& that's the way life goes

Thanks everyone for your positive comments.  I made it through the night with all three dogs curled up next to me in bed.  Waking me up at 1am, when I went to bed at 12, making it so I couldn’t fall back asleep til 3.  But when I woke up at 8 the sun was reflecting off Lake Huron and a promising looking day.  I got up and took the dogs for a stroll down the beach.  They were going crazy with all the freedom they had off leash.  Splashing and barking at one another.  I wouldn’t change it for the world.

It’s a little cloudy now and I think it might rain but that just means that it’s now “me time” and I can curl up with the book I borrowed from Anonymous Amy, The Devil Wears Prada.  Not to mention I can probably find a movie on tv while I listen to the rain and smell it through the open windows.  It’s 80 degrees here!  I can’t be moe thankful I got to have this time.

I made it!  The drive wasn’t too bad except the hour and a half of Liko’s incessant whining.  You become immune to it after awhile.  As soon as I got 45 minutes from my final destination I knew I made a good decision.  The sky was cotton candy pink and blue in the dusky sky.

When I got settled into the cottage it was a different story.  I’m utterly alone and the fact that my phone doesn’t work is really freaking me out.  I thought I’d be ok with it but I feel so isolated.  I keep thinking of all the horrible things that could happen and I’m freaking myself out!  Luckily Under the Tuscan Sun is on.  This is such a great movie for me to watch while I’m alone in a strange cottage with just my dogs.

Ugh there was just a strange noise.  Holy hell I don’t know if I’m going to make it thru the night.  Send positive thoughts ASAP!!!!

It’s no joke that I’m 2 things:

1. A nervous nelly
2. A worrywort

I do both pretty well.  Excellent in fact.  If being nervous and worrying were an Olympic sport I could compete in the next Olympics and have a true shot at the gold medal.

Before I go into detail about what this has to do with anything I want to thank you for all your comments on where the air is clear.  I decided to make the trip up north with my furry friends.  I booked the cabin on Monday.  Every night before I fall asleep I have some outrageous and some not so outrageous thoughts.

“Maybe I should get Scooby an orange vest so while we are in the woods some redneck idiot doesn’t mistake him as a deer and shoot him with a bow and arrow” (he tends to hop and prance around)

“My cell phone doesn’t work at the actual cabin what happens if I need help.  Like I’m suddenly in a scary movie and Michael comes looking for me” (there will be other people there and the owners have a phone outside the office for emergencies and I have internet access.  Also Scooby is pretty protective of me when C isn’t around)

“What if I hit a deer driving in the dark?” (I decided that I’m going to leave work early so I can get up there before dark)

“What if the dogs just decide to stop listening to me and they run amok” (seriously, I’m a certified dog trainer and the dogs are pretty well behaved)

“What if….”  (you see where this is going)

So you would think that C knows that I’m having these thoughts and what does he do?  Oh yeah…he calls me today to tell me about a story he read in the Free Press about wild 400lb pigs that are ravaging the state and “to be careful and alert so we don’t get attacked while in the trails.  Don’t forget your mace”.  Really?  Seriously?  You couldn’t have waited to share that story with me?  And is a little can of mace going to do shit against a feral 400lb hog?

AH!

Whatev.  I still plan on having a relaxing time when not thinking about Michael Myers and wild hogs (trying to picture Babe on steroids instead of the hogs in Hannibal).  C now lovely refers to them as ‘da pork chops’.  After reading the news article it seems they are doing most of their damage to farmers crops so I’ll be sure to stay away from the corn fields

I’m taking Nani swimming in Lake Huron and then using the chuck-it in the trails not far from the cabin.  I think I might make the drive to the dam where my dad used to take me fishing.  I haven’t been there in over 10 years.  It’s a little bit of a hike but what better is there to do when you have nothing but time on your hands.

Yes this trip will be a good experience for me.  I’m pretty independent most of the time but taking a trip by myself is a first.   I believe it will be liberating and maybe I’ll come back with more self confidence and less of a tendency to freak out over the small things.  We will see.  If nothing else at least I can say I did it

I was sitting in the car at the liquor store waiting for C to come back out.  I was overcome by the need to have someone come rescue me out of the car and carry me into another life.

