The O-Chin

I work with mostly men, I used to think that it was a bad thing but as time goes on I realize that it is a good thing. My raunchy language gets over-looked, the days that I roll out of bed and don't do anything to myself gets over-looked and the fact that the ocean is now the O-Chin is courtesy of them as well....well, they don't get all the credit Ralphie May gets the true credit but I hate them for it none the less.

My best friend is a master of D list movie quotes (Revenge of The Nerds..anyone?) and stupid comic quotes. I want to strangle him for the O-chin reference because I can't call the ocean the ocean anymore.

We went to the ocean, I know that makes everyone believe we loaded up the station wagon and packed it full of buckets and inner tubes....but going on vacation sounds so different than going to the ocean. Going on vacation sounds like putt putt golf and ice cream trips. Going to the ocean is a totally different thing it isn't a vacation but more of a homecoming of sorts.

I have so few memories of being little, I think I have blocked them out for my peace of mind and so that I can hold onto the ones that I find pleasant. One of them is my first trip to the ocean...smelling of coconut and sand, feeling the salt on my lips, the bikini that hung on my hips, but most of all the love that my dad transfered to me of the ocean. I remember not being scared even at seven, running toward it wanting to have it swallow me up, wanting to understand how the world was round and how the water stayed put in spite of that fact. I loved it from the minute I saw it.

I hope that I passed some of that on to my kids. I am sure my son gets it, my daughter I think gets it...but the ocean doesn't have a six pack or a cell phone so her love may come a little later.

I captured this trip in my mind, and in my heart..but in case...

My brother in law is a great photographer, more a storyteller than photographer. There are pictures of the kids tan and smiling faces surrounded by the waves and the spray and the sun. Pictures of crabs in the night and the sun coming up and going down, pictures of my son standing tall against the waves, pictures of my daughter in a small white bikini tossing her curls after being dunked on her boogie board and with each one I thumb through I smell the coconut and the sand and it makes me smile.