Lake Stop

Quick lake stop tonight. I didn't stay for the sunset, but I did stay long enough to exhale the stress within. At least for the moment. Honestly, there is nothing like water to calm the heart and soul. Enjoy the pictures... (They loaded backwards and I 'm not feeling like trying to fix the order. Ha ha!) 

This evening's collection.

Not yet sunset

I may have been lake licked...

Young couple

Mill Creek bridge and outlet

Chunky driftwood

Between the boulders

(It looks like an exotic beach. LOL!)

Thoughts from Ocean City, Maryland

I don't know exactly what kind of closure I thought visiting ocean City might bring. There was no rush of emotions, although I'm sure I could have worked them up if I tried. Ha ha! That would have been a pointless waste of emotional energy. Instead a took in my surroundings, imagined what it might have been like 45 years ago, and breathed out past yearnings.

Another childhood friend, an earlier love of mine, when he found out we'd eaten dinner at Hooters on the beach (Hey. it was walking distance from our hotel and open when most places were closed...), suggested their crabcakes but I'm not eating crustaceans. His response, "Well there's still pit beef, Thrasher’s fries and Smith Island Cake!!" Gail and I didn't find pit beef or Smith Island Cake this trip, but we did share an order of Thrasher's Fries and they were not only an Ocean City original but fabulous too (with vinegar on top)!

Gail wasn't interested in walking down the old fishing pier or across the sand to the water's edge. It was cold and windy, and she was tired. While she sat on a bench on the boardwalk with her book, I took a walk by myself. I didn't walk all the way out the pier by myself, instead I walked as far as the steps down to the sand and underneath, like I imagined we might have done at 14... 

Had it been warmer I'd have taken my shoes off and put my feet in the water. Had I been more relaxed I'd have sat in the sand and gazed out over the ocean... Instead I picked pieces of shells and pebbles from the line of debris left by the waves and tucked them into my pocket and, just for old times sake, wrote a note in the sand... One like we used to write in the snowbanks along the creek during the winter we spent together in 3rd grade. And then I scuffed it out with my foot.

"The box" is is pretty much packed, the memories, hopes, and wishes tucked inside. The box has a cover but it isn't quite sealed up. I haven't yet found the perfect ribbon with which to tie it shut... but I know that's coming too.

Ocean City 2025

Ocean City, Maryland has been a long awaited destination. I have waited 46 1/2 years to get there.

I was just 14 years old in the fall of 1978 when my father's late-in-the-year, October vacation took us south to Virginia where we went camping near Williamsburg for a week. I'd been asking for months prior, even as far back as summer, "Can we go to Maryland?" I asked over and over and over again, but it wasn't Ocean City on my mind back then... My wish was to find my childhood friend Joey, the boy I'd met in 3rd grade, the one I'd been writing to for five years. I was a young girl in love with a dream.

Part of our vacation took us to the Manassas Battlefield, the Battle of Bull Run, and one day we took a ride to Washington DC where we visited the National Mall, Lincoln Memorial and Smithsonian Institution. It was on that day that my parents drove to the little town of Clinton, Maryland and found the home of my special friend. He wasn't home but his step dad told us where to find him at a little pizza parlor down the road... 

Back at Joey's house our parents visited over coffee while we played board games in the living room and laughed at the antics of our sisters and his dog. We visited twice (I think) and on one of those visits Joey said he wanted to take me to Ocean City. It was one of his favorite places. I'm honestly not sure if he wanted us to come back another time during that trip, or if he was hoping for a whole new visit when the season began anew, but it was not to be. Mom and Dad felt like they had "worn out their welcome" and we headed home with no plan to return.

Joey and I continued to write letters. A few letters one year and a few the next, until James came into my life and my dreams of one day (possibly) being with Joey again faded away forever. It was an impossibly difficult dream to release. My dreams today are obviously no longer the same, but the hope of one day reaching Ocean City never went away. This was one of two pieces to finally completing the process of bringing closure to my childhood love story.

Bits and Pieces

 I let March slip away without one last post... and now we're almost an entire week into April

* Still fighting plantar fasciitis with athletic tape. (My feet absolutely despise new shoes.) 

* I heard from my attorney Tuesday afternoon. The CPS case from last year has been deemed "unfounded" for both myself and my coworker. We are both much relieved. Sadly, I have a second remaining "indicated" report, a direct result of the first, that still needs to be addressed if I am to put it all behind me. 

* Things at home are settling into a new normal with "our" new baby. He's a sleepy little guy, and much loved. 

* I took the boys to visit a farm yesterday morning. It was wet, cold and blustery but they had a fabulous time. I think we need to go back on a warm sunny day. Maybe after the lambs are born. 

* I took a hop about the Emporium this afternoon looking for bunnies.

* Here and there I've been picking up a weekend shift at Dunkin. I worked the morning of my birthday, and again last Sunday morning. I was asked if I could work Easter Sunday. It felt weird to say yes, but I have been so short on hours that I said I would do it. I will be out of work by 1 o'clock. Too late for a church service (I'm not know where I would go anyway...) but early enough for a family gathering or dinner with a friend should the opportunity arise.