Cheap Books Loud Cars Thrasher Fries
Imagine my surprise today when we walked into, not a hotel room, but my uncle’s condo, complete with wireless internet access and a widescreen TV, bags of chips, my own bedroom, a balcony with a view of the sea, and various other awesome components. I could make a habit out of this place.
We got a late start getting out of north potomac, and of course, mom was freaking out about it, but still was very adamant about getting to the outlet mall. In the car ride to the outlet mall, I listened to the Incredible Moses Leroy’s album Become the Soft Lightes. A sidenote: this band is really unknown, and I wouldn’t have known about them if Utkarsh hadn’t brought them up. If anyone enjoys good synth-pop, check it out. Probably one of my favorite albums. Either way, I did some research since they haven’t released anything since ‘03, turns out that they’ve actually changed their name to the Soft Lightes (http://www.myspace.com/thesoftlightes). Even weirder was that they were playing a track from the album on the radio at the outlet mall. I flipped out and caused a commotion, but isn’t that weird?
At the outlet mall, I purchased two books for good prices. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. My sister and father are both on the waiting list for Freakonomics after reading the inside flap. Also have to get through the rest of Social Life of Information. I actually forgot where I got that one – I have a feeling it was Kraemer’s.
On the way up to Ocean City, I listened to (while dozing in and out) Paul Simon’s surprises. Caught the end of the album this time and I have to say that I really love it. Think I’m going to buy it for dad on Father’s day. We got into the beach area, and discovered that there are a lot of loud cars in Ocean City. Scared the daylight out of mom. Me too, I’ll admit it. Also, we noticed a lot of rednecks on the side of the road watching cars go by, with video cameras. It seemed a little odd, and there were a lot of them, like there was some invisible parade happening, or like they were camping out for concert tickets. We walked down the boardwalk and witnessed a Christian Kareoke singer (Jesus died for us), Thrasher Fries (Boardwalk’s only competitor, and I’m pretty sure we’re their only customer), a shaved ice (it was huge and lime), and a good talk with Aleena about motivation and college (private details). Ended up at a restaurant called Galaxy (Dad had heard about the wonderful jazz there) and we got Crab Soup, and I ordered the Boullabaise. Wasn’t too filling, wasn’t lacking either. Dad got an Amstel Light and I ordered a Corona with Lime in a hurricane glass. It’s our vacation, after all.
Our waitress informed us that it was “Classic Car Weekend,” which is a holiday that Ocean city has where people bring their antique cars down for the spectators (rednecks with Beer coolers who stand on the side of the road with video cameras). After dinner, Aleena and I caught a few episodes of 24 (I love hooking my laptop up to external monitors, especially when that monitor happens to be a widescreen television), and Dad fell asleep on my shoulder. It’s nice to be with family.
Plans for tommorow: Play foxtail on the beach, shoot the skyrocket a few times, read some books while tanning (blackening), beat Megaman and watch more 24. I actually added those things to my blackberry’s tasklist because it current had no active tasks and well, I want anyone who looks at my to-do list to be sure that I’m on vacation.