Memorial Day weekend...
Friday morning we left Brooklyn for Lewes, Delaware. Zach is down there for about a month, working on his mom's house, and we were planning to meet up with Dave and Cass there and spend the weekend on the beach. And we did. Mission accomplished.
The drive down was great, beautiful cruise down the Jersey shore and then a slow ride across Delaware Bay on the Cape May - Lewes Ferry, the "Best Boat Ride in America". We arrived in time to go out for lobster dinner Friday night with Dave, Cass, Zach and Jesse Tischler. Jesse is an old friend of the family, someone I spent a lot of time with as a small child, but haven't really been friends with since. I see him about once a year at my parents' Christmas party, but that's about it. It was interesting to hang out with him, he's a different kind of guy. Very sincere and thoughtful, I guess you could say, but sometimes almost to the point that it makes you uncomfortable. He tended to disappear for a few hours every now and then too.
Tested out the new sand kit for the volleyball net by playing ball all weekend. Zach was suspicious at first, but we won him over in 10 minutes. Volleyball seems to be a very good sport for that; it's easy enough to be competent that anyone can have a great time right away. I guess it also helps that none of the rest of us are so good that we make it tedious for a beginner. We played, swam, windsurfed, sailed, layed in the sun. It was a fantastic weekend with some of my favorite people in the world. Actually, it was one of the first times in a long time that I really started to feel like leaving New York. It was so nice to be away, in a quiter, more peaceful place, and to be spending time with people who mean a lot to me. I have those people here too, of course, but I often feel like most of the time we spend together is at work, and outside of that, volleyball, but apart from those, not a whole lot. And not always for lack of trying, more perhaps because work takes up far too much time. I'm coming up on 3 solid years at this job. It's a lot more time than I would ever have thought I would spend doing this. On the other hand, I've learned a lot, gained a decent skill, of sorts, and made a handful of great friends. I go back and forth about it all the time; where my priorities should be, why I'm doing this, what I intend to do next. In the end, I think I'll probably struggle with these questions for my whole life, and that's porbably a good thing.
Yesterday I was jazzed to write about how I had figured out a Fireworks script that automates the resizing and thumbnailing of my photos after I download them from my camera. Between that and my new naming scheme, my turnaround time has gone from nearly infinite to nearly nil. Like I said, I was excited to write about that, feeling a sense of accomplishment, but now that it's been a day, it seems pretty insignificant. I'd like to pursue something that might give me a more lasting satisfaction.
Got a brand new tent and a new sleeping bag from my Mom today. I really want to go camping.
