Awake, shower, cereal, boiling water, hand grinding coffee, out the door to the beach.
A large grey blanket hung in the sky, and the moist air clung thickly in my nose, trachea, and lungs. Where did the blue sky go, and it's friendly sun that had been visiting for the last week? I suppose not all things can stay. Everything seems to have a habit of change. Coming and going, ebbing and flooding, you think I'd be used to it by now.
The sidewalk was wet, the cross walk was wet, the road was wet. Earlier it must have rained. My first steps on the beach however showed maybe the sky had only fallen briefly, the over-turned sand with each step exposed the dry white beneath the grey wet surface. It was cold on my toes. Finding a small, dry piece of drift wood under a hanging bow among the backshore, I placed it upon a larger water-logged seat, and drank the hot liquid in my mug.
The tide was low, the dogs were out, and I spotted a sail-less sailboat motoring, a power boat, and some large tanker off in the distance, hiding in the fog. You'd have no luck finding the other side of the Strait. You could sit and imagine it was the open sea if you wanted, I couldn't though, reality has ruined that for me. I know to well what lies behind the curtain of dense fog, the view of the Olympic peninsula is etched into the back of my mind.
I've been counting down the days, until a very special person in my life is to leave this island for some allotted amount of months I care not to calculate. This morning the number of days have trickled to number of hours until departure and I guess it's hitting me that he is actually leaving. The pumping mass in my chest rises to the base of my throat, and the ocean swells puffy morning eyes.
This summer the small ring of my closest friends have all left for the warms months. They left some weeks ago and though I was sad then, I still had someone hear to distract from me missing then so. Now I will say good-bye to him and be left on my own.
This is a good thing I tell myself. I am a creature of habit and tend to spend time with those closest to me and be content with that. I have many friends indeed, a great number of fine people I would love to know better, and see more often, and this is a wonderful opportunity to do so. While I was in school I had time not to see those outside of my studies, but now I am free of that, and I'm very excited to regain what I believe is called a social life. And with my usual amigos off on new adventures, I may start my own and invite new people into my life instead of new places.
I can be shy to make plans though, and this is my challenge, it is very easy for me to spend time with myself instead of making plans with others and this is a pattern I wish to break. I cannot sit alone and mope that my loved ones are gone all summer, to waste energy in that would be a sad employment for upcoming sunny days.
With that in mind, I stand and finish the last of the now cold caffiene, and walk home in a different additude.