Thursday night my friend artykim and I drove down to Myrtle Beach for a “Girl’s Weekend” with Mary Jean (my roommate from high school) and three of her friends from Shelby (where she grew up), Linda, Susan and Becky. Kim and I yabbered the whole way down (except for the bit where we were slurping down our McFlurries — I <3 road trip food) *and* scored product goodness BIG TIME at a Walmart in, erm, Conway?, South Carolina (1).

Once at the beach, we proceded to get on with the main order of business, drinking. Two appletini’s and a bunch of catching up later, we fell into bed, exhausted, and slept for 10+ hours!

Friday, after a muffiny breakfast (and much needed coffee), we went for a golf cart ride around the resort, including a cruise by my most favorite house (which was on the market last summer when Jeff and I were there… for a measly $650,000ish :-O We also saw alligators (cute in a really ugly kind of way) and many many birds (most of which either Kim or Mary could identify, which was nifty).

Post-carting, Kim and I were bound and determined to get some beach time in, despite the fact that the weather was none-too-good to start with and the pressure was falling. We trundled off towards the beach (Mary was kind enough to drop us right at the beginning of the boardwalk for conservation-of-knee purposes) and, upon assembling the proper equipment (lovely, if heavy, beach chairs), started the beach-intensive portion of the vacation. We finally gave it up when the sky had darkened, the wind had starting blowing rather fiercely, we’d gotten a bit chilly, *and* Mary and Becky came down to the beach to fetch us as they’d seen the wetness coming.

Then the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down.

Eventually (feel free to insert “gabbing” during any unaccounted for periods of time in the narrative), we went to dinner at Bovine’s, a steakhouse, which is situated next to Devine’s, a seafood house, in the next little town over from Debordieu. We thought about writing the owners and telling them they should open a bar-b-que joint next door and call it Porcine’s, but then we remembered that we were in South Carolina and their idea of “bar-b-que” would not be the pulled pork which we knew and loved (we’re all North Carolinians, except for Kim, who has attained semi-native status at this point).

Back at the ranch, we made a giant vat of frozen lemon drop mix(2) and played board games. The first, called Sequence, was basically Tic-Tac-Toe with more variables, and the second, Taboo, is my favorite game ever. I have *many* words, which is a distinct advantage in Taboo.

Saturday (upon waking, late-ish, unsurprisingly, and seeing the rain, rain, rain come down, down, down) we decided to go shop, see a movie, have dinner and go to a dueling piano bar (really). We headed down to the outlet mall (where I scored a cute shirt and *fabulous* 50’s style dress [on UBER CLEARANCE!! 30% off the 40% off of the “Off Fifth” outlet price — yah me!] for a few hours, then on to Broadway at the Beach, a bizarre mash-up of mall, amusement park, restaurant row, bar strip, mini golf and movie theatre, where you can take the whole famdamily for a day’s fun (or so it would seem).

The movie was Monster in Law…it was ok, but not good enough I want to bother looking up a link for it. Then on to Landry’s, a pretty decent seafood restaurant (had fried oysters, which I’d have never known I’d like had it not been for ferociousbcycad, as I thought I hated oysters thanks to my one experience with raw (ew!) oysters with thebroomecloset… not his fault. His ex-girlfriend’s fault. ;-) Finally we rounded out the evening with a visit to Crocodile Rock (a dueling piano bar). Embarrassing admission: I *love* dueling piano bars.

It was an odd musical mix, though, as it apparently was Harley Bike Week at Myrtle and the bar was filled with hundreds of Harley guys and gals. The mix was heavy on the Southern Rock (Alabama, Skynard) and heavy metal/hard rock (Aerosmith, Poison). I did get them to play “Blister in the Sun” which was fun, and they did play some of the “classic” piano bar songs (“Piano Man” etc.), so it wasn’t all music I don’t entirely adore. That being said, the combination somewhat singable music, a fun bunch of girls and jello shooters served in giant faux syringes(3) turned out enormously well. We got home at 2:00am (it was an hour’s drive), and I had to pack, so I went to bed at 3:00am.

I got up at 8:30 to get ready to go to the airport (an hour away) for my 11:30 flight to DC for my 2:45 (delayed from 2:00 :( flight to NYC to the cab ride (Midtown tunnel closed due to construction…had to route up to the Queensboro Bridge) to the Path train to Jersey City (where Jeff’s place is). Arrived at 6:30, exhausted.

So, I’m in NYC telecommuting this week. And I think that catches me up.

(1) There’s this self-tanner, Jergens Natural Glow, that apparently works, even for the perpetually pallid such as myself (and one of the shades is “Light” as opposed to the “Black Hole Sun” shade that most self-tanners come in). It’s been in a bunch of mags, on TV and is hyped all over the ‘net, so I was determined to try it.

You can’t get it in the Triangle. It’s sold out at CVS, Eckerds, Walgreens and Walmart. Yes, I called them all. The CVS on Garrett was supposed to be getting a shipment last Wednesday, but when I called them to confirm, they told me they’d gotten notice that the warehouse was sold out.

They are selling on eBay for 1 for $11.00 (plus shipping and the ever-so-popular “handling”) or two for $20.00.

So, you can perhaps imagine my joy (even if you’re not a product junkie like I) when, upon stopping into Walmart for Visine (Tim & Kim have doggies and the essence-of-doggie in the car, though faint, was still making my eyes flip out a little), I actually remembered to go check the self-tanner department (as demarcated by a giant yellow awning hanging from the ceiling, covered in beach balls and deck chairs) and found *six* bottles of the much sought-after lotion. Kim bought one. I bought the other five, figuring that even if it doesn’t work on me, there’s always eBay… :-)

(2) This was a great idea in concept: big plastic bucket full of stuff, which you add vodka to, stir and freeze. The execution, however, was flawed, as it didn’t taste anything like a lemon drop, particularly not the yummy ones that Steve makes. It was sooooooo bitter (not sour, really) that I had to add four Sweet-n-Lows and two spoonfuls of sugar before I could drink it!

(3) Thereby solving the number one problem of jello shooters — how to get the jello out of the little cup. These you just squirt into your mouth — whee!!!