North Carolina: another blistful blunder

Starling and I loaded up the car after Starling FINALLY finished his to-do list on Thursday night. It was nine or later. My parents had Brooklyn and were attempting to pack for their cruise, so I didn't want to leave Brooklyn at their house ALL night. She of course did NOT want to leave, she did not want Mommy and Daddy, and she CERTAINLY didn't want Night-Night. She wanted Mia and PiPaw and she made it WELL known in a high-pitched erksome screech that lasted until she fell asleep. Then WHILE driving hours on end, Brooklyn woke up, like she does EVERY NIGHT, and guess what? She did not forget that she STILL wanted Mia and PiPaw... so we got to hear about it for ANOTHER hour until she fell back to sleep.

The PLAN: Starling drive a few hours while Wendi sleeps. Then we switch. WELL... Starling popped a couple Aderol or whatever he takes, and he drove.. straight. For 10 hours while "I" got to STAY AWAKE TOO and take notes on EVERYTHING that came into his head (which is a LOT OF CRAP in the middle of the night!!)First, we went through his To-Do list for the following day. THEN we went through our To-Do list on finishing the INSIDE, the OUTSIDE, THE YARD, A GARDEN, both properties in the works of being bought, and our future GOALS, our family DREAMS and Aspirations, and I'm sure I'm leaving out some of our lists. THEN we got to break down EACH category into HOW, WHEN, WHY.

I have to say... Starling is normally the most UNORGANIZED, FORGETFUL person on planet earth. And distractable like a dog trying to go through obedience school with a bunch of squirrels jumping around. HOWEVER, I'm going to go ahead and call them MIRACLE MEDS because for literally 10 hours I told Starling EVERYTHING I wanted done or ever DREAMED of doing and he not only listened, he made out plans to accomplish each thing. (And I don't mean in the BROAD since... I mean down to minute details). AND he was responsive with his ideas and a joy to listen to. I guess I need to make him take a pill before pillow talk... of course we'll have to start pillow talk at eight in the morning...

Anyway, eventually his meds wore off and he was exhausted so I took a short nap and drove for a bit. Almost immediately his phone started ringing off the hook when it was his turn to sleep and so he just started working instead of snoozing.

We finally reached our destination in North Carolina.
PLAN: Starling and his cousin Johnny were to go to the DMV (or whatever they call it in NC) and get the car title thing worked out so that we'd have a clean title to take back to MS so that I can get a TAG in MS.

Starling made sure to get EVERYTHING prepared that NC said they needed. EVEN on the way up there, instead of taking a nap, he was on the phone AGAIN triple checking that everything was in order. (BECAUSE at this point we wouldn't get there until 1 in the afternoon and its a FRIDAY and we don't want ANYTHING to go wrong).

WELL... it DID. Of COURSE when Starling and Johnny get there and the lady reviews all the paper work she says, "WELL... this is signed Starling Johnson instead of JOSEPH Starling Johnson. I'll need a notary to verify this person. AND I need a notary to sign for the South Carolina dealership where you bought this car. (WHICH is HOURS from where we are).

SOOOOOOooo guess what... instead of getting to leave North Carolina, we got a definite STAY plan until Monday.

LUCKILY Johnny and his wife Margarite are SOOOooOO welcoming and hospitable and just the nicest people on planet Earth. They prepared their guest house for us and told us to stay as long as we like. Starling and I felt like giddy little kids going into the guest house because we felt like we were staying in a giant tree house! (You have to see it to understand! Its just the coziest, but roomiest, cabin you've ever entered).

And my favorite part about the guest house? THE BED... a nice, giant, sleep number bed. (The one with remotes where you control the firmness or softness). WOW. TALK about COZY. Brooklyn, Starling, and I crashed like a derailed train and slept completely sound. After the busy day we had.. no wonder. Then I woke up at 5 a.m. because Brighton was jumping up and down on my bladder and Starling was already up on the computer catching up on realestate stuff. So then, naturally, BROOKLYN wakes up to join us. SOOoo we finally have a chance to get an amazing sleep after NO sleep and we SQUANDER it! But, since we were up, we planned the rest of our visit. We decided to visit the beach! (Niether of us have ever been...). So before we left we walked down the road to visit some more with the family.

Brooklyn played with her twin cousins Karl and Alex. They jumped on the "Bouncy" Brooklyn called it, swung in the swings, rode tractors,

sipped lemonaide,

played with the dogs,

and played "Bad-Mitton-Birdie" (says Karl,4).

