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Day Three Hundred and Two:  Rugrats

I’ve been having these weird dreams about this cottage I used to visit when I was younger.  It was on the water, and I remember dreaming about it in highschool and I was with faceless friends and we were all wearing our university sweaters and drinking coffee’s and watching the water at night.  Sometimes I only hear the waves roll in, and it is fine with me.  The waves, despite how little I hear them anymore, make me nostalgic and comfortable.  It’s one of the sounds that I remember from when I was younger, spending long days at the beach. 

I remember this one time I was in the back seat and wasn’t wearing a seat belt (certainly the oldest car I’ve ever been in) I was about three, and I had a large beach towel.  My grandma and auntie were taking me to Port Elgin for the day.  We had left early so I spent most of the trip playing in the blanket half asleep, and I thought we had parked the car so I stood up.  Alanis Morrisette was playing, and then there was a jolt, and I landed on something sharp and cut open my knee.  I cried silently in the back seat.  I don’t know if either of them know that happened.  I didn’t tell them.

I spent the whole day in a wind jacket and climbing over rocks, listening to the waves, playing in the sand, and pretending I was older having adventures.  Beaches, the water, Lake Huron and now the ocean make me feel so comfortable I could stay there forever.  Last year in England we spent a few hours on the beach in Dover.  With the rocks under my back and the sky above me, I heard the waves that connected me to France. 

I don’t really know why I decided to write about this today, or what it all means, and I’m not sure I care.  I remember being at that cottage I dream about and my sister and the boys who owned the cottage going swimming after dark and it was freezing.  I remember hearing them squeeling with joy and terror of the cold water, the rocks under their feet.  I didn’t go in.  I regret it, a little, but only a little.  I haven’t missed a moment to get in the water since.

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