Club Medford Day One

Monday August 6th, I worked 730 am till 10pm. When I got home, we did one last look around the house, kissed our puppies and kitties, got in the car and headed off for New York. Oh wow!  Our very first trip to NY where I did not have to be stressed out over dealing with the Mother In Law. I was excited about getting married, seeing our cousins and aunts and uncles and mostly about having a vacation with Michele away from the house.

I slept most of the night, until about 7am when Michele woke me to take over driving. We stopped for coffee and some really stale cinnabon's. Can I just say... food at those travel service centers is outrageous! Two coffees and four mini cinnamon rolls was 15 dollars. YIKES!  I mean, maybe if it had been organically grown, handpicked by Tibetan nuns, individually roasted and poured in a cup you could cherish, but geez. I won't even go into the eight dollar whopper meal ( a Small meal at that! We ate trail mix instead). Now, the fun part is that Michele is now asleep, I have had a large coffee, two sodas and a water and I just woke up. Needless to say... I had to make quite a few pit stops. Every time I stopped, she woke up. Are we there yet?  Ummm.... noooo... I need to piddle again. After about 2 hours, she took over driving again. We were now on the NJ turnpike, and I am a skittish driver. Well, not skittish, but I am a driver who does the speed limit, lets cars get in ahead of me, and do not tailgate. Obviously, me driving anywhere near NY is a recipe for us going nowhere fast.

This is the first trip I have ever been awake and relaxed enough to gawk out the windows. I saw the docks where all the cargo is unloaded. I saw the Statue of Liberty. I saw Coney Island. I saw what I thought were rows of derelict buildings, only to discover that those are tenements. People actually live there. Eek! The weather was beautiful, so we had the windows open and I did not even smell the icky smell of the water like I did on my first trip there. They are really working to clean up the water around the island. I was dancing and singing in my seat, waving at the people who looked. ( somewhere in NY that night, a man in a turban was telling his wife about the crazy woman who was serenading him on the LIE)

First stop was the Brookhaven town offices. Everyone was so nice and happy to help us. The lady had a good laugh over our "destination wedding" in Medford, NY. But we got our license with no trouble at all. We got to Tara's shorty after, went to lunch and then Michele went to sleep. Tara went to work and I stayed up. When Sisto got home from work, he and I finished putting mulch in the yard, hung lights on the trees and I watched and applauded while he fixed the screen door.

It was wonderful to work in the yard with my cousin. We had some drinks, cut up some landscaping material, spread some mulch... all the things I love doing in my yard that I had to stop doing for so long. Then the fun of putting up lights. You know... christmas lights are a great outdoor wedding decoration. Add to that those cute LED color changing solar lights, and you have a lovely nightscape. We pulled out their christmas lights and lit up the back yard. Then, while I untangled some lights, he got out the sander to fix the door to his patio. We just chatted and sipped our drinks, then jumped in the pool. This was the first time I got to spend one on one time with Sisto, and you know what? He is the most awesome man. I mean, I always knew he was great and fun, but that man absolutely worhips the ground his wife walks on, is so family centered and honestly is the kind of man who would give you the shirt off his back. In fact, both him and his wife are that kind of person. And I am truly blessed that they are part of my family. ( Can I just say... I miss them both terribly, and wish we were closer together) Every day, both of them were so eager to help us do anything and spent so much time making everything beautiful. They are a blessing.