Relive a Vacation?

A weekend on the shore

A friend was visiting me in Staunton and on something of a whim we decided to drive to Virginia Beach. We stayed in the cheapest possible waterfront hotel. It featured an indoor pool in a ridiculously overheated covered courtyard, which I thought odd. The pool was surrounded by an astro-turf-like carpeting. It is now the pool I picture whenever I read about some one drowning in a swimming pool.

We spent the first night wandering from bar to bar. Most bars in Virginia Beach are terrifying. We ended up getting pretty drunk in a sports bar off the main drag. The bartender told as about how his house was periodically blown away by tropical storms, and we met some friendly bikers. Then we wandered drunkenly along the beach, engaged in some 2 a.m. soccer with some equally drunk boys, and fell asleep in sandy beds.



The next day, it rained. We went in search of tasty seafood and new flip fops, and were moderately successful. We also found a rickety, overpriced carnival. Everything had a seedy, abandoned feel, perhaps because of the rain or perhaps because it was early May and the town wasn't crowded.

On the way back to Staunton we took a detour to Williamsburg and ate some weird colonial food (peanut soup?). We were too cheap to buy a pass to tour the houses, but we wandered around and stole some (very bad) street theatre by hanging around the restaurant while they set up the enclosure that was supposed to keep us non-pass-buying folk out, so that when we exited, the enclosure had been built around us... we were pretty proud of ourselves.



I remember that my friend looked quite fetching a blue dress as we drove back, while I was mostly dissatisfied with my packing choices that trip.

Can I just not grow up?

Plinky is site that provides a 'prompt' every day for people who have trouble thinking of things to write on their blogs. Today's prompt: What do you want to be when you grow up?

I am what I want to be when I grow up!

Of course, it's not that simple. I've wanted to be an actor since I was little, and I am an actor, but it's not the only way I make my living. My childhood self definitely imagined my adult self as a more successful actor. It's like the Joni Mitchell song, "Circle Game," where she says "My dreams have lost some grandeur coming true."

When I was younger, I always thought that meant that when you get what you want, it turns out to be not as wonderful as you thought, but now it seems to be more about revising your naive fantasies to fit reality, realizing that you are living your dream, just not the pie-in-the-sky version of it you initially conceived.

Then again, I do sometimes fantasize about totally different careers based on my other interests. What if I were a librarian? A vet? A chef? If for some reason I had to change careers (like I was struck by lightning and all of my acting ability vanished?) I think I would go back to school and become a paleontologist.

Secretly, though; in my heart of hearts, I want to be a Time Lord when I grow up.