Millions of Pillows // Flowers

I woke up around 10:30 am when my alarm went off, but stayed in bed until 11:30 am. I Facebook messaged with mom until noon and then I went down for lunch. I had a hot dog and chatted with Bill. He finished painting the backyard steps, shower and the basement door.

I did some laundry and watched Full House/Say Yes to the Dress. I left the house around 2:30 pm for Walmart. I bought 12 pillows (NOT EASY, they kept falling out and people looked at me like I was nuts. Then I went to Michael's and bought two jars for my beach glass and shells and a pack of mini cards for embossing. For the house I bought two small coffee cup flower planters! Then I left Rio Grande to go to Wildwood.

Shells in the jar to the left, beach glass to the right.

I drove by the convention center where the writing conference will be next week. Then I went to the Ravioli house and bought a bag of cheese ravioli, 2 rainbow cookies and a brownie. Then I ended


up driving home on the parkway even though I would've liked to go the other way. I got up and unloaded. Then I drove to Duckie's Farm and bought two small Lavender variety flowers for the small coffee cup pots and two hanging baskets that I unclipped for our blue pots. I went to the Lobster House after and got crab fingers, mustard dipping sauce and bread. I brought it home and put it away. Then I put out the flowers in the pots. I had a cottage cheese and pretzel/port wine snack.

I couldn't get matching coffee cup pots because the other butterfly one had a chip in it, but these are super cute.

My next door neighbor Betty called me over - she and her husband Jim were home from their trips and she had a letter addressed to me from Lindsay! I think it had been there for a while too, oh well! At least I got it. I walked around the corner and dropped off a note for Barbara - she got in later tonight. Hopefully I'll catch her soon.

The flowers in the little coffee cups are a lavender variety, the big coffee cup is petunias and the bottom two are geraniums.

I had the ravioli, crab fingers and corn on the cob for dinner while I watched The Show with Vinny. Then I went to poverty beach for about 40-45 minutes for a walk/shell hunt. I only found moonies. I saw a dead shark! A couple people were fishing but other than that it was very quiet. I drove down to Morrow's Nut House and bought a fridge magnet pad for the house. I drove home and did dishes, laundry and watched I found the Gown and talked to both grandmas. I face timed mom for a while and then got ready for bed.

SO excited for tomorrow. Lori and her daughters are coming down and we are going to the West Cape May Strawberry Festival! And on Sunday I'm having a girls lunch with my cousin Jenn :)

xo,
capemaychick

Kitty Playtime

I woke up at 10:30 am to my alarm clock. Bill was in the kitchen working and I had a bowl of special K and raspberries for breakfast. Then, I left for Animal Outreach. There I met Charlotte, who our friend Harry told me to ask about volunteering. She was so nice! She showed me all of the rooms and asked what I was interested in doing at the center. I think some afternoons I will come by and help scoop/clean the litter boxes and just play with the kitties!

A huge collage of all the kitties!

I got to meet 9 cats in the first room. Jasmine (dilute tortie), Martha (spunky tabby), Cricket (tabby), Marmalade (orange), George (tabby), Katrina, Cuddles, Bess and Checka - whose colors I totally forget! I played with them for quite a while. They have a wonderful room with lots of places to sleep and curl up. They even have a tv with birds on it!

The next room was two little kittens who played with a toy. Then I went to the new comer room and met Nigel (beautiful black boy) and Maggie (dilute tortie) who both played a bit. I discovered Nigel LOVED to drink from the sink spout and that was just adorable. Then I met Patches, who stays in the back room of the facility (she's a calico). Finally, I met the kitties in the front: Kali (dilute calico who is polydactyl), Sylvia (black and white who is polydactyl and Kali's sister), Jennie (calico) and Chrissy (black and white). They got to come out and play and they just loved to sit and stare out the window!

The facility is just gorgeous and I can't wait to stop in and sport my new Animal Outreach adoption t-shirt! I was there for about two hours in the morning/afternoon. I would have stayed all day if I hadn't been hungry! I came home for lunch and ate leftover chicken - there is still some left but I think it's too old now. Then I went to our friend Nicole's house and got to hang out with her and her kids, Sage, Hudson and Aria! It's really cool to be close with people out in Cape May, it gives you a great sense of community. Our friend Tina who owns a photography shop on the mall, introduced us to Nicole a few years ago and Nicole's husband Mike helped us with buying our house! They own Bliss - the best ice cream place in Cape May (and probably ever too).