I desperately want to go up north next weekend with the company of my dogs. I found a cabin with availability. The roadblock?  C’s relecutance.  His passive aggressiveness and then reverse psychology “it’s ok just go.”

I need nature to regain balance.  I want to meditate to the sound of Lake Huron and the need to not converse with my dogs unless I choose to.  Why can’t he see that I’m an introvert?  That the birds, trees and lake revive me?

Should I go and let him stew or do I stay home to avoid confrontation??

It’s official, I’m a Michigan Up North snob…

C and I ventured to Port Sanilac this past weekend. I’m kind of obsessed with Lake Huron. It’s kind of my lake…you got that MINE! (haha) We rented this great cottage we found on craig’s list. (any of you Michigan readers that are looking for a place to rent I have tons of phone numbers!) The place was great, it was owned by a family and you could see the Lake from the window. The cottage was 2 bedrooms with all the trimmings of a real up north cottage. You know the mismatching curtains and pictures of ships and freighters. We even walked by the realty offices and looked at the properties they had posted in the windows.

So why am I a snob you ask?

Simple.

Port Sanilac is in the thumb area of Michigan. It’s about an hour and a half from Detroit. The coastline is covered with huge houses that have 2 mile long driveways to the main road. I’m not saying ALL the houses are ginormous, but a majority of them are. (And please…don’t get me wrong it’s beautiful there, I just missed my special up north place) When I go “up north” I want forests, rivers, wide open space, canoeing, kayaking AND Lake Huron. All I got was Lake Huron. I’m sure there was somewhere close by that I probably find all the other stuff but I WANT IT TOGETHER. Yes, I did just throw myself on the floor with my arms and legs flailing…don’t judge.

I like going to new places but I don’t think I’ll ever find a place I’m as comfortable at than Oscoda. I guess part of me doesn’t like change. I like getting excited when I get the intersection of M-65 and US-23 (I still remember when the flea market used to be at that corner). My heart starts to race as I see the coastline of Lake Huron when we get closer and closer to Tawas. I have flashbacks of the smell of pee when I pass Tawas Beach (the slide came out of the whale’s mouth and all I can remember is not wanting to play there cuz it smelled funny *wrinkles nose). I always say I want to stop at the marina and get ice cream and I have to mention how I lost my bubble gum ice cream off the cone. I just HAVE TO!

So I think you get my point. There is only one place that I’m going to buy a cottage. And I promise you that I will…one day.

——————————–

So the actual trip was nice though, for the most part. C and I did our best not to kill one another and we had a pretty ok time. It rained A LOT and there was no tv in our cottage. I didn’t have a problem with this at all, someone had left a book called Shocking Pink by Erica Spindler that I started and had to finish. When we got up there Saturday the weather looked iffy, but we chanced it and walked the beach to find something to eat. When we exited the restaurant it was POURING. We got totally soaked. We went back and got the car and ventured to the nearby grocery store to pick up something for dinner in case the rain didn’t let up. Luckily, it did and we walked back up to the marina for Music at the Harbor. It was a gorgeous night and we only snipped at each other a little (really this is good). I also got a huge waffle cone full of berry crisp ice cream so I was in heaven.

Sunday it rained and rained and rained all morning so we holed up. C found some magazines to peruse in the pile that was left on the coffee table and we made breakfast and coffee around noon. The sun actually started to peak out so we hurried to get our running shoes on. It was ridiculously windy, but the run felt good. We went into Lexington and explored and then came back to the cottage. We walked back to Uri’s for dinner and sat and talked. We walked around and ended up on the fishing part of the marina where I laid down at the end to watch the clouds move. It was still really windy so it was a good evening for it. Unfortunately, C doesn’t find the excitement in this so I didn’t get to just hang out for an hour. I talked C into more ice cream, this time I got butter pecan…OMG YUM! I really could care less about the food, ice cream for dinner would have suited me just fine.

Today we got up and ran and then leisurely packed our bags. Here are some pics I took. There weren’t many…

rialeilani