He's Lookin' at me!!!!!

This year we spent a month in Florida soaking up the sunshine and walking on the beach.  It’s a wonderful break from the mid-Ohio winter.   My husband does the research, comes up with a place, and off we go.  My contribution to the whole process is getting into the car, my only requirement that we are on the beach.

We like to take our time, and this year’s leisurely pace included a couple of days in Savannah on the way down.   I loved the history of the city, and we had a place right on the river.   We stayed in old warehouse that had been converted into an elegant bed and breakfast.  It was surrounded by cobble stone paths made from the ballast stones of long ago ships and huge live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss.

Arriving in Florida we located the condo and got busy unloading our belongings, not an easy task given the fact that I pack three times more stuff than we actually will ever use.   Once inside I set about stocking the kitchen, putting away clothes and denuding the living room of 99% of the plastic and silk flowers, ferns and vines that graced every table and hung all over the place.   Although the place has a professional cleaning service I still clean surfaces, remote controls etc. before we settle in.   The floors, a beautiful beige stone tile, got a quick dust mopping.  As clean as the place is, the three second rule that applies at home does not apply to anything dropped on the floor at the condo…that’s just the way it is.

Finally I was “bustled out”, and I sank onto the couch with a bottle of water.   As I looked around the room I had the strange feeling of being watched.    That’s odd because  Larry was outside exploring the pool and the beach.   What in the world….???  And then I realize… it’s the coffee table.  

You understand going in that a rented condo has been decorated in someone else’s taste.   It is often a private owners home six months out of the year, and a rental the rest of the time.  Some are tastefully bland, some brightly colored and energetic, often with sea shell touches and ocean scape art.    But this is the first time I’ve been “watched” by a coffee table.   I investigated the thick oval glass top resting on a blue grey “wave”.    Then I realized there was,  not just one, but two dolphins emerging from the wave, both with their watchful dolphin eyes trained right on me.   I moved to the other end of the couch, the beady eyes in their laughing faces moved, too.  I got up and walked around this thing, and the eyes continued to follow me just like the spooky eyes in a painting in a horror movie.   What in the world were they thinking, and I wonder if that monstrosity will fit into the closet that now holds all those plastic plants?    

Renting a condo feels less like being on vacation and more like trying on someone else’s life.   I think it’s because you stock the kitchen, continue to do laundry and make beds just like at home.   But one thing I can't do at home, and one of my greatest pleasures,  is to get up in the morning to walk on the beach.  I love listening to the ocean and the gulls, watching the sun come up.   Living with the beach in your backyard for a month it’s easy to fall into these pleasurable habits and feel as much at home as if you’ve lived here for years.   I have no defenses against things I really enjoy, and it’s such a privilege to possess this little piece of heaven even for a short time.

You know….in spite of the fact that we’ve been sleeping in someone else’s bed and I have the feeling that I’m being stalked by a coffee table…..Life is Good.