Wish U Were Here

"If you'll be my bodyguard ..." Paul Simon's music fades in and out over the sound of kids splashing in the pool. The piped-in music (coming from rock-looking landscape speakers) is stereo surrounding me as I float in the pool on my back looking up at the palm treas. Oops. I meant to type trees, but I'm in vacation-mind mode where thinking about anything more than lunch or when to apply my next spray of sunscreen is an effort. What day is this?

I'm watching the clouds float by above me, sounds muffled because my ears are below the water. I wonder how long a human could stay like this.

The view from my beach chair is great too. A peaceful seascape full of every color in the aqua spectrum running into the peaches, apricots and golds. I think this is one of the things I miss most about those long winter months up north ... these Florida colors.

We girls spend the day here, poolside. The boys are watching movies and playing Xbox in the condo. I'm engrossed in Kelly Corrigan's The Middle Place, partly because a new writer friend told me recently that my writing style reminds me of Kelly's (wow--what a compliment!) but mostly because Kelly's story makes me feel like I'm listening to a friend.

Later in the day, we go out to a local Italian place where the waitress scrunches her face at our high-maintenance Midwest requests for things "on the side" (like she's trying to make out another language) and pronounces Minestrone soup as "minn-a-strone." Note to self: look up the authentic pronunciation. Then we go shopping to the outlet mall where everyone comes away happy. Starbucks for dessert. Practically perfect day.

As Shangra-La-like as this sounds, I think the boys have had enough and are missing the familiarities of home. I'm missing T. It's wierd to be here without him, but the new grandbaby did arrive Monday (healthy and strong) and he was able to hold her last night which probably made staying home worth it. I miss Petey-the-poodle (and he misses me, according to Tom.) I hear Pete is spending his days moping in his cage. I also miss my bed. I don't miss the bills or dealing with the other bad news that rolls into our lives, but even here I can't escape it. T tells me about a niece that's in trouble. I resolve to resume my prayers--no excuse to have vacationed from that.

Pay Pier View

Day 3 Po No Flo Road Trip. I slept til 10 (wow)! Awakened to a beautiful, HOT, humid and sunny day. The boys took a 10-minute bike ride before determining that the cool pool sounded like less work than trying to pedal through sand.

So, we all hit our fav pool. There are five here. (Did I mention this is like Bali Hai? I keep singing this song and annoying everyone.) There were only two other families at the pool all day. We ordered pop and ice teas and listened to live music by our very own Jimmy Buffet-ish guitar/singer guy. ("Hi. My name is Andy and I'm here to entertain you.") Sooz & I spied a frozen Mango Pina Colada drink making its way (via waitress) to someone else at "our" pool and decided we'd order one later in the week. (Too much effort exerted on any one vacation day is a sin.) In fact, sitting here in this luxury feels sinful. "Dahhhlink, could you please pass the suntan lotion?" But, it really was/is wonderful. Thanks, Grammy. I read all day (another luxury) and finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. (Very good.) I'll start The Middle Place tonight.

Big storm moved late this afternoon. After it passed, we headed south, stopping to dine at a little hole-on-a-pier kitschy restaurant not-so-originally named, "The Pier." The view was great. The food just okay (seafood for all). The prices, high. The waitress, a touch surly. The boys wandered out to walk the pier, only to find out you had to pay to walk it. They started to look in the tiny fishing shop--but met with more surliness. The friendliest guy was the wooden sea captain near the door. One younger waitress told us someone had caught a 4-foot shark about 10 minutes earlier. We listened as she expanded the shark's length each time she told the story to dinner guests.

We then visited Daytona--stopping at Maui Nix. Fun place for the boys. They each bought a hat. I wished I was a tiny teenage girl again when I saw all the cute, hip beach tops, skirts, purses, shorts, etc. they carried. But, I took note (mentally) of some of the cute fabric combos & general designs--and will come up with some creative ways to recreate them soon--for Past Perfect chicks. Fun day.