Rainy, Overcast, Humid Hamptons

Mentioning the Hamptons evokes visions of beaches, bonfires, rolling emerald lawns, sparkling diamonds, mansions, and summer time. In reality, the rain came down in buckets on the LIE as C and T questioned me, Why are we going to the Hamptons in the rain? It rained so hard at points that I couldn't see through the windshield. We kept looking at the sky ahead, seeing spots of blue that may not have been there, may have been wishful thinking. On the positive side, I thought, maybe Shecky's wouldn't be so crowded.

When we finally got there, found parking, ate lunch in the car, and walked a few blocks to the grounds, we found that it really wasn't as crowded as it has been in past years. And the rain had stopped. We did not stand on a line in the blazing sun to gain entry. What with the rain and arriving about an hour later than we normally did, this was working out in our favor. We got the tickets for our goodie bags and grabbed some free Honest Tea. While planning our next move, I tried to see what the booth we were standing in front was offering since it had stuff on it for curly hair. One of the gals behind the booth came out to us and gave us free samples. Then she came back a second time and said to me, You get a full sized product because your hair is fabulous.

Umm, yeah it is and yeah I do. This was why we drove out to the Hamptons in the rain. Free stuff and compliments from strangers.

Free Stuff

Fabulous hair

We got drinks from the La Croix tent and saw that this year there was no cocktail mixing class. The drinks were still good. We made our laps and got our bags. The bags themselves were cheap plastic gift bags, but the samples inside were neat, especially the little wristlet that I suppose is for carrying around tampons since it matches the Tampax box, but I'll use it to carry anything else. There were three books they were giving away, and each bag had two of them. Lots of the women throughout the day kept removing these books from their bags and leaving them on tables and windowsills, and I kept snatching them up so I could give them away or sell them. No one seemed to want to read Waking Up Married as I'm now the owner of three.

The ground was soggy, in some places muddy, (no longer raining!) but we trekked on in circles, looping around for drinks and merchandise. We saw a lot of cute stuff, but nothing really caught my fancy as much as the curly hair product, and since I already owned a bottle, I was done with my purchases. Oh! We also got buttons from some outdoor tourism thingie. We didn't sign up for anything, but we took their buttons because they said Silly and Happy and Excitement, and we like free buttons. The guy locked eyes with T and was like, You don't want to sign up? And she was like, Nope. He asked, But you'll take my buttons? She was like, Yup. I had turned around to avoid eye contact so I didn't have to have that awkward conversation. But we got all the buttons we wanted. For free. We like free.

We headed out of the Hamptons when we realized the humidity was setting in. It got suddenly hot. Still a mix of sun and clouds. Still not raining any more. But the air became thick and gross. It was time to get out of the Hamptons on a high note of free stuff.