Tag Archives: Summer Job on Hilton Head Island

Mostly I’m Just Ready

Posted on by
2

[A Florida moon over the Fort Myers airport last Saturday, 4:30 a.m.]

In an effort to record the details of my summer, I posted a micro-journal entry of the day’s events every night on my Facebook page. In total, from May to September, I had ninety-seven entries.

On my final day, I wrote:

Hilton Head [Day 97]: Started the day above the clouds with an East Coast sunrise. Ended the day with a desert sunset. … People have asked if I was excited or sad to leave South Carolina and come back to Utah. And really, I’m neither. And yet I’m both. But mostly I’m just ready. Thanks for joining me this summer. It was good to go home. And it’s good to be home. The end. Or rather…the beginning.

[The sunrise from my desert-bound plane]

I’ve been home for a week now and what a week it has been. Though I came home with a plan and though I feel peace and excitement and readiness and certainty about the future, there were still old habits and belief systems waiting for me when I walked through the door of my cute little house.

I think I expected everything to be different when I came home, simply because I was different. But I’m realizing that I have to make it different. I have to choose, each day, to make my life what I see that it can be–what I want it to be–here. I have to choose to see things with my new eyes. I have to choose to let go of the brier patch that is the past. And doing so, I’m learning, requires mental stamina, determination, and discipline.

But I wasn’t reaching when I said that “mostly I’m just ready.”

Because I am.

This really is the beginning.

—

Next week is probably going to be a heavy posting week (with lotsa pictures) as I have much to share from my last week back East with my Grands. Plus, I think I’m finally ready to share my plans for the future. So…buckle up!

In Less Than 24 Hours

Posted on by
2

Welp. It’s over. My Hilton Head Summer of 2011 has reached its finale. By noon tomorrow I’ll be back in Utah and ready to dive into life post-”blah period.” That’s the official term, in case you were wondering.

The past four months were exactly what I needed. I needed to get away. From everything. I needed to empty. I needed to breathe. I needed to read. I needed to think. I needed to sit. I needed the sea. I needed my sister’s wedding. I needed one of the people who came to the wedding. I needed the sunrise. I needed to not write. And then I needed to write. I needed to pray. I needed time.

And I got all of that. And then some.

A friend I hadn’t seen in years said to me earlier in the summer, “You just don’t sound like you. It’s like your passion is missing or something. You used to be so passionate.” And he was right. But it/I (perhaps both) had been extinguished.

But y’all…the passion is back. (Do you hear me?!) And holy smokes. There are some big things ahead. Big, awesome, exciting, hard, things that I feel fire in my gut about.

(Finally!)

I know what I’m doing. And I know where I’m going.

And it’s right. Like the, “I-know-this-in-my-bones” kind of right. Which I haven’t felt in so long.

It will mean a lot of work and much about how it will all unfold is totally uncertain. But it’s what I wake up thinking about and it’s what I go to sleep dreaming about.

And is it weird to say that I can feel a lot of this in my eyes? Like there’s this familiar brightness, that has been missing–I’m not sure how to explain it–but it’s like my eyes, my old friends, are back. I doubt that makes sense.

But anyway, in less than 12 hours I’ll be on a plane. Headed back to life.

And I’m just really excited.

*Photo taken this morning as I mozied around my grand’s property. It’s what I saw when I looked up.

8:26 a.m.

Posted on by
2

So much of the last year was accomplished with my head down, simply plowing through. Although–the word “plow” is debatable. I suppose it was more of a “clomp.” But that’s neither here nor there.

What I wish to say is that despite the head-down-often-didn’t-brush-my-teeth-till-noon-(or later) life I led, every now and again, the world around me would stop me in my tracks. Would catch my gaze and catch my heart. In truth, they were fleeting moments. But significant bits of hope during the monotony of gray nonetheless.

It was,

the way the light glinted off the lake and settled pink upon the mountain. The way a flower popped, bold and red and open to the world. The way the wind exhaled over my skin–blowing the pulse and breath of life my direction–like a Hale Mary from Mother Nature.

Such moments never fail to render me helpless with a total intoxication of beauty. I am. Temporarily inebriated whilst my senses absorb the colors.

And this morning, as I rounded the corner on my way to the oyster-shelled stairs that lead to the ramp that points to my daily perch, one such moment occurred when the blues and the greens and the yellows of an 8:26 a.m. sun just about knocked me over.

The water was like glass, unbroken, as of yet, by the comings and goings of boats. The air was warm, yes, but with the freshness of a new day. And the birds called down from the trees, buzzing and humming with their songs of salutation.

