Walking around the island we kept ourselves occupied by looking for sea shells. One would think you'd outgrow this fetish at age ten or twelve but I think every child who's grown up near the ocean, spent too much time away from it, will always come back and want to bring home some souvenirs. At least in my case, spending 3/4 of each year in a landlocked state with only a lake to admire with mountains in the background. Beautiful yes, idealistic almost, buuuut the ocean gives a whole different meaning to breathtaking. Sparkling salty water that extends beyond the horizon is a picturesque view in my opinion, and Marco made me feel right at home, minus the over one-hundred degree weather. Searching for sea shells was just another way to get in touch with a place I missed all year and to calm me down a bit from the adventures we'd encountered thus far. Hopefully things would wind down a bit and we could just relax.
While collecting I had a lot on my mind. The thing is although Fran and Sam have grown up just as close to the ocean as I have and say they have missed it just as much, they haven't had the childhood I have. The ocean is a part of me. I have grown up at Nana Mimi's house right on the ocean, with a salt-water pool, and playing on the numerous boats she's had tied to the dock. Then there is my father's boat, a 36' Catalina sailboat, we take out every weekend and on several trips up and down the coast. While I've shared these places with Sam and Fran they haven't got it in their souls like I do. I was fortunate and I thank my parents for teaching me to love the ocean as much as they do. Which is probably why they don't understand why collecting shells and stupid little things like this quiet my frantic mind. The one thing I can count on is Francesca for going on little adventures with me, even if it is just to find the perfect shells to cover a frame to put in for my new apartment in downtown Burlington Vt.
Meanwhile, as I'm contemplating life, rightfully so I should say, Fran is lagging behind blabbing on about Anthony. They will have been dating for a year on the Monday two weeks from tomorrow. Normally Fran's life fascinates me, however when it comes to Anthony its like my brain shuts up and some automatic answering machine takes over. It's not that I don't care about my best friends 'beau,' I think it's more a realization I am not finding anyone who'd I'd like to spend more than an hour with. None-the-less I keep on trekkin' down the beach while she explains how difficult it is to have a long distance summer boyfriend, who she is attached at the hip with when at school... for 9 months out of the year...
