There is Salt Water in my Nose!

What a great day! Finally, the beach; and it was perfect. The morning started off slow with clouds and a mist but we remained optimistic thanks to weather.com which boasted 70 degrees and sun. Danise and I walked to the outdoor veg. market to pick up some bits for a picnic lunch and a bite for breakfast. We sat on a bench on the main drag, Danise with her ritual pan au chocolate and me munching on some off season snow peas and slurping the juice from an orange. Under the overcast sky we watched locals - oh so trendy - go about their daily activities. To kill time before the sun was to grace us with her presence, we shopped the dollar store in search of something to sit on at the beach. No way were we bringing our precious quick-dry towels. We are very attached and they are so far, our best investment of the trip, besides each other of course...aww...
We ended up purchasing some straw mats for a euro fifty. I had a most important second pre-beach fun project though. I have a bikini top I have been meaning to wear to to even out forbidden tan lines but it being from my marthaś vineyard days a la 6 summers ago, the pastic clasp is broken. Fortunately, there was a haberdashery round the corner and I picked out a nice ribbon to serve as a tie.
We made it to the beach and found a spot about a quarter mile down the coast that was pretty empty. How lucky we feel to be able to have no worries and simply enjoy life for what it is in every moment. And the weather is fine too. Cloudy, it is still warm enough to lie out in bikinis and warrant sunscreen. To keep from going topless however (though completely acceptable round here!) I had to put together my makeshift bikini clasp. I sat on my mat and looked over my tools. A pen, a swiss army knife, a ribbon and some broken plastic on my bathing suit. Oh if only I were a girl scout. I took manipulate the ribbon through impossible fabric with the pen and army knife nail file and fashioned a bow. Mission accomplished and no one around to give me an iron on patch of...a bikini. Oh well.
We lay on our backs and as soon as we finished our books (thank goodness Jane and Prudence have completed their pathetic man hunt of an adventure) us girls ran to the water for a wade in and were surprised to be able to walk quite for out thanks to the generous tide. Not willing to dunk just yet, we headed in for our picnic sans vino.
Last night we went out for a drink with the girls in our room as it was their last night in San Sebastian. Calimocho (red wine and coke) was the drink of the night but I was "saving my health" as Bernard, our new co-ed roommate requested so that we might have a drink with him tonight. Anyway, we ate our apples, carrots, avocado, chorizo, salted ham, manchego, and strawberries. Such is life, our London actor roommate often remarks. "And thats life really, no more no less." Ah, weŕe content. We talked about themes in Eat Pray Love and the significance of not talking life so seriously as to miss on the best and most basic moments such as this one. Why not laugh at trivial or grand embarrassments, or be completely alright with an unresolved issue? Just let it be right? Such is life.
In some ways, this holiday has come at a perfect time for both Danise and I. In transition, Danise to teaching and me to an undetermined and foreign life, we should be realizing and learning to chill and relax and to think If not now, and tomorrow, and in twenty years...when? This lifestyle inst for retirement only. Why should one work toward the end of their career to bask in their past brilliance? The two should happen simultaneously. Spain ins a retirement type of adventure for us. It is a reward for a past job well done true, but mostly it is a chance to enjoy life and gain perspective and establish a self in a time and place suitable to move on. Forward, up, back, to the side...two hops two hops...it doesnt matter in what direction does it? As long as life is being loved as much as possible. Because thats it really? We judge and belittle and tsk tsk people who seem to "never grow up" "get a job" "make something of themselves..."...etc. But inst that assuming that the secret of life is a fixed and homogeneous and one way ticket to the end? I am as much of a geek as anyone and revel when working but life as most people know it is unfairly biased toward a work hard play hard mentality and in that order. We should have moments of each in overlap. And we realized this sitting on the Atlantic Coast in San Sebastian. Our depleting bank accounts mean squat to our full stomaches and overwhelmingly happy taste buds. The stress of my undetermined future career means little to the calm serenity I feel today. Life lived and loved, today was surely a day Danise and I succeeded in and tomorrow, such is life and we shall see.
After lunch we raced to the water and after giggling about god knows what, decided to swim out to a white platform that had a slide attached to one end. Interesting idea considering neither one of us are big swimmers, and my strapless bikini top was held together by ribbon. Danise mastered the butterfly while I did a combo of doggy paddle meets side stroke meets fuck it, I turned onto my back and stroked toward the white mass. I all of a sudden remembered the day sophomore year I dropped life guarding class. I cant actually swim. I wasn't sure which was more ridiculous, the fact that I made up a new swim stroke to get myself further out into the ocean, or the fact that my bikini top was somewhere round my middle. Never mind, there are more topless women here than at Hughś house.
Yummm, salt water. Danise and I groped the white ladder and hauled ass up onto the platform. Very proud of ourselves, we did a double high five and laughed some more. In a hot second Danise was up a second ladder getting ready "Here I go!" and splash she slid into the water. "My turn my turn!" wishing I could actually get away with saying that. I scrambled up the ladder with a fantastically big grin and giggle and sat on the slide. oooh shit I thought. Oh wait...that I could actually get away with. "ohhh shit" my voice rang out. "go go go!" Danise cheered on and I screamed like an obnoxious teenager and flew into the water. "Again again" I laughed and surfaced for air. F-it. Bring on childhood. We went down again and I hung on the white metal ladder and bent backwards. My eyes stung and there was salt water in my nose! I opened up my eyes and the San Sebastian coast was upside down. Shocker. Still beautiful though, and so refreshing is the salt laden H2O. Bliss. After running around and bouncing on the raft to make a sea saw, we crawled ourselves to the middle and lay down for a little rest before the big schlep back. what a view. Middle of the ocean, salty lips and a hearty work out, all of a sudden an older man climbed up onto the raft and upon kneeling and revealing the top bit of his backside, Danise and I heard the sirens, i mean bells, our cute to leave, and jumped back in the water to let the tide carry us back. Not so easy and I completely gave up on my top. I yelled and kicked nad prayed to Jesus, godś right hand man who was literally right above me on the hill, to get me to shore but my tempertantrum didn't work and alas I started my crazy ass tri-fold stroke home.
Danise and I plotzed on our sandy mats. She cracked open a new book and I wrote much of my thoughts on the quality of life. Around 6 we walked to the cathedral square for some refreshing iced tea and fresh orange juice, and mostly just toe get out of the sun. The square was absolutely packed and we really enjoyed watching school children run around, chalk on the church steps, and play an odd game of jump rope/cats cradle. We finally got a peak inside the church which I found quite cute. Especially at that time of day,t he sun shone south I believe, and the already stunning stained glass was reflected onto the beige arches and created water color frescoes. They almost gave off the impression of rainbows and waht woudl normally be a dark and mystical church was transformed to feel glowing and very luminous.
Life oh life, full of salt water tides and fresh pressed juice. Spain is only the facilitator of a lovely life and today has been just a perfect example.

Much love,
MK