Cambridge House - Days 2 and 3

Bee Gees Song of the Day: Don’t Throw It All Away (Our Love):

We can take the darkness and make if full of light
But let your love flow back to me
How can you leave and let this feeling die

You know, when I don’t have to go to work, I try to sleep in. Really I do. But even when I go away, I find that my body clock is as rigid as a nazi goose step. At 4:30 am, I’m awake. I could lay there and try to go back to sleep but my brain reminded me that I had an obligation to fulfill.

I had to read a book.

My friend Anne begged me to read James Patterson’s “You’ve Been Warned”, co-written with Howard Roughan. All she would tell me was that she needed to discuss the book with someone.

I’m not a fan of Patterson – never have been. And I've tried to be fair. He’s just not my cup of tea. I had this promise looming and so at 4:30 am, I decided I should try slogging through my obligation.

Breakfast was at 8am, after which we headed out to a village wide yard sale. Then we went to the library book sale and being the book whore I am, I splurged and spent $7 on 10 books. I picked up a book on Dianetics – they were giving that one away. What a surprise. I never would have paid money for it, but as a tool to see what Scientology is all about, it might be worth it.

Anyway, after a lunch of…you guessed it, “crab kebabs, crab creole, crab gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple crab and lemon crab...” we headed into town for the sidewalk sales; I bought nothing ~ then. We eventually stopped by at a local Irish pub. It was there that Starbuck sheepishly recounted the story of the nickname. Suffice to say to my gentler audience, that a cup of Starbucks coffee works as a powerful laxative.

Once we got out of the pub, my self restraint was non-existent and I wound up buying a wrought iron lamp with birds on it. Birds. I have no bird motif in my home. I just decided I needed a lamp with birds. I still don’t know where to put it. Let this be a lesson to you all; don’t go shopping after a couple of drinks.

We gaily walked back to the B&B. Wine and cheese and goodies available in case we were sobering up from earlier and we just enjoyed the perfect evening and the company. We headed back to the pub for dinner…for more “…coconut crab, pepper crab, crab soup, crab stew, crab salad, crab and potatoes, crab burger, crab sandwich...” Afterward, we walked back to the B&B to play the game “Therapy” and…and…~ you know what? I can’t even remember what we played after that, I just remember that someone opened a bottle of champagne and not long after that, we went to bed.

Next morning, I woke up at 5:00 am, read more of my book, washed up, packed up and was ready for breakfast at 8am. Notably, no crabs were slaughtered in the making of that breakfast. We were on the road by 9:00 am. As I walked in the door at home, I saw that my daughter had the television on. And no lie, I heard:

“Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sautee it. There's, um, shrimp kebabs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp and lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... That's, that's about it.”

She was watching Forrest Gump.