Outrageously Ordinary

There comes a time in a young woman’s life when she feels her best, looks her best, has the wind at her back and the world at her feet…

Today is not that day.

After a week of easy, breezy beach life, our once organized suitcases seemed to blow up over four floors, five bedrooms and a deck full of pool toys. Like a true procrastinator, I got up early yesterday to pack up before we headed for Raleigh.

I scaled those four floors, five bedrooms and the deck full of pool toys with vigor and verve, multiple times to load the car to the brim. The breeze we had enjoyed all week abandoned us in our hour of need so when the last seashell was lovingly shoved into place, I sat behind the wheel drenched in sweat with my fresh feeling nowhere to be found.

I dropped the kids off at their dad’s house and came home to face reality alone. One of my favorite things about beach week is that I don’t have any real responsibility, it is a break from being a grown up. I play with the kids, we all stay up late, we eat whatever we want, and other than my mild OCD tendencies, I don’t have to seriously clean anything.

I pulled up to the house to see the yard now looking like the African grasslands. I was surprised not to see some wild animals prowling through the knee-high blades. How much rain did we have while I was gone?! I opened the front door and was greeted by a sauna that sucked the breath from my lungs. There should be an app to turn the air on before you get back from vacation.

So I turn the air to frigid levels and start unloading the car. What had been fairly clean suitcases were now covered in sand and sea water salt from the umbrellas, toys and towels. I shook everything off and climbed more stairs to bring them inside. But on the final trip I missed a step and pulled a muscle in my back.

I’m young enough to be able to recover and finish my chores, but old enough to know I was going to pay for that later. I’m also lucky to have two sorority sisters in town so after I brought everything in and searched through countless bags to find all my toiletries, I jumped in the shower to get presentable for dinner.

Dinner was wonderful, we are the kind of friends who pick up right where we leave off no matter how long it’s been. I adore them both but we cut dinner short because of the storms coming. I left the restaurant saying prayers for us all.

I love storms but I felt like I was on the set of Twister. It’s a lot less cool when you have to bob and weave through the lightning strikes. What I didn’t realize is how tense I was behind the wheel and what that would do to an already broken back.

So all of that to say… here lies the body of Cami. She was once a young and energetic lady who could touch her toes or even reach for the remote control without grimacing. Romantic comedies and ib profen will be my friend today but please send good thoughts my way that the remote control doesn’t fall out of reach.