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Locals Rarely Get it Right
Yesterday we packed a picnic dinner in a cooler and headed down to the beach to stake out a fire pit. Little did we know everyone was staking out a fire pit on a Monday night. Monday? Really? Here I thought I was being proactive and heading out at 5:30 when my ideal photo-taking time in my head was actually 7:15 (the magical glow light hour).
Sure enough, the beach was crowded and every single fire pit was taken. Everyone and their cousin was at the beach on a Monday night because it’s summer and everyone is on vacation!
Except me. I was going to the beach to take photos for a job.
So I did the next best thing: I went fire pit to fire pit asking everyone politely if we could just “borrow” their fire pit for half an hour. Amazingly the first fire pit I walked up to said yes! Payam got a fire going in minutes and I snapped away for my shoot. The girls posed. We ate hot dogs and marshmallows and then we hustled out of there.
Sadly, in my haste to not overstay our welcome at the borrowed fire pit, I kind of missed my ideal photo-taking light by an hour or two.
It’s okay. I didn’t get the *magical shot* I had my heart set on but I got several “good enough” shots. And as a bonus I got the whole family out of the house and outdoors to the beach for some good old-fashioned FREE entertainment.
You’d think that since we only live 15 minutes from a beautiful beach we would be down here all the time. I hang my head in shame. We hardly go at all. Maybe once a month if we remember. I think because we live so close to it, we never think to “make a day of it,” We just go for a quick hour here or there, which isn’t really doing the beach right. To really enjoy it you do have to go early, camp out and stay long. I think as locals we kind of miss out on that and it’s a shame.
So yesterday, even though it was for a job, was a small stab at getting it right. We didn’t camp out and stay all day (which would have been a good idea for staking out a fire pit and getting my *magical shot*) but we did stay late. We sat on the sand and watched the sun set until it changed the whole sky into an ombre layered dessert of pastels. It was so beautiful and best of all it was FREE!
We looked around at all the visiting families laughing, snacking, swimming, playing tag football…and realized how incredibly smart they were. They got it right.
Now if I can just get off the couch more often and get it right too!
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Cody Swims
It’s been a wham bam week. I thought once Art Camp was over I’d get back to normal and things would smooth out a little but it hasn’t.
Bug got a sunburn during the Watercolor Pool Party and then went off to Sailing Camp on Monday. For some reason between swimmer’s ear (we’ve been at the pool constantly) and jumping in the bacteria-filled bay she developed a pretty painful ear infection. She’s been at her Dad’s but bouncing back and forth to my house while he is working so I can take her to Urgent Care while he can’t.
It has not been fun for any of us. She has a pretty low pain tolerance to begin with so that has meant a couple nights of crying and trying to fall asleep with her ears not touching the pillow. Poor thing. At one point we were both sleeping on the couches in the living room and she fell asleep sitting backwards with her forehead propped up against the back of the couch. She’s on antibiotics and some drops but it’s slow going. I really hope she takes a turn for the better over the weekend. Also, we do not have insurance right now. So good times!
So I thought I’d cheer myself up with some pictures of Cody swimming! Cody loves the water. I think he is part polar bear and would live in the water if he could. We took him swimming in Payam’s mom’s pool and that was a lot of fun. Except the part where he tried to swim to me and climb up my body as a step stool. I’ve got Cody claw bruises all over my body that make me look like I’ve been abused, which is not so good for sundress weather.
This is a picture from our walk around the neighborhood fake-lake. Payam really doesn’t like it when I let Cody swim in the lake (it’s kind of dirty and gross) but I have a hard time resisting Cody’s charm on a hot day. I mean, could you say no to that face? How about that 120 pound body that is pulling you into the lake. If I didn’t let go of this leash he would pull me in with him!
The bad part of the lake-swimming is that Cody needs to dry off before he comes in the house and spreads his muddy lake fur all over Payam’s expensive Persian rugs. This can take a while and that means he has to stay outside a little longer in the summer heat. You just can’t win.
But he is a happy dog!
