Hasta la vista Houston

I’m on the road again tomorrow. My stay in Houston has been nice and laid back. I got to hang out with my best friend Melissa, lay in the sun by the pool, take a spontaneous trip to the Kemah boardwalk (because we needed to see the ocean!), and visit the Space Center.

Today was tough. It’s been a year since Melissa’s dad unexpectedly passed away. I was watching the Grammy’s at a friend’s house last year when I got a frantic phone call from her. He had a heart attack at 54. She was completely caught off guard; they had just gone skiing together a couple weeks before. The weeks and months that passed were filled with disbelief and grief. It takes time to process and heal from loss.

It was a true eye opener for me. And, it is a reminder to live in this moment and be happy in this moment, because this moment is all we really have. We can spend hours and days worrying about our future, what to do about it, where are we heading in life? But we sometimes forget to live our lives; we’re too busy worrying about them and planning them out. Sure, I’d love to know that I’ll have a wonderful, financially secure future. But, I’m not going to spend all my time trying to make that happen and forget to be present now. I’m not going to be irresponsible either and leave my job, work a seasonal part time job, and spend all my savings traveling, oh, wait… Oh well, I’m having fun in this moment. There’s plenty of future ahead of me and opportunities abound.      

A cross competing with the power lines

Melissa & I with our new spacemen boyfriends

She touched the moon!

It smelled like the last person to try it on had eaten garlic alfredo, eww!

NASA's new Rover design, the suits are on the outside and the astronauts climb in through the backpack.

Hanging out with Neil, Michael, and Buzz.

  

Beep Beep Surgery

Yesterday my little beep beep went in for surgery. I was so worried. But, it was time to finally get the check engine light fixed. Beep beep had its guts taken out and a new intake manifold installed. It all went amazingly well, and it has fully recovered. I have an incredible extended warranty that covered everything. I didn’t pay a cent. Whew! Thank goodness for that since I’m on a tight road trip budget, and beep beep is always thirsty!

Houston Arrival

As I drove down I-10, the city came into view and I felt my stomach sink. I passed my old exit, Chimney Rock road and I thought of life here five years ago. Houston leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I moved here in August of 2005 following my college boyfriend. I knew I didn’t want to stay; it was a stopover on my journey. I wanted to move back to the northeast. I had no desire to live in this city with its huge highways and huge billboards for darque tan, breast enhancement and lipo suction. I wanted to live where it was ok to be naturally you, where it’s ok to grow old with wrinkles, where thrifty is cool and there’s no need for such excess and materialism.

Well, I stayed in Houston for another year until I moved to Martha’s Vineyard at the end of January, 2007. Once there, it felt like the right place to be. Sure there are big homes and excess there too, but there is also a really great community of caring and environmentally sustainable people. My ex was going to move to the island. He gave his two weeks’ notice to his job in Houston, and they offered him a promotion, he stayed. There was a fleeting moment I considered moving back to this god forsaken city, but it passed and I stayed on MV. We tried the long distance thing. I flew down to Houston, he flew to the Vineyard a few times but when I visited him for Labor Day weekend 2007 our relationship finally ended. He never admitted it, maybe because it’s not true, but I think he had started dating someone else in Houston. He’s married now, and their wedding web page says they met in May of 2007. Hmm? Oh well, I don’t think it would have ever really worked anyway; I think I loved his family more than I loved him. I’m a little hesitant to put my heart on the line now, but aren’t we all? I’m sure my prince will come. He will find me. He will find me and be ready for the adventure!

Within six months of being on the Vineyard, my best friend moved to Houston. Crap, now I’m back in New England and the person I like to hang out with the most is in Houston. I think that may have been why I had that fleeting thought of moving back here. She’s still here though and that’s probably the only reason why I would ever visit Houston. There are a few things I’m looking forward to in Houston though, visiting the Arboretum where I worked, the bats under Waugh Bridge and pitchers of margaritas at Fajita Flats; I hope they’re still open! I’ll be here for about a week and then will keep on heading west.

N'awlins

I had a great weekend in New Orleans visiting with friends and family. Some of the highlights were balloon hats, the Abita Beer brewery, sunset on the Lake Pontchartrain Bridge, betting on horses, and drinking hurricanes. Yum!

The balloon hats were lost shortly after this photo :(

Where are we? The Abita Beer Brewery!

