Turtles

Yesterday turned out to be a better day than predicted. We went to the "hippie" town where the boys bought souvenirs of a legal yet questionable nature. We also hung out on the beach watching the surfers for a bit...

A French speaking couple (he was Caucasian, she was perhaps Chinese or Japanese) came by and I offered to take their picture together... Afterward, the woman told me, as an afterthought and a bit of a reward, that down at the end of the beach were some turtles, so we headed off that way...

I looked and looked, but all I saw were some rocks that looked vaguely like a turtle. I turned around and steeled my nerve to make an inquiry to the sole other beach occupant, a nubile young lass sitting with her one year old baby...



Some things are easy to see...

"Excuse me, but have you happened to have seen any turtles arrived here?"

She pointed to a spot three feet in front of her, and directly in my path. There was a turtle.

"Some of them look like rocks," she said.



...only once you know they are there.

"I can't believe I didn't see it!"

And though I knew and reminded myself that my focus on how to approach and ask her a question was the cause for the oversight, I was still stunned and embarrassed...


That evening we had supper with friends and went to see a dumbass movie, after which we left my eldest behind at a yogurt shop to try his luck meeting girls.

Finally, we were on vacation.

Intentional infidelity

One should not rest one's full emotional weight on any one person. This tends to bend the relationship, if not break it entirely.

Medicalities and Other Stories

Next week will likely be our last family vacation. We return to the island... It's likely our last, because the boys are leaving high school, one this summer, the other the next. The changes between last year and this year are significant. When I was over at the musician's house last weekend, the comparison was made between her toddler's second year and my boys' last year... in her household, the development was walking and getting into new forms of trouble. In my household, one year ago started my eldest's foray into environmentalism, only to see him sidetracked by friends into smoking. My boys had their first jobs, their first cars. A year of changes, indeed.

Talk shows

It's easy to see everyone else's hypocrisy, but not your own.

Exchange Program

Despite my many imperfections, I am proud of myself.  I have made it a tradition to take the opportunities given to me by the people in my life, to let their suggestions and offers enrich my life and my self.  I still decline things sometimes, but by and large that is due to practicalities rather than false internal roadblocks.  There are steps backward, but there are more steps forward.

I am the pragmatic version of Jim Carrey's "Yes Man".

I wonder if I'll end up with Zooey Deschanel?

Juggling

The world requires finesse.

You want to be true to yourself, but if you don't phrase things a certain way and people take insult or form a judgement of you, they will not give you a chance to explain yourself.

The listener has their point of view before you even start to present yours.

The trick is to make them understand you before they get sidetracked by some irrelevant detail, somewhere within the information you are giving.

Ancestry

I am thankful for my grandparents in many ways, from my inherited hair line and resistence against greying, to the help that has allowed me to live as well as I do, to the example they provide.

I spent many summers of my youth with them.

My grandfather was a better father than my biological one, whom I didn't see between the ages of 2 and 22, and my stepfather, a conservative police officer with a bent towards excessive control of the family.

My grandmother always made sure to ask how I was, and gave help when I needed it.  When I was young I resented the constant "eat this, it's delicious", but I was a scrawny thing after all.

I know that we all have limited times on this planet, and I am glad that they are not just around, but that they are active and fully functional as they approach an age with 3 digits.  I am thankful for that.

I only wish I can find the time to visit them more often, before it is too late.