"Everyone probably thinks we're fake people and we made the visit up." I deduced.
Which is silly. But the sillier thing is that I have loads, scads, tons of photographic evidence of Mandy's nearly week long (in a good way!) stay here. I've just been too lazy to post it.
But now? Now I am officially done with school until January. Do you hear the Hallelujah Chorus? Yeah, it's coming from me. I'm not positive of my official grades yet, but it's looking like I'll have A's in at least three out of my four classes.
Excuse me while I do a little dance. Because I did not think I was going to be able to handle a full course load. I just did it anyway. But hey, look, I did it! Yeah, people do it every day, but I'm not people, and I'm very, very easily distracted. This is big for me. Go school! Can't wait to get my binders out for next semester. But that doesn't mean I'm not incredibly grateful for this break.
And you should be, too. Because now I can show you how cute Mandy really is.
One night we went to the beach without the kids, while we were eating dinner at this little beachside grill, we both kept kind of moaning about how great the food was. This is how I know I am in good company; if the person across from me loves to eat until they have to unbutton their jeans, it's a good dinner. I love food I don't have to cook.
After we ate we wandered down the beach. And by that I mean I did goofy things as we walked to the water, and Mandy photographed them. Suffice it to say that my cartwheels have seriously gotten worse over the years. It's sad. I used to be able to do a mean cartwheel. So instead, I told her to take a picture of me standing on one foot. Because I'm not very good at that, either.
When we got down to the water, a nice lady took pity on us as we tried to take a photo of ourselves in front of the setting sun, and she took this beauty, which I like a lot.
After we got the requisite vacation picture, we meandered back up the beach and were soon both easily distracted by a big, unfinished pier that extended about halfway down the beach. For some reason, Mandy insists on calling it a barge. There was a ramp leading up to the walkway, but instead of walking all the way to the end and back up, I suggested we just climb up onto the pier itself.
Which was a lot harder than I thought it would be, because I have negative upper body strength. But I made it up, and then I got stuck there, because I was afraid to jump down. I'm scared of heights. Even ridiculously low ones. Don't tell anyone.
After I somehow brought myself to jump down, I challenged Mandy to climb up.
Unfortunately, she doesn't have the sheer arm strength I have, and she gave up because she didn't want to be shown up by me. Instead, she collapsed on the end of the pier (barge, according to her), all diva-esque. Because trying to climb a fake barge/pier is hard, y'all.