I had dinner with them too - a yummy turkey sandwich from the Bliss shop! I was there until a little after 10 pm so I eventually headed home, showered and got into bed. Spoke with mom and grandma Zelda. It was a nice day.

Tomorrow is Friday and I have some errands to run including a trip up to Walmart and running into Wildwood! I can't believe how fast the time is going. There wasn't time to be lonely yesterday at all. On Saturday I will have been in Cape May for a week (week one out of six) and on Monday it will be a week since I've been alone.

I'm looking forward to Saturday - I'm going to the Strawberry Festival in the afternoon, and then my friend Lori is coming down with her daughters to hang out and go out to dinner, which will be a nice time!

xo,
capemaychick

Blue Eden // Sunny Shores

I woke up on and off this morning from Bill working on the house. Mom called me at 11:25 am and I was still in bed - lazy,  I know. We talked for a while and facetimed for a bit. Then I got up, dressed and came down. There was a package on the table at the bottom of the stairs - so Bill must have brought it in! It was from Lindsay! She sent me an easy cook book, notecards, "it had to be blue" nailpolish, an iTunes giftcard (to catch up on my shows I miss) and a sweet note :) Shout out to Lindsay, thanks for making my day start great girl! Love you!

Thanks L! Can't wait to use everything!

Lindsay sent it yesterday from her grandpop's house in PA, so it was very fast that it came today! It made me feel good. I texted her and my mom about it while I had a bowl of rice crispies with raspberries. I updated my blog and also posted a Wordless Wednesday post on Sandpiper Cat Blog. I got ready to head up to Stone Harbor. It only took about 20~ minutes to get there on the Parkway.

I got to my friend Caroline's store, Blue Eden, at about 1:30 pm. It was so nice to see her, I haven't seen her since December! She greeted me warmly and gave me a hug, and introduced her friend Jenna - who makes all the beautiful beach glass jewelry in Caroline's store! She sounds like she could make my red beach glass into a ring, which would be really cool.

Left to Right: The bracelets from Blue Eden, Blue Eden Store, Sandpiper Necklace from Terry Ivory.

I talked to Caroline and Jenna for a while and spent a good while looking around the store, it is adorable and everything in it is so chic and beach-y fun! I settled on two bracelets - made by Jenna! One silver and one copper, each with a little bead and a piece of white beach glass. Very fun!

After saying good byes, I put some more quarters in the parking meter and looked in Making Waves and then Terry Ivory, where I bought a beautiful Sandpiper bird necklace, because it reminds me of my cat Piper (who is actually named Sandpiper). After that, I left to go home and got there about 3:30 pm. I ate lunch - a turkey and cheese sandwich on yummy hoagie bread. I got ready to go to the beach, it was sunny, 80 degrees out and just gorgeous!

I drove down to the new Exit Zero store, because I wanted to make it before they closed. I bought the May issue of Exit Zero Magazine, because my neighbor Denise's late husband is featured in an article! I bought three postcards to send to friends. I then hopped across the street, put quarters in the meter and took a short walk on Perry Street beach. I also found some great shells, MORE moonies (I really never have found quite this many) and a small piece of brown beach glass, a small conch and a BIG conch - which I have never found. I've heard they are usually easier to find in the winter when the beach isn't crowded. I'm totally kicking myself for not going on the beach in December or March when I was here. Clearly I will next time! I read my latest book - Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich and then left about 5:30 pm because I was paranoid my meter would run out. I got a cheesesteak to go from Louie's Pizza and went home.

I brought in the trash can, put my cheesesteak away, facetimed with dad and his secretary Janet (who is very jealous I'm at the beach, can't imagine why ;) and turned on the air conditioning via dad's instructions. Since most of the windows aren't finished, I can't open them for a sea breeze.

Then I brought my cheesesteak out on the porch with a peach salad and read my book. Bill came by to put the storm windows in or something. I have no idea. I'm sleeping in the master/parent bed room because he is going to work in the rooms tomorrow. After dinner I came inside to watch Melissa and Joey, Baby Daddy and Psych (which I missed because I spent some time talking with mom). I also spoke with Grandma Genie and Grandma Zelda! It's nice to hear everyone's voices. Tomorow I will skype with Lindsay.

I got showered and ready for bed. Tomorrow I am going to go to Animal Outreach in the morning to find out about volunteering and cuddling cats as well as heading to Wildwood to get some noms from the Ravioli House and driving by the Wildwood Convention center where my beach conference will be next week.

