Salt Pond

After sitting through a work webinar on personal finances/credit counseling and having a minor panic attack about my bank account, I had the first pangs of homesickness - but they were for the mall, and the money to buy nice clothes and a good lunch. I ate my bowl of shredded wheat, put on my coat, and walked across the road to the trail around the not-a-lake; Salt Pond is a little ocean cove fed into by arteries of river water. 

I saw a squirrel, and a miniature fairy garden. A family of ducks sunbathed in the melting snow, and a seal climbed out of the ice to flop around and scare me into thinking a dog needed rescue. Passing hikers waved and said hi, happy with the 3 degree weather. “If the sun’s out, I’m out!” one of the ladies laughed, and I agreed that would be my motto as well.

For the next three days, I walked two miles around the pond on my lunch breaks, and started recognizing some of the happy dogs and walkers in puffer vests. The seal poked its head up to have a look around, the ducks swarmed up to the bridge optimistically, and the squirrel in the fairy garden posed for pictures. Then on Thursday the freezing rain blew in, glazing my car in ice like a donut and whipping my hair up into a mass because I didn’t tie it back. Throughout the afternoon, a few dudes I work with came in to chat and squint at my head. One of them asked if I did something different with my hair, it suits me. I picked up a pen afterwards and jotted a note… men… like… werewolves. 

Today it is warm enough to go outside in just a sweater (and, you know, pants), but gales of rain and hail keep rocking the building, so I’ve been going back and forth to the window, trying to gauge whether I can make a muddy speed-walk around the pond for half an hour in between cloudbursts. I’ve just eaten half a pound of leftover pasta, so it’s probably a good idea to at least try. I can shake off like a wet dog if my coworkers come around to see what my hair is up to later on.

I’m happy. I love the animals and the trees and the smell of the air. The Pearlridge mall is not going to lure me back into a bear trap. 

Some pictures from a walk down to the beach in front of my house over the weekend: