I was talking to Lee last night and came to the conclusion that I’m having an affair with the ocean. Whenever I’m around it, it’s this magnetic presence that takes over my brain, as in, ocean ocean ocean did you know there was an ocean over there? I see the particular quality of sky that says, “there’s an ocean near by,” and part of me start singing a little ditty about the ocean and how I should go see it.
I wondered for a while if I should try to move closer to the ocean. I mean, it’s a long ways away from here, no matter which direction you’re travelling, and I don’t get to see it that often. However, I like having seasons, and I like the West Coast better than the East Coast, which means not so much on the seasons. Lots of damp, too. I hate the way my clothes never dry out. And a lack of sunshine would kill me; I’d be depressed all the time. It would be pretty distracting living next to the ocean, like being on drugs all the time.
Or maybe I have an aversion to locational happiness, but I doubt it.
At any rate, I like living in Colorado, which has more to do with my friends here (and all the sunshine) than anything else. I think I could stand to get out of the Springs, though. I’m tired of the extreme pettiness people have about having nice things in this town, and I don’t like this neighborhood. There are too damned many people, and all the houses look the same in their orderly little rows, and if I want to walk to the nearest park I have to walk on broken glass because, God knows why, the sidewalk in front of the local elementary school is the perfect place to throw used beer bottles. Maybe there’s a good reason; Ray had day care at that school (instead of her usual school) one summer, and I hated just walking in the building, it felt so heavy and thick and jailhousy.
And so I think I will stay a writer instead of an ocean-head and live in Colorado and travel on occasion to have a fling with the ocean. Lee says that’s okay; he made some obscene suggestions for the consummation of my relationship that weren’t particularly titillating, so I won’t repeat them here. I’m going to a marketing workshop for writers on the coast of Oregon at the end of March, so I’ll get to see it soon.
I can’t imagine not living by the water (thank god, Britain is an island). My office (work) is located on the River Mersey which lets out into the Irish Sea and I get to stare at it and all the boats five days out of seven. Bliss.
See, I’m the kind of person who gets hypnotized by screen savers. I’d be a goner.
There is a particular trail that runs by a creek that I like, and that’s where I go when I’m too much without.
Hmmm…if I were near the ocean, it would have to be something that I could actually swim in (e.g. The Caribbean or The Med), otherwise it wouldn’t matter and any lake/pond/stream will do just as well.
I’m an ocean person, all the way. My plan is to move down to Florida as soon as I can afford it. I need sunshine, and the New England winters are killing me.
If you want sunshine, move to Colorado 🙂
I can’t help thinking of Serge Storms everything Florida comes up.