Thanks for the support!

xo,
capemaychick

Rain go away! // Beach glass

Well, I made it through my first night alone. Mom and I face timed in bed Monday night and she showed me all the kitties before we both went to sleep. I definitely was feeling panicked about being alone as I did when I woke up this morning. It was raining when I got up at 10:30 am, but that didn't really matter.

Face-timing with Sabrina, trying to get her to blink at me.

I wasn't hungry since I was stressed about being alone so I didn't eat. I feel how I felt when I was alone in New York in November 2011, at the Cat Writers' conference. It's a scary feeling but I made it through that weekend - and I had to travel all by myself! I don't even have to do any traveling here, except for the occasional shopping road trip :)

I headed out in the rain to CVS for some lotion and then headed to the animal center where I'm hoping to volunteer - but it was closed. I headed to Rio Grande for Bed, Bath and Beyond but I got lost. I was able to figure out the right way with my GPS, but I got upset when I got to the parking lot. It's really hard not being able to know exactly where I'm going all the time, so I spent a while with my mom on the phone working through it. I briefly looked around the store and saw a lot of things I liked, but decided to save my money for when I go back there with mom!

I drove back home with the GPS on the parkway and it took me through a toll - my first use of the EZ Pass! #milestone. I made myself a bologna sandwich, which was really yummy. I helped design business cards for the Cool Cat Cottage and dad looked over the design. We also ordered stickers and post it notes which are really cute branding! It will help with advertising. Just found out this morning too that we got another rental! Just a few more weeks left to book.

I went outside and read on the porch for a long time. I was reading Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling. It was really funny and a super easy read that I finished later in the evening.

Poverty beach now sort of bleeds sand into the street - thanks Hurricane Sandy.

I decided to drive down to Poverty beach and go on a walk. It was pretty much empty! I found soo many shells and pieces of beach glass, which was so exciting! I was sending my mom pictures to show her what I was finding. I found a whopping big piece of aqua blue beach glass, my best find!

I found a whole moonie, not something I usually find!

I came home, heated up my leftover chicken, made instant mashed potatoes and had leftover fruit from Avalon that mom had picked up on Sunday. I read the Mindy book while I ate. Afterwards, I stopped in at my neighbor Denise's across the street. I will be staying with her for a few days in June when the house is rented. She showed me where I will be sleeping, which is very nice!

I'm smiling because I really am happy!

I came home and read more inside because the mosquitoes were out. I watched Full House, ate some lemon meringue pie and watched Awkward. I face timed with Mom, dad and all the kitties! I called Grandma Zelda to say hi and also I talked to Grandma Genie earlier in the day. I watched Ke$ha's show and then went up to shower and get ready for bed.

Night time is definitely when I feel more lonely, but everything is always harder at night. But I have a lot to look forward to because tomorrow it will be sunny and I am taking a short road trip up to Blue Eden to visit my friend Caroline! Thursday I will go to Animal Outreach to find out about volunteering!

I miss everyone so much, especially Brooke, Sabrina, Henry, Piper, Pearl and Vickie!

xo,
capemaychick

All by myself? // the time I almost went to college

*Side note before you read my long post - we started a Facebook page for our house so visit it here: Cool Cat Cottage.

It's been a whirlwind of a day, with lots of emotions. I got up, dressed and had cereal. We worked on putting things away in the house and clarifying some of the things I will need to do before I leave for our renters the second week of June. Dad showed me things in the owner's closet in the basement, and how to use a skeleton key (difficult!!) to look our upstairs owner's closet. Our do-it-all-NJ house-guy, Bill, came by today. He has a lot of projects to do. Including coming early tomorrow morning to work on my windows. So since I don't want to scare him and he doesn't want to scare me, we agreed it would be best if I sleep in one of the other rooms while he is working in mine. It will be nice to have screens back in the windows and be able to open them.

We went to Bella Vida for lunch. Surprisingly it wasn't too busy. I tried something different, since I don't have to worry that we won't get back to try something different! A good thing about owning the beach house, more opportunity to branch out (and hopefully not just food related, though I know a great deal of my blogs are oriented around food!). So I had a waffle with banana, chocolate chips, walnuts and powdered sugar. And a side of the New Jersey delicacy - scrapple - and if you don't know what that is, don't ask. And definitely don't search it up.

