Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Standing at the Beginning With You (Inaugural Post!)

I love that word, 'inaugural.' I so rarely get to use it. In fact, I had to google it to make sure I was spelling it correctly, that is how rarely I use it. But now I have used it twice, and I am happy.

Today marks my return to the beach with my puppy, after a brief hiatus that resulted from me not being able to drag myself out of bed at the early hour at which I set my alarm clock. Each day I would press snooze probably three times, and then just turn the thing off. Because I have no reason to be up that early, you see - it was just part of my plan to get exercise in the morning and start the day right. Plus, I love the beach. But today, I dragged myself out of bed (after only two snoozes) and drove myself and my ecstatic puppy back to the beach. The sky was filled with ominous clouds for the whole drive, until I crossed the railroad tracks into Crescent Beach, and then I was greeted with marvelous blue skies. I think the beach missed me, too.

However, I did notice that the other people at the beach were not as cheerful as I. Downcast eyes and no jaunty "Hello!", as I felt the morning deserved. Although, I just thought of this now - I have always been really bad at knowing when to make eye contact with a stranger you are passing. Like, I don't want to have a creepy staring contest with you for ten minutes as you approach... so I look elsewhere until we are almost passing and then I make eye contact and offer a greeting. Maybe I am waiting too long, and the strangers passing me today were trying to greet me at a distance and I was the one with downcast eyes, so they thought I was being a jerk! Now I feel terrible. You know how they had those cheesy etiquette books in the 40s and 50s? I wish I could find one for now that could once and for all deal with my eye contact issue. At what point is it polite, and not creepy or rude, to meet eyes with a stranger? Or maybe everyone already knows, and I'm the only one in the dark.

Anyway. There's my story for today and my first ever blog post. I don't really know if this is going to work out, but I'll give it a try! Let me know what you think.

1 comment:

  1. LOVE it!!! Thanks for starting a blog Laura-i look forward to reading it, as your first post has already proved delightful! :)
    And I agree that it is oft difficult to know when to look up at a stranger to say hello.. because it's not like you didn't see them coming long before. Sigh. the complications of life.

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