The Wait of Glory

What do you suppose she's doing in there? he asks himself. We went to Galveston for the day yesterday. It's something we should probably do more often, considering the proximity. I think we've been four times in the almost four years we've lived here. Harper had a fantastic time, as did Hudson unless you tried to get him close to the water, at which point he would break into a high pitched shriek/wail which made everyone in a 1 mile radius stop what they were doing and look at me as if to say, "It's very sad that you should torture him thus." I had an idea that the ocean might be mildly disturbing to him because, while he really enjoys baths, he hasn't found any other water experiences particularly pleasant. What he did find particularly pleasant was the tiny little bites of sand he kept sneaking. He had tried, and enjoyed, cous cous for the first time the night before and I'm pretty sure he thought he was sitting on a giant beach of cous cous.
The husband had a great time out in the water with Harper right up until the moment when, about two hours in, he realized that the perfunctory dab of sunblock he'd slapped on his shoulders was sadly, tragically insufficient. His back is red beyond telling--scarlet? crimson? Nope, beyond describing. And the tops of his feet. And he had to put on a suit for court today. Last weekend, during a rousing game of hide and seek, he sustained a pulled muscle while trying to hide in a cedar chest that, lean though he is, clearly was NOT going to contain him (which I politely mentioned during the attempt). The myriad (at times painful) sacrifices of parenthood.

I am not sunburned because I sat under a beach umbrella approximately the entire time and when I did venture out I had on an enormous hat, huge sunglasses and SPF 45. I remember laughing at the likes of me when I was 16 and coating myself in olive oil to speed up the "tanning" process.

The public beach is great for people watching and I believe my favorite subject was the girl (19 maybe) who was around 8 months pregnant and wearing a tiny bikini with the "Corona" logo emblazoned across the bottoms. Classy. Do you think she found it at Pea in the Pod?

Harper asked me what "glory" means the other night after she prayed. Um, well, it's...all I could think of were other abstract, multi-syllabic words that she doesn't know yet, so I told her I would think about it and come up with a good definition. Anyone?

This morning REM did a little guest spot on Sesame Street. Even singing "furry, happy monsters feeling glad!" and bouncing around there is just something so aching and melancholy about Michael Stipe. Maybe I'm projecting because when I first listened to REM in college (and saw them in concert--they actually came to A&M which is somewhat mystifying to me still) I was myself in a rather aching and melancholy place. Norah Jones was on a few weeks ago and sang "I don't know why 'Y' didn't come" about the letter of the day. Clever.