Island Chick Travels

I’m hearing friends talk about attending the proms of their grandkids and talking about graduation right around the corner and it makes me wistful.  When you are prom age and graduation age, the world is at your feet and it’s the beginning of a whole new life full of grown-up decisions but yet still at the discovering stages of life.  Hell we all are there if you think about it, but thinking back to when I was that age, it almost wants to make me cry.  Everything makes me cry right now so that doesn’t surprise me.  I just had my gall bladder removed on May 2 and here it is May hell I don’t even know what day it is, let me look.  Okay, it’s May 11.  Nine days ago, I had my first operation and while it went well, the recovery is like taking FOR-EV-A.  But the thing is the last day I took a puff from a cigarette was the night before the operation so I’m like at Day 10 or something of smoke free existence and it’s killing me.

I have other stuff going on.  A longtime friend who has lived with me for the past almost 17 years is gone.  Not dead gone. Oh how I wish, just gone.  Like as in I’m cheating and the best thing to do is leave.  He didn’t even know I knew for 3 long months. I couldn’t say a word because of my stomach.  I couldn’t get upset and I knew what would happen once I told him so I told him actually just before the operation and he left a day or so after.

Too much to go into but now is not the time to quit smoking.

But when you are of “mature” age and I say that like I’m a freaking old lady which I’m not, but when you are older, you sure do a lot of thinking.  When you’re younger, you are a free spirit and you do the damndest things whenever you want to do it not thinking about consequences.  But when you’re later in life I guess you could say you tend to do a lot of reflecting.  You know those old grannies sitting in their rocking chairs on the porch?  They’re reflecting.  They are rehashing all the things that happened to them in their lives.  I find myself doing it now.

I told myself once the gall bladder came out, I was going to be hell on wheels but it seems more like training wheels.

Back to proms and graduations, I remember my prom.  I only went to one and the guy I went with I HATED.  He was a friend and not a BOYfriend if youknowwhattamean.  But God did he want more.  Our first date alone I found myself straddled on top of a table (keep in mind I was a virgin and didn’t know what in the hell he was doing) and he kept humping and humping and I’m going what the freak is he doing????  We had our clothes on!  Jesus.  At the after party, I ditched him.  He wasn’t going back for second helpings.

Graduation was wonderful.  Very very exciting.  I had no idea what the hell I wanted to do with my life except I knew I didn’t want to go to school anymore.  I  was interested in modeling but that didn’t pan out.  I went to live with my aunt in FLA and was going to enroll in the modeling school there but I just kept putting it off.  I still really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.

Boyfriends?  Jesus, there were many.  I kind of went a bit crazy when I turned 17 and went from one to the other.  My first real boyfriend was a motorcycle dude as I liked to refer to him.  My mother hated the ground he walked on.  Too risky.  Too dangerous.  He had to be a druggie, she would say.  Okay well he looked it and okay well he did smoke pot but I had no idea what pot even was back then.  All I knew was that it was something only the cool people smoked.  He ended up dying a few years later from what I had no idea as I was married to someone at about that time.

The marriage lasted for almost 20 years and produced two beautiful children.  As  things happen, he left leaving me with the kids (I got the better end of the deal) but it was  real hard.  So in walks this jerk where I worked as a waitress and the boss knew him and said I should go out with him, he’s nice.  He’s the jerk that just left. Nice?  Hitler was nice.  The devil is nice.  This guy was a snake.

But I’m dealing with it.  Smokes sure would be nice, but I’m dealing with it and once I get a little better from my surgery, I’m going to be hell on wheels .

I’ve not been posting lately due to work commitments but after my gall bladder operation on Thursday, I’ve turned over a whole new leaf.  I will start traveling again and can’t wait.  I had been having stomach problems for a few years now and they kept telling me go get x-rays done to see what was going on but where they gave me pills to take I figured I’d see if the pills work first.  As it turned out I didn’t have an ulcer like they said I did and all those months of taking ulcer medicine actually wasn’t good for the gall bladder.  They told my daughter who told me later that the gall bladder was shot.  There was a gallstone wedged up in there somewhere and he was surprised I wasn’t in as much pain as I was in.  I’m kinda still groggy from the meds but will try to report back tomorrow and tell you all about it.

Frankenstorm is here. I’ve got a few pictures to show you. The worse still hasn’t come yet – that’s in the window of noon and 8 or 9 p.m. tonight I think but so far it’s been a test between losing your sanity and keeping it all together. The water has come over the road, flooded the front yard and up on the carport. Not sure if it has gone into my little storage room down there but there are sandbags in front of it. We carried out most of the stuff from there last night – mainly cardboard boxes full of stuff one would normally pack in an attic. That’s my attic. Anyway here’s a picture of that:

That’s all water you see. There’s no road. Just water.

