Life's a Beach...

I'm having one of those days.  We've all had them.  There are times when all the planets align, not in a good way, and you find yourself in the middle of a mega caca pasa fest. Just to add to the hilarity, it's not one of your own making. This one came at the hands of a third party dipping into my checking account unauthorized.  After a quickly made phone call, I was assured all would be well - and corrected....but not until sometime next week.  Well, that's just peachy sir, but rent is due on Sunday, and you just yanked out 25% of it without so much as a 'by your leave'.  I hang up the phone and think "Hey, Thanks for the help. I wasn't tight enough on cash flow yet." (Heavy sarcasm intended)  At which point I started channeling 'Bruce Almighty':

B-E-A- yuuuuu-tee-ful.

I admit it.  I suck at this.  Especially when it comes to being financially squeezed. The sheer frustration of being relegated to sitting on my hands until the cogs of an impersonal business entity ever so
sl-o-o-o-o-wly turns drives me nuts. (especially when it comes to fixing their own errors). 'Saddle 'em up, move 'em