F Yeah New England

Eastern Connecticut is a black hole for a lot of things – chain restaurants, free public beaches, Anthropologies – but this time of year I am totally in love with everything about it. TOTALLY. I drive around on my regular every day errands literally GASPING at how gorgeous the trees are. Out loud. GASP. And just when I think I’ve found the most spectacular, fall postcard worthy stretch of road I round a corner and IT’S EVEN MORE GORGEOUS HOLY CRAP I CAN’T EVEN. Throw in trips to do photo-shooty fall-type things with my children in plaid shirts and tiny overalls and it’s a miracle I don’t pee my pants with excitement. Or maybe that’s why I’m wearing black pants.

Of course, my blissful land of red and oranges and yellows and pumpkins and caramel apples and chicken pot pie lasts for approximately two weeks (IF WE’RE LUCKY and it doesn’t rain for all of October). The rest of fall is cold and dreary and brown, and I reserve my right to complain about it on the daily right up until we get our first real snow of the winter and/or/usually at the same time Christmas. Then everything is AMAZING and GORGEOUS and A FAIRYLAND OF MAGICALNESS for exactly the amount of time it takes for the snow plow to come and spew dirty slush all over the place. After that it’s just one long stretch of misery until spring shows up in April (or May, more likely) when all the flowers bloom and I once again remember why I love New England.

I never said it was a HEALTHY relationship, but it’s one I don’t plan to get out of any time soon.

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I got new glasses this week, for the first time in years. My old ones were thin and gold and half-rimless and totally considered fashionable when I bought them, if that gives you an idea of how long it has been. I bought two pairs from the place that did my exam and then asked them for my prescription. Because I am SMART, I also looked up what exactly one needs to order glasses from the interwebs BEFORE I asked for it, to make sure I got all the parts I needed.

Turns out – SURPRISE! – they don’t actually give you all the information you need! Because they are jerks and want you to be forced to buy their $350 Tory Burch frames! The woman who was helping me wrote down the extra number I needed in teeny tiny letters at the bottom of the page and whispered “You can take this anywhere. THEY will know what it means” as if she was giving me the secret recipe for Coca-Cola instead of just the distance between my eyeballs. When I said I was planning to get a zillion pairs of $6 frames from the internet (thanks to a fantastic tip from Swistle) she got all scoldy and mean and told me I was wasting my money because those cheap glasses would probably break after two weeks anyway. To which I say YES, EXACTLY, which is why they are SIX DOLLARS. But with two grabby little kids I am just as likely to break my $350 Tory Burch glasses (yeah, they got me) and I don’t see you offering to replace them out of the kindness of your heart.

Besides, I am finally getting used to seeing things again. It’s kind of nice and I don’t want a pair of broken glasses to ruin that.

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I want to write about how I am surviving some temporary single parenting LIKE A CHAMP – not only am I keeping the kids alive, I’m cooking dinner from scratch! Knitting things! The house isn’t a disaster! I have put away folded laundry! TWICE! – but that would be tempting fate just a little too much and I have TOO MANY DAYS left before I get my husband back, so that is all I will say about that.

Post-script: I HADN’T EVEN SCHEDULED this post yet and shit started to fall apart. I will NEVER LEARN.

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21 Responses to “F Yeah New England”

  1. raincheckmom says:

    So, do we ever get to see you wearing your glasses?

  2. merin says:

    Yes, there is an EXTREME lack of Anthropologies in Eastern CT. But maybe it’s good because then you wouldn’t be tempted to take your toddler and baby with you and expect them to sit there while you try on 100 flowy shirts and pants in every size because every style of everything at Anthropologie fits differently and you just never know what is going to look terrible on the hanger but great on you. This way you can schedule an OUTING sans kids and make a day of being doted on by skinny sales associates and leaving the store with $300 worth of clothes…but only 3-4 things…but they are the BEST!!

  3. Swistle says:

    And, AND, my $8 glasses HAVEN’T broken! What I heard is that frame fashions change pretty fast, and that Zenni is selling the ones that didn’t sell or that are soooooo 5 minutes ago. So they’re the SAME FRAMES. But on CLEARANCE.

  4. hanna says:

    Wait, wait, wait- there’s such a things as not-free public beaches??

    • bebehblog says:

      We have two kinds of beaches – private beaches and town/state beaches. You can’t go to the private beaches without being a resident of that community and to use the town/state beaches you need to buy a daily or yearly pass. It’s CHEAPER for residents but it still costs money (and I live in a town not on the coast, so we have no beaches to get a discounted pass to). It’s the total opposite of what it was like in South Carolina, where ALL the beaches are free except for a very few exclusive ones.

  5. Tanya says:

    Sorry everything is going to shit. At least you have cute kids. And fall in New England:)

  6. molly says:

    You’re rockin’ it lady. As a mom and wife :)

  7. Katrina says:

    Suzanne–missed you at knitting last night. I actually went!

    What is the secret information needed for online glasses? I’m about to order some and thought I had everything I needed but those brick & mortar eye places are tricksters. Are you talking about the PD value? I have been looking at Coastal Contacts for cheap frames but someone else I know recommended ZenniOptical too so I’ll have to check them out.

    And by the way, love your photography!

  8. I wore the same scratched-up glasses for over ten years before my wife got sick of looking of them and bought me new ones. Frugality sometimes goes a little overboard.

  9. Alena says:

    My husband has been gone for 2 (or has it been 3…I can’t remember) weeks….and my house has fallen apart. But I blame the fetus. Cook dinner?! HA! Please. That’s what God created restaurants for. And if you don’t cook, you don’t have to do dishes {on a note about that, I plan on totally killing the planet and buying paper plates and stuff, so if the chance arises that I do cook – it probably won’t – I won’t have to do dishes, but why can’t there be disposable pots and pans?}.

    And I’ve taught my daughter how to clean up her own toys. Well about half of them. So on any given day I only have to clean up 50% of her toys.

  10. Jennie says:

    I miss New England autumns! Apparently, VIrginia doesn’t believe in fall, or winter for that matter. No beautiful leafy drives, or winter wonderland for us- just mid atlantic schizophrenia on weather or not to wear a sweater or a swimsuit!

  11. Neighbor says:

    You did look rather glam in your glasses (and your shrinking body) yesterday :-). And it’s a complete shame to have to drive an hour to hit some good shopping like Anthropologie and Trader Joes …. but so worth the drive.

  12. Sarah-Anne says:

    ohmygoodness, you crack me up, suzanne. NC is the same way; Fall for a couple weeks then brown & cold & yucky. gotta make the most of it!

  13. Cole says:

    That’s the trouble with posting anything positive – it changes in 5 minutes!

  14. TMae says:

    Just reiterating what I said up top – I WANNA SEE THE TORY BURCH FRAMES. Carry on.

  15. Kendra B. says:

    Oh my gosh your blog CRACKS ME UP! Loved the part about New England, we live in Maine and I TOTALLY understand the love-hate relationship with the seasons. And I am so checking out ZenniOptical when I get my prescription renewed this year.

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