ROW80 check-in and the weekend of awesome

Unbelievable. I guess that’s what happens when I spend Monday half down the shore and half on the train back to D.C., right? (Sidenote: do only people from New Jersey say “down the shore”? What does everyone else say? “At the beach?” “At the shore?” Weird.) Needless to say, I started Row80 a day late, because gambling and walking the boardwalk and reading half  Mockingjay while on a quiet train means Jenny did no writing at all on Monday. FOR SHAME.

So, here’s my Wednesday ROW80 update: Yesterday was good. I managed 750 words, read over some stuff I wrote earlier and fixed it up a bit.  I’m hoping for the same today.

In non-writing news, I had a great weekend. Friday night I took the train up to Jersey and sat next to a man who talked the entire three hours.  Normally I’m all for talking, but I was still only halfway through the Hunger Games and, well, the man was very nice and we had some lively conversation, but I ended up staying awake until 3am to finish the book.  Which also wouldn’t have been too bad, except for the fact that I was up at 7:30.  And everyone knows that Jenny needs AT LEAST seven hours of sleep to be functional. Seven at the MINIMUM. But Saturday ended up being great, even if I felt like a zombie for most of it.  My other grandma picked me up from Gram’s house, and I spent the whole day with my mom’s side of the family. It was great to see everyone  – my little cousins are getting so GROWN UP and I CAN’T STAND IT ARGH.  Still, we played hide and seek for HOURS (and my grandma’s saying, “I thought ya’uns were too old for that!) and ate delicious food and had some great talks. And did I mention how GROWN UP they are? THEY ARE OLD. LIKE REAL PEOPLE.  My 12 year old cousin was TEXTING A BOY ALL NIGHT. THAT’S RIGHT, A BOY. AND THEY ARE GOING TO THE MOVIES AND OH MY GOODNESS I STILL CAN’T GET OVER IT. And my 16 year old cousin was lovely, as always – she and I are SO MUCH ALIKE and I’m so glad that we’re friends, too, and not just cousins.  And they boys  – well, they’re boys. And two are almost done with their freshman year IN HIGH SCHOOL and I’m all like BUT I REMEMBER YOU AS A BABY and gahhh. At least one is still little, right? Anyway, I didn’t get home from my aunt’s house until almost 11.

Sunday,  Gram and I went to Atlantic City.  This was my second time – she took my mom and my aunt and me for my 21st birthday – and I have to say it was a lovely time. (Eric laughed when I told him that, and said, “Only you can say that the Jersey Shore is lovely,”  but he’s from the midwest so he doesn’t understand. )  And yeah, AC isn’t a very nice place, but THE OCEAN. THE OCEAN IS LOVELY. And our hotel room was lovely. And we went shopping and ate dinner and THAT WAS LOVELY.  And the weather was better than we  could have hoped for.  And the hotel/casino we stayed at was right on the water. Here’s the beach:

And then after dinner we did a little gambling. Which was fun. Especially when this happened:

I had to take that picture all sneaky-like with my phone, because I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to. But YEAH.  SEE THAT? INSANITY. And after that I won ANOTHER $130.  And all of that money is right in my savings account. Except for the $300 that I’m using for our trip to Williamsburg this weekend.  I think all in all I spent $50?

I’m pretty sure I’ve used up all of my luck for the rest of forever. This will never, ever ever ever ever ever happen again.  Pure beginner’s luck. I didn’t even know what happened. I didn’t even notice that they were all clubs – I just held onto the 10, Jack, Queen, and Ace and press deal and then BAM the machine is making all of this noise and Gram looked over to see what happened and she’s going “OH MY GOD JENNY YOU HIT THE JACKPOT YOU GOT A ROYAL FLUSH” and I’m all like, “What?”

And she says, “YOU JUST WON ALL THAT MONEY!!!”

And then I go, “Oh.”

Yeah. It didn’t really sink in at first. And then I was like, “WAIT. WHAT?”

I have such keen observational skills, let me tell you, hahaha. We left the casino like right after that. But not before I had to buy contact solution because I’m always forgetting mine, and jeez. A travel size bottle cost me TEN DOLLARS. TEN.  CRAZYNESS. I almost didn’t buy it but my eyes were super itchy because the little shop was right next to the smoking section and I have these near-allergic reactions to cigarette smoke. So I paid for it and went upstairs and hoped to GOD that no one mugged me, or that I wouldn’t lose my wallet. Because I have never held that much money in MY LIFE and it was in my WALLET and I lose everything.

Then that night I read Catching Fire and the next morning we woke up and had waffles and walked the boardwalk some more before we had to drive me back to the train station.  The train back to DC was nice, I didn’t get mugged, and I made it home in one piece. Which is good.

Then, since last night was Tricia’s last night in the US, we went and saw Jane Eyre and ate Wendy’s.  I’m pretty sure that Jane Eyre was the most perfect film adaptation I have EVER seen. It was just so perfect. And beautiful.  Everything was so soft and muted and at times, dark, but the characters were WONDERFUL and OH MY GOD ROCHESTER. We talked about it all night, which I’m sure drove Eric crazy but whatever.

SO. That’s it. All of a sudden it’s Wednesday and I’m at work and finishing this up (I wrote most of it yesterday) and so ready for a nap. And it’s only 9:40. O.o