— First and foremost: there was the wild ocean.<\/p>\n
— We walked down to Turtle Soup – a restaurant right on the water – we could see the heaving grey waves over the wall – which, on a calm day, you can’t see. You normally can just see the horizon, the blue ocean horizon. But on Saturday – the water was so high you could see the whitecaps rolling in. The air filled with flying chunks of sea foam. The wind so hard that Katie’s “dump receipt” was whipped out of her hands, smacked Jean in the face, and then promptly flew 2 blocks away. Katie ran to get it. Why was that so funny to me?? She had just dropped off a thousand pounds of garbage at the dump and she was DAMNED if she would lose that receipt.<\/p>\n
— Oh, and on our way back to dinner, we had a spitting contest. Spitting INTO the wind. Awesome.<\/p>\n
— There was an hour and a half wait for a table at Turtle Soup. It was a stormy wind-wracked wave-drenched Saturday night – and basically the whole town had come out to stand by the sea wall to watch Mother Nature. And now it was time for dinner. So we walked to PJ’s Pub, the wind now at our backs, pushing us along. Jean was almost blown away.<\/p>\n
— Big dinner. Lots of talk. Sangria.<\/p>\n
— Then we headed over to The Ocean Mist. The ocean heaving itself towards the shore, foam rushing underneath the deck<\/i> of the bar – the deck where we were standing. The white floating seagulls had flown off for calmer landscapes – because it was pretty damn wild out there.<\/p>\n
— I became obsessed with “Tamborine Lady” and I am working on a piece about her. She’s a modern-day Tennessee Williams character – even down to the bum leg. I so wanted to talk to her, but that meant I would have had to interrupt her wild gyrating tamborine playing. Seriously, I know it’s rude and everything, but I couldn’t stop staring at her. It would be like if Blanche Dubois walked into a fisherman’s bar, with her gloves and her ancient jewelry, and sat in a dark shadowy corner, fanning herself. You’d want to stare at her, too. Tamborine Lady. I have thought about her nearly constantly ever since my first glimpse of her. She had long thick white hair. And eyes with an intense frightening gleam in them. The Ocean Mist is a shack on the beach, cavernous, big, pool tables, a deck, you can actually FEEL the pound of the waves when you’re inside – there’s music, a crowd of regulars, food coming out of the kitchen … and Tamborine Lady. With her rituals, and her otherworldly preoccupations.<\/p>\n
— Oh, and big discussion earlier about the Narnia books. I had set up my Mac for everyone and had shown them my geek-a-mo slideshow that I created of Cary Grant photos. Then came the big Narnia discussion and I realized that – with Sean – I was in the presence of a true Narnia FANATIC and I had best just get out of the way. It would be like someone trying to convince me that Cary Grant was born in America, or some other horribly WRONG thing. Like: Okay, you’re obviously an amateur at this obsession thing, not to be rude, but I am an expert – and there is NO WAY you can compete with me. NO WAY. Don’t even try, CHiPs. So talking with Sean was like that. It was too damn funny – because he caught himself at one point, like: “Wow. I just sounded like a total geek, didn’t I?” I said, to set him at ease, “I just showed you a slideshow I created of all of my Cary Grant photos.” Bursts of laughter. That was really all I needed to say. No need to be embarrassed about being a dork in MY presence – because when I’m nuts about something, I’m NUTS. We all talked about the Narnia movie. I asked Sean what he thought of it – knowing how important his opinion would be, seeing as he was a Narnia expert and all. He looked doubtful, hesitant … and he said, regretfully, “I didn’t like Mr. Tumnus’ legs.”<\/p>\n
Now THAT is an obsessive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
— First and foremost: there was the wild ocean. — We walked down to Turtle Soup – a restaurant right on the water – we could see the heaving grey waves over the wall – which, on a calm day, … Continue reading