doctor. john and i waited outside, read the magazines and children books lying around (somebody had left a copy of watchtower with the cover story, "is satan real?" on the cover -- yeah, he's really all right, and he lives inside of dan's stomach!). 
there was also a wall-mounted television tuned into the yankees-red soxs game, mike mussina pitching again david cone. we were probably in that hospital for a good two hours. at one point we saw dan come out of the doctor's room in a gown, lying on a stretcher. we thought maybe he was getting operated on, but they were just wheeling him down to get an x-ray taken. after the first hour, these group of people arrived at the waiting room. they were here to drop off their elderly mother (mother-in-law), who had some sort of serious colon issue. while the doctor was treating their mother, they watched the game on tv. can you guess which team they were rooting for? yankees of course! if they only knew they were sitting next to two diehard red sox fans from boston! i tried to play it cool, didn't make a big effort to let them know that i wasn't rooting for their home team. i figured, hey, we're in new york, it's their place, they should be allowed to root for the yankees. john on the otherhand had no qualms about dropping little hints that we were from boston and that we were red sox fans. he asked me, within perfect earshot of our yankees fans, about the time i met trot nixon, and the last red sox game i went to, and whether or not mark hickey was at the game we were watching on tv. i sort of cringed, i didn't want it to get messy here in the hospital waiting lounge, start a fight with some yankee fans! 
after we ate, john, dan, and myself drove into town to get dan's prescriptions made out. in town we came face to face with the kind of people who summer here in the hampton. if we acted all sophisticated, who's to know that we weren't from around these here parts? unfortunately it doesn't take long before i start wrestling with the store display at rite aid, which is exactly what i did. fish out of water, i am. we also made plenty of oxycontin jokes, since we were dealing with a drug transaction. with the prescriptions being an hour before they would be filled, we decided to go back home and wait it out.
at the house we found deanna and megan lounging on the enclosed porch. john and megan were on the swings, a few "i'm swinging with your boyfriend" jokes were fired, and before we knew it, we were on the topic of words that make us cringe. apparently words like moist, panty, and crevasses make certain people uncomfortable. so of course we decided to use them as often as possible in our conversation!
an hour later we (the boys) headed back out to pick up dan's drugs. we then went to the local supermarket to buy some groceries for lunch. it was here that i had my second celebrity run in. i saw deborah harry check out with her groceries, followed by an oldish brunette dressed in a black leather vest. i think i was slightly starstrucked, that's why i didn't snap a quick photo of her while she was leaving the supermarket. she had this weird duo colored hairstyle and she was kind of out of shape. still -- deborah harry!
we came back with the food and fired up the barbecue again and had a nice lunch outside in the hot labor day sun. burgers and hot dogs, i'm so glad none of us were vegetarians! of course dan couldn't eat any of the stuff and had to feasted on some more liquid food. we had to eat the burgers on pita bread because they didn't have anymore burger buns at the supermarket. also, i bought these packets of flan pudding for everyone but nobody wanted any so dan and i split them.
