Robster, Robster

The weekend is definitely over. And I'm sunburned like a bitch. We had a good little holiday, had some ups and downs, but things will be okay.
Friday traffic was a headache, getting stuck on the Cross Bronx for about an hour. Total trip took about 4.5 hours, including a desperate meal stop at a deserted diner off I95. Checked into the hotel and just hung out as it was late and we were both wiped out by the week.

Saturday morning we got up and made our way over to Mystic, CT. Very cool little town, even though it's inundated with tourists and their screaming progeny. Had lunch at a rooftop mexican place before doing some mild shopping. Walked around town a bit and headed over to the highly rated aquarium(we're both suckers for zoos and aquariums). Went back to the hotel to rest and clean up a bit for dinner and the concert.

Fearing a time crunch, we ate at Bulkeley's in New London, in the patio section of course. Nice weather, great company; we hustled to get over to Connecticut College for the 8:00 show time. Here's where the trouble started. The campus was deserted, like 28 Days Later deserted, only without the zombies. Thinking that everybody else had parked on the other side of the auditorium, I left the car running and ran over to the building to make sure everything was cool. Alas, the concert had been cancelled. Actually, the summer concert series had been cancelled due to bankruptcy. To make things even worse, a note taped to the door gave a number to call to start the legal process of a refund. Legal process? What? I want my money back now. But seeing how desolate the building was (yet the door was unlocked, hmmm), I tried to think of the best way to break this news to my very excited-for-the-show wife waiting in the car. In front of this building was the world's biggest gong. Well, it was more like a giant Buddhist bell, replete with swinging log to ring it. Feeling ripped off, I picked up a large mallet underneath the gong/bell and gave it a very solid crack. This didn't make me feel any better.

Back in the car, I gave her the quick and dirty truth. She didn't buy it. Convinced I was just yanking her chain, it took at least four times to make her believe that we weren't seeing a concert that night. Bummed, we drove over to a movie theater to fill the hole in our night. Again, we got screwed. All four screens in this quad-plex of a theater had just began their showings. Fuck it. Thoroughly beaten by the forces at work, we did what any normal couple should do: we went back to the Holiday Inn* and had great sex.

Sunday was gray and overcast so we took advantage by hiring a kayak for the afternoon. We strapped on the vests and leisurely paddled out from the cove, exploring the islands and inlets. Many times we would simply let ourselves float across the black water under the gray sky. Incredibly tranquil. About 90 minutes out of port, the sun decides to come raging back to life. Uh oh. I hadn't put on any sunscreen. My shorts and t-shirt were no protection and I felt the heat giving me a slow roast almost instantly. We turned the boat around and started paddling. Unfortunately for me, my efficient paddling had brought us quite far out. Now, feeling the pain, I dug in even harder and pushed myself to get that kayak back into the shade. Despite making good time back, I got scorched. My knees, from the kneecap to the line where my shorts ended, are lobster red. My neck, arms, and shins got pretty toasted, but not nearly as bad as the knees.

After putting in, we cleaned up and went to Mystic Pizza for a late lunch. It wasn't quite as quaint as I remember from the movie. In fact, they've made it a tourist attraction with a chain-restaurant type dining room. Pictures of Julia Roberts and other movie bits are splattered over the walls. Despite the change, it was still a really tasty pizza (Buffalo chicken) and great conversation. We hit the highway directly from there in order to hopefully avert some of the weekend traffic.

To my despair, we found the heart of the back-to-the-city traffic. Coupled with my increasingly bad sunburn and complete loss of my arms and shoulders (I'm still feeling the effects of my mad paddlin'), my mood spiraled down. In fact, I caused a pretty major fight somewhere on the Cross Bronx when I took something my wife said a little too personally. The drive sucked. Today, two days later, I still have a lot of pain walking.

Since this is the beginning of year 2, it's appropriate that I write down a few resolutions.
1. I will communicate better with the wife.
2. I will do something about this commute.
3. I will finish projects that I start.
4. I will decide what I want to be when I grow up.
5. I will lose this desk weight (or this desk) that I've picked up.
6. I will send the Netflix back in a reasonable time frame.
7. I will spend less time reading other blogs and more time on my own.
8. I will not make another boring list for another year.

*Holiday Inn sucks. I can't wait til we can afford proper hotels again.