Driving in Vermont - Day Time Edition

Apparently when it's dark out, all you see are deer and strange fox/beaver/possum type animals. In the day time, you get to see cows and sheep. But when you're in a car that seats 5 with 6 grown women, you start to make up what it is that you see. Apparently, you can be 30 years old, but still not be grown up enough to behave yourself in a moving vehicle, let alone concede that you need to take two cars because there aren't enough seat belts. (Yes it was my idea to take one car, but no one fought me on it.)

Saturday afternoon we decided to hit up some outlet shopping in Manchester, VT. It was a rainy afternoon and what's more fun that shopping with your girlfriends (or watching your girlfriends spend all their money on clothes and shoes. Or in my case, watching my friends watch me spend my money on clothes and shoes). We piled into my car, M in the front seat next to me and the other four ladies in the back seat. This is what I could see: Although this is also a classic image of L & B: We're so grown-up. Of course, I'm sure you can understand why I looked like this most of the time: It was about a half hour drive, and of course all we're seeing are cows and sheep. Somehow, and I actually was paying attention to the road, so I'm not totally sure how, there was conversation about being nice to sheep and cows, animals are people too, and someone combined words and suddenly, we'd discovered a new breed of hybrid mammal. Apparently this is a picture of sheeple: Yes, I slowed down to almost a complete stop so this picture could be captured. I'm so nice (and glad we were on a country road with no one around us). The little white dots are sheep/sheeple. But it did bring up the question what with the rain and all. If you leave your sheep out in the rain, will they shrink? I mean, being wool and all. Makes ya think.

We arrived in Manchester and although driving to a shopping trip typically feels like a journey in toward all good things, this particular drive felt like a journey to my personal Mecca. And as turned the corner, I spotted the motherload: Ann Taylor Factory Outlet. (I squealed.) Then we parked in a lot adjacent to a shoe store. Yummy!

Here are the details you need to know about my friends. I spent this shopping trip with 2 doctors, 2 post-docs and a vet. That means I'm the only one who doesn't wear scrubs or jeans nearly everyday and I'm the only one that does wear heels nearly everyday. (I bought two pairs of super cute shoes, 2 dresses, a skirt and a top. I was actually very well behaved.)

We continued shopping, had lunch and the realized that we still had a dozen very yummy cupcakes waiting for us at the house to celebrate our birthday (duh, that was the point right? Well, one of the points.) Driving back there actually was an actual, non-animal landmark that I veered off the road to stop at when someone in the back seat noticed it. A granite quarry, apparently the first of its kind (either in the U.S./colonies or Vermont, I didn't pay attention). But it was pretty, so we stopped. We went home, played some games, ate some dinner and devoured some cupcakes. And the games are where we really showed our maturity (or just let our hair down because some of us really needed a weekend away). Look, I'm just saying that when you play a game like Cranium that has clay as a game piece, and you get a bunch of women celebrating a "bachelorette" party, you're gonna have some shenanigans.

I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin'.