Here comes the sun 12/6/11

• Stepped out on the balcony in time to see the leftover moonshine dribble through a hole in the high clouds onto the ocean.  A streak of orange bled through gun-metal gray clouds clogging the horizon.
• Minutes later I hit the sand barefooted.  The beach was compact, only visible maybe ten blocks to the north, five to the south, bookended by fog instead of the piers I usually see.  No wind, 61 degrees, humid.
• I didn't expect a sunrise, but Sunbella cleared a stage when she was ready to shine and rose bright, bold.  Divalike.  
• Yesterday I speedwalked in sneakers.  Today I strolled, let my big toes play in the cool sand, welcomed Mother Ocean to splash me.
• By the time I got back to my place, there was more blue sky than clouds.  
• Talked to my SGD after he got home from work (he works nights), and it was a slick snowy-road morning with slide-offs everywhere back in Missouri.  I felt guilty for my barefoot beachwalk morning.  But I wouldn't trade.  No way.
• Finally got internet working so I could post this.  The sun is blinding, reflected off the resort next door.  It's time to slip on a bikini and take my work down to the ocean deck.   

Monday's maxims 12/5/11

• Sunbella blasted through the muck of clouds and was waiting for me to hit the beach.  Mother Ocean's salty tang saturated the humid air and flooded my nose.  Contrails stitched the sky, then spread to become clouds.  I fast walked 16 blocks north, then 16 back and had a good sweat going this morning.  It had been too long since I'd done an early morning beach walk.
• Thought of some Roni maxims while walking:

1. Even cellulite looks better with a tan.
2. Almost everything tastes better with ranch dressing.  (Desserts and chocolate not included).
3. Love is hard.  But if it's right, it's worth it.  (My SGD visits in 5 days!  Guess love is on my mind.)
4. Crap in, crap out.  If you're trying to release your creativity, turn the dayum television off.
5. Some people get way too relaxed in the hot tub and tell you way too much!

That's all for today folks.  Have a kickbutt Monday.

I love this place 12/4/11

• I layed out on December 4!  I only lasted an hour before the clouds rolled in thick and no more sun, but still.  Compared to the 40 degree and rainy weather at home, I'll take being able to lay out for an hour any day.  Amazing.
• Went to the Murrell's Inlet Christmas parade this afternoon.  Best.  Parade.  Ever.  Even though there was one school band butchering Christmas tunes and lots of Santa hats and reindeer antlers and candy canes being tossed to the crowd, there was also:

1. bars all along the parade route with tables set up next to the street where the parade watchers could buy cocktails and chili and slices of wood-fired pizza.
2.  people in shorts and flip flops as well as jackets and jeans.  I don't remember feeling comfortable in just jeans and a sweater at a Christmas parade EVER.  Loved it.
3. dogs everywhere, in and out of the parade, including a Black-mouthed Cur puppy named Luke that became my good buddy and rested his paws on my shoulders when he stood up, and the fattest bulldog I've ever seen being wheeled around in a Red Flyer wagon cushioned with blankets.
4. people walking around with huggers of beer chatting, kids throwing a football around, and smokers everywhere not afraid to light up.  My kind of crowd.
5. radio station vans blasting out good music, not just Christmas music.
6. beach-themed floats and lots of boats and classic cars.
7. the world's largest bicycle, from a Shrine in Conway, that held 11 riders, and they didn't fall down.
8. and the coolest entry of all, a humongous Cat dump truck showcasing Bubba's Love Shak, complete with Bubba (I assume) on mike doing his own rap to "Love Shack" playing on the loud speaker, with dancers in the truck and grooving behind. 

Perfect timing 12/3/11

• Weather Channel said the sunrise would be at 7:04am and BAZINGA.  Sure enough, Sunbella peeked over the ocean at exactly 7:04.  Good thing, too, as my hair color needed to be rinsed off at 7:05.  For several days I would hear "have your roots done, Clairee" whenever I looked in the mirror.  That's a line the fabulous Shirley Maclaine, playing Ouiser, said to her best friend in "Steel Magnolias."  Since I don't have a BF here in MB, Ouiser was looking out for me.  Amazing what a hair cut (yesterday at Smart Styles) and color can do.  I feel positively perkified.
• Went to my writer's group this morning.  The only thing I'm going to say about that is:  my perky has now petered out.  How long am I going to keep kidding myself that I'm a writer?
• Saw a hundred or more Harleys go by on a toy run as I was driving home.  Some of the riders had on reindeer antlers or Santa hats.  (No helmet law in SC.)  Cool to feel that concentration of revved-up power and giving spirit.  How fitting that Skynyrd's "Freebird" was playing on the radio as the riders flew down the highway.
• I'm taking myself out sunning now to clear my head and warm my soul.  Doesn't matter that it's only 62 degrees.

    No blog today, folks.  In case anyone even notices.  I'm taking a blog break to focus on work.  Yall have a nice day!

The Mall 12/1/11

• Jeez.  I am an idiot.  I went to the Mall for a pleasant diversion and a little people watching.  Forgot it was Christmas.  Everywhere I went "Blue Christmas" and "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "Santa Baby" was blaring from store speakers.  Even the Charlie Brown Christmas song swamped me with sadness.  Not for myself.  Not because I'm here alone.  Sad for another 24 days of this in-your-face-buying-frenzy complete with sappy soundtrack to quilt you along into buying more crap and feeling bad about your otherwise OK life. 
• Can you tell I hate Christmas?  Not the urge to help others and give the gift of love (and not diamond love) Christ-y Christmas.  I hate commercial Christmas.  Quoting Alfred, the Macy janitor, from Miracle on 34th Street, "There's a lot of bad 'isms' floatin' around this world, but one of the worst is commercialism . . . don't care what Christmas stands for, just make a buck, make a buck."  Amen, Brother.  Every year I wish I could go to sleep on Halloween and wake up after New Years.
• I didn't last an hour in the Mall.  I was either going to have a boohooing meltdown or start snatching that giant Christmas tree bald and hurling ornaments at the speakers.  So I left.
• Even when I was beachwalking and hearing the nurturing swish swish of Mother Ocean, "Winter Wonderland" was playing in my head.  Dayum.  My brain has been abducted by Christmas Classics.

Forty-nine 12/1/11

• 38 degrees, 32 wind chill.  Mother Ocean slipped slow and still onto the sand.  The narrow cloud band at the skyline between me and Sunbella became fiery embers, then a sailboat silhouette in her glow as she topped the horizon.  Birds sang out as soon as Sunbella was fully revealed, announcing "the day begins."
• This morning I wondered why I even get up.  No one would know if I didn't.  Wondered why I should write about the sunrise.  No one would care if I didn't.  After tears and the urge to ignore Sunbella's rising and go inside where it's warm, I realized I get up and write the sunrise because of hope.  Seeing the sunrise unfold in a different way every day reminds me nothing stays the same.  If I keep getting up and watching, there is always a surprise, a shift, mystery, beauty, and maybe even a dazzle or two.  I'm glad hope kept me on the balcony this morning to witness the glorious sunrise.
• Thinking about sitting at my dining table alone with my writing notebook today had me paralyzed.  Someone once said something like -- writing is easy, you just slice open a vein and let your blood pour out onto the paper.  That's how I felt anticipating today's work.  So I'm getting the hell out of here.  Taking myself to a mall to people watch.  Who knows what kind of creative fire that may spark?
• This is day 49 that I've been in MB, and I am 49 (not today, just in general).  That feels like an omen, like there's something special going to happen today, something to confirm that I'm on the right path being here and writing.  Hope I'm not just wishful thinking.