Starling TRIED to teach Brooklyn to HIT the birdie. She kept looking in the sky for a birdie and when Starling tried to tell her it was the hot pink thing in her hand she informed him, "Es a FLOW-ER, Daddy." and she had NO intention of hitting her flower.

We picnicked outside and ate yummy sandwiches. I had to eat SEVERAL only because Brighton is a little piglet... (and that's being my excuse until the day he comes out of me... nah... til the day he's weaned off the tit... that gives me another year and 2 months). We had tons of fun. THEN we left to go to Wrightsville (which is close to Myrtle Beach but not as crowded).

We met up for dinner with Starling's cousin Meg and her boyfriend Mike. Immediately after meeting Mike, Starling said, "And you're Victor, right?" Mike. Victor. VERY similar. I can see why Starling got confused. We ate some yummy food from Panino Bread or something like that. Then we ate chocolate chip cookies that were bigger than our heads. (Yes Brooklyn ate an entire cookie and so did I and so did Starling. We are a VERY healthy family).

Then Starling and I decided that, since it was after 10 p.m., we didn't want to pay to stay somewhere just to SLEEP. SOOO we scouted out a nice big field and set up our tent in the glare of our headlights. After sleeping in the glorious sleep number bed, the camping pad that holds about a breath of air was ANYTHING but luxurious. Brooklyn and I sat in the tent watching our camp savey Starling. He looked like a magician pulling a million things out of a backpack. He pulled out three sleeping pads, two pillows, two sleeping bags, and we were waiting for the rabbit to come out when he said that'd do for the night. Brooklyn had her own pad, but felt no need to sleep on it. She wanted to climb into MY sleeping bag that fits me like spandex at the moment. I bundled her in HER blankets and tried to keep her in her space still touching me. NOT good enough. When I woke up the FIRST time I was sideways kicking Starling in the gut, and Brooklyn was still coming towards me. The second time I woke up, I was kicking Starling in the face and Brooklyn was still RIGHT at my head. We'd done a 180 turn. When I woke up the THIRD time because my head kept getting wacked by Starling's knees, and snot was running down my face, and I had to pee... I just sat up and GAVE up. Starling sat up, too. "I can NOT sleep like this." I said. "Me neither. Lets go watch the sunrise on the beach."

It was 4 or 5... I never did get the NC time down and then daylights savings time hit... This is the first time I've actually been awake to SEE daylight savings time happen.

We parked at the beach and Brooklyn joyfully exclaimed, "uh RAIN-BOW, mommy!" as the colors developed. Starling took some pretty pics...(he kept getting ppl in the pic and said we'd just tell people that they are us. So those birds are us. lol

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It was freezing at five in the morning and I am NOT bigger than Starling! I'm just wearing a huge down jacket. (had to make that clear).

We left from the beach and went to get breakfast. I was craving DOUGH NUTS! So we found us a Dunkin Donuts. Now, I can't be certain because I could only smell out of one nostril and even that ability was going in and out, but I think it was pretty good. It LOOKED like it tasted good.

Then we took a nap in the car in the parking lot (and despite the uncomfort of wadding my body in half to sleep in an awkward position... it was still better than the tent). I can only imagine all the looks we got from other donut customers.

When we woke up we went back to the beach. Brooklyn could not WAIT to find more sea shells. In Destin, where we normally go, you MAY find three decent shells.... but in North Carolina there were PILES and PILES of shells that looked like they'd come straight from the store. (Like- I JUST paid five bucks at Hobby Lobby for a tiny little bag of them... and the ones here are WAY cooler...).

We didn't get burned on the beach.. except for our lips. I can't move mine now.. and it doesn't help that I have to breath out of my mouth because my head is officially so full of snot that I can hear the slosh in my ears if I turn my head. It was a beautiful day to be on the beach, though.. a nice 76 degrees with the wind blowing. We laid out a blanket and poured all of Brooklyn's dishes on it and she fed us sea shells. (They look better than they taste). She WOULD NOT get off the blanket without asking to be carried. She didn't like the sand to touch her AT ALL. (such a wierdo). BUT! Something intervened. She LOVES seagulls and there were plenty of friendly ones on the beach. We were eating wheat-thins and three birds landed close by and started begging for food. I mean that in the literal since. They were barking like Charkley barks when he's asking for spagetti o's. Brooklyn recognized it for what it was. "Tum'mere, bird. Lemme hold you, bird. Wanna bi-ite?" And the bird was skiddish of Starling and me, but once we laid down and played dead the bird came right up near our blanket. So Brooklyn had to make a choice rather to stay on the blanket or get her feet dirty to catch a bird. She chose the bird. She walked on tip toe, holding out her cracker for the bird. She dropped it by her feet and the bird snatched it up. She squealed and ran back to the blanket. Then we tried to feed them orange peel bc I didn't want them eating ALL our wheat thins. (They didn't really appreciate that). And then Brooklyn exclaimed, "MOMMY LO-OOK! A KI-YITE!" a kite? When has Brooklyn EVER seen a kite? But sure enough a group of people were flying those HUGE chinese kites. I guess she saw it on Calliou (or cry-u as we refer to the whiney child on that show).

