grep life by Jeremy Glover

Hilton Head Island, SC – Day 1 of 8

To celebrate Kara’s mom’s retirement, Kara and I thought it would be nice to treat her and my mom to a week at the beach.

Our mothers arrived yesterday afternoon from Motown and we spent the evening catching up. We watched My Life in Ruins with the chick from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Not bad for a sappy chick flick. After some much-procrastinated, late-night packing, we hit the sack.

Today started out beautifully—pancakes for breakfast, relatively painless packing, and my mom driving. We made a quick pit-stop at Wendy’s and arrived at the condo around 3:00 where we found the maids’ supervisor doing a last-minute inspection. We quickly hauled our belongings up three flights of stairs in 110-degree heat (heat index). I’m pretty sure my shirt melted off as I was doing the stair-master marathon because I wasn’t wearing one when I looked in the mirror while checking out our bedroom. You’re welcome.

After a five-minute break in the cold living room (thermostat set at 65…w00t!), we slid down the stairs and took an unprepared tour of the island, wandering around aimlessly for about an hour before we decided we needed milk for breakfast.¹ So of course we stopped at the Piggly-Wiggly where the deli turkey breast was $9.69 per pound…all varieties. Thank you Boar’s Head for forcing your monopoly down my throat. So we nixed the turkey and opted for rotisserie chicken at under $7, got some supplies for sandwiches, salad, and the milk.

My mom, being the prepared mother she is, was kind enough to bring meatballs for dinner so we could save some cash. They were delicious as meatball hogies and saved approximately $75 compared to eating out.

The cellphone reception is terrible in our condo with AT&T. It stutters between “No Service”, “Searching…”, and 1-to-2 bars of signal. Who of us has AT&T? All of us. So I busted out my laptop and got on Skype. Ohh wait…no I didn’t. The cable modem, wireless router, and TV were all unplugged, cords draped across the floor. What was that count?

1) TV
2) Cable Modem
3) Wireless Router

That’s right: 3. How many outlets are there? 2. Spectacular. And…if you wait long enough, the plugs shoot out of the outlet from the magical force known as gravity because that’s just how loose they are.

So the TV remains unplugged as I write this…

Anyway, we fired up Skype and my mom was able to check in with her sister so that at least someone, other than you all (ya’ll…we’re in the deep south, right?), knew we got here safely.

Crap…now my laptop is dying. Better plug it in. Great…after nearly electrocuting myself due to another faulty outlet behind the couch (missing wall plate and not mounted to anything…I can literally hide it in the wall if I want), my laptop is now powered up! Other than electrical outlets, this condo is fairly nice.

“To the beach!”, said Kara. So we went. The pool is nice and is “continuously monitored via webcam”. You know some creepy dude just sits on the other end enjoying the snot out of his job. The beach was also very nice—long, shallow-sloped descent from the dunes to the water. We walked south for about two minutes and quickly changed directions due to the sand-blasting wind buffeting my glasses.

So far, the plan for day 2 is tennis at 7:45 AM, necessary due to ridiculous temperatures, and relaxation at the pool and on the beach until dinner time. Any good suggestions for dinner?

G’night folks!

Day 1 (you are here)
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8

¹ I’m currently struggling in my life with how to keep the Sabbath holy per God’s commandment (Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15). A person told me that the Sabbath has been abolished since it was a ceremonial law (according to that person) and all ceremonial laws were abolished when Jesus died for us. So Jesus reemphasized some commandments but abolished just that one? Even though Jesus, himself, kept the Sabbath? Anyway, I feel that we are still supposed to keep the Sabbath and I’m finding it very difficult, in the world I live in, to do that. For those that want to contribute, here’s where I stand on what work should be allowed on the Sabbath: God’s work. I realize that’s up for interpretation, but I don’t want to narrow it down to specifics. So, the best example I can come up with currently is vacations on cruise ships. The employees work every single day that you’re on that cruise (at least that’s been my experience on the two cruises I’ve taken which were both one week long). When is their Sabbath? Am I causing them to sin by going on the cruise? Thoughts?

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