Sleepless (sexless?) in New Jersey

So.

As I indicated yesterday, I wanted to update my blog layout to celebrate a new year of (hopefully) posting galore, but, um, it didn't happen. If any of you are particularly artistic and would love to help recreate, I would appreciate it. But for now, we'll stick with the old look and move on to the new posts.

SO!!!!

This past Christmas was the first time Grad School BF and I were going to be at my parents' house for more than one night, which would have been fine, except he was leaving for his parents' house (on another um, continent) for 4 weeks.

Awesome.

So we faced a Situation. Refrain from nookie for five weeks, or figure out what terribly awkward solution we were most comfortable with. We've faced long weekends elsewhere (and not in hotels) before, and have dealt with it like teenagers - lots of groping each other in dark movie theatres, or making out on the back of the bus. But now we were faced with the largest teenage dilemma of all: how do you have sex with your parents around.

Without them finding out.

I am vaguely embarrassed (ok no I'm not) to say that I did extensive - EXTENSIVE - research on the internet to see what other people have done. Some talk about having sex quietly, but that was a problem for us cause the 'rents weren't letting us sleep in the same room (they're Catholic after all). Some talk about waiting until people leave the house, but that was a problem because

1. That meant feeling sneakier and sketchier than you already do; and
2. I couldn't foresee a time when everyone would be out of the house.

I have a big family.

Point is. Lots of people on the internets suggested getting a hotel which sounded like a great idea. Spend a night in the city, get a nice hotel, eat breakfast in bed and then head back to the Jerz. The only problem is apparently we weren't the only people who needed a hotel room in New York City over the holiday season, and oh right, they were hundreds of dollars. And I have hundred of dollars. So then I looked into places a little closer to home. Hoboken is close to the city, so why not? Why not, except those places were - if possible - even more expensivo. So I moved over to Jersey City. The, um, "hotels" that had availability had two options - pay by the hour or pay by the hot tub. I'm not ashamed to say I considered that possibility. At this point, it's important to say that the city was a nice subtle, "we all know why we're leaving and not sleeping here tonight, but at least we have a nice cover, no?". But that was out. And with my sibs, Alexis and my parents, we were out of beds and out of luck. Something had to be done, but without SOME good story about why we were leaving there was nothing to do but, well. Lie. So instead of "going to the city" and paying rent for a hotel room in Hell's Kitchen (noooooo thank you) I said we were "going to Hobo" and "staying at Maggie's so we could drink". We pricelined a hotel 9 miles away for $40, and stayed there for the night. Got breakfast in bed. Then went home. In the end, we were almost caught in the lie when we ran into my dad coming back from getting bagels. But even if our cover wasn't stellar, it felt good to have one. And I didn't have to be celibate for the full five weeks. That's always nice! From now on, maybe we'll just get a hotel in advance. I hear there's a nice place 9 miles away that only costs $40 a night. NOT an hour.