Storm at Sea

 

May 18, 2023

Slept a rich sleep, turning off the light at 9:30. The sea in your ear is different from the mountain night in your ear, uniform, mesmerizing, at once calming and wildly melancholy. Cloudy and gray this morning. I’ll feel all Romantic Poet walking down the beach. 

Walked the fresh, blond new pier. Out at the end encountered a thin but considerable shoal of jellyfish, about as big as mixing bowls, with a fringe of red between bell and tentacles. Nobody I pointed them feverishly out to seemed to be as enthralled as I. 

Can’t help noting that I have been here 4 times (recently) and this time marks by far the greatest ease of motion. I have more actual pain in my legs, but I walk and walk and am not exhausted nor out of breath. To get away from a storm hitting while I was on the pier, I did something approaching a run. My legs and feet were in agony yesterday; today, not a twinge. Imponderable. 

I love hotel life, except that you’re never sure when the goddam Housekeeping will appear. 

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Lunch at Planet Follywood. Raw burger and nasty slaw, but good vodka tonics and good company, jolly waitresses and Dan, whose dad was an English professor. Dan and the waitresses discussed a recent death by DUI where they’re trying to sue every bar where the perp might have had a drink. MADD is one of those organizations which has gone several steps beyond its original good idea. 

Bought two t-shirts so far when I didn’t actually need any. 

When I went back to the room, housekeeping was two rooms away, so I expected them at any minute. Two hours later I opened the door to see what happened, and a “Do not disturb” sign flew off my door. I hadn’t put it there. I guess housekeeping got overwhelmed and just decided to skip, and decided to have an excuse. Sooner or later everything happens. 

Storm, the sea whipped into frenzy. I rather like it. One group of gulls stands far back from the water, another stands right up against it. 

The hotel has an excellent native beach garden. Loved the painted leaf, which I don’t believe I’d seen before.

Housekeeping came, an Asian woman who had no English. She replaced the towels, emptied the trash, but didn’t touch the bed. I was working at a table nearby, and I think she was afraid to come near me. 

I retain the impulse to pick up men on the street. I note body language, calculate strategies. It’s sweetly nostalgic now, like an old soccer star roaming the pitch and remembering. 

Wind so strong the water in the toilet is agitated.