Vacation: The good, the bad, and the ugly

We just got back from vacation. Overall, it was great. We spent half of it in Cape May with my parents and the
other half at Chincoteague Island. We just can't get enough of those wild horses. Saw a ton of this spring's
new foals and would have given anything to take one or two home. It occurred to me that it would save me having to mow two lawns every week but would replace it with a much less desirable chore. I'm not sure I have a shovel big enough anyway. The good is that we had pretty great weather and a great time. It was hot but we always had an ocean breeze and only had one day of off and on
rain out of 9 days. Can't beat that when you consider that I used to bring rain to every vacation I went on for years. These are 2 great vacation spots for families. The bad was that Olivia got sick
on the second night when we went out to dinner. Something she ate did not agree with her and she wound up in
a public restroom with the runs and almost vomiting. Some snotnose Jersey girl was hassling us
'cause she was cleaning the restroom to close it and was aggravated that we would not leave.
YES, can you believe that?!!! My kid is having diarrhea and hanging her head over a trash can while this brat started cleaning the bathroom before it was closing time to get it over with faster and a minute after 10 she is ticked that I won't drag my kid off the toilet and put her in the car for a 10 minute ride to the hotel. Our truck came equipped with a lot of things but not a bathroom! Then she says, "ya know, I have to get home to my daughter too." Funny, she didn't look old enough to have a kid but never mind. I shot her my most threatening "DON'T MESS WITH A MOM WITH A SICK KID" look and said in my own
Jersey girl tone, "And just what would you like me to do?!!! She is going to the bathroom right now!!!!" She shut up. Boy it's amazing what 100 miles further south does in attitude changes.
Virginia is part of "the south" , at least to me anyway, and folks there could not be nicer. Then back at the hotel a few days later(still in Cape May), some guy lets his boys play soccer in the parking lot. Grass field just 80 feet away but they're kicking the ball right where everyone's cars are, 'cept their own of course. I go out to find they hit our new truck and scratched it. I went over to their room and gave them a little what for. Told the father his kids just scratched a 40 thousand dollar truck and letting them play soccer next to everyone's cars was unacceptable. I don't think I'll ever buy a brand new car again. People have no respect. It was dented in a parking lot by someone opening a door into it within 7 weeks and now this.
So the last bad thing was that I fainted the day before we left VA to come home. As some of you may know, I have a weird kind of thing that causes me to black out sometimes but I have gotten much better and the only times in my life that I have ever actually fainted, there were mitigating circumstances. This one really threw me. All I did was get out of the truck at a tourist
spot and took 2 steps and there went my hearing and my vision started to black out. I stumbled
back to the truck and put my hands out and aimed my head for my car seat so I did not get hurt.
Tim was still in the driver seat. I told him I was going out and out I went. It was only for a second but when I woke up and looked up, all I could think is "please tell me that did not just happen." Having been agoraphobic for half my life, I can't tell you how hard it is to try to live a
normal, somewhat fear-free life when you know something like this can happen at any time. I have blacked out many times in my life but I usually come out of it before I lose conciousness.
This time, I went all the way out and it was not fun. This is why my cardiologist wants to avoid
putting me on blood pressure medicine. Where most folks can get a little woozy from standing up
too fast and I have indeed had that many times along with a "gray out" at times, a "normal" person will not faint from it. I don't know what else could have caused it but a sudden blood pressure drop but I should not have fainted like that from just that one cause. Anyhoo, onward.
I can't let something that may never happen again freak me out of living again. As for the ugly
part of our vacation, well.............all I can say is that people really need to check their rear view
sometimes and ask themselves if everyone within eye shot wants to see that. I am tempted to
carry around a gallon of butt crack spackle with me at all times now. I must say it embaresses the heck out of our 12 year old daughter to see mens' cracks and as for me, I try to look away as fast as possible before the vision burns into my gray matter but really guys, pull up your britches, will ya! Not all of your butts are ready for prime-time if you get my drift. ;o)
It's been a week of ponies, beaches, warm ocean waves, and WAYYYYY too many exposed fannies. Oh and one more really good thing. I had "met" a woman via e-mail on the ACOR myeloma list and we got together with her and her husband for a short visit at their home in Cape May. What nice folks. Just more proof that MM is very selective and only picks great folks. She recently went from MGUS to smoldering. We had a brief but nice visit and then miraculously, we ran into them near a restaurant just a few hours later and they got to meet
our daughter(we left her with Grandma and Papa earlier to avoid talking MM in front of her).
Kinda crazy as we were just stopping for 2 minutes and to run into them at that exact spot at
the same time was really funny. It's a big town with lots of people. We talked about how we'd love to get a big get-together planned for MM'ers and their families and caregivers sometime. I bet if we found a central location, we'd get a lot of folks simply from living in this populated tri-state area we're in. I think it would be cool.