The OBX

Scales is on Ocracoke Island this weekend, and her pictures are gorgeous enough to wish I’d thought of getting on Air BnB and going to the OBX as well. OBX is shorthand for the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and if the pictures are doing it justice, one of the most gorgeous places on earth. I would have picked a different location, only because Scales is with her family and all I would have wanted was to walk on the beach alone. I wouldn’t have wanted to crash her vacation, just saying that it would have been cool to create my own.

I forget that I have the power to do these things. You know, like book my own hotel rooms, drive to my own destinations, etc. Most of the time, I stay holed up in my room with books and movies because it wouldn’t occur to me to branch out… especially today. If I went into DC today, I would be mobbed with tourists from the train to anywhere I wanted to go, and if there’s anything I hate more than being alone, it’s being alone in a crowd so tight I can’t breathe.

I think that’s why so many people that live here go on vacation for Memorial Day. Having a “staycation” this weekend just sucks. It’s just hot enough to be uncomfortable and get sunburned even if you’re waiting to get inside a museum. There are beaches in Maryland, to, but if I really wanted to go, I should have thought of it yesterday. I don’t want to do two three-hour drives in one day…. because I think there are closer ones, but those are the ones that are going to be the most crowded with locals who hate tourists just as much as I do.

Sometimes I forget where I am.

NYC is less than four hours away. Boston, seven. And conceivably, you can drive to the White or Green mountains in one day if you leave early enough. Ottawa and Montreal are also not that far, but I’d rather save Montreal for when JazzFest is going on. Plus, I had a bad experience in Montreal, one that I’m not eager to repeat. The people at the gas stations were so fucking rude to me, but since I don’t have an American accent to really speak of, perhaps they thought I was a Canadian who couldn’t speak French, a much bigger sin than being an American in Canada. And besides, the only thing I really want to do in Canada besides JazzFest is go to a grocery store and load up on all the Canadian foods I love.

• Sugar Free Juicy Fruit.
• Grapefruit Trident.
• Ketchup chips.
• Mint Aero bars.
• Coffee Crisp.
• A trip to the beer store to get an Alexander Keith’s to drink while I’m sitting outside.
• A trip to an outdoor market that sells Beaver Tails, a pastry that we call an “Elephant Ear” here in the US, but taste inexplicably better.
• Going through the drive through at Tim Horton’s knowing they already have hot tea brewed that you can order with milk and sugar without having to wait for it to steep.

There are a few Tim Horton’s in the US, but I doubt they sell hot tea that way, because it is just not as popular here as it is in a British territory.

I also want to see the wilds of Nunavut, thanks to Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, because “one fifth of my country…. is also Nunavut.” 🙂 The fact that I don’t know anything about Nunavut (or much else) has never stopped me before.

There’s so much I want to do that needs advance planning, and I am of the “not so much” variety when it comes to doing so. I get into the “it’s not worth the hassle” movement and slowly back out of plans. Just got a new book from Amazon. That’ll do, right?

I also downloaded S2, E1 of Outlander, and the first scene grabbed me. It was exactly as I’d pictured in my mind. I wish they’d stayed in the “present day” a little longer, because Claire and Frank’s interactions regarding their “starting over” marriage and the baby that would eventually become Bree was as close to the book as the movie that ran through my mind. I also realized that because of the scenes from the last season, I hadn’t watched all of Season 1. So perhaps I will spend my day flipping between Jamie and Frank, because the book that the second season is based on, Dragonfly in Amber, is probably my favorite of them all… although I will never forgive the cunning stunt that spoiled Claire’s pregnancy for me in an Amazon review.

And on that note, I will continue to look at Scales’ pictures with no small amount of jealousy and read in the sunlight on my beloved porch…. a staycation without tourists.

My favorite.