We left the beach and drove back to Johnny and Margaret's for a cookout. All the nearby fam came and it was fun to catch up with them. We turned in, greatful for a comfy bed again.

So toDAY Starling left bright and early to get the two things notorized that the lady at the DMV told him had to be done on Friday. It should have been an hour tops and everything should have been taken care of. So while Starling was off "finishing up" I packed the entire car, cleaned the cabin, and watched helicopters practice landing. (some kind of military base nearby I suppose). Brooklyn watched with EXTREME enthusiasm and got so excited that she ran to my stomach yanked up my shirt and said, "BRIGHTON!! LOOK, BRIGHTON!! You see DA AIR-uh-planes!!!??" He kicked a crater into my stomach at her voice, so I suppose he was frustrated he couldn't see. He wants out of that cramped space and the feeling is MUTUAL. I'm SOOO ready for him to be out... not so ready for a newborn baby, though...

Anyway- 1:00 rolled around and I hadn't heard from Starling. I called and did he tell me he was almost done? NO. What does he tell me? The lady Friday made a mistake. WOOPSIE! APPARENTLY the HWY patrol has to inspect the car afterall- though Starling SPECIFICALLY asked that like 100 times to 10 different people who ALL told him it did NOT have to be inspected by the Hwy patrol. It could be inspected by any random mechanic. (10 ppl FROM the DMV!) I asked nicely, through gritted teeth and smoke shooting out my ears, "AND did you see the lady from FRIDAY, dear? And did you SMACK HER INCOMPETENT FACE and tell her she is an IDIoT!!??" Starling laughed and said, "I saw her. And I didn't use YOUR wording, but I definitely raised a rucus. And all she could do was apologize for the inconvenience." The inconvenience??? Ok. I really don't want to dwell on the negative BUT I'm gonna for a second. IN THE MEAN-TIME of us getting delayed here in North Carolina, Brooklyn's ears have started running, indication of an ear infection, she's running a fever, her nose is a snot faucet, I feel like the living dead and didn't bring my iron pills and prenatals so I have ZERO energy (especially to deal with a sick baby), and we only brought clothes for two days.. not a MOVE so we are RE-WEARING our grimy clothes, and Starling is missing work and school and has NIGHT-CLASS TOMORROW that he can't miss, and I have a doctor apt on Wednesday. AND here is the topper. SO-WHY couldn't we just take the car to the hwy patrol today and get it inspected?? We aren't allowed to DRIVE our car there or they will give us a citation for NO TAG, NO INSPECTION, and NO INSURANCE (even though we have insurance from MS, and are trying to get it INSPECTED so we can get a TAG!!) AHHHHHHH!!!! This wasn't a good week to miss church.

SOOO the plan for TOMORROW as in TUESDAY as in going on 3 days longer in NC when we should have been hOmE... is that Starling is going to LOAD our car on a TRAILOR to HAUL it to the Hwy Patrol and get it inspected. Then haul it ALL the way back to Johnny's house. THEN drive it off the dang trailor to the DMV and pray that EVERYTHING is honky dory or I'm going to go POSTAL on some DMV people. THEN I have to go to a notary to have the car "sold" to me again from Johnny. And I just found out my license still says Wendi Brown... after almost 5 years of marriage. OMGEEZ I hope my license isn't expired! It probably will be and I'll get arrested trying to get my title.

At this point absolutely NOTHING would surprise me. NOTHING. But on the bright side, we are getting whatever paper work they normally charge $75 bucks for at the DMV for free because of Starling's uproar about their stupidity. (Unless that changes tomorrow bc the same lady made another mistake. WOOPSIE, sorry for the inconvenience...) And we have a comfy place to hang our hats until this junk gets sorted out. And we've played two games of scrabble and I beat Starling both times. That in and of itself is a reason to smile. (but-again- i can't move my lips).

WISH us luck for tomorrow!!