I went up to visit my sister in New Paltz with Miss Yankee today. Overall, I have to say it was quite the adventure. My father went to New Paltz back in the day, so we used to take all kinds of trips up there in the fall for apples and hiking and general day trip goodness so I'm fairly familiar with the area, but my father likes to give directions like "You'll see M&T Bank on your right and then you'll turn left" which is fine, until you realize that the point at which you would see the bank, you'd have to already be making the turn. He likes landmarkes like that. In any case, we got there fine and found my sister fine and decided to sort of lull about town a little bit.
For me, New Paltz has always sort of been the quintessential college town. It has all of these great restaurants and shops and the town feels like it never updated itself after 1968. Plus, it's a small town up in the mountains, which is ideal.
We found our family's usual apple place where we bought 2 large mums for my mom, a ton of apples and a bunch of cider and then took a drive up the huge mountain to our family's usual scenic place/hiking trails. Now, this sounds like it would be easy, but I assure you it is not. I forgot to ask my dad where we usually park and which site we usually go to, and by the time I realized this, we were halfway up the large mountain with no cell service to speak of. So I'm doing all of this from memory and the last time I was up there was probably six years ago. We drive past it. No worries, though, because I made a 4 disck soundtrack fo mp3's (about 1,000 songs) for this trip entitled the S&M Adventure. S&M being myself and Miss Yankee. And no, we do not dress in leather outfits or whip one another. Thanks for asking. Anyway, the soundtrack has all kinds of cheesy songs on it, so the three of us spent the day singing and being stupid. All the while, my poor sister sat in the back with the mums randomly attacking her and making my car smell vaguely like the woods after a really bad rainstorm. Except that the mums were really potent and making everyone in the car get various headaches and stomachaches.
How perfect is that? Lost up in the woods, overlooking a great mountain. I'm sure it's hellish in the winter, but if everything goes to plan, I won't have to leave to go to work because Random House will realize that I am an amazing writer who should really get paid just to breathe the air and I can work from home. I'm fairly certain that the house is not for sale. In fact, I'm fairly certain that it is a landmark and is part of the state park. Bla bla bla, details.
So just as we're taking in the beauty and really starting to enjoy the weather, despite the light mist and humidity that was going on, we are attached by a ton of gnats. Gnats are the worst because you'll suck them right up your nose if you're not careful. And then, you feel like they're crawling in your hair for the rest of the night. So, we're standing on the edge of the cliff and we sort of scream about the gnats. And our screams our answered. Now, we weren't obnoxious "omg, we're so girly!" screaming. We, well I, was doing the noise of exasperation as yet another bug made my ears tickle. I hate ear tickling. Our screams are being answered. And yes, I'm sure you're now saying "right, because of the echo." Nope. I'm pretty sure that my scream would not be answered by a lower, deeper, testosterone filled voice. And my voice sounds like a little kid's, not a man's. Miss Yankee and my sister take turns screaming back at this testosterone-filled stranger. I roll my eyes. This continues for a few minutes until finally, Mr. Mystery screams, "SHUTTUP! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" Right, because we started it. Oh, and it makes sense that you're trying to sleep at 5:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday. So we take off. Miss Yankee points out that it's ridiculous that we were flirting with boys while getting attacked by gnats, standing on the edge of a cliff. I point out that I don't think it counts as flirting if at the end of it, one of the boys tells us to shut up. Unless we're back in 4th grade.
All in all, I have to say that it was some serious good times and much needed mini-vacationing. I should really take more day trips to different places. Also, even though she
will be mad at me for posting this incredibly flattering picture of her, I think my sister was glad to see me. At least I think she was. Then again, I'm at the tired point where my perception of things is way off, which I know because I thought about getting a drink of water and talked myself out of it becaus the kitchen is too far away. It's time for bed.
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