spoiler: this story has some poop in it.

It was one of those weekends where I started out without any real plans, but by Friday night the weekend had exploded into adventure mode. Markie was in town visiting, and she had been in exotic faraway Ohio for way too long, so of course I wanted to hang out with her as much as possible. I found out that she and Emily were headed to Atlantic City on Saturday, and I'd never been, so I invited myself along for the ride. Atlantic City is a weird place. It's like a ghost town, but full of people. The main attraction is the boardwalk along the shore, which leads down to casinos (tacky in the extreme) on one end and a hub of outlet stores on the other. The shops along the boardwalk are uniformly shabby--shop after shop selling souvenirs that are pretty much identical to anything you could buy at a mall kiosk or at a Hot Topic (except with the words "Atlantic City" plastered everywhere).

The weather was really beautiful, so that made the day more fun--I'm pretty sure it would've been dead depressing if it had been a cloudy day. When we arrived, a St. Patrick's Day parade was just getting underway (either it had been postponed from last week when it was raining...or, you know. Any excuse for a parade!). There were some bagpipers, some motorcycles, some cute kids doing a little bit of Irish step dancing, and some less well-behaved kids with really good aim who were pelting hard candy from the floats AT other kids. There was also a weird assortment of costumes involving popular cartoon characters. I, for one, was not aware that Tigger and Bullwinkle Moose were Irish.

After the parade there was more meandering down the boardwalk and then we split up--Markie and I went off to the beach (great fun! I ate a funnel cake as big as my face and we saw two and a half dead birds, one of which I poked with a stick) and then the outlet stores for some crass consumerism. Emily and another friend went to put the obligatory $20 down at the casinos. Then it was back to Philly for more lounging in the sunshine, pizza for dinner, home, and sleep.

The next morning, Amanda and I met Markie at the Continental Midtown for brunch. It was fun, but kind of a shitshow. The wait staff was having a hard morning or something, because they got orders wrong all over the place and at one point dropped a whole tray of food trying to get through the door to the dining room. There was also a baby present, which was delightful. He was a cutie. And I found out that babies are heavy little things! I don't know why I thought they'd be so light, but it was like hefting a warm, wet sack of potatoes. In a good way.

After brunch it was off to the library! Not only did I get all sorts of fun new books, I had a bathroom adventure. As SOON as I got through the doors to the library I realized that all of yesterday's bad food decisions and the heavy brunch I'd just eaten were about to....ahem...take their toll. I scooted downstairs just in time, but then found myself in a stall next to a woman having a very heated phone conversation. Awkward in the extreme. Also, (since it's not like I could help listening) it was extra weird because throughout her ten-minute conversation, she kept pronouncing the word "finished" with excessive emphasis on the final syllable. I swear, this is a verbatim snippet of what I heard:

"And I'm telling you that this is a fucking educated person talking, ok? And it is fin-NEESHED when I say it's fin-NEESHED. Ok? Goddammit. It is NOT fin-NEESHED."

...I don't know. Drama and pooping--NOT a good combo.

Soooo that was awkward. But then Markie and Emily came over for dinner. Markie made some perfect oven-roasted asparagus, and I whipped up two big salad plates (poisson cru and panzanella), we had some food and wine and played Mario Kart and then it was time for bed...and Monday morning.

WHEW!