One good day at the beach
I couldn’t decide how to write about this trip. It sounded so good when we planned it - a road trip to the beach while the girls are still doing elementary school through distance learning. We would rent our own house with a pool, have swim breaks in between Zoom calls, and head to the beach for fun in the surf and sand (with a margarita in hand) when school was finished. It was going to be a perfect example of making the best of our situation, finding the bright side, focus on the positive. I was going to write several posts about all the fun we had only a few hours from home.
Blah blah blah, blah-blah-blah.
But of course, we make plans and God laughs.
And this is where I can’t decide what to say - should I outline all the challenges we faced, the rainy days, the lack of running water, the cockroaches, the work emergencies? A day by day report of the problems and lack of solutions? When I can’t decide how to tell a story, I start with a chronological approach. Basic but effective. But here, I started writing this several times, turned it over in my mind, and in the end, outlining it all in order just sounded like such a drag. Poor me. As my mom would say, call the waaahmbulance.
I think you can get the idea of our problems - the house we rented was dirty, our kids picked up a stomach bug (not Covid), the Air BNB had maintenance issues and a Waiting-for-Godot* inspired management company, and a series of work emergencies. Oh, and it was raining every day.
Every day but one, so that’s the day I’m going to talk about. We’ve all had bad days, and good ones, but I am going to try to remember the one good day and not the succession of dreary frustrations that made up the rest of our trip.
But on Wednesday, the sun shone. It was not too hot, not too cold, just right. We packed our chairs, umbrella, snacks, cooler, beach toys and boogie boards. We beached all day, except for Theo’s nap, during which time the girls did their school work.
Theo at the beach was a delight - watching him run free, in and out of the water, delight shooting from his face like sunbeams, was worth the whole trip (almost). He was dirty, with sand in every crevice of his little body. Harper and Ruthie buried him, and he refused to get up. He tasted the ocean, he tasted the sand, he ate so many snacks we ran out. He slept hard.
The girls cautiously tried out the boogie boards, in only a couple of inches of water at first. Tommy led them further out, and they stated taking themselves deep enough to actually jump into the waves and ride them to shore. The built numerous sand castles, sand farms, sand everything. They gathered sea shells and created bottles of the beach in empty Gatorade bottles to remember the sand and salt water, with shells mixed in.
I almost relaxed. I’m not great at relaxing, but drinking one of my “Naturdays” on the beach, watching the waves, occasionally chasing the baby, soothed me. What’s not to like about a strawberry lemonade flavored beer in a pink can with flamingos? Really, have you tried it? It’s good. Charmingly cheap and perfect for the beach. Don’t judge me.
This one good day, where nothing particularly exceptional happened. It was just a pleasant day at the beach, but nothing particularly bad happened either, felt like a symbol of what it takes to survive 2020 with mental stability intact - committing to finding and focusing on the one good day, the simple pleasures, the time together - in the midst of the cockroaches, sickness, rain and crises.
Perhaps this vacation actually did exactly what we had hoped. We disrupted the repetition of our daily lives by being somewhere new. Yes, this created lows and one lovely day, which was all the sweeter because it stood out from the grayness around it. I can’t say I came home refreshed and ready to jump in with enthusiasm to my normal life, but a week later, I am actually finding that the break gave me a new perspective and a new commitment to working hard to help our business weather this crazy time and to helping our family find joy and connection during all the togetherness, when sometimes all we want is a chance to be anywhere but here, at home.
*Yes, I did link you to a YouTube production of this play, and well, only watch it if you are really running low on staying home activities. Really, there must be something more fun to watch left for you on the internet. If you just want to know what I’m talking about, watch this short TedEd video instead. My point is that we wait and wait for this (management) company that never comes (though they say they will). Somehow this waiting, and talking about the waiting, gave a structure to our whole trip in an unpleasant, but sort of funny way. It was absurd, maddening, and circular. Much like Waiting for Godot. Which you should not watch.