What I Learned On My Summer Vacation

I'm back! I had a great vacation up in Massachusetts with my mom. We took mini-trips to Plymouth, Lowell, and Concord. We organized and held a yard sale. We painted. We drank wine and beer and margaritas. We decided that hula hooping is an art and we need to learn it. We cooked out hamburgers and hotdogs on the 4th, and then my little sister showed up for a surprise visit with her pilot friend. Overall I had a great time, and Plymouth and Concord deserve their own posts. So for now I will tell you what I stuff I learned about on my summer vacation.

• Margaritas from Mama Iguana's in Northampton are the best in the world.
• But if you can't get there then the Jose Cuervo margarita mix from Costco is pretty darn good too.
• Miracle of Aloe foot repair cream is fantastic stuff and will make your feet lovely and soft again if you've decided to wear flip-flops and sandals for a week straight
• Teva strappy flip-flops are the bomb.com and I ordered some before I even came home.
• Room darkening shades ROCK. I am getting some today.
• I sleep great and don't have any stomach issues when I'm on vacation. I went to sleep around 10:30 or 11:00 every night and woke up between 6 and 7 most mornings (hence the early post). I didn't need the drugs I brought with me just in case things went all haywire. I never even used my heating pad.
• I'm going to make socks out of delicious sock yarn I found at Webs. I'm not sure what I'll do with the fantastic alpaca yarn I got but scarf and wrist warmers come to mind....
• I'm not really sure what I'll do with the beautiful fabric I bought at the quilt store that went out of business last week, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.
• Northampton is a great place if you want to just be yourself. I wore mascara a couple of days, but I was completely comfortable wandering around makeup-less with dirty hair if that's how the day went. I wouldn't do that down here. Women look different up there- hair goes gray and people are ok with that. If you want to dress like a hippy and not wear any shoes, go for it. If you are straight, gay, transgendered- or somewhere in between- that's ok too.
• People in New England (or maybe it's just Northampton) are a lot more aware of the environment and what we do to it. It's a refreshing change. There are also a lot more local stores and local food eateries around. I've had trouble finding that in this corner of the world, but I've made up my mind to look harder.
• Apple computers are fantastic and so well designed down to the littlest detail and now I'm used to using one and keep screwing up my shortcuts on my PC. BOOOOOOOOO.

I will write more later. Now it's time to go back to work.