This was my viewpoint yesterday afternoon:

Spying on my own house.  My roommate, Sarah, had scheduled a massage (with someone I referred to her, but there’s no finder’s fee which is lame), so I cleared out so she could get her zen on and planned to go up to Starbucks to work on some psych research for a few hours.  However, all the internet forces in the universe conspired against me and my computer would not connect to the wifi network.

This totally threw off my groove, but it was too early for me to go home, so I creepily parked across the street in our neighbors’ driveway (so that Irie wouldn’t see me and start barking) until Sarah’s massage was over.  I even had my laptop out and could reach our own wireless network, so with that and multiple cups of coffee in my cupholders, I’m pretty sure I looked like I was on an actual stakeout.

Before my stakeout, Maria and I spent the afternoon on vacation.  Occasionally, we decide that we have been working too much and we need a vacation… so we make one.  Really, calling it vacation makes it seem so much more relaxing.  Try it sometime.

We went down to south Nags Head and had lunch outside before walking over to beautiful Jennette’s Pier to explore for a bit.  The concierge lady was really nice and let us sneak upstairs to peek into the gorgeous Oceanview Hall.  That place is amazing, and I think it has magic windows because it made the beach look even more perfect.

Look at the color of the water!  After taking in that view, we decided to spend the last few hours of our vacation on the beach.  We couldn’t decide which beach access to go to, so we just headed off down the beach road and I pulled in at the first one that struck my fancy.  And that was the last executive decision I was allowed to make, because out of the approximately eight million beach accesses around here, it turns out that I thought that the Outer Banks’ hottest destination was Garbage Beach.

It.  Had.  Everything.  Old hoses, piles of lumber, rusty ladders, and even a yellow hazard sign wayyyyy in the distance.  We couldn’t stop laughing about it for a while, but eventually we got back in the car and followed Maria’s (much more reliable) judgment to a different access.

The beach was pretty chilly because of the breeze, but we stuck it out for a couple of hours and actually got used to it.  We’d also promised ourselves that we’d go in the water, and after freezing in the wind for a while, the 56-degree ocean felt downright balmy.  Well, not balmy.  But we did go in, and we were proud of ourselves for that.  All in all, it was a nice vacation.

In other outdoor news, Irie and I have been continuing our tradition of going on almost-daily walks after I get home from work.  It’s always so lovely walking along Bay Drive right as the sun is setting, and as Irie’s potty breaks generally coincide rather nicely with my photo ops, it works out well for both of us.

I did venture inside for one important activity this week: I finally saw The Hunger Games!  Penny, Nicole, River and I went on Wednesday (it was supposed to be a fun outing with friends from work but probably looked to the general public like River was getting creeped on by a bunch of cougars).  I agreed with the rest of the population and thought the movie was fantastic.  As I am also referred to as “the girl who was on fire”, I may be slightly biased… but still.  The movie was visually appealing and emotionally engaging, and I thought it did a great job of doing justice to some of the really creative and futuristic concepts in the book.  Who else saw it?  Thoughts?  Teams?

I even got some exercise in.  Seriously, go to a movie and try really hard to hold in your sobs.  It’s a great ab workout.