It has been. Since last spring. A crazy, crazy, hectic, maddening, stressed-out year. Not necessarily a bad year, understand. But … difficult.
A modest sum of money (long awaited, overdue) finally landed in my vicinity a couple of weeks ago. Glory hallelujah! But I immediately put it to work creating more chaos. Which got more chaotic as it went along.
My head. Was about. To explode.
So yesterday I went online and found the lowest-cost vacation rental in an Oregon beach town, booked it, and dropped the poor, pathetic, protesting pooches at furrydoc’s kennel (thanks, furrydoc!). Today … here I am, watching a seagull pace the ridgetop of the beach cottage across the road.
—–
I don’t travel gracefully. I am not a free spirit. I fret about the preparations, the getting there, the what-might-be-happening-at-home while being there, and … well, everything.
All the way here I worried whether my sight-unseen studio apartment might be in a tsunami zone and where the nearest evacuation route might be. Yeah, I think like that. Sorry. I kept wondering (ala Marvin the Paranoid Android) why I was making this little getaway because I’m not going to enjoy myself.
Then I got here. It’s on a nice, satisfyingly tall hill that looks out at the ocean (from a nice, safe height) over the roofs of several houses. Tsunami frets blew away.
And I was floored by the wonderfulness. My goodness. For less than $50 a night, I’ve got an apartment with big windows on three sides of it — including one lovely stained-glass window. The front windows open onto a deck with a view of the waves. Rear windows look onto an intimate fenced garden.
Awaiting me was a gift bag with coffee mugs and half a pound of certified organic fair-trade coffee beans (this is the world of Portlandia, after all; and yes, there’s a coffee grinder in the room). The queen bed has a feather duvet. There’s a woodstove with a complimentary Prest-o-Log already in place and a store down the road that sells bundles of wood. There are books! Wicker furniture. Even musical instruments (not that I know how to play them) and a cabinet full of board games. And need I mention free wifi?
Wow. I’m also the only occupant of this whole house and practically the only occupant of the entire street. You know I love that.
I made one miscalculation, though. Tonight is V for Vendetta night and, figuring there couldn’t possibly be a DVD player in the room, I didn’t bring V along. But would the folks who provided coffee beans and a grinder forget the DVD player? No, they would not.
So the only thing I’ll be missing tonight is movie tradition. And that’s my own fault.
But heck, this place is so fabulous, I might just stay here until next Guy Fawkes Day. My friends can bring V when they come visit.
Or … more likely I’ll ask to stay three days instead of the two I booked. This is just too fabulous.
——
Now to rest, relax, and renew …
(P.S. I did bring a camera and if I get any good pix I’ll post them.)
I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO JEALOUS!
This is a great time to hit the OR coast. Prices are low, and IIRC, it’s storm season. I wouldn’t be too woried about tsunamis, but it’s possible there’s tsunami debris from Japan coming in.
Sounds like a well-deserved rest. Enjoy! Looking forward to pics.
Also, from the awful associations department, the question for today is, “What does Guy Fawkes say?” If you don’t get that, don’t worry; you’re really aren’t missing anything all that special.
Savor it all! And thanks for checking in so that if you vanish we’ll know you’re still out there enjoying life.
Thanks for the good wishes, Karen. And I’ll even enjoy your jealousy, jed. 🙂
I won’t be staying tooooo much longer because the place is booked for the weekend. But boy, I’m tempted to grab one extra day.
Cool! Enjoy.
Reminds me of a job I had 20+ years ago where I spent one week in four outside Boston. Quickly getting tired of hotels, I started checking out B&B’s. Some were a little weird, but weird can be fun, too.
GO Claire ! Put your feet up and enjoy all of it 🙂 You deserve the spoilin’
One more day is a good idea, too.
I like how Guy Fawkes has become a stand-in for whatever cause it is you espouse, as long as it’s against, uh, the establishment, I guess.
Million Mask March.
Interestingly, Guy Fawkes gets some credit for denying the Crown total satisfaction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes#Trial_and_execution
I’m very happy for you that you are getting quality time off. That’s so important; I need to learn from you.
And I’m especially glad you’re doing it now. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/floating-island-rubbish-three-times-2678207
Okay, I’d *really* like to overnight you my spare/loaner copy of ‘V’, but I know that’s probably not going to happen, since I have no idea where to send it.
Very glad to hear you got a break. No one deserves it more.
Enjoy with all your heart and soul. Nothing like a fall trip to the coast in my mind. And let’s hope you get a couple of storms, which is always a great experience when inside a room with wood burning heat and few people.
Nice, enjoy!
Good for you Claire!
I’ve always found any time spent looking at or sailing on the ocean is time well spent.
On my first visit after Sandy, I walked through the utter devastation to the beach. The ocean had risen up and overnight taken what men had spent generations building. Nothing was untouched by its awesome power. I closed my eyes and could see the ocean rushing down the street, taking my friends and neighbors homes with it. It was a powerful moment.
And as I came over what remained of the dunes, there was the ocean, flat as a piece of glass, 6 inch waves barely rippling onto the beach. To the ocean, nothing had happened. I remember thinking the ocean is the ultimate covert operative, so much power and so much happening beneath a surface that shows nothing.
[A modest sum of money (long awaited, overdue) finally landed in my vicinity a couple of weeks ago. Glory hallelujah! But I immediately put it to work creating more chaos.]
We are all puppets, playthings in the hands of the Great God, the Second Law of Thermodynamics. 🙂
[Then I got here. It’s on a nice, satisfyingly tall hill that looks out at the ocean (from a nice, safe height) over the roofs of several houses. Tsunami frets blew away.]
Don’t worry; if there is a big offshore earthquake, all those hilltop homes will end up down on the beach, ready to receive that tsunami. 😉
Lovely post though. I enjoy going through the stacks of all those used book stores, have found some real gems. And people taking a break at the beach tend to be a lot more tolerable than normally, since they too are unwinding.
Maintaining a beach home is a lot of work though. Salt and wind-blown rain gets into everything.
I like just walking around the streets of a little old-fashioned beach town, thinking how charming the town got just by letting people develop their property as they pleased, as happened in the old days before planning departments were invented to blight the landscape.
Congratulations, Claire… into every life a little chocolate must fall, at least once in a while. 🙂
Except for the money, at my house it’s been like at your house. Maybe you would share the contact information for your getaway vacation rental????
zelda … um, when I get home I might just do that. But I don’t want everybody else booking this place up before I can come back! 🙂