Afterwards we went to Swain's Ace Hardware to pick up some cleaning products. I'll have to go back there next Saturday or whenever they get in our toilet bowl cleaners. Apparently CM was having a shortage on them?? We came home afterwards and did more packing and cleaning/organizing. I finished my book. We popped over to our friends Ron and Shelia's house, to say hi.They were getting their house ready for renters. They might be up when we're all here.

We came home and mom, dad and Michael finished packing. We had a very short and calm goodbye - probably sort of what my college goodbye should have been, except that there was no goodbye because I came home. I know that will impact me the rest of my life - despite already being at the college I wanted to go to (GMU). It still had that college abandonment feeling - but not until later.

I left shortly after them, to go to the Acme to get some food. I got lost going there, but was able to figure it out. I felt stupid getting lost because it's a place I've gone to a million times - though I have never driven there which is probably a big reason why. But I was in and out in 45 minutes, which was pretty fast considering the deli was so busy and probably took at least 10 minutes! I even got some healthy food :) but seriously I'm trying to be good since I'm at the beach and want to walk everywhere (well not really but I don't have a lot of choices) and want to lose some weight this summer. I came home, unpacked and ate some sushi I picked up at the Acme. I also marinated the chicken breasts I bought in Italian dressing, for dinner.

Clockwise starting upper left: Me marinating chicken, air plant & buttons, dinner while watching My Cat From Hell, Clara Beau Necklace.

I put on my sneakers and headed over to the mall. It was a really nice temperature out today, it if stayed around 70 degrees all summer I would be so happy! One of my favorite jewelry stores, Splash, was closed, so I went into my other fave jewelry store Henry's. I had been in March and they didn't really have many more different things. I really like their Alex and Ani bracelets, but think I will hold off until I go to Stone Harbor to shop. You never know what I will find and I don't want to blow my budget too fast. I did that two years ago and didn't have any money for a big portion of the trip. Live and learn. I save so much of my pet sitting money to buy things in Cape May, I have to be careful how I spend it as well as making sure I do save some for the rest of the summer in Virginia.

I went into Whale's Tale and found a new jewelry designer they just started carrying, called Clara Beau. I got a cute little anchor necklace. I also went over to Across the Way and picked up an air plant and a little bird glass to keep it in (I've wanted one of these plants forever) and a few buttons (my fave!).

I came home and put the chicken in the oven, since mom said it could take up to an hour to make. It only took a half an hour. I guess you never know with the oven here. The chicken came out great. I put it on top of the salad I made, with croutons and Parmesan cheese and dressing. I also had corn on the cob. It was really good, but I definitely got a wave of "I want mom" while I was eating. I don't really cook for myself since I live at home. I occasionally make the pot of mac and cheese but nothing like chicken. My mom showed me how to make the chicken last week at home so I would have easy meals for the beach. I also had lots of leftovers that will be good. Trying to eat healthy. I had bought a lemon meringue pie to have a slice of for dessert, but I didn't feel up to it. Whenever I'm stressed beyond normal standards I have trouble eating. And you know if it involves not eating dessert, it's serious. I think that living here by myself will just take some adjustment.I really, really haven't lived away from my parents for more than 4-5 days at a time - when they are in Cape May and I'm at home taking care of the cats and Michael. So it's obviously a culture shock to me.

I messaged with my friend Lindsay and she reminded me that it's a process and I have to get used to it. It was kind of funny to me that just eating a home cooked meal would trigger those anxiety feelings. I haven't felt like that really since I was trying to move into my dorm last August. It's like, after all that work moving in and getting all settled in, shouldn't I just put my best foot forward and stay? I knew staying at Longwood was not going to happen - I knew it all along. I think my parents knew too but they couldn't not make me try. And trust me, they did everything in their right minds to make me stay. I'm still grateful for that and all my friends and family who messaged me and stood behind me. It helped a lot, but I knew I wasn't going to stay.

So will it be the same with Cape May? It's funny sort of. To think that I don't want to be in my favorite place in the whole world. No, that's not really it. I just don't want to be alone here. And I'm not really alone because when I'm not doing something, I have a neighbor calling and checking in on me and my family texting me. It's not really as big of a deal as I'm making it. I mean my goodness it's only the first night! I do think that by not staying at Longwood, I lost some of my ability to deal with being totally on my own issues.  I know I'm not always going to live at home - and I'm definitely feeling ready to move out, but there are a lot of factors why I'm not ready yet.

