Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Home Again

It's Tuesday afternoon, and my stomach muscles hurt. Badly. And I'm not quite sure if it can be traced to this hacking cough that's been stubborn enough to hang around through the entirety of my vacation and into today, or if it's due to the obscene amount of laughter that came out of my mouth since late Thursday night. I'm going to go with the laughter part, because it's much more satisfying to think that my abs have been strained by joy rather than a light tickle in my throat.

Florida was fantastic. Billy and I shared this trip with some of his family and their significant others. In total, there were ten of us sharing a huge rented home just outside of Orlando, where we stayed up late, woke in the afternoon, and drank pretty much constantly from the time we rolled out of bed until the time we collapsed back into it. Rather than lounge on the patio surrounding the pool in our backyard, we took to convening around a massive island in the kitchen, where Rummy tournaments were held, snacks were consumed, and drinks were imbibed. In our two rental cars, the ten of us took poorly led and therefore very indirect routes to visit members of the family who call Florida home. When we would finally stumble upon our intended location, we would file into the lucky homeowner's front door, eat excellently prepared Mexican fare, drink all of the alcohol we carried in, laugh and chat, then finally leave well past midnight, exhausted.

Aside from the pressure of meeting countless members of my new boyfriend's family, the weekend was nothing but relaxing. We did little in the way of sightseeing, preferring instead to keep time that was not already reserved for visiting family limited to drinking within the confines of our house. It was too hot, too unbelievably humid, to spend much time outside, so our outdoor activities were limited to smoking, moving from the house to the car, one ill-fated attempt to spend some time in Universal Studios, and one evening at Pleasure Island.

Although I knew all of my vacation companions before the trip, I feel I know them better, and like them more, now. The laughter was constant and relentless. Everyone's sense of humor blended beautifully with mine, causing me to guffaw on a regular basis...An unfortunate thing only because my laugh, coupled with this cold, sounds like that of an 80-year-old-transvestite-and-lifetime-smoker. And each rumble of laughter is followed by a wet cough. My laugh is always loud, but this weekend I was audible throughout the house, and easily identifiable. "I knew you were laughing downstairs, Laurie, because I heard ha-ha-ha-cough-cough-cough."

Monday was dedicated to traveling. Two one-hour flights, one two-hour layover in Atlanta, and one 20-minute romp with Billy in an airplane lavatory (grossly overrated for two very tall people, mind you) brought us back to Newark, where we begrudgingly headed home and prepared ourselves for the workweek.

As far as my predictions for my trip went, I was pretty much on target. I drank vodka, I spent time with my wonderful boyfriend (who I find, after spending four full days with him, even more amazing than I did before - which I didn't think was possible), and I relaxed. I believe that this past weekend may have been the perfect getaway.

7 comments:

Kristi said...

Oh I'm so glad for you to have a nice vacation.

Wow! Meeting the family already!
So early in the relationship. Holy Pressure!

portuguesa nova said...

Is Billy Mexican?? I've always wanted a Mexican family!

How did you pull of the airplane bathroom thing? I sense it would ultimately be disappointing too, but I'd still like to give it a shot. What I'm wondering about specifically is how to get in and out (of the bathroom) without stares and frightened fellow passengers.

Laurie said...

Billy's family on one side is Mexican, yes. He's actually Italian.

As far as the Mile High club goes, it was tricky. I went to the bathroom first, where there was no line, but it was occupied. While I was waiting, Billy got in line behind me. (Hello, Mr. Obvious! He told me he was going to wait until I was inside the lavatory then use a secret knock to gain entry. Guess he got impatient.) We thought we were in the clear, because the stewardesses were in the aisles giving out drinks and snacks, and no one was in the back of the plane. But then, as we stood in line, an older guy came to stand in line behind us and started making small talk with Billy. "I saw a guitar player last night in St. Louis, looked just like you." Even though we were both giddy from nerves, Billy talked to the guy for a minute, then the guy got impatient and said he'd just sit in his seat and wait for the line to clear. Shortly thereafter, the door opened and Billy and I seized our opportunity and jumped in. I'll spare you the gritty details, but that little compartment is far too small for a 6'4" man and a 5'9" woman to try anything. Between miniscule space between the toilet and the wall, and the horrid angle of the side of the aircraft, there was little room to move into position, much less move while IN the position, if you get my drift. There was much laughter in that lavatory. Fast forward to the end, where we were ready to exit. We both stopped. "Wait! How do we get out of here?" We both sort of looked at eachother for a second, preparing for our awkward exit. We took a deep breath and opened the door...And there was the guy who was talking to us earlier. We looked and the ground and hurried to our seats. We were flying with friends, and one of them said "...And where were you two? Pigs. Having sex in an airplane bathroom." I giggled and said I didn't know what she was talking about. "Yeah, right," she said. "You guys have 'guilty' written all over your faces."

But now I can say I've done it.

Anonymous said...

What the hell is imbibed and guffaw? Mile high club that's nothing try doing it in a confessional.

Mr. B

Sunney said...

So you've taken a piece of the FLorida flu back with you, hm? Sorry to hear you caught it. Practically everyone here has this horrid cough/cold/flu/upper respiratory thing right now. Myself included. And it totally sucks when it is hot outside, and when we don't even get a fall. Anywhoo... glad you had a great vacation. :)

portuguesa nova said...

Very useful. Hmmm...I guess if I really need to get this out of my system, a handjob will have to do. Ha! Sorry. That was gross.

Anonymous said...

...and drank pretty much constantly from the time we rolled out of bed until the time we collapsed back into it.........and drinks were imbibed.......... I drank vodka....drink all of the alcohol we carried in......