| Music | May 13, 2001 | Archives |
 Here it is, the annual Sistahs at the Beach photo. Gulf Shores 2001. Seven condos this year. Arriving after dark (because we stayed in N.O. to have a late Semolina lunch with Cheryl Timmins...looking good as always) to jambalaya and barbequed shrimp. Total immersion in another culture for Melissa's brother Pete. Slowly getting the glare off the yankee bodies. Much running around the building, meals as moveable feasts, playing in the surf, sleeping to the roar of it. The memory session when we refresh each other on childhood memories, trips to Alvin's Island and the dollar store. I could have used at least another week of this.
The cute girls at the beach award goes to niece Jeanne, the scholarship kid who will be leaving soon to do her junior year in Belgium and great niece Hannah, granddaughter of Claudia and Mike. The amazing hair award goes to niece Lizette who was chemotherapy bald at last year's gathering. This year she is healthy, starting graduate school in the fall, and has this amazingly thick black curly hair. Those $50,000 hairdos are very special.
The food award is a tie between the fresh pineapple and the okra, both from Burris' farm market, a required stop on the way to or from the beach. Pelicans, herons, dolphins, sunshine, no jellyfish; it was a great time.
Beach reading: Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks (comic sociology defining the blend of 60's bohemian values with the bourgeois yuppie success of the 80's), Shrub by Molly Ivins (Bush for lawn ornament). Bought Leonard Shlain's The Alphabet versus the Goddess at Star books on Decatur, for our reading group. His various theses are grand conjectures ("I propose that the left hemisphere is actually a new sense organ designed by evolution to perceive time") but the minutia of his knowledge of physiology and ancient history and literature make for a great read. 
Back home we hit the ground running with a lot of full houses at the Heron. Unity College graduation. After a lean winter, it is good to see some cash flow. And it is fabulously spring here at last--I've done the bike around the lake, and kayacked around the islands. Yes, the rudder on the Castine makes a big difference. And feverishly gardening..putting in sugar snap peas, lettuce, spinach. Our last frost date here is Memorial Day. |