There's a Dawg frenzy outside!

OMG!! I can't even write a thing. I'm too excited about the Georgia/Florida game tomorrow! Saint Simons Island is buzzing with happy Georgia fans and I'm not about to sit at this laptop and be profound or nostalgic about something in my life... I've got to go join in on the fun!

Go Dawgs!

p.s. Did someone say it's Halloween?

Nothing

Thursday night's event ended. The Cloister's Oglethorpe Room was splendid, as is every room in the hotel, and all in all, everything was good. Later, I found myself at home outside letting my two of three energetic pooches romp around in the back yard, realizing I had nothing pressing to take care of ahead of me. I thought, as this was a rare occurance, "Okay, Beth, who do you need to call? Who should you catch up with that you haven't spoken to in a while? What should you do to make the most of this time?" I decided to put my blackberry back down on the bench and do nothing. My mind wasn't racing, my agenda wasn't full... for this moment. I just stood there. I could have found something to do that needed to be done, sure, but I felt appreciative of the wonderfully delicious piece of quiet that was in my mind. It wasn't completely quiet because I was thinking all of these words I am now typing, but compared to normal this was baby pool waves. No crashing, surging waters were beating against my cranium. I was still.

When my thoughts rested, my senses woke up. The nearby Tramici Restaurant's outdoor music became louder. I heard laughter from early bird Georgia fans celebrating next door, enjoying the entertainment. What I assume was crickets were chirping madly and my dog was snorting around in the dirt. I felt my own heart beat and the same breeze in my hair that was making the tree limbs rustle. I looked around me, nobody was there to distract me, so I looked up to find a clear black sky with stars that shined so brightly as they had no competition from street lights. This area is the dark part of the eastern coastline shown on Google Earth's "The Earth at Night" satellite photograph. If the Earth is a jack-o-lantern, Saint Simons Island is the part not carved. No lights peaking through here.

So, I have nothing more to say. Like I said, this was all I took in and I ignored my pattern of over thinking and analyzing life's most basic moments until they are complex, symbolic meanings for more. Moments of nothingness reveal everything life is all about. The real stuff, like heart beats and breath and night skies are enough when they are pure and simple. My new something in my calendar will now be to take time for nothing.

Freddy Kruger's loss, my gain

As you all know, I feel challenged by my closet. Times that by eighty and you now have an approximation of my angst toward my mother’s attic. The attic. It was the catalyst of many childhood memories.

In this spooky place upstairs, lurking over my parent’s bedroom, is where I feared Freddy Kruger lived. That might also have something to do with my dad. He frequently watched scary movies with me and then would, coincidentally, ask me to go to the attic and get some useless object for him because he decided he needed it right then. Being the very good and obedient daughter that I was, and still am, eh hem, I begrudgingly set my course up the staircase and into the dark, ominous upstairs. I would turn the light on and dash as fast as I could through the attic door, search frantically for the useless object, and zip right back out the way I came, never ever looking back because I was sure Freddy was on my heels. That’s when my dad, sneaky fellow, would pounce out of the shadows and grab me with his hand that was clawed and curled just like Freddy’s. It was horrific!

This room harbors my best grade school papers, notable ceramic creations and cutest outfits from childhood. I have memories galore here in this ‘room of everything and nothing’. Our keepsake toys are here. Paige and I would bring them up to this space when we were little to play freely and imagine that the same room that housed Freddy Kruger was magically a royal retreat or circus land. I, to this day, don’t walk to the edges of the room because for some reason I thought I would fall through the floor. So weird, I know, but I still keep my distance from the perimeter of the room.

This past weekend I tackled this attic and all that angst with a fury. I threw my hair back, my chin up, and my laziest looking clothes on and got my elbows dirty scouring around in this vacuum of Dunaway past. It sucked in everything we deemed halfway valuable. Time to exfoliate and eliminate.

And guess what…

Along the way I found some new treasures. My mom’s vintage clothing. Girls get ready!! If you have a similar space in your house, it is a gem! Not only will a voyage into an attic take you down memory lane, dig up buried laughable moments and help you feel organized after you ditch the junk, it is also a Vintage Boutique! My mom had the cutest dresses stored away and they, after laundering, will be perfect for wearing. They are a splash of Anthropologie and a dash of Jackie O. What a find. I found adorable dresses for not a cent that mean more to me than the most expensive; they’re priceless. Who knows how ole’ Freddy Kruger feels about my snatching away all his fashionable goodies, but I figure he owes me anyway.