Fireworks, Food, and Fast Balls

I have had many (read: 2) complaints that I have not updated my blog. So, I will bend to the will of the masses and let you all in on some recent happenings in my life.

The Fourth of July weekend was fantabulous because three of my wonderful roommates came to visit at the beach. Aadhithi and Lomo arrived first, and Regina, in typical "doooh" style, was at first confused as to the travel plans but soon landed at the train station the next morning, where she would be collected by her best friend, Papa Woods. She came toting homemade flan (one of many personal jokes between herself and Papa Woods) so that afternoon, not to be outdone, Lomo and Aadhithi chose appropriately colored blue and lavender flowers to present to my mother. (If you haven't been to our beach house, it is bright blue with a purple stripe.) Mom is still enjoying the flowers in a vase by the window. I ate all the flan a long time ago. Mostly for breakfast.

Continuing along that theme, I should mention that we ate - a lot. I think there was a pie or cake per person at any given time - including Oreo cheesecake and pecan pie (which we would later polish off at the Yankees game...more on this to come). The house next door was being rented by family friends, who also fed us well with a delicious barbecue on Independence Day. Consequently, we four stayed in a single room downstairs, called Fred's Room, or the Nauti Buoy's Room, slumber-party style. My sister and her two friends from law school stayed at our house with my parents, so Lomo, Regina, and Aad are the lucky(?) few to have met the fabled Vanessa.

Some highlights of the weekend include the many beachy activities we engaged in. Aadhithi paddled around the bay in her "canoe" (kayak) and towed Lomo and I around while we sunbathed in tubes. I took Aad and Lomo sailing while Regina almost sank in an inflatable boat close to shore. We went for a long, evening walk on the beach after lying on it all day playing cards and drinking water (read:beer). N.B. Do not EVER play cards with Regina. She is, in my mother's words, "slower than sh*t." And Aadhithi calls the face cards the "Royals." She's so foreign. We had an awesome ping pong tourny followed by an epic hula-hoop competition, in which we mostly made fools of ourselves. I apparently look like I'm having a seizure. VVS!! (On a side-note, I now have a little silver bracelet that I'm supposed to wear with a medallion that says: Vasovagal Sycnope - No Seizures. Whatever, it's jewelry!) Afterwards, Regina and I kicked butt in a midnight game of Trivial Pursuit, thanks to Gina's unfailing knowledge of comic strips. Finally, before leaving for New York, we enjoyed an afternoon bike ride down the road, each of us taking turns on a tandem bike. Wish we had pics of that!

Lomo took the train to get back to work, so my dad drove myself, Regina, and Aad to NYC where we met Chi for the Yankees game. I was a little peeved to realize I had brought two "Red Sox fans" (read: they don't really care THAT much, but still) to a Sox/Yankees game, but it was an incredible time nonetheless. Very possibly one of the best games I've been to. We got there mad early, and found that we could text messages so they would be shown up on a big screen in the stadium. Mine went through, Gina's didn't. But the following were seen by thousands of fans:

"Regina, will you marry me? Beezys 4eva!" (We heard some kid behind us ask his mom what the heck Beezys meant.)
"Harvard 08 - Go Kirkland" (To which someone else texted "This ain't a Harvard bar.)
"Chi is also enjoying this game." (which made us laugh)

When the game started, it was pretty much non-stop action. Pop-ups were flying all around us, the score was close, A-Rod hit a HR to tie Mickey Mantle for 13th place on the all-time HR record, we went into extra innings, brought out my fave, Mariano Rivera, who struck out Manny Ramirez when he came in to pinch hit (he never even swung the bat!) and to top it all off, newbie Yankee and my new baseball heart throb, Brett Gardner, hit the winning RBI. I stood on the seats singing "New York, New York." Oh, and we were on the big screen - twice! They even zoomed in on Aad and Gina. And the guys behind us, brothers-in-law (one Yankee fan and one Sox fan) are pretty much my new best friends.

So yeah, it was an awesome weekend and I was sad to say goodbye to the Beezys girls. I'm heading out to LA in about 3 days and slowly realizing how scary that is! I plan on buying candles so as not to have to pay for electricity. Lot's of candles.