When I woke up on Sunday, I thought I was the earliest riser. It turned out that Javina & the Boy had been awake for hours, had made breakfast, checked email, and all of that other good stuff. The three of us puttered around for a little while, then the Boy & I slowly gathered our supplies, loaded up the car in nervous dashes to avoid MCN, and got ready for our lakeside adventure. On the way out of the city, we stopped at the Starbucks across from Bread & Roses to get some last-minute provisions. Our ride to Javina's mom's house was long & grey. We talked - a lot - and were there before we even thought to put on anaesthetizing music.

As soon as we arrived, however, we realized that we'd forgotten a groundsheet. This was a problem, as it'd rained all day long and Tenty will wick up moisture if something on the inside (i.e. a sleeping bag) comes in contact with a wet outer surface. We bopped around town for a few hours, but were unable to find a tarp. Fortunately, Javina's mom & stepfather were home when we got back to the house, and they were able to lend us a nice car cover. Crisis averted.

Dinner was big, although carb-less (everyone in the house is on the Atkins diet), and by the time I gave up on desert, I was feeling the Sprout grumble around unhappily. S/he had started kicking vigorously the day before, and whereas before I felt a gentle rumbling when it wiggled about, now I was feeling definite impacts. Of course, kicking is just shorthand - for all I know, we've got a soccer hooligan in there, pounding away on our placenta with its head and singing songs about ManU. Or, you know, the Sprout might be a ska fan. Oi! I went to bed with the unfamiliar feeling of the Sprout sliding from side to side as I turned over, a slave to gravity for the first time in her/his little life.

I had a fairly bad night. My stomach ached, my head ached, and despite the usually-sumptuous air-mattress, I couldn't find a comfortable position to support myself. I lay in the dark for awhile, wondering if I was restless enough to get up & join the world again, but soon I fell into a thin, uneasy sleep. I woke up in the middle of a loud, pushy rainstorm, and had a brief moment to regret my sandals outside Tenty before I was off again. The Boy spent most of the evening watching teevee and trying to comfort Javina (who had begun to crash from the weekend in Toronto), and I missed him terribly whenever I woke up alone. I've become such a suck this summer about sleeping by myself.

In the morning the Boy & I took care of some lingering carbs in the form of Special K with Red Berries (age unknown; I have no idea how long the house's been on Atkins), and I called my mom.

"Why are you calling me collect?"
"I'm in [small town]."
"[Small town]? On Lake Erie? What are you doing there?"

I like to befuddle her once in awhile.

After a few desultory hours watching the Dune Marathon on the Space Channel & being protected by the family poodle, we pulled on suits & headed to the semi-private local beach for splashin' & sunnin'. On the way down, we stopped at Javina's mother's watercolour gallery for a polite look-around. Our manners soon turned to honest admiration - the woman is good. I particularly liked the little one of cherries; for such a small canvas it had incredible movement & richness. The Boy found a card for his mother's birthday (which J's mother decided to give us outright) and we spent a good while talking about the different canvasses. As J & I chatted about prints & ebay; we slowly became aware of the Boy thanking J's mother repeatedly. He was holding an angel watercolour (very abstract, no cutesy big eyes or any other Precious Moments crap) that J's mother had decided to give us as "a late wedding present/early baby present." I was floored by her generosity; I had intended to pay for the card and this was totally out of the blue. Suddenly a trip back with the Sprout next winter seemed not only a good idea, but a necessity.

Once we got to the beach, the Boy bodysurfed & looked for rocks while Javina & I talked about our bodies, our depressions & my pregnancy. Lunch was a picnic: a variety of fruits & some peanuts for protein, which was just light enough for the heat of the afternoon. Eventually we decided to go walk around town a bit & find some fries. We washed up at Mackie's, a giant beach restaurant/fried-food-dispensing machine perched conveniently on the public beach. I have never in my life seen so many people buying fast food at once, nor have I seen such an efficient delivery system. The Boy & I split a perch lunch and I felt my perpetual headache recede a few notches.

There was a photo booth in Mackie's, an unusual touristy thing that changed pictures to caricatures or line drawings or stipple portraits. We were fascinated, and crammed in to see what we could come up with. I have to say, I love the results.

Back to the house for more Dune, then we packed up Tenty & got ready to go home. Once the car was packed, we three went into town for some incredible local ice cream and gorged (even Javina had some!). I left my blue flannel shirt behind with the dim idea that it might help Javina to know that I had to come back sooner or later. I'm not sure if it really did, but it felt good to offer. Leaving was hard, as we couldn't give a definite return date or even provide honest reassurance that things would get better living with her parents'. She cried. We felt miserable watching her. Even writing about it now brings back a little of that helpless feeling.