Beach Etiquette for Dummies

Ahhhhh....the beach. The salty smell in the air. The sound of the waves crashing. Your toes in the water, butt in the sand.

Stop. Rewind, start again:

Ahhhh...the beach. The smell of dog and seagull poo. The sound of your neighbors radio blaring in your ear. Your butt getting knocked to the ground after being hit by a flying football.

Yeah, unfortunately these days the above can be how your "relaxing" day at the beach goes. After witnessing some of these things on a recent beach trip, I found it necessary to write my own "Beach Etiquette for Dummies". Of course I will preface this by saying that this is only my opinion...as I've moved into my adult years, my thoughts and priorities have changed as will yours. :)

1. Boom Boom pow versus Chicken Fried versus Rock of Ages- no matter what your taste in music (and I do like all 3 of the above by the way), you brought that boom box for YOU and your crew...not for the whole beach. If I wanted to listen to music, I'd have brought my own. Therefore, you keeping your radio at a somewhat respectable decibel level is greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I'll be forced to break out my Barry Manilow.

2. No naked butts on the beach- If you choose to smoke, that's your prerogative. However, if you choose to smoke on the beach, please do not throw your cigarette butts in the sand. Find a place to put your butts and then dump them in the trash when you leave. Frankly, that's just plain lazy and NOT COOL. Here are a few facts I found about why naked butts left on the beach are BAD:

• Cigarette butts are one of the most commonly found litter items on beaches.
  
• They are not biodegradable.
• 1 cigarette butt can take up to 15 years to break down.
• Each cigarette butt can pollute 3 litres of seawater.
• Cigarette butts are often mistaken for food by marine wildlife.

3. Here's one my 13 year old just cannot seem to grasp. Shake a hand, shake your bon bon...don't shake your towel!- at least not within the vicinity of others. Determine the direction of the wind, walk out of the way of people around you, THEN shake your towel. We all already have sand in all kinds of unmentionable places and we'd like to be able to see to remove it!

4. Your body is a wonderland...and I wonder why you feel I must see certain parts of it. If you have a great, fit body, then you'll look GREAT in a bathingsuit that FITS and fabulously covers all of your great pieces parts. I don't need to see your bossoms or your bottom or your other unmentionables, nor does my child or other children around you. On that same note, some of us are not blessed with that fabulous hot bod that looks great in bikini...sooooo, if you don't fit well into that itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini, don't wear one. I promise you'll look much "hotter" if you wear something that FITS. Bikins are not made for every body.

5. Flock of Seagulls- and I'm not referring that weird haired 80's group who ran so far away. I'm referring to those cute little loud white birds that love it when you throw your chips or crackers or breadcrumbs around. The ones who will stay and stay and stay and caw and caw and leave white paint like presents all around. Remember the personal space rule...if you'd like to feed the seagulls, by all means do it-- 15 to 20 feet away from your beach neighbors.

6. WEAR sunscreen- trust me, your mother is right. As wonderful as that beautiful sun is, especially at the beach, it can do some SERIOUS damage to your skin, not to mention it hurts and its just plain ugly. When you are my age or older, you will be thankful for all that nagging your mama or your sister or I did! Lack of sunscreen causes premature aging and more importantly, skin cancer. Is it really worth it?

7. You crusha my kid's sand castle, I breaka yo face- 'nuff said. Just not cool.

8. Litterbug, litterbug, shame on you- lazy, lazy, lazy. There really is no excuse for it. At a public beach, there is generally a trashcan at every single walkway. And if you're not in a public area, that means you're likely staying in a house or hotel very near the ocean. Bring a bag with you and throw your trash away. Really not a hard concept to grasp!

9. Space invaders- Along the same lines of the feeding of the seagulls above, the beach is a pretty vastly spaced area. Remember the personal space rules and if possible, try to sit at least 15-20 feet away from the person next to you. It may save you some grief in the long run if you end up next to the seagull feeding, music playing, football throwing, beer guzzling 'necks we all encounter every once in a while.

10. Dude, you are no Brett Favre- Playing football, volleyball, bocce ball, or any other ball becomes fun for even the least likely athlete when its done of the beach. Knock yourself out and have a blast...but please don't knock ME out. Play responsibly. Be aware of walkers on the beach, or kids swimming near the waves.

Remember the golden rule we learned as a child? "Do unto others as you'd have done to you." If you think about that as you set up for your beach fun, you're bound to have a great time, as are others around you. Happy beaching, everyone!

Man's Best Friend...

They say that a dog is mans best friend. However, for some reason, my dog (and all other non human species in my home for that matter), just wants to escape. Henry, aka "Houdini" attempts to escape on a frequent basis. Sometimes he's successful. Other times he's busted before he can get anywhere. And then other times, he just plain FAILS. But no matter what...we always seem to get him back.

