Oh how I love summer and all that it brings with it! I’m not a fan of the cold, yeah-yeah, I know – I live in a cold state, but when summer gets here – YEEHAW!!! Time to put away the jeans and sweatshirts, wash the winter coats and put in the closet to be left in there for a while and to go barefoot. Ha! Who am I kidding? I go barefoot pretty much the entire year. Sometimes there may be a pair of socks on my feet, but shoes…meh, not so much.
Another thing I love about summer is that we usually trek off on a vacation. I was thinking the other day about some of the wonderful vacations we have had throughout our years together, ‘ol hubby and I. Then the vacations got sweeter when we added a kiddo into the mix and enjoyed watching her experiencing new things with us. We have even done some vacations with friends and family.
Most of those were truly fun times. Lots of laughter spent between the families or couples when we trotted off without children. Great memories and never enough photos of those side splitting adventures that nobody remembered to get photos of during the moment. Like the one I’ll share here – with a promise of laughter for you:
Back quite a few years ago, six of us went off to celebrate the graduation of our two young adults. We took our friends and went off to our favorite condo at Myrtle Beach. I need you to know that you really need to assess certain facts before traveling with friends/family. You know we all have our own idiosyncrasies, but you still need to be aware of them. Some can be overlooked and some may need to be addressed. Some may be night owls and others’ not – so you have to set ground rules of how loud the tv can be after 10pm…or who likes to cook and who doesn’t–or knows how to cook for that matter. ‘Nuf said.
So, here’s the true story of how the cooking issue came to pass. I know how to cook and I absolutely love to cook. We love to rent a condo so we can spend more time on the beach, then eat at the condo rather than stand in long lines at all the seafood restaurants in town. The other lady in the group hates to cook and claims she doesn’t know how to cook, but before leaving we all planned out our week of when and who would cook each day – and when the other family would go off and have fun at the seafood buffets. We were in agreement before leaving the Buckeye State. Everything was going well until that one night.
The other lady was going to be cooking hot dogs for the evening meal. She was trying to talk the guys into tossing the idea and going out to a restaurant. I decided I wasn’t getting into the discussion, because I knew exactly what MY hubby would say and it wasn’t worth listening to the argument from the lady. I threw up my hands and laughed while I said, “I’m going to take a shower and get this suntan lotion and sand off – you all decide what we’re doing and I’ll go along with whatever you all decide.” And off I went to the shower.
All was well until I heard all kinds of yelling, “FIRE!” mumble, mumble, “FIRE!”
I’m in the shower wondering if they are playing. Are they serious? Who actually yelled-FIRE? Should I be getting out? I listen a second or two and I don’t here anything, so I continue on.
“FIRE, SERIOUSLY, COME, FIRE, FIRE!” mumble, mumble…stomp, stomp, running stomp, running stomp.
Oh. Good. Grief. There must really be a fire. GREAT! I’m buck naked and they are running out of the condo and nobody is telling me! What in the world.
So, I turned off the shower. Stepped out onto the towel and started putting my clothes on over my wet body.
Then I smell it. OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! We are on fire and I can’t get my clothes on over my wet body. OH SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!
I sort of get dressed, open the door to the bathroom then out of the bedroom and into the living room. I see that the other five have all gathered around the kitchen area and have opened all the windows. It smells a sickening smell throughout the condo. I get to them and ask, “What is going on? I heard somebody yell FIRE?
Nobody said anything.
I said, “Anybody?”
Finally, the lady friend said, “Well, I lost my battle to go out for dinner and was coming in to turn on the stove to get the electric burners hot to put the water on to boil for the mac and cheese and the other pot for the hot dogs. I didn’t see that the stove had these things over the burners. I TOLD YOU I DON’T COOK, IT’S NOT MY FAULT!”
 |
| Ever see these things – called burner covers??? |
I stood there stunned for a moment not knowing what to say. I looked at her and said, “Seriously, it’s Wednesday – you haven’t seen those at all since we got here on Saturday?”
And her sweet hubby who rarely says anything mumbled under his breath–but loud enough to be heard…”Guess she figured if she burned up the stove we could go out for seafood.”
At which point all six of us busted out laughing.
The moral of this vacation story for all of you as you begin your vacations this summer is this:
If you are going to be on vacation with other people other than your normal household…make sure that the other cooks in the meal planning really do want to cook! It will save you a fee of $50 for burner covers that cost $1.00 at the Dollar Tree.
…and that’s all I have to say about that!
Tammy