Oh, I’m so sad. Napkin left last night and when I woke up this morning I reached over for him and remembered he was gone.

Are you bored of me yet?

Yesterday, day four of my (reinstated) spending freeze was great.

Napkin and I, overwhelmed by all the company, were exhausted. I woke up earlier than he did and took care of some work, all the while drinking gallons of coffee with a very grumped-out Molly next to me. I think she was still trying to catch up on beauty sleep when I woke her up. All three of us, Molly, Napkin and myself, are “social introverts” and we needed a little more closet time than the weekend allowed.

Napkin woke up and we ate a late breakfast… and then we sort of spent hours goofing off. I mean, HOURS.

I gave Napkin permission to play Skyrim (UGH JAMMER I KNOW YOU’RE READING THIS ITS YOUR FAULT) while I blogged to y’all about day three. And then all that coffee started making me feel totally bananas and I knew I needed to do move around a little bit. I tore Napkin away from the dumb game kicking and screaming (that isn’t true) and then we did something totally free.

We went to the beach.

Like, DUH you guys. Why haven’t I done this before? Oh yeah, I know why…

Because the beach is basically overrun by pointless businesses and terrible tourists. It has ALWAYS hurt my feelings that something as amazing as the ocean has played second string to underage clubs and stinky tee shirt shops in Murl Beach. (Note: I first tried to type that as “stinky tee shit shops” and I laughed and laughed.)

We are only in the month of April and everything is crowded. It’s fun when you want to play along, sure. I mean, Little Bro, Napkin and I went and played video games on the boardwalk the day before. We ate candy and laughed at weirdos in souped up golf carts. But the ocean holds a very special place in my heart and I want to slap the wrists of everyone who continues to take advantage of that.

I can’t even bring myself to post the picture I took of a run-off drain that lead straight to the ocean. Above it, there was a sign that said, (and I paraphrase,) “high bacteria oozes from here all the time. Don’t swim within 200 feet of this. Your local government doesn’t care about you. Or the ocean and everything in it. Peace.”

REALLY?!

Napkin, who has really fueled my general eco-frustration by teaching me how awful people can be, had a tiny meltdown and we both sighed, decided to pretend that we hadn’t seen that, and take a walk on the sand. Look how gorg:

You have to walk through a bunch of empty lots and boarded up businesses (Like a place that was once called “Club Exception” where, once upon a time, you could dance your cares away and also buy a hot dog for ninety-nine cents??) but when you finally do get to the beach, it’s lovely. Napkin and I kept our heads turned away from the city and towards the sea and let ourselves walk up and down the coast while the sun set. Basically we calmed the eff down. It was lovely. And at one point, it turned pretty romantic. We are trying to stop ourselves from the scary life planning we have to do. This weekend, for once, we did a pretty good job of living in the moment. We had a one-day-family-vacay. We had a pizza party. We had Chinese food. We let ourselves be lazy. We went to the beach. All of these things were singularly fun and enjoyable and we did them without thinking of what we were gonna do next, you know?

After the beach, we came home and ate my very favorite trash bag meal: Burritos. Because who doesn’t have a can of beans in their house? And those weird tomato basil wraps you forgot about in the refrigerator?

Napkin left to go back our home after that. I found rum in my cabinet and drank a massive cocktail and watched the latest Game of Thrones episode without him. (Sorry again, Napkin.) (Also: What a freaking doozy!)

All in all, it was the most bittersweet of all of my free dollar days. But the easiest, too? Having my perfect husband’s company is all I really need, guess.

See you tomorrow!