t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


we planned to leave for long island right after work. dan and cymara would swing by the office and we'd drive out together. before leaving i took some time to load up my mp3 player with some sweet road tunes. finding the right music to play is very important. music can be motivational, and it can also be conversational. for this special west hampton road mix, i went deep down into sweet 80's world for one side (what else is new?), and more 70's tune on the other side, interspersed with random television theme songs.

internal

external
wiseguys - body in motion
lindsey buckingham - holiday road
go go's - vacation
vanilla, jade and ebony (ghost world soundtrack) - graduation rap
different strokes theme song
destiny's child - bootylicious
go go's - cool jerk
kylie minogue - coocachoo
bangles - hero takes a fall
thompson twins - hold me now
bangles - walking down your street
billy ocean - when the going gets tough (the tough gets going)
charles in charge theme song
doctor who theme song
soft cell - sex dwarf
billy ocean - get outta my dreams (get into my car)
blacklicious - alphabet aerobics
blümchen - automatisch (live in berlin)
christina aguilera - come on over (all i want is you)
wonder woman theme song
brandy - sittin' up in my room
trina - pull over
kenny rogers - the gambler
michael jackson - don't stop 'til you get enough
paul mccartney & wings - band on the run
cuando cuando (latin american instrumental)
lime - babe were gonna love tonight
hawaii five-o theme song
captain & tennille - love will keep us together
debbie gibson - only in my dreams
chaz jankel - number one (real genius soundtrack)
shonen knife - raindrops
os mutantes - baby (1971)
three's company theme song
comsat angels - falling (real genius soundtrack)
gene kelly - singing in the rain
salt n pepa - none of your business
the real thing - you to me are everything

i think i was probably overpacked. i had a little carry-on suitcase, my usual bag which contained my newly acquired ibook 2001 edition, and my sleeping bag (which i ended up not using at all). we also took my trivia pursuit.

john and i waited for dan to call us and let us know when he was arriving. i spent the time watering my meadowlark of cat grass and laurie's plant cutting.

to be quite honest, i wasn't that excited to be going to the hampton for the long weekend. i would've much rather preferred to spend a nice, quiet few days lounging around at home. going to long island, i'd be shackled up with a bunch of strangers, and it'd be all awkward and i'd be counting the days until i got back home i thought to myself. but then there was a part of me that wanted to go because i've never been to the hampton before, so it'd be an adventure of sorts. and it wasn't like there'd be all strangers -- if nothing else, i knew at least 4 of the people there. in hindsight though, i'm really glad i did go instead of weaseling my way out of it. i had a great time -- one of the indicators of having a great time is the long weekend suddenly felt very short, like there wasn't enough days to do everything i wanted to do, which was basically to just lounge around and do nothing.

dan finally called, so john and i packed up the car, and then we left the office (surreptitiously giving rebecca a ride), picking up dan and cymara at kendall station. i felt very excited. the trip to any destination is probably the most intense, because there's all this anticipation. you're not sure what's in store, the future is like some fantastic christmas day present waiting to be opened and played with and explored. it was really great, just the four of us in the car chatting, with the sweet mix mp3's playing, speeding towards our destination.

our route in a nutshell: 93 to 95 cutting through rhode island (make fun of its inferior size along the way) down to connecticut to the town of new london where we took the ferry to long island.

it's been a long time since i took a car-carrying ferryboat. cars were parked in numbered lanes on the dock, like the starting line of some automative race. we had some time to kill, so we got something to eat from the couple of dockside food places. i bought a hot dog (which unknowingly became my dinner). when the ferryboat arrived, an announcement was made for everyone to get back into their cars. different lanes were then called and everyone in that particular lane would drive up into the boat and be directed as to where to park. space was a little cramped in the parking area of the boat. we sat in the car and watched a large chested young lady squirm her way out of the narrow opening of her car door. then we got out, grabbed our games (trivia pursuit, apples to apples) and went up on deck. once you leave the parking region, you're not allowed to go back until we arrive at our destination (i guess for safety and crime reasons). the ferry itself is organized into sections: the bar, the lounging area (sort of reminded me of a friendly's restaurant, with the various booths), the theatre (hudson hawk was playing), and the upper deck, where you could go up and sit and enjoy the evening outdoors. we grabbed a both and played a few rounds of apples to apples, followed by trivia pursuit. when we almost got to long island we went outside to the upper deck to catch the view. the nearly full moon was in the sky casting a lane of sparkles on the dark, wavy water down below. despite the fact that we were traveling on a boat at night, it was actually quite a pleasant evening, rather balmy. when we finally arrived at orient point on long island, everyone marched downstairs back into their cars and waited for the cars to clear out lane by lane. it felt great to finally be in long island! it took about an hour's drive to get to west hampton. the ride there was very interesting. since it was dark, we couldn't see a whole lot other than glimpses of the moon illuminated landscape. the thing you notice right away are how far apart the houses are from one another (definitely not the suburbs i know) the numerous vineyard signs dotting the side of the roads. we got a little bit lost trying to find deanna's place, but since john's been there before and since i was the front seat navigator with the mini maglite flashlight, we found her place eventually.

here's how i remembered it: the swath of headlights panning across the house, the crunch of the car tires pulling into the white pebbled circular driveway, a wild rabbit chewing grass on the front lawn its eyes reflecting in the darkness as it runs away, the jiggle of the car keys, the sound of the engine coming to a complete stop, and us getting out of the car, stretching our legs, seeing deanna's silhouette in the front door, there to greet us.

i don't know about the others, but when i got there, i was sort of shellshocked from the many hours of traveling. we left the office at around 6pm, and we got to deanna's place close to 11pm. we sat outside by the pool, sort of aclimating ourselves to the new surroundings. the moon was in the sky, round, white, occasionally covered by clouds. a beach ball dances around in the swirl of the pool.

deanna showed up where we'd be sleeping that night. dan and cymara had one room, john and deanna another, and i had a room all to myself with two twin sized beds. or so i thought. a phone call later, deanna came up to me and asked, how would you like to spend the night with two ladies? come again? some of her friends were soon to arrive, and they'd share the same room i was staying in. john and deanna attempted to inflate an air mattress, in preparation for the eventual arrival of some more houseguests. it wasn't until they read the instructions were they able to inflate the mattress, and by that time megan and roseanne showed up. megan's an old friend of deanna's, roseanne a friend of megan's. both ladies were actresses, but in their spare time dabble in secretarial crafts. it was very interesting to meet these two young women. i've never met actors before, real people who aspire to act for a living!

while everyone was getting ready for bed, i downloaded my photos into my ibook. friday finally came to an end when i closed my eyes and slept with two actresses. i was exhausted yet tingling with anticipation for tomorrow.

tomorrow: part ii, more guests arrive, first day of lounging, and what we did after dinner!