My Gulf

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who are concerned about the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and I've certainly tried to be as environmentally conscious as I can be during my adult life...but I'm truly shocked by how much this disaster is affecting me. Maybe it's because I've always been a Texan and spent my formative teenage years in Corpus Christi, but I really feel like somebody's screwing around with my Gulf.

It's personal.

Maybe it's because for at least a year after moving to Corpus Christi, I was extraordinarily lonely.  (This isn't so surprising since we moved there about a month before seventh grade - just a fabulous time to be a shy, new girl in Jr. High.) During this lonely time, I spent a crazy amount of time watching the sea gulls. Most people think of them as airborne varmits, and I suppose they can be a bit annoying, but I loved them. I loved their freedom and the fact that they weren't scared of anything. I loved how graceful they seemed and I guess I also just loved the fact that I was suddenly surrounded by a species of birds I'd never really seen before.

So I watched the gulls and the waves. I loved the water even more than I loved the birds. It was powerful and consistent - but also full of surprises because each day its color was slightly different than the day before.

Now the birds and water are at risk. For a few days I haven't been able to identify the feelings I've had as I read the stories on CNN but I truly think it's as if someone is taking away my security blanket. Those birds and waves kept me going during a very lonely time of my life. I just can't believe they're being taken away. I know it probably won't affect Corpus, but it's my Gulf. And for all I know, there's a girl who just moved to Louisiana and is having trouble fitting in at school. Maybe she spends hours watching the waves and the birds too.

And now they're about to be covered in oil.

Going Home

In exactly a week, my family and I will be in Port A. It's just a short little beach vacation, but I'm almost as excited as I was to go to Disney World in March. Part of it is because it's just great to get away with my kids and my husband, part of it is because there is nothing better than being in the surf and allowing the waves to lift your feet off the sand, and part of it is because I'll be going home. I lived in Corpus from 7th grade until I graduated from high school - but my parents are no longer there. So I hardly ever return home. As they always say - you don't appreciate home until you leave it.

There's a really great Facebook page that sums up some of the very "Corpus-y" things that seemed normal growing up but then you head off to college and meet people from other parts of Texas (or even Yankees from the North) and you realize that maybe you really were living in an odd little world. So...needless to say...I'm ready for the tar and seaweed-filled beaches, the ubiquitous Whataburgers, and of course the margaritas - of which I was never able to partake.

Because I was a total square in high school.

But not so much anymore.

So sometimes it's even better when you go home after you're 21.