My "artsy" self potrait with the sunset

The Cousins

Brass Band

At the track

My little beep beep got a front row seat for the races!

The Veranda

The Veranda – It’s not quite “living in a van down by the river” but it is the Dutchmen camper down by the creek where my dad is building his retreat. For those of you that haven’t seen it, here’s a link to Chris Farley’s SNL “living in a van down by the river” skit. I remember Chris Farley's Matt Foley character being a popular Halloween costume for a couple of years. http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/down-by-the-river/243779/  

My dad’s original vision consisted of a three story building so he could see the creek from the top floor. I asked him how he planned on getting up all those stairs with bad knees as he aged. He told me “I’ll get me get me one of those chairs that goes up and around.” I find the image of my sturdy 6’4” father sitting in one of those rickety chairs going around and around the railings up to the third floor pretty comical.

The plans are morphing though, into a compound of cubicles. Right now he’s working on an 8’x9.5’ one story building that may be a bedroom or a living room or a kitchen. He’s going to keep building little squares with reclaimed wood from my grandfather’s barns until he has a whole little group of buildings attached with walkways and maybe a deck over the ravine to see the creek. He’s real proud of his sinkholes too. There are two on the property! Darla thought one would make a great “Serenity Sinkhole,” make it real pretty with a hammock and maybe a little fountain.

Dad’s befriended a couple of little cats at his camp. Lucy, the first arrival ate a whole can of chunk white tuna. She must have told her friends about the gourmet food, because the next day she had two more kitties with her. Dad wants to keep them around in hopes that they’ll eat the mice so that they won’t get in the camper. He seems happy building his little retreat in the woods. You have to do what makes you happy, and be happy doing it.

Today I helped Dad put up the floor joists and started laying boards for the sub floor of the cabin. Tomorrow I’m off to New Orleans for the weekend. Should be a fun time, Melissa and Debbie are driving in from Houston to meet me there. Drew and Darla are going to be there too, and I’ll hopefully catch up with another friend from college.

The foundation before we poured cement

Sitting on the floor joists, Lucy the cat tried to help hammer everything together

Surveyin'

“Left a fuzz. Right a itty bitty. Ho!”

I’ve always loved southernisms such as “I’m fixin’ to…” But, “left a fuzz” is a new favorite. I think “left a fuzz” might be more of a Guy Walkerism though. The Walker family has been surveying Wayne County Mississippi and the surrounding area for a quite some time. My Paw Paw surveyed until his knees quit working, and then he would go out with the crew just to sit in the truck. I hadn’t actually done any surveying myself until last week.

I went surveying with Aunt Dale, Uncle Craig, and Drew for a few days while I’ve been in Waynesboro. I’m the back sighter, I like it. I stand there holding the “idjit stick” as Uncle Craig called it or as it’s more properly called the prism. I hold it on the nail and keep the bubble in the dot. I practice some yoga while I stand there. I do mountain pose, standing tall, tailbone tucked under, following my breath in and out until they radio me and say “Ok, got it.” Then I walk up to the next spot and do it all over again. Outside all day, fresh air, seeing armadillos, and listening to the birds – surveying is a good place to be.

But, to get the job done right it takes a lot more skill than just standing there with a pretty little prism in your hand. Uncle Craig must have a tape measure built in his head; he always comes really close to the point that needs to be set. Drew works the instrument (that’s all it’s called, just the “instrument” spoken in a long soft drawl). The instrument measures the distances and angles of the points and I’m sure many more things I don’t know. Aunt Dale patiently oversees that everything is done accurately, and after all the points are collected she works her magic on the computer and a map appears! Despite the briars and prickly holly bushes I’ve really enjoyed being out in the field with family and now have a much better understanding of what it means to survey.

Aunt Dale working the instrument

Uncle Craig setting a traverse nail, Drew in the background cutting line

Capturing the road

Me and my prism :)

Vistin'

Visit - As in “We gon go visit with Paw Paw today” or “You better go visit wit Ant Sally, she been laid up with a broken leg for a week” or “I’m gon go visit Miss Jane next doa and brang her sum sweet pataters.”

