May the Forth Be with You

It’s the week after the 4th of July. Is everyone exhausted?

I’ve never been that busy on a holiday weekend. Still missing out on a few hours of sleep.

On Thursday night, I went to Princeton to see fireworks. We chose a spot overlooking the water on the Harrison St. bridge. Walking up to the bridge, I realized it was COVERED in spiders. I wanted nothing to do with these things. They were everywhere. I warned people not to touch the railing. On top of that, some stupid flying bug bit me. I could feel it’s teeth sink into my skin. Ick.

We tried to take a selfie but overcompensated for the darkness with excessively expressive eyebrows. You can just imagine what that looked like.

The next day I spent some time in the sun. I made it my mission to get really tan this year, but without increasing my risk for skin cancer. I typically use a normal sunscreen for my body but wanted something gentle for my face. I bought the Neutrogena Clear Face Break-out Free lotion with SPF 55. I like that it is specifically meant for your face and won’t cause breakouts. I worry about regular lotions clogging my pores because I have acne prone skin, but with this one I didn’t have to think about it. My face was unharmed by the sun.

We hopped in my friend Ajay’s Toyota Camry Hybrid around 7:30 and drove to LBI. Apparently the Camry Hybrid is incredibly fuel efficient and can fly (or something like that). We learned this while unpacking the car in the driveway. What a weirdo. That was one of many themes of the day.

The first thing that I wanted to do was go on Jerry’s boat. We always have a great time on the water, shouting to each other and getting thrown around like rag dolls.

Perfect timing for a photo. Look how cute everyone is. Even the dog is smiling.

The second theme of the day was GoPro. Mike filmed our boat excursion with his GoPro camera and stabilizer, so naturally we all had to scream GoPro twenty times in a row.

Everyone agreed that the boat ride was the perfect way to start the day. How can you not relax with a view like this?

Just look at the concentration and focus. This is our dear friend Jeremiah creating a delicious salad. He made the dressing and everything. That’s dedication.

After lunch the guys had a mission- to get the damn table out of the damn water.

This took the help of one dog, three guys to lift, two people to jump in the water, and three ladies to offer moral support. It took forever just to decide on the proper way to lift the table out of the water. Pulleys were suggested, the word engineering was tossed around, people pointed out the obvious. They ended up lifting it with sheer strength, the most obvious answer. Literally, 45 minutes to talk about the process. I was more than ready to head to the beach once the worlds easiest problem was solved.

Like typical twenty (or thirty) -somethings, we threw a Nerf football around. All that was missing was our college pinnies and beer koozies. I quickly realized that I have no skill concerning group sports. While my friends were living the athletic dream, I kept apologizing for my poor throwing skills. This is why I play Candy Crush and Solitaire. I tried going in the water but eventually called it quits after getting hit in the face so many times. No one was safe. Jerry got a second sunburn. Kathryn almost lost her top in the battle of boobs versus ocean.

We made the acquaintance of a young man named Asher while at the beach. Each time I threw the ball to him, he threw it back and told me to try again. I avoided throwing to him after that. You try again, man. He was even there for the pre-boob/ post-boob sighting. Pretty sure he high-fived her while it was exposed. We stalked him on Facebook later that day because we are monsters and thought he was lying about his age.

Back at the house, it was time for dinner. With the same concentration used to make salad, Jerry used his skills to produce a gallon of mint mojitos. I had two of them and felt it immediately while everyone else drank them like lemonade. We ate our steaks and waited around for the fireworks to finally start.

Mike and I found the perfect spot to eat cake and watch the fireworks. We decided that the fireworks from Barnegate were the best, mostly because they went on forever. By 10:30, we were ready to head home.

Sunday was an assortment of activities. Jurassic Park, Chipotle, and a walk through the park.

Notice anything about this flower?

This was easily one of the best holiday weekends I have ever had.