I did absolutely nothing today and I’m not ashamed of it.

And when I say absolutely nothing, I mean I woke up, said goodbye to my visitors, laid on the couch in various positions and caught up on various backlogged programs on the Tivo.  Most of those backlogged programs included Flipping Out and Chelsea Lately, both of which feature absolutely hilarious and entertaining people.  (Yes, I kind of heart Jeff Lewis in all of his absurdity and Chelsea Handler is just hysterical!)

I needed some lay around and relax and not feel guilty about things not being done time.

I didn’t even let myself think of the things I should be doing.

My father, sister and grandmother came in to visit us this weekend.  My brother also came down from Myrtle Beach.  He got here Wednesday night, the rest of the crowd rolled in Friday afternoon.  We’ve had a busy house for the past few days.  Thankfully, they are a rather easygoing group so it was a fairly low key weekend but it still is quite a bit of work having people in the house.

Friday evening we just hung out and watched a few movies because I had to work.  On Saturday, everybody was slow getting up and moving but when we finally did, we headed out to the Animal Planet Expo that was being held down the street.

I stupidly, but not surprisingly, had not filled up on gas and almost gave myself a heart attack thinking we were going to run out.  This is nothing new to the people who know me - I live by the “miles until empty” feature on my dash and the little orange gas light.  Normally, when it starts to blink it means I have thirty miles left.  And it was blinking.  But we were only five miles or so from the gas station.  And we were initially riding with the windows down so I thought we were cool.  But I failed to remember we had five people in the car and I stupidly tried to accomodate that by turning on the A/C (see: because it was f*ing hot out!).  And for about a mile, my car sputtered and complained about not having any gas and my hands were shaking and I was praying that we were going to make it.

And we did!  So hopefully, I learn my lesson, though probably not, since I’ve actually ran out of gas before.

Regardless, the expo was fun.  It was free and there were all sorts of exhibits there about pets and animals and such.  We brought Sammy with so he was super-excited to be out and make all sorts of doggy friends.  But it was so damn hot that we only lasted about an hour or so before we had to head home.  Gotta love the South!

That was ok though, because we had dinner plans at a local Hibachi restaurant.  My father and brother share the same birthday (today actually - HAPPY BIRTHDAY Y’ALL!!!) and since I’ve been too busy (i.e. lazy) to go out and shop, I just took them all out to dinner.  And we had a fabulous time!  Steve and I love taking people to that place because you get so much food for the price and because it’s an hour or two where we don’t have to entertain people because the chef does it for us.  And the food is delicious as well.

We had apple sake and even got my grandmother to take a shot (she sipped it).  We had steak and chicken and rice and veggies.  They banged drums and gave my dad and brother leis and cupcakes and made them dance on chairs.  And it was just a fun-filled, entertaining good time had by all.

On Sunday, we headed to the beach and spent a couple of hours out there.  Steve and my youngest brother spent the entire time in the ocean collecting sand dollars and man did we get a shitload of them.  At least a dozen or so.  So many that I don’t know what I’m going to do with them - perhaps we’ll give them as Christmas presents.  After the beach, we headed out for food and ate at a local bakery/deli downtown that I like because they had delicious bread and pastries.  Then after that, we headed down to the The Charleston Market (I would guess it’s not PC to call it the Slave Market but that’s how I’ve always known it which wouldn’t make sense since slaves were never actually sold there) so my dad and sister could get souveniers.

Steve and I have always disagreed over flip-flops.  I love them and would wear them everyday if I could.  He just started wearing them and ONLY if we’re going to the beach and then he will throw them in the car and change once we get to the beach.  Well, this weekend, we discovered why most Charlestonians live in flip-flops.

We were in the market, which is open-air.  And a normal summer afternoon thunderstorm blew in.  Now, we had heard about downtown flooding but we had never been there while it did.  And before we knew it, we were standing ankle-deep in water while looking at the trinkets.  We just stood around for awhile watching the rain and then finally started wading back to the car.  Steve’s sneakers and my grandmother’s slip ons were soaked, but the rest of us, who were in flop flops, were perfectly fine.

It’s so funny to see some people in rain like that too.  It was such a downpour that you were basically stuck - you were either going to wait it out or get soaked.  And at that point, some people were panicking.  Others were just running across the street, soaked to the bone, but grinning like this was an unexpected adventure on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

We were the others.  I was having a blast.  My grandmother was taking it all in stride but we didn’t want to keep her out too much longer so we packed the cars up and headed to my mother’s place.  My mother had cooked dinner and a cake for another mini-birthday celebration and we just spent the evening at her place, hanging out, playing pool and watching TV.

Then, just like that, it was over.  Everyone woke up this morning and packed up and went home to their respective places.  I laid around because each set of visitors gets harder and harder.  We LOVE haivng people in and visiting with them but the mere effort we have to put forth for it has literally drained me of any energy I had left.  Yet we still have another set of visitors coming in the beginning of next week.

Next summer, the inn is closed, y’all!

For now, I’m just going to play some video games and spent the last day off recovering from the extended birthday celebration.  Then I’m going to go to bed and wake up tomorrow to head to work and try to get things back to normal.

Perhaps at some point, I can start catching up!

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