Hot Day, Cold Pleasures

Today was extremely hot and humid. Weather or no weather, though, I had to go to counseling and to the thrift shop. I dropped my donations and broused around the store. Despite the fact that I didn't have much money, I still managed to score two Banana Republic Large tank tops for a $1.00 each and an unused, cloth-bound journal with a pretty sunflower print for $.75. God, I love thrift shops.

I had a quick lunch of sparkling juice and quesedilas at the GrooveGround Cafe two blocks from Genesis Counseling, then headed down the street for this week's session. Mostly told Scott about my past two weeks, including Mom's frustration with Keefe and Anny, Skylar's seizure, Rose going to Costa Rica, and my weight loss.

It was too hot to do much of anything after I got out of counseling, and really, I was too broke. I went straight home, stopping only at the mailbox to get my bus tickets for New England in September before heading over to Uncle Ken's for this week's laundry and swim session. It was pretty busy over there today. Jodie's father and one of her nieces were in the pool, and Mark's daughter Faith and her fiancee and his toddler daughter came by, too. No wonder. The pool felt great, at least 85 degrees.

After small eye round steaks and a pasta salad for dinner, I decided I felt like ice cream for dessert. I dredged up enough money to head down the block to Leo's Yum-Yms for Only 8 Banana Soft-Serve Yogurt. I'm not a big ice cream fan and I don't often buy ice cream from a grocery store or an ice cream parlor, but the rare times I do bring back a lot of memories. As I walked past kids playing catch in their front yards and couples strolling down the block, I found myself recalling my own childhood.

When my family lived on Maryland Avenue on the northern end of Cape May near the Coast Guard Base in the mid-80s, Mom and Dad would occasionally take us three girls down Texas Avenue to DryDock for a summer treat. DryDock is this big, barn-shaped ice cream parlor on the end of Texas Avenue, next to the WaWa and a few blocks from the C-View Inn. While the view was far from the best in Cape May (Texas Avenue in front, reeds and swamp to the right, WaWa to the left), the prices were reasonable and the portions were amazing. We'd sit at the plastic tables, eating sundaes the size of buckets and gulping massive milkshakes three times bigger than a movie theater soda. Even to this day, no milkshake has ever matched the Colossal DryDock Chocolate Shake. There's a picture of my sisters and I from the time period right after a trip to DryDock. I'm about 8 and Rose is maybe 7, and we're on either side of 2 or 3-year-old Anny, slurping normal-sized milkshakes. Anny is in the middle, trying to take gulps of Dad's chocolate shake, which is easily as big as our shakes put together both up and around.

(As far as I know, DryDock is still on Texas Avenue in Cape May next to the WaWa, though I haven't been to that part of Cape May in ages. No word on whether or not they still have those massive shakes, though. And incidentally, I ended up with a far smaller Banana Soft-Serve Frozen Yogurt cup. A 95-degree-day is no time for cones.)