happy birthday, america!

i had a great weekend at the club! i hadn't realized how much i missed it up there. the weather was gorgeous, and i got up for breakfast on both saturday and sunday, which felt good. lulu and i did a lot of sitting on the screened-in porch and reading. i'm about half-way through "slaughterhouse-five," by kurt vonnegut, already, and loving it. i wrote a little, but didn't really finish anything or particularly like anything i came up with; i'll just have to do a lot revising.

we arrived around 4 pm on friday, and then went on a picnic almost immediately. at the flc, a picnic means picking up food from the kitchen, uncooked, and heading to one of the picnic grounds around one of the lakes to cook it up and hang out. it had been raining, but we had a roofed pavilion-type thing under which to eat, so it didn't matter. i took lots of pictures. syme showed up and i decided he sort of reminds me of matthew mcconnaghey, but not in an attractive way. also, liz and her fiance jeremy, both of whom went to lafayette, were there. liz was apparently in agd! i had thought she'd been in tridelt, but no, she explained that agd wasn't as cool as it is now when she was there (haha...). she gave me a lot of tips about rushing dos and don'ts, which i was glad to have, even though most of them were common sense. it's going to be interesting, i think, because i know that agd is the sorority i want to be in. i'm not sure how it will work out. but liz said she would fill out a pre-rush form for me and talk to someone named janine about me, so i hope it turns out well! who knows - maybe i'll end up in another house..?

saturday, lulu and i spent the whole day on the porch, reading. it was so relaxing! none of our friends were up - frances came late in the day - and mom didn't make us slave away in the kitchen for her, as she usually does when she's heading the cocktail party (she did later though), so we got to do as we pleased. at wolf lake the wind was insane - blowing off the lake and causing mayhem for hair and hors d'oevres. but it died down after lulu and i had played cards, and then we ate. there's always a barbecue. after that we sat with frances, mccaully and henry as john (fran's dad), peter (henry's dad), mccaully and henry played their guitars (and in john's case, mandolin!) and sang. i wish i had known more of the songs they played - they were great. finally, when it got dark, we pulled chairs up close to the edge of the lake and watched the fireworks over it. the fireworks are the same every year, and so is the picnic, mostly, but it's comforting that way. some people nearby were playing patriotic music on a boombox, which was the strangest thing ever, considering that no one ever does that. it was a little creepy, to say the least. but the fireworks were fun and afterward we all headed in our own directions. it was nice.

today we caught up with fran and mccaully at breakfast. lulu and i went back to the house, packed and helped mom, and then headed to wolf. lulu wanted to swim the lake (something we do several times a year), which is a quarter of a mile long, and so she, fran and i kayaked out to the other side and towed lulu's kayak back as she swam. it was fun catching up with fran, joking and just lazily kayaking around. i didn't realize it, but i got very burnt in the hour-and-a-half or so that we were on the lake. i rarely get burned, but i just didn't think to put sunscreen on. ah, well. all i can do is hope i don't get melanoma.

we drove home, stopping at the outlets on the way. it was packed there, but the sales were amazing, and lulu and i each got some great things. i'm wearing a new skirt to work tomorrow!

i am glad to be home, though. i guess i'm ready to get back to reality. although i will have seen bob for 12 straight days at the end of this week (he was up at the club, too) i think i can handle it. i just need a good night's rest tonight.