What Dryers and Vacation Have in Common

Inside the door of the dryer at work is a fabulous sticker. "Dryer must be exhausted outdoors." Of course it it referring to the hose disappearing into the wall, but a great mental picture of the dryer running a mile on metal legs under a blazing sun makes me snort with laughter every time I heave wet clothes into its cavernous mouth.

People have been asking me why I stopped blogging. The answer is this: I was in a funk. This sort of funk felt a little bit cozy. Just quietly feeling and living without any words to put to it. It also felt a mite exhausted and in need of being, like the dryer, exhausted outdoors.

A reunion of the Fab Five cured me.

Huge changes have charged at us at a dizzying speed since we were celebrating sweet sixteen, but our friendship has been a grounding constant. Just BEING together is refreshing, but being together in Ocean City was idyllic. Since Julie's wee wittle one just arrived, she opted out... but we stopped and saw her anyhow. :)

Upon arriving at our motel, we immediately unpacked and otherwise got organized. True sign we might be grown up. Janelle's darling Katie, with her smiles and bottles and diapers, was another good indication.

That's me with Janelle and Katie at Dumser's restaurant. If you're ever in Ocean City, go directly to Dumser's and order an orange ice cream soda. You can thank me later.

We discussed everything from abortion to how cool gummy monkeys look when held up against the sun and blue sky while lying on the beach. (Alright, that was mostly me. Bessie just laughed at me and kept writing her husband's name in the sand.)

We adventured about town, ate so well that my gut actually protruded a little by the end, and did some serious relaxing on the beach and boardwalk. As someone said, it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if we lived like that all the time. But we're a pretty ambitious lot and, as a result, enjoyed it immensely.

With three vacation days and one shift being the campus gopher... a few hours on Shelter, then a few on the boys' unit while they woke up, then back to Shelter because their male staff was very unused to girls who are freaking out because of tiny bug bites on their arms and "not having ANYTHING to wear!!" (yes, teen girls are pretty much universally the same), then to another unit to do med pass because they didn't have any med-trained staff on the unit... I wasn't on "my" unit for four days. They were as glad to see me as I was them. My 17-year-old yelled, "Becky! I missed you so freakin' much!" and hugged me. Twice.

In the dull roar of a unit of 13 girls, four of whom are new and needed extra attention to get through the morning, two of my 13-year-olds were not doing their chores. My reminder was met with some attitude from D. I was like, "what's with you?" and she said, "Well, you been gone for so long!" Accusation and vulnerability interchanged in her tone and I realized she needed some reassurance.

"I know. And I missed you guys!"

P. interrupted with, "D., why you talking like that to Becky? It's BECKY."

D. waved her off. "You don't understand. Becky LOVE me, like."
"I sure do! Very much." I replied.

And that must have been what she needed to hear because she jumped off the table where she'd been sitting and proceeded to have an incredible morning... as responsible and respectful as you please.

It's so good to have energy for this again!