Circling the Drain

Pretty, no?

About Atlantic City, I have only this to say: anyplace people get up at 7am and, without even bothering to get out of their sweatpants and shower, spend the day shoving money into brightly colored boxes (until the cash advance limit on the credit card is reached) is the definition of horror and misery, in my opinion. People literally watch their rent and mortgage money circle the drain. And they stand there smiling like it's ok, which it absolutely cannot be.

The city smells like despair, unless it is after midnight, in which case it smells like panic with a despair after-bouquet.

Did we have a good time? Yes. But it was, well, surreal too. The sweatpants, the panic, and the ruin start to get to you. At a certain point you have to wonder what all those people are doing there, and then you also have to ask YOURSELF what the general point was.

This was Pax's party, and now, a day later, Bibi, Sri and I realize that the point was getting away* and letting Pax talk about Joe and deal with the fact that they are circling the drain. She is sad. She needed to be among people who adore her. Us, in other words.

I am not much of an emote-r but this needs saying: I love my friends.** We traveled and hiked and climbed and drank and ate and laughed all summer. School starts tomorrow, so we'll be back to our regular lives, but we had a hell of a good time these last few months. The kept me from completely freaking losing my mind this year, since my own personal drain has been pretty busy sucking down pretty much everything that I cared about and would very much have liked to have saved.

In fact, for a few years, the general theme here at Team Nina (me and the little elves who live in my head) has been loss - loss of time, loss of money, loss of sanity and more than a few times, near loss of life for more than one person I kind of can't live without. On the credit side, the list is short, only one item long, really: my friends. I absolutely love my friends. Did I mention love? And me and my friends?





Pretty, no? Well, I think so. It is good to be home.


* You might notice that we do that an awful lot. We planned three more trips last night just over drinks and dinner. But this is all information for another post.

** Yes, Lola. I am talking about you. :-)