Throughout the entire month of August all I did was bitch and moan, "I haven't even been to the beach yet." I had not been to the beach yet because my weekends were always either booked or lets face it, I didn't make it a priority.
Last week I had decided that I was going to go to the beach on Saturday, 8/25, if it killed me. I was faced with obstacles but damn it, I hurtled over my hysterical mother who wanted me to stop by and I held my ground to my boyfriend's demanding mother who acted as if my going to the beach alone was an act of treachery or infidelity.
I got to the beach around noon and at four I called Mike to tell him I was never coming home. I had the most wonderful afternoon and I am just so pleased that I didn't accept that the summer was over (because it wasn't) and didn't just sit back and feel sorry for myself for not having had much of a summer.
It was wonderful to sit in the sun and listen to the waves crashing on the shore. I read and watched the surfers surf and the kids take surfing lessons some ways away from the guys who knew what they were doing. I took a long walk and collected shells and I watched babies experience wet sand for their first time. I felt my shoulders slowly back down from my ears and I even practiced my yogic breathing. I had a great afternoon and got back to Mike's parents house where we were staying, showered (you know, those great showers after a day at the beach!) and then went to a party with some great people and got drunk. It was a great summer day.
So yesterday, Tuesday, I got to go again! and Mike went with me. We went to a different beach, LBI, and Mike was kind of a crab. (I told him I should have left him at the beach so he could scuttle back into the ocean.) But overall, I had a nice time. I swam and played by myself (I tend to regress in age when I get to the beach) and I was surprised to find Mike watching me play at one point. I found a shark tooth! Mike says it wasn't and I say it was and after I held onto it for over 45 minutes while I played and got pummeled by waves, I lost it. I could have stayed a few more hours but Mike gets bored fast with the beach. It's just not his thing and I can't make him love something as much as I do nor do I want to really, but we had to go.
After a nice lunch and a beer we walked around and played in the arcade and checked out the kids on the freestanding water slides. Mike promised we could do that next year. I kept thinking of my brother Joey and how we used to go on those water slides when we stayed with my grandparents. It's a lot of running up stairs! Up down up down for two hours! It's a blast. It made me a little sad though that they shrank. They used to be 1,000 feet tall! They don't look it anymore. I remember how we used to race down the slides. Me and my two brothers would each take a slide and all push off at the count of three. It was great!
I have an obligation all this weekend but I decided I should hit the beach again on Labor Day. I figure September will still be hot so I plan to get a few more beach days in. It's better late than never and now the water's warm and after Labor Day the beaches will be pretty much empty so maybe I did the best thing by waiting. I guess like any season, summer is what you make of it. I had a great vacation in May and August is turning out to be pretty good so I think I can stop walking around bitching about how much this summer sucked. My summer doesn't end on Labor Day, but when the temperature at 2:00 PM is under 78 degrees for a consecutive seven days in a row.
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