My Next 40 Years

July was an amazing month – for the first time in a decade, I was able to travel as I wished, visit where I wanted, vegetate at the pool, hide inside when the heat was too high. You name it, I can do it!

Fourth of July weekend, the boys and I packed up and headed out to Cobb Island. My friends family has a home out there on the shores of the Potomac and it was an absolutely fantastic way to spend a weekend. I’m terrible at taking photos in the moment – and I’m ok with that so for some of my adventures, you’ll just have to take my word for it ;)

After a short ride out to Cobb, we got to the house, dumped our stuff and immediately went out for crab legs. Is it even summer on the eastern shore without crabs? Nina’s kiddos had zero interest in crab legs so we fed them dollar bills and they in turn fed those bills to the arcades. Win. A quick trip to the market later, we settled in on the dock and got down to the business of summer – being lazy in the water. Due to an overwhelming amount of jellyfish, we settled for lazing on TOP of the water and wiled away the afternoon. The boys all came in that evening, setting the stage for a pretty epic 4th.

Our first order of business, was to establish a fine “Shanty Town” from which we would base the operations of the day. The Jelly fish invasion continued so Big Nate rigged up a swimming pool for the kiddos and we spent the day being pretty “All American” – even though, what is that anymore? We grilled, we fished, we indulged in adult beverages and of course, we blew up the neighborhood. We may not be on Jackson St anymore, but some traditions just don’t die.

July 5th dawned and being Chris’s 20th(!!) birthday, we headed out early for birthday celebrations at home. We tend to do pretty low key birthday celebrations – small family dinner, cake, gifts.

The middle of the month found me traveling south to visit with some family in the middle of the state. I started the morning in Gordonsville visiting my amazing stepfather, moved on to Charlottesville where I met my aunt and some family friends for lunch. After lunch, we walked around the UVA Campus and spent some time taking in the Slave Memorial. It is a fantastically done memorial – highly encourage you to get out there. I ended the day visiting my niece in Farmville.

I have been taking course work towards a new certification: Certified Professional in Training Management and spent a good deal of my down time this month training my brain. Scheduled to take a four day practicum the last week of July, I headed out the Saturday prior to a pool party that Nina had invited me to a few weeks earlier.

We had a blast! We played beer pong with water in the pool, danced our hearts out to live music, volley-balled into the wee hours of the night (you know – like 11). It was such a fun night with a bunch of adults blowing off a little steam. After arriving home later that night, I spent an hour or so on the back patio soaking in the cool night air – the oppressive heatwave was in a lull and the evening was absolutely perfect. I went to bed at a fairly reasonable time with a long do-list circling through my brain.

Waking from a dead sleep around 5 am, I was violently ill. I spent the next 24 hours sleeping on the floor of my bathroom, my bedroom, my loft – anywhere I could have a moment of respite from from my roiling stomach. My first thought was, wow, I really can’t hang anymore. I’d had a few beers the night before – maybe 5 over the course of 6 hours. I’d been sure to hydrate along the way and drank as many waters as I did beer. I ate….

Around noon, realization dawned that I was not hungover, and did not in fact over indulge the day prior – I had food poisoning. Dinner at the pool party was a Mexican Fiesta style bar complete with tomatoes, salsa, etc. I thought to myself, ok – at least there’s a root cause, I’ll ride this out for 24 hours and be on the mend.

After an incredibly long next 24 hours I tried over the counter anti-nausea medication I could get my hands on. Eventually, I threw the towel in and begged my son for a ride to urgent care where I received a blessed dose of Zofran and the unfortunate diagnosis: food poisoning and a bacterial infection. I proceeded to go home, crawl into bed and sleep until Thursday. I was “well” enough to spend Friday and Saturday on the sofa and finally was feeling back to my self late yesterday and today. Food poisoning is the absolute pits. Not only did I feel as though death were knocking for a good 5 days, but I was forced to miss out on my much anticipated practicum.

Alas, July, Cobb Island, and food poisoning are behind us. August is shaping up to be a pretty fantastic month – I’m traveling to Canada for a few days to see an old friend, my practicum is rescheduled and I’ve planned an impromptu trip to Niagara Falls for the end of the month with the boys. I’m starting to dust off my resume and get serious about job hunting.

I’ll leave you with a parting tip: When in doubt, avoid the taco bar. More specifically, tomato based items on the taco bar – your future self will be grateful.