So this post totally strayed from Cape May in a sort of non related venting session. But I think it's good for my friends and family to understand what I'm going through. Anxiety is a really hard thing to control, and as much as I have it together - I don't always have it together. But being able to write about it keeps me in check. I'm not perfect, my anxiety isn't perfect, but day by day I'm able to get through. Some days it's a struggle and other days it's a trip to the beach.

I actually have some plans for tomorrow, so make sure you check back!

Miss you mom, dad and Michael. Thank you for a beautiful beach house and the opportunity to stay here. I miss you lots. Give the kitties a pat for me. :)

xo,
capemaychick/Rachel

Mocca Chocolata

The title of this post is one of my favorite lines from the song Lady Marmalade, which I've heard in a few movies and happened to hear this morning on 98.7 The Coast - which is my favorite radio station in Cape May.

Since last night was a late night, it was a late morning. I fell asleep and woke up listening to 98.7 The
 
Coast, which was nice. I got up at noon and had a bagel for lunch. We worked on putting stuff away in the house.

Cheetah print (what else would it be for the Cool Cat Cottage) coffee planter!

Later on in the afternoon, we walked over to the mall to Bliss. We had a really good turkey and avocado sandwhich and I had a chocolate covered strawberry smoothie. Mom and dad had affigatos - which is espresso and ice cream. That was delicious! We spent time talking to our friend Nicole (who owns Bliss).

I went to Making Waves and bought cute Anchor/whale earrings that I had seen on their Facebook page, and a little sign that says "Mermaids Welcome." I also popped into Across the Way, but it was too busy to browse. I really had to go to the bathroom and between the two bathrooms at the mall, one was overflowing and the other was closed, so I ran home. I ran in flip flops so my feet are killing me tonight.

I showered and got dressed before dad and I went out to Walmart. It was a very poorly laid out store, so finding ANYTHING took forever. They didn't even have everything we needed. Like 3 ply toilet paper! My favorite things that we got were a coffee cup planter with flowers, a hello kitty pin wheel and a leopard fly swatter. Oh, and Cover Girl flamed out mascara! We got a grill too, which is what we primarily came for.

On the way home, we picked up really yummy Chinese food from The Cape Orient. Yum! Afterwards we lounged around, cleaned up and got ready for bed.

I can't believe everyone is leaving tomorrow and I will be all alone!

xo,
capemaychick

♫ On the Way to Cape May ♪

I had every intention of getting up at 9:30 am to get ready for the beach. But of course, I couldn't wake up. I fell asleep around 2-2:30 am, with sweet dreams of Cape May floating around my head. I woke up at 11 am, but not frazzled because I knew we hadn't planned on leaving until around 2-3 pm so we would beat traffic.

In all reality, I should have assumed that we weren't "together enough" to get out of the house before 5 pm. And though we got out at 4:48 pm, it was clear we were in for a long trip. We had an early lunch so we could have an early dinner.

I packed up my car, completely by myself! I regret that I over packed, but now that I'm here I know I can send some stuff home with my parents on Monday.

Yes, I blurred out my license plate :) and YES that is dad in the background! Oopsies.

We were on the road (with dad driving my car and mom driving her car). Michael went with mom and I went with dad. We stopped in Bowie, MD for a bathroom break at Barnes and Noble. Michael picked up the next book in his series.

Dad I fidgeted with the GPS navigation voice. We tested American Jack and American Jill, British Emily & Daniel and Australian Lady (I forget her name) and Australian Lee - who we settled on. Not before I tried putting the GPS in Romanian and then French-Canadien Julie!

We got to Holly's about 6:30 pm. Our regular server wasn't there!! We all had the fried chicken special and it was extra delicious. We were out about 7:30 pm. It was a long drive from there; we stopped a few times in Delaware to pee and rest. Dad and I stopped at the Wawa before going home to get ice, milk and half-and-half. We got to the house at 11:10 pm. It was hard to see the painting and new awnings, but we know it's there! We also bumped into our next door neighbors and chatted with them. A bug promptly flew down my shirt while we were talking. Why does that happen to me! Shudder.

We unpacked, checked out things around the house. It's definitely a mess. Lots of cleaning is in my future! We also might need a new table, but we have to figure that out tomorrow.

Once I got everything unpacked, showered and ready for bed, I realized how incredibly exhausted I was. But despite that, I still wanted to get a blog post out! Tomorrow dad and I will run over to Walmart and pick up some important things. Lots of house errands to do, but hopefully we can fit in a quick walk to the beach and the mall!

xo, capemaychick