Dude does this thing every five years or so where he gets together some of his old high school buddies - and usually his brother, too - for a guys weekend that is officially dubbed "Droogie Weekend." It's a Clockwork Orange reference, but to be honest, I don't get it. I tried to watch that movie probably six different times when I was younger and I think each time I had been smoking the reefer, thus causing me to either get bored and abandon the movie in order to run to the corner store to buy Cheetos or fall asleep. Either way, I've never actually watched it and have no inclination to do so now that I'm older and pot-free.

ANYWAY - this weekend was supposed to be Droogie Weekend 2009. Dude had a beach house rented on the coast and I planned to go to Mom's with the girls (where it's Rodeo Weekend - a spectacle for this city girl, to be sure). Then, one of the Droogs had to cancel because of an illness in the family. Which led to the other backing out and Dude's brother couldn't make it anyway. So bummer of bummers - we're all at the beach house for the weekend! Woohoo!!! Although it would've been fun to go to the rodeo, I'm psyched to have an unplanned getaway with Dude and the girls.

We wanted to leave around 2pm today to beat traffic, but that SO did not happen. Instead we left at 4pm - just in time to hit traffic almost the entire way. Google Maps said it would take 2 hours and 40 minutes to get here with traffic. Well, counting an hour-long stop for dinner, it took us about 4.5 hours.

For once, I think we actually did a good job of just going with the flow of the situation and neither of us got worked up. Stop-and-go traffic as far as the eye can see? Oh well! It is what it is!

Belly took a late-afternoon nap. The Bug was pretty much wide awake the whole time. She spent a solid half hour or so saying, "Kitty? Kitty? Kitty? Kitty?" To which I said, "Yep! There was a kitty sitting on our step earlier."

Buggy: Step? Step? Step? Step? Step?
Me: Yep. It was sitting on our step.
Buggy: Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow!
Me: Yep. The kitty says meow.
Buggy: Pish-posh! Pish-posh! Pish-posh!
Me: Yep. When the kitty walks, it goes pish-posh.
Buggy: Kitty? Kitty? Kitty? Kitty? Kitty?

You get the idea. Dude kept chuckling and said, "Just remember that you have the most important job in the world." I agree with him, but I'm not sure he understands that I have conversations like that with the girls multiple times a day. That was NOTHING.

The beach house is cute and very cottagesque. The girls are sleeping and Dude and I are at opposite ends of the couch reading (well, I put my book down to write this). There's some jazz cd playing in the background; a fire in the woodstove crackling in the foreground. Life is awfully good at the moment.

And before I sign off - have you seen this? It made me cry.

http://wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com/2009/08/sincerely-john-hughes.html