Mental Gnawing : I Abhor R&R

The whole rest and relaxation concept is kind of bizarre to me.  I react to it kind of the way I recently did when I saw a "miniature emu" for sale on CraigsList -- with  lip-gnawing, apalled curiosity. 

My [slightly/wonderfully insane] family is back in town for the second time in fourteen days.  Mind you, they're from Florida, so it's a bit of a trek to get the heck up here to Manhattan.  They kind-heartedly flew up to help me "move", but since I've already gone and done that myself (note: never be bullheadedly independent and deal with Russian movers by self EVER AGAIN), we decided to leave the city for a few days and head out East to stay in a little Bed and Breakfast near the ocean. 

All of this is lovely, in theory.  I adore my crazy family.  My father is like a not-green and much taller Yoda, and provides the best advice and brilliantly bizarre analogies -- that always make strangely perfect and unfathomably philosophical sense .  My Mom is like, well... she floats out on her own nebula sometimes, let's put it that way.  Two weeks ago she cooked three suitcases full of food -- BROUGHT THEM on the plane from Florida -- and fed all the people at my graduation party dozens of her rare (odd but wonderful) Polish delicacies.  Granted, she also had a few glasses of champagne and found it hysterically funny to try to "force feed" my very vegan significant other VEAL MEATBALLS -- but her heart is very much in the right place. 

Rounding out the Avis troupe, my little brother (who's also an actor) likes to put on various accents and "disconcert" any tourists he can find.  Sigh.  At least it's a step up from water-ballooning all of my previous boyfriends.

So they're up, we've rented a car, and have exited Manhattan to go "chill".

Six hours later, I find myself sitting on the bed and staring at the wall of a five-year-old girl's style Twilight Zone-esque bedroom (seriously, the decor is a little bit too hearts and flowers and creepy), attempting to figure out how to relax.  My mind keeps drifting -- I've concocted no new WMA conspiracy theories in the past seventy two hours, which is in itself inherently disturbing.  That, paired with my strange freak-out over a short little Law & Order audition yesterday -- I've felt a bit mentally sideways this week.  I suppose we all need a little bit of forcible R&R every once in a while, though... so I will make an attempt to re-sanify myself over the next couple of days and enjoy the beach.

Okay, enough of my bizarre ramblings.  I'm off go have a large cup of Bed & Breakfast coffee, sit down in the crickity little rocking chair on the porch, and open up my beloved FinalDraft.  Or perhaps just run around in circles for fifteen minutes... something to reduce this removed-from-Manhattan anxiety!

Sigh.  I miss the city already.

-- Ashley Avis