I’ve had quite the most relaxing time while in Orange Beach, Alabama. Our alarm clock has not even been plugged in, and we have no times to be anywhere. We get up when we want, go eat when I want, and go to bed when we want. Notice I said, “go eat when I want…” as our eating schedule evolves around ME, Me, me. I can’t help it! And the thing is, I never know what I will be hungry for. Today it was Italian food at a place called “Franco’s Italian Food” but it was too early in the day and the restaurant did not open until 4:00. We found a Godfather’s Pizza instead. I had a salad (which was wonderful) from the lunch buffet and my plate piled high with pizza. Tim’s eyes got big as he asked, “Are you PLANNING on eating all of that?” Why of course not! I scraped all the toppings off 6 slices of pizza (now before you have a heart attack, they don’t put many toppings on the buffet pizzas. That’s why I had so many.) My tummy was quite satisfied when we left.
This afternoon I took a nap. The waves on the beach relax me and make me tired. Tim & I took a long walk out on the beach about an hour ago. The waves were crashing hard against one another, and one came way far up on the beach, smashing into me and almost carried me out to sea! I screamed. It was so cold, and my goodness I sure would not have had that problem at 251 lbs! To actually worry that I would be carried away with a wave into the ocean.
I picked up shells yesterday and today. Isn’t it funny how you can learn a life lesson by doing or observing events? At first, I wanted only PERFECT shells. I saw broken pieces of others but would not even bend down to pick them up, let alone look at them. But I was on a quest to find beautiful, perfect unbroken shells. The problem was, they all looked alike. And, were mostly small. They appeared to be cookie cutter versions of one another and not very colorful. I started thinking about how in life, we seem to want perfect mates, perfect friends, perfect jobs. We don’t even stop to observe or think about the ones that have a flaw. We just pass them by. But today, I noticed colorful, coral colored shells with stripes and ridges. One broken shell kept following me on the beach. I was not going to pick it up, and the waves washed it right at my feet. I stepped away. Another wave washed it towards my feet again. I finally got the hint and reached down to pick it up. It was a beautiful shell at one time, still had its character but pieces were missing. It made me wonder what it originally looked like before forced to weather the storm and then busted into shards.
Another thing I noticed today in the midst of the beginning phases of Hurricane Gustav. All the perfect shells are hidden. They are nowhere to be found. All the large broken shells are now visible. It’s something how broken articles make their presence known in the storm. I know some broken people whose finest hours are during the storms. These individuals are those who have been rejected, cast offs by society and yet are the strongest and have personalities that are not cookie cutter versions of anything or anyone else. Perfect people really haven’t had to weather storms. They hide when trouble comes, just as the perfect little seashells on the beach remain hidden, and therefore are not susceptible to conditions that would break or mar them in any way. I guess that is all of my philosophical theories for the day…
Let me just leave you with a funny. Remember this summer when Tim & I were at the lake, and he mentioned how there were small fish swimming around my feet? I about had a heart attack! Well, this morning, I saw what I thought was a shell and asked Tim to reach down for it. As he lifted the sand, the shell started walking right towards me! I shrieked, “Ahh, oh my God, oh my God! What is it? It’s moving, it’s gonna get me!” There was a family nearby watching, and several of their children started moving towards us to see what the commotion was all about. A crab came up out of the ground and started moving towards my feet, and I freaked out! It was the cutest little critter… he had two black bug eyes on top of his little whitish pink body, and just scurried around along the sand. The children continued to chase it as Tim & I walked the other direction back to our chairs. Later, another crab was around our chairs and Tim chased it but a seagull swooped in to eat the crab. Tim chased the crab back out to the ocean, saving its life from the seagull. I kept teasing him, saying that the bird might just be hungry enough to peck on him! That would provide a tasty dinner!
Hurricane Gustav is supposed to touch in this area so Mike and Tim have been watching radar and Weather.com to make a decision on whether we should stay until tomorrow or go home tonight. As I am typing right now, they are sitting in the living room looking at the weather, estimating what time we would leave and arrive back in Tennessee, will we stop to eat, etc. and I am waiting on a picture to arrive via email to post here on my site. There is laundry in the washer, and we have made the decision now to go back to Tennessee tonight, before Gustav makes his grand entrance.
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