I opened my lawn chair, happy to be early on this particular morning, and sat. So quiet and so still.

So full of color.

Totally alive and present.

Completely connected to the life around me.


Back

Posted on by
Reply

I was home in Utah for about ten days. It was heaven being back with with my Frit. I miss her so much when I’m away.

There’s an episode of Grey’s Anatomy where Cristina says to Meredith, “Mer, why do you care what I think?” And Meredith looks at her and says, “Because. You’re my person.”

In another episode Cristina, speaking of Meredith, says, “She’s my person. If I murdered someone, she’s the person I’d call to help me drag the corpse across the living room floor. … She’s my person.”

I get that.

I totally get that.

Cuz Frit’s my person.

She has my back. Always.

And I have hers.

Always.

And I hate being away from her.

So. Leaving sucked.

But there are still some things for me here on the Island.

Still some things I need to figure out.

Still some things I need to unearth.

Still some things I need to dedicate myself to.

And so I’m back.

For Part II of my Island Summer.

Just Another Wednesday

Posted on by
2

“Who’s me next pirate?!”

That’s what I say every Wednesday and Friday morning as I walk through a line 150 long. The kids are wide-eyed with anticipation as we cloak them in their official pirate uniform–a skull & crossbone doo-rag, a felt eye-patch, and a foam sword. Then … and only then … do they get their official pirate name. And with grand flourish, a sweet little girl suddenly becomes Squidface Sarah, and that handsome young lad turns into Mad Man Max.

Once all the pirate kidz have been officially pirated (akin to being knighted), they go on the boat ride of their lives as they steal back Captain Tanner’s pirate ship from Crazy Captain Black Mark (my dad), send Stinky Trader Luke to Davy Jone’s locker, and find the buried treasure. It is quite the adventure.

(my dad in his pirate gear)

After the pirate cruise leaves, I sell tickets for the morning crabbing trip and then sit under my umbrella while I answer phones, take reservations, and sell tickets for the 11:30 and 2:00 crabbing cruises.

(our crabby captain and his crabby crew)

We finally got some good rain this afternoon and I was quite content to just sit in it and take pictures of the bubbles, drops, and ripples the raindrops made in the harbour.

The rain broke for a few minutes just before my day was to end and the sky was full of the most amazing clouds.

Now it is night. And I’m watching the most fantastic lightning storm from my bedroom window.

You know — just another Wednesday. G’night!

Stuff I’ve Seen This Week (and it’s only Thursday!)

Posted on by
2

I don’t have internet access on the dock. This has been a bit of an adjustment.

To pass the time (in between taking calls from tourists and selling tickets) I read. A lot. I write. Some. And I look around.

For hours, I look around.

And this week I’ve seen some pretty cool things.

1. An anhinga, also known to the Seminole Indians as the “snake bird,” swimming and diving–hunting for fish. After a few dives it caught this little fishy and shook it around for a while (I guess to disorient it). Then it tossed it in the air, opened wide, and swallowed it in one gulp. Then it hopped up on the dock and spread it’s wings to dry out. They have to dry out after long periods of swimming or their wings become too heavy with water to fly.

2. A school of fish. There were hundreds of them! Tiny silver things, darting this way and that, an occasional show off jumping in the air and splashing me with water. They stayed by my dock for much of the day and I watched them all afternoon.

3. A Little Blue Heron, hunting for food along the mud banks at low tide. He finally found a snake and tore. that. thing. apart. But not before a really good fight from the snake. (In the second picture you can kind of see the snake trying to wrap itself around the heron’s beak.)

4. Petey the Pelican. He’s a regular ’round our dock and was just chillin’ by our crabbing boat today, floating in the water, flappin’ his wings (did you know that the brown pelican is the largest of our sea birds with a wing span that can reach up to 7 feet?) … and flappin’ his beak.

5. A manatee! This was particularly exciting as manatee don’t generally live in our area. But every summer we get a couple who wander up, I guess from Florida, and make their way into our harbour. I was so caught of guard I gawked for too long before I jumped to grab my camera–which was at the bottom of my bag of course–and I didn’t get it out in time to get a great picture before it submerged and swam away. Hopefully you can kind of see it–it’s the brown log looking thing in the water. I’m hoping it’ll come back tomorrow so I can get a better picture. What a gentle giant.

6. The harbour in late afternoon. I love this time of day. The light is just beginning to turn a touch of golden and today the reflection was shimmering on the boats so beautifully. The sky was blue blue blue and it just looked so pretty I had to take a picture.

This job is great, wouldn’t you say?