Before he was even officially adopted, we took him to North Carolina for a visit with family. When we arrived at midnight, Katherine was walking him in the yard before taking him inside. He wiggled out of the leash and took off, just as a nice big thunderstorm started up. We chased him for almost two hours before he finally cowered down and we could scoop him up. He did it again the first time we took him to my parents. Soon after we officially adopted him, I woke up in the middle of the night to find that a thunderstorm had blown our front door blown wide open. Of course, Henry was gone. We searched for 2 hours before I finally found him running down North Belair Road. I'm so thankful that it was the middle of the night because I'm almost positive the sight of me chasing him out of the middle of the road in my pajamas in the rain was QUITE a sight. We got him home though, after a LONG night. Then there's the times he's crawled through a loose fence post, we've searched for hours at a time and given up, only to hear him crying in the middle of the night to come back home. And finally, there's the scary failed attempt- the time I thankfully came home for lunch one afternoon and heard an odd whining outside. I found him pinned under the fence after he attempted to dig under and was a little too big to fit. :( No telling what would have happened if I hadn't come home.

Because Henry was likely abused before we adopted him, he is a very skittish dog. Often times even after almost 5 years of being with us, he will run away from me. He will freak out at the slightest noise. But then again, there's times when he runs to me for comfort if it's thundering outside. Or the time that I'll never forget- when I received news that my grandfather passed away. I sat in the floor crying. For the longest time, Henry didn't know what to do. Then, he walked right up to me and laid right up against me, as if to say "I'm here."

So I guess the saying is true...I guess he is man's best friend. If he didn't like us so much, he wouldn't want to come back home, right? If he didn't like us so much, he wouldn't get so mad when we leave him alone and tear everything up, right? He wouldn't come running up and jump in my lap at the sound of thunder, right? I sure hope I'm right...cause no matter how many times he chews something up, runs away from us, or whines at the top of his lungs when we come home after a long day, he's a good boy, and yes...he's a good friend.

Covered in mud after a night escape

This is what happens when you spend a weekend with Henry, and then leave him to go to work on Monday...

More "Don't leave me" madness

But when there is thunder, he wants his mommy or his grandma (that would be me)!

Let's Start on a Positive Note...

So, it's finally happening. Everyone wonders how I've gone so long without starting a blog. I'm the one who loves to write, the one who likes to "express myself". And, I'm supposedly the technical "geek"...the lover of all things electronic. So why has it taken so long? Because basically I'm one of those "closet" writers, writing in journals that only I see. Being the introvert that I am, I'm not one to express myself for all to see. Very few see that side of me and even when those close to me do, it's likely still not as vocal or opinionated as I'd like it to be. If I'm mad or disagree with something, I'll do as my mother taught me- write it down, get my feelings out, and then tear it up so nobody else sees it.

So anyway...I'm not sure much of that will change. There will probably be some things I will steer clear of, opinions I'll keep to myself. But I'm ready to be a blogger, and we'll see how it goes.

That being said, I figured I'd start things on a positive note. I follow several blogs, and one of my friends recently posted an article that she read on yahoo, entitled "101 Small Pleasures". It was basically a listing of the little things in life that make people happy. So, I thought I'd see how hard it would be to come up with 50 of my own. It wasn't hard at all...I came up with a lot more. And after I made the list, I went back and referred the one posted by my friend. It was interesting to see how many of the things on my list matched that orginal list. So....here's my list, in no particular order of importance. What would you add?

1. An unexpected phone call from a friend
2. Finding the right shade of lipstick
3. Peanut Butter
4. The smell of freshly cut grass
5. My mom's potato salad
6. Someone holding the door
7. Someone thanking ME for holding the door
8. "I love you"
9. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade
10. Pedicures
11. A mid-afternoon nap
12. Getting that perfect unexpected photo
13. Ladybugs
14. Smashbox Foundation Primer
15. Old Photos
16. New Photos
17. Glee
18. Green Tea
19. A sweet dream
20. Toes in the Sand
21. A good run
22. A comfortable pair of heels
23. Jeans Friday
24. Connecting with an old friend
25. Finding $5 in my jeans pocket
26. Winning a game
27. Letting someone else win a game
28. Kermit THE Frog
29. American Pie
30. A good book
31. Flowers
32. Tree frogs
33. My sister's fried egg sandwich
34. Blowing bubbles
35. Martina McBride
36. Baby smiles
37. Baby lotion
38. Jon Bon Jovi
39. Amazing Grace
40. Family traditions
41. Pretty Woman
42. Coloring
43. ipods
44. A joke that never stops making me laugh
45. Longstanding friendships
46. New friendships
47. The Sters
48. COFFEE
49. Getting my hair brushed
50. Supper Club
51. Facebook
52. Watching Katherine's sporting events
53. waterfall
54. Rainbows
55. Gummy bears
56. sand dollars
57. "06 parking" (that would be an unexpected up front parking space)
58. The smell of breakfast cooking
59. sushi
60. Wicked
61. dolphins
62. laughter
63. The Trolley Stop chili dogs
64. a glass of wine
65. a massage
66. Realizing that mom was right about some things.
67. And dad too...
68. Jimmy Buffet
69. a good pillow
70. Shag music
71. Dancing
72. Long chats with my sis
73. Being an Army brat
74. Mickey Mouse
75. Old "Friends" episodes
76. toe socks
77. FLIP FLOPS
78. Buying a gift for someone for no real reason.
79. Doodles