The Beach........

So as many of you know I live in Newport Beach, what’s considered the lower rent district......  However it is still very nice and close proximity to one of the most beautiful beaches in California. The city and the residents take very good care of this sublime piece of coastal real estate.  They keep erosion to a very minimum, continually bring sand from different areas of the beach and place it where it needs to go.  All to make sure that the beach has a life for all to enjoy.  

There are several beach goers that enjoy this beach year round, including me.  Sunny or overcast the beach is always a place to be.  Unless, it’s really windy, then it may be a little too much sand in the face.  I guess it’s all relative. 

I see so many families, couples, individuals coming to the beach.  There are a lot of surfers that come for the day or maybe just a few hours to work on their mad skills of surfing.  There are the body boarders, which I’m trying to break into.  Poorly, I might add.  Then there is the golden brown sun worshipers, which I am part of for sure.  We all come and enjoy the sea air, the water, the sand, the activities and the people watching.  

It’s now the middle of our touristy summer on the beach and people are coming from everywhere.  I do enjoy the diversity of visitors to this amazing beach.  No matter how much diversity comes to the beach, they all seem to have this one trait that makes me wish they never came in the first place.  When I use to camp and hike in the National forests of very Northern California, I remember a sign at the trailheads.  It read “If you can pack it in full, you can pack it out empty”.  It stuck with me all these years and I still take my trash to the receptacle.  In the wilderness areas there are no receptacles either, so you’re packing that stuff to the trailhead.  At least at the beach  there are large trash cans like every 100’ or so.  They make it easy.

Each day I go to the beach, there is at least 5 pieces of trash that I pick up in close proximity to my one location. I take the time, pick it up, walk my happy ass to the receptacle and throw it in.  What is really infuriating is the glass broken or whole makes no difference.  The beach is a place where everyone is mostly barefoot.  So either bring cans, or plastic, pack it out empty.  Don’t be stupid and bring glass, it may be you that steps on it and cuts your foot or worse.  

So having said all of this, I welcome beach goers of all kinds, just don’t come if you can’t pick up after your self.  I guess you could bring your mom, so she could pick up after you.......  If I see you leave it, I’m going to help you not forget it.  So in closing, I’ll share this beach just fine with anyone.  Now share my love of keeping it clean and nice for everyone, including your next visit........

Be patient while I search for words......

 We have lost an “amazing” soul.  When I say “we”, I mean the world.  We lost a loving, caring woman way too young.  A woman that chose to dedicate her life to helping others with their own lives. Even while losing her battle to that awful disease she was helping others via phone with their life issues. She had this incredible gift to listen to issues until someone’s thought was finished, so that not only did they feel heard, they felt important.  

I came to know Laura through my wonderful girlfriend.  You see they were cousins.  Laura had been fighting ovarian cancer for some time before I was blessed with an introduction to her while she was traveling to Southern California with her parents Ruth and Ralph. Her parents are incredible individuals who spend most of their waking hours helping other people as well. So I guess it’s not a stretch to understand that Laura would not only do the same but excel at it!  I started this story right after Laura passed, I’m adding to it almost nine months later.  I’m still searching for the words to describe how incredible this woman still is to all that knew her for more than a minute.  

Even under the stress, mental and physical, of fighting this disease, she was still happy to her core.  Happy for everyone’s successes, everyone’s good fortune.  If those she knew were having challenges in their lives, she would listen, respond with something positive that probably was overlooked and just brighten that person’s life.  Gave them hope when it seemed they had lost it.  

Laura was a joy to be around.  It was always a treat for me to see her and spend time with her.  I haven’t always been comfortable talking to someone I knew that had a terminal illness, however Laura could always make me at ease no matter if we were talking about the weather, her illness or some insignificant issue I was having.  No matter what was going on for her she put others first and just enjoyed life.  

I miss her sometimes right up until I realize that she is always with everyone she touched.  She’s in our hearts and in our heads.  When I think of some of the talks we had, I can hear her voice. Since Laura’s passing, I have gotten to know her sister and her husband, Erica and Jason.  Both also very amazing people who I love dearly too.  It would be so hard not to love every member of this family.  All so dynamic and wonderful, yet unique individuals each. 

I’ll close for now, but I can’t promise this will be my last testimony of how Laura and her family and my girlfriends family, have touched my heart and my soul.  Thank you to all. I am so very blessed from my amazing girlfriend, Eileen, to her entire family, even the family I haven’t completely been able to get to know.