Vacation Snapshots

It’s really stressful to just lie around on the beach, and read books, and go for runs, and play board games. I mean, it’s so hard to keep up with such a grueling schedule.

Snapshots:

— Cashel’s big-boy teeth are now growing in. That always brings about such a change in a child’s small face. AHHHHHH! He looks so cute!! I haven’t seen him since Christmas. Have to hold myself back from squeezing him to death.

— Trivial Pursuit game our first night here. It went on for 5 hours. By the end, our personalities had pretty much disintegrated. Brendan finally won. And we could finally all go to BED. Some things happened that were so funny, in such an O’Malley way, that we laughed so hard tears literally streamed down our faces. Raucous.

— The water is warm, and marvelous. Ahhh. Salt water. Beach chairs. Sunblock – 45. I’m obsessed with sunblock, and smear it all over me from morning til night. If I get one more freckle, I will have a nervous breakdown.

— I packed enough clothes for a 2 week jaunt through Europe – and yet somehow managed to forget my bikini bottoms. hahahaha I’m an idiot. I wear gym shorts instead – no biggie – but I had to laugh when I saw the minimal packing of my siblings, compared to my ridiculously overblown packing. It’s even more ridiculous because, of course, I basically wear the same things every day.

— We’re all about ice coffees. Also – every morning one of us has to go out and get multiple copies of the New York Times – since we have so many crossword-puzzle hounds in this family.

— We’re gonna go see a Cape Cod League Baseball game on Thursday. Can’t WAIT.

— Karaoke tonight in Hyannisport. Look out, townsfolk. The O’Malley Sisters will be shrieking their way into your lives.

— Cashel told me the entire plot of the Sponge Bob Square Pants movie, complete with re-enactments, sound effects, and also random bursts of laughter which rendered him absolutely helpless.

— We have a hula hoop in the front yard. At any given moment, some O’Malley is out there, wildly gyrating like some 1950s training film.

— My dad is reading the new John Irving, as well as continuing his Proust project. My mom is reading Lovely Bones. Bren is reading Ulysses for the first time. Jean is reading The Tipping Point. Siobhan is reading Summerland. Cashel is dying to read Summerland, and casts envious glances at Siobhan as she flips through the pages. Melody is reading the first Nancy Drew – which she found at a second-hand store: The Mystery in the Old Clock. I finished my Cary Grant biography and am now reading (and loving) Jack Finney’s Time and Again. It makes me miss New York City – even though I’ve heard it is unbearably humid there today.

— Bren said to me, holding my grandfather’s copy of Ulysses (I think it’s a fourth edition) – “I have no idea what is going on. NONE.” I said, “What part are you on?” He said, “Oh … Stephen Dedalus lives in a tower with a couple friends, and he’s teaching at some kind of high school.” I said, “Uhm – that IS what’s going on. You’ve got it! NOTHING ELSE IS GOING ON. He lives in a tower. He teaches school. That’s it!!”

— Stars. Fireflies. Wind. A big sweeping wind last night.

— Oh. And this was a total treat. Last night I finally met Dan. That one was a long time coming, let me tell you. It was so fun to put a face to the screenname and the blog. We met up at a bar, we ate, we talked, we watched the Sox game (most of it, anyway) … Yet another blogger who is as cool (if not cooler) in person as he is in his writing. Funny, too, to meet someone who is, in essence, a total stranger – but who – because he reads your blog and because you read his blog – there’s all this background knowledge between the two of you. It’s a riot. Anyway: Dan – it was very cool to meet you. I’ve been reading his blog for … 2 years now? Something like that? My sisters were a bit nervous: “Now … who are you going to meet? Should we be nervous?” I said, “Uhm … Dan?” They said, “Oh yeah, we know Dan! He seems really cool!” Life in the Internet era. Amazing. It was very cool to meet him … I was nervous walking into the bar … it’s always a little nerve-wracking … but it’s funny: I recognized him. I mean, I knew what he looked like, sure … but I recognized him, in terms of his personality – the personality he puts out there on his site, and in the comments on my site. I love that.

— Speaking of Dan: It was SO FUN driving to meet him. I don’t drive that much – I don’t have a car – so I was blasting CDs, I had the windows down … the night was beautiful … I felt amazing. I played The Eminem Show at top volume. It made me feel like: dang, I need a car. Not to really GO anywhere, but to just tool around on a summer night with the windows down, blaring albums I love. Awesome feeling.

— Watching Bren and Cash walking along the beach, father and son … Cashel is a mini Brendan. Same posture, same bathing trunks, same way of walking … It was heart-crackingly cute.