This was taken about an hour ago. We’re at high tide right now. I’m hearing strange noises up here in my “office.” The wind I know but not sure what is making it sound like that. Like a freight train. So this is my back yard to the left. Believe me there is a dirt road there somewhere.

And this is looking out my front door but to the back. I would guesstimate it to be about 8 inches of water maybe? Or a foot, not sure.

I filled up buckets of water just in case the power goes out. I need to charge up my cell. We have I believe one more high tide cycle to go through before we can breathe again.

We’re safe. We’re warm. And doing lots of praying. This ol’ island is tough.

I’m sitting here on the eve of Hurricane Sandy making her grand debut on my weary island. I’m tired. We knew it was coming and all today we tried to put it out of our minds. I worked on tours like a banshee knowing I might be without power. I have authors who trust me to put a tour together for them and I don’t want to betray their trust.

It’s kind of eerie you know? Spiders are running rampant under the carport, dashing into the house once we open the door. They did this last time with Hurricane Irene. Hurricane Irene was a horse of another color altogether. After issuing a mandatory evacuation, my daughter and I grabbed the dogs and tried to outrun it, was foiled in that approach, and headed back home with our tails tucked between our legs. We had gotten all the way to Annapolis and turned around and went home. We were tired then too. If you’re biblical, much like Mary and Joseph when they looked for a place to stay. At least they found a stable, we found nothing. Seems everyone on the east coast had the same idea we had and no rooms anywhere were available.

Once we got back home, we vowed that if another hurricane ever came this way, we were staying put. Sounded all good and dandy until the eve of Sandy’s fury. I’m so tired I can’t even remember how bad they say it’s going to be but it’s going to be bad. The only hope we have is that it veers off toward the north as planned, even further north and east even would be better.

The causeway is closed and they tried to reach me on my cell but I missed the call but I’m sure it was a mandatory evacuation. Maybe I’m glad I missed the call because then it would all become too real.

I think my biggest fear is for the condo to get wiped out to sea which isn’t very far from me living on Chincoteague Island. Have you ever heard of Chincoteague? It’s a teeny tiny island off the coast of Virginia that is connected to the rest of the world by a causeway that closes when there’s inclement weather. But yeah that would be the pits.

I’m not sure how to even feel right now. I’m past the scared stage.

To everyone living on the east coast and in the path of this monster storm, please stay safe and my prayers are with you.

It’s getting sooo annoying that I can’t keep up with this blog so you know what…I’m starting today on MOTHER’S DAY to give a shout out to the Internet world that today marks the day I will not let this blog go abandoned anymore!

Anyway, Happy Mother’s Day to everyone!

My daughter surprised me with having flowers delivered yesterday – wasn’t that the sweetest thing?  I was supposed to be at work today but I guess you could say I’m officially self-employed plus just 2 weeks shy of becoming completely retired from the outside world.  Yep, I  gave my two weeks notice.  Oh I debated it for days.  They were so kind and said I could give my 2 weeks and they wouldn’t put me on the schedule.  It’s this stomach thing and I just can’t do that other stuff anymore so…it’s the happy land of retirement early!  Woooot!  Oh I still have a job, my wonderful publicist job which I do online but I do that on my time.  Life. Is. Great.

My daughter had a problem with me giving up the outside job.  I could tell.  Here I was jumping up and down for joy inside but you could tell she what she was thinking.  This is the end of Mom.  When parents retire, wouldn’t you get to feeling a little funny about it?  Like oh crap they aren’t as young as they were are they?  Oh crap this is the end if they can’t work at a job they’ve had for 15 years and oh crap I don’t want my parents to get closer to dying, you know?  Yeah, she’s handling it a little different than I am of course but I explained to her yesterday, it’s been coming for a long time and is no indication I’m going to die anytime soon.

No sirree honey, this is just the beginning.  I am going to use every breathing moment of my life now to do something I enjoy.  My daughter says I’ll lose my people skills but I don’t think so.  I’m going to make a point to see someone somewhere once a day even if it’s just a trip to the post office.

Man so cool.  Too bad retirement doesn’t come when you’re in your thirties, man that would have been the bomb.

I will be doing lots more traveling, too.

So let’s give a cheer for financial independence in the name of working at home!  Woot!!!!