Visit – It’s when your daddy brings you to see relatives you don’t know, but they remember you when you were only this tall. It’s when you sit around bored out of your gourd and strangers ask you how old you are and what’s your favorite subject in school. Or, as in one visit, the senile relative you’re visitin’ thinks you’re your father’s young new wife! You count the minutes which seem like hours until you can get out of the awkward visit.

Well, my cousin Nikki brought her three little girls to visit me yesterday. Somehow I went from the one having to go and visit, to the one being visited! On the other side of the “visit”, I was just grateful to see Nikki who I hadn’t seen in about ten years and to meet her little girls, my second cousins.

Sierra, Savannah, Santana & Me - I'm showing them my road trip on the map. Sierra was very impressed that I had been to New York because that's where all the famous people like Miley Cyrus go.

Cousins - Nikki, Drew, Justen, Darla. It's a little scary that the three of us ladies will be 30 this year...

Good Ole Mississippi

I’ve made it to Waynesboro, MS via Gautier, MS. I’ll be here for about a week. I went surveying with my family for the first time today, more on that later!

In Gautier, MS I visited with my mom’s friends Jan & John and their bichon Eddie. We had some catching up to do since they figured it had been almost 13 years since they had seen me! Jan and I went to Ocean Springs and checked out the Walter Anderson Museum of Art (WAMA – which is pretty fun to say “Waaa Maaa”) and Shearwater Pottery. Apparently Walter was quite the character, riding his bike everywhere, rowing to Hog Island where he communed with nature, and locking himself in a tiny room in his home where he created a mural masterpiece. It made me think of when I was in high school and I told my Mom I was going to live in a shack on the beach in Truro and paint. I’m not there yet, but there’s still a whole lot of life ahead of me J

Eddie & I next to Jan's painting of a 9-year old me with Bee Gee on the Canal.

When I got to Waynesboro I was greeted with a feast of fried okra, corn pudding, corn bread muffins, pear salads, butter beans, and fruit cobbler. Yum. Thanks Aunt Dale. Good thing there’s a wellness center nearby that only costs $5 a visit though! I got my boiled peanut fix on the drive from Orlando to Gautier. Though I’m sure I’ll have some more. I love me some hot boiled peanuts!     

Birds & Wine

I quickly became fascinated by Blanco the cockatoo while staying with Annie & Kelly. He has quite the vocabulary including: “Hey Buddy” “Hey Dude” “Step Up” and some demonic mumblings. If you listen closely at the end of his video it’s either a “Hey Dude” or a “Hey You.”

In Winter Park Annie and I checked out the Wine Room. They have wine dispensing machines called enomatics from Italy and over 150 wines to taste. The machines which hold eight bottles are about $400,000 each according to one of the employees. We loaded up our little electronic card with some money and started tasting. After the wine is dispensed, the machine injects nitrogen gas into the bottle to prevent it from oxidizing. Pretty clever, maybe we should try a place like this on the Vineyard.

Florida continued...

I’m still in Orlando, but now on the other side of town visiting Annie and Kelly. This afternoon we went for a nature drive on Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. We saw Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks, armadillos, an alligator and lots of other birds. We visited Annie’s research plots and then we went for a short walk on the beach across from Cape Canaveral. I put my toes in; the water temp was 74 degrees there today! Then we tried mullet fish and rock shrimp at the Dixie Crossroads, delish.  

Surf Expo ended yesterday. It was a great experience, but it definitely wore me out. Trish, Rachael and I went to dinner at Emeril’s Tchoup Chop last night. I had an amazing lychee martini and salmon with lobster sauce. Then I was able to catch up with Guarini, from Maritime, for dessert and drinks. He happened to be at the Surf Expo with CWS parasail boats and we hadn’t seen each other in eight years. It feels like yesterday but at the same time forever ago.

It’s supposed to be mid seventies here tomorrow, so I think I’ll stay for another day!

Justen Sling Shot

Just in case you were wondering where the video of me doing the sling shot was...here it is. I look petrified, but really I'm ok Mom. Beware, Grant talks throughout the whole thing about bodily functions :)

Slig Shot

The first day at the Surf Expo was great, filled with lots of appointments and checking out some new swim wear and clothing. We went to dinner with Dragon, and then...the Sling Shot! This morning I'll be hopping in the SUP (Stand Up Paddle) pool and trying out a few boards, should be fun!

