A Southerner

Darkness Falls

A Balmy Night on the Balcony

The most beautiful moments always seemed to accelerate and slip beyond one’s grasp just when you want to hold onto them for as long as possible.” 
~ E. A. Bucchianeri, 

from  brushstrokes of a gadfly.•

´♥¨`*•✿(ˆ◡ˆ)✿ ~  Back at the Condo in Orange Beach, Alabama. Stress rolls from my temples, over my shoulders and down my neck. The drive through Loxley, Alabama is like a portal between 2 worlds. 

Past the farmers stands with Sunset colored Alabama Peaches, Silver King Corn wrapped in Silk to the roadside boiled peanut stands mixed with blank farmer’s fields and a feeling of “coming back”.

Not home.

But that “I’ve passed this way before” feeling overcomes and warms me.

 A balmy breeze glides by the hairs on the back of my neck. Deep breaths between contented sighs.

The rain sheens from across the Back Bay where they are under a deluge of wet.   

Hear dampness whispering “You are blessed. You are blessed”.

Peace and antipasta on the balcony. 

Relax

It plays like an old episode of Seinfeld

Down time.  Poolside with the girls.  

A group of “somebody’s Mommas” on deck soaking up the sun.

The air infused with Coppertone and a hint of pool chlorine mixed with the perfect amount of breeze.

Suns feels warm on the eyelids when pausing long enough to take stock of where you are … and where you aren’t.

Spring break had come and gone. Summer had yet to arrive.

Few people were poolside on this day except for a few vacationing families with Midwestern accents.  Grandma and grandpa with Baby and parents in tow.  Dad lapping the pool.  Over and over again he goes back and forth.  Each lap getting closer to me and the girls. The pool is immense, empty like a vacant parking lot. Why is he getting closer and closer to us?  Then it hits me like something from an old episode of the Seinfeld Show…

This guy is a “close swimmer”.

Ignoring social norms and invisible lines defining personal space, this guy is lapping right up close and personal. As engineering would have it, the placement of the posterior on the cedar poolside chaise lounge is exactly 1 and a half feet from the surface of pool.  Thus a bobbing head or lapping Midwestern daddy has an eyeful when breast stroking toward our nether regions.

 

Reaching into the rolling igloo ice chest I pulled up a blender filled with the frozen concoction of the day. The more we drank the less we noticed the close swimmer.  The less we noticed the closer the swimmer got.  When we got to the bottom of the blender he and his Midwestern family had left us alone at the pool.  

Lesson of the day…sometimes you can drink your problems, or a close swimmer away. 

Sex in the Magnolias

I wrote us to be a modern telling of “Sex in the City” meets “Steel Magnolias’.

Different women .

Different childhoods.

Different ages and backstories.

Brought together by common threads of experience and ideals.

All grounded in friendship grown from offshoots of a job that spilled over into our personal lives.   

This lazy morning Otis Redding painted the background music like curtains in a big room..

We waxed poetically on the balcony overlooking the Bay in Orange Beach, Alabama..

The temperature showed mercy.  It was comfortable and familiar like a tepid bath.

I found comfort in the licking mellow breeze I felt on the back of my neck..

Coffee cooled and conversation drifted into the comfortable silence that only comes to longstanding relationships and friendships.

Night clothes became daytime lounging attire.  No rushing this spring day.

Enough time spent to get comfortable and allow the weave of the chair to imprint on the back of your thigh, .Shamelessly so.

That’s when we heard the heavy squeaking and tense rolling sound as the ropes sliding over the railing of the balcony began to tremble.

Fast is not a term loosely applied to the speed that I move. 

Fast is a term used when describing speed buy to purchase a Dooney & Bourke Purse from the shopping channel, but not used to the describe the time it takes to vacate an area of our presence.

The latitude of the 2 men on the scaffolding was raised in direct proportion to the speed that we used to get the hell off of the balcony.

The last thing that those young painters needed to see was “Sex in the Magnolias”. 

Like a scene from a John Hughes movie, we laughed ourselves silly as we drew the curtains between our nightshirts, underwear and the young unsuspecting painters.

Making Memories in Orange Beach, AL.

The hands of the clock move on forward...

The hands of the clock move on forward.

The sounds of waking fill the rooms and drift out towards me and onto the balcony.

Laughter erupts and tickles my ear.

The smell of strong coffee gives way to the melodic grind of the blender.

A tall fruity drink with a kick is handed to me in an insulated covered cup.

Dolphins can be seen playing hide and seek as they break the surface of the water.

Time to get wet and enjoy the beauty that is this day.

Today I play hooky… •´*¨`*•✿¸.• •❥

Sunrise in Orange Beach Alabama is remarkable. 

Bucket lists benefit from mornings like this.

Seagulls chatter Wake up and Play.

Brown pelicans float by on the breeze with foreboding shadows flying ahead… proof that caring and concerted effort can bring legends back.

The day brings familiar open opportunity. 

A tinge of guilt for friends who have begun the Monday morning grind… fleeting.

Today I play hooky… 

Can you hear it hiss as it sinks into the pass?

Sunset in Orange Beach, Alabama

¸.•´♥¨`*•✿(ˆ◡ˆ)✿ ~ 6 women , a beach ....flip flops and cold strong drinks

•´*¨`*•✿,❥

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.

~ Eleanora Duse ~

   ..¸.•´♥¨`*•✿(ˆ◡ˆ)✿ ~  6 women , a beach ....flip flops and cold strong drinks.

Today the skies are floating above the sandy beaches.  

Waves are a constantly  licking at the marsh grass. 

Splashes Batting against the boat docks pushed outward by an occasional passing boat.

South Alabama, Orange Beach offers one the most welcoming of spring beach getaways.  

Never pretentious.

Slower pace. 

Sweet ligustrum flowering all around us.

Southern Nirvana. 

I am at peace. 

....the sight of the blue skies fills me with joy, it moves me. 

Irejoicefor my soul is alive.