A tidbit...

So yesterday I had a wonderful time in China!!!! The pearl market was too much fun and I could have spent days there looking for the perfect strand. At any rate I am still a bit exausted from the long day and have yet to go out and pick up everything for Brielle's birthday tomorrow. So, in the interest of my mental capacity and time, I am going to post a piece from the book I've been working for the girls. It's going to be filled with stories about me. I guess as I move forward in my life I wish I had more to reflect on in my past. (and my recollections of my father get more and more dim). So, in case anything ever happens to me I want them to know who I was. Anywho here is a piece from it:
The Sunrise over the Ocean.
I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so at peace as when I am near the ocean. Everything about the ocean is calming for me. I could sit on a beach from sun up to sundown and just feel the beauty in the motion of the water. I am enthralled by the sound and enchanted by the life and pattern of the waves. The people who are around me have no bearing on my mesmerization and I can always find my center at the water. Just the smell alone when I am standing near an ocean, without seeing it, is enough to make me take a deep breath and remember who I am and where I came from.
I believe my love of the ocean comes from fond memories of visiting my relatives in Rhode Island. My brothers and I would spend our mornings at the beach digging in the sand and splashing around with my cousins. My grandparents’ house is only a short walk away from the Providence beaches. Sometimes we would heave enormous rocks (big in a small child’s eyes) onto the sand and wait for the squirt of the clams that would gush up through the grains. Then we’d dig down as fast as we could to try to get the offender. Our parents were even good natured enough to cook up the few we caught and let us destroy the unlucky oysters looking for the elusive pearl.
This fondness only grew as my childhood in Montana was dominated by mountains and land-based adventures. I should stop right here to mention though that once I was invited to a birthday party at the lake and our sleepover spot was in the cabin of my friend’s father’s boat. I didn’t last fifteen minutes before my mind was convinced that the boat was going to go down while I was sleeping and we all would drown. I left embarrassed and crying. So, it is rather funny that my love with the water progressed until I eventually joined The U.S. Navy when I was eighteen.
This led to my first duty station, the USS Belleau Wood. We had such the relationship, that ship and I. Some days I walked on with an enthusiasm and joy and others were a lot harder; those were the days I walked off with joy. I remember the day we pulled out on our six month deployment. Hoss dropped me off at the pier and said his usual quick goodbye. We were determined not to make a scene and if I remember right he didn’t even get out of the car. I made it to the berthing and that was about it. I spent the next two hours balling my eyes out and willingly myself off the ship and back into his arms. I distinctly remember one girl’s mom was there seeing her off and she just looked at me with such pity and asked her daughter about me; who told her I was married. It was not pity I wanted, it was Hoss; but that is neither here nor there.
That night, the next morning and during the many that followed I would make my way to the opening in the hanger bay that reached out onto the water. I would look out and watch the sunrise and sunset with nothing to get in the way. The blue of the water was so deep it could not be perfectly captured in any of my pictures and the sun simply melted into it until only its reflection was left to remind you of the events past. No matter the time of day or night I could always make my way to the ocean and feel as if my problems were nothing compared to the vast control of the sea and the figure behind it who never let it swallow me up. Then I could go below again and the water would rock my small bed to sleep where I could wake refreshed to face another day. I do miss those days and the comforting feel of the ocean beneath my feet.