The Good Life

Trish and Rachael arrived late last night. We’re staying at The Peabody, and it’s just ducky! Duck’s on parade, duck towels, duck pillows, duck soap and even a TV screen built into the bathroom mirror! We took a yoga class this morning, and then I sat by the pool, it was a bit cloudy but the hot tub was warm. I’m looking forward to checking out the Surf Expo tomorrow.

Running duckies!

Duck butt

Duckies in their fountain

Duckie helicopter landing? The view from our window

Seventy degrees!

I picked up David, Trina, and Camden at the airport last night. It was quite a clown car fitting three tall adults, a five month old in a car seat, and all of our luggage. We did it though and made it safely to their house. Go little Beep Beep! I think I had the best night’s sleep since I started my trip; it may have had something to do with finally remembering to use the ear plugs I brought.

We had breakfast at The Sentient Bean. It made me think of the Buddhist prayer we say at the Bodhi path after yoga or meditation “for the benefit of all sentient beings.” I hadn’t really contemplated to word “sentient” all that much, but according to dictionary.com:

–adjective

1. having the power of perception by the senses; conscious.

2. characterized by sensation and consciousness.

Hmmm, a conscious coffee bean-ing…

I made it to Orlando. As I was driving I saw the thermometer rising and was getting excited, but as I stepped out of the car it felt so freaking hot! I guess my body wasn’t quite adjusted to the heat, I can only imagine what hot flashes will be like! I'll be here for the rest of the week for Surf-Expo, I'm sure I'll adjust. I'm happy to be out of the cold and snow.

My Aunt Dot & Uncle Richard happened to be in Orlando visiting a friend of theirs. I was able to coordinate with them and meet up for dinner this evening. It was great to see them even though briefly. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with them again at their home in South Carolina in a few weeks!

Long drive on 95

Sometimes things just work out. I knew I was probably going to stop in VA, but wasn’t too sure where I was going to stay. Then last week I ran into Galen on MV and found out she was going to be in VA too. And so it is, I stayed with her and her friends in VA Beach and had some tasty Mexican lasagna for dinner!

It was cold and windy this morning and I was nearly blown away as I went for a short walk to the beach. I saw the bridge I had driven over last night in the dark and a few tankers on the horizon. The sun was out and warmed just the right side of my face all day. As I got through NC I felt like it was necessary to visit Pedro at South of the Border. Then I realized it might have been almost eight years to the day since I was there last. It was my senior year at MMA and I was on my way to Miami for a few months with my college boyfriend. I think a road trip can be a great test for any relationship; we nearly killed each other. I bumped the rumble strip once trying to take a drink of water or something. He yelled “Pay attention!” and I said, “What?! I’m driving Braille!” Maybe politically incorrect, but a great quote I learned from my dad. He didn’t think it was so funny.

I was also behind Duke's crew shell trailer for a good part of the day. A great flash back to rowing crew in college.

Anyways, I’m in Savannah for the night. Right now I’m waiting for David, Trina and baby Camden to fly in from their holiday trip to MV. Looking forward to our visit!

Beep Beep Update: Well, the CD player broke about an hour outside of NYC. It played but wouldn’t eject the CD. It was a delicate game of Operation using tweezers to get the CD out and put a new one in. So, that’s how it went until today. Miraculously a CD came out all on its own! And, after spending four hours at the Mazda dealership on New Year’s Eve the check engine light is still on. They assured me it’s safe to drive and I guess I’ll deal with it once I get to Houston at the dealership where I bought it.

NYC to VA Beach

Many thanks to Sarah for hosting me in NYC and for a chocolate covered grasshopper snack last night! This morning I woke up to the cooing of pigeons, wasn’t too sure what it was at first! I made it to Virginia Beach this evening, drove over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in the misty rainy dark, can’t wait to see the beach in the morning!

Happy New Year!

I survived New Year’s Eve in New York City!

The years start to blend together. We experience ups and downs each day and each year, and there are some moments that define our lives. Sadness is there, but I think it’s helpful to reflect and remember the highlights that made us smile. Some of my highlights this year included: gaining freedom by leaving my full time job; a successful lasik eye surgery; celebrating my birthday with a sunrise surf/paddling session and seeing the full moon over the ocean that night; watching fireflies twinkle while taking an outdoor shower; teaching outdoor yoga; and having a seven year old tell me “You’re fun” while leading a sea shore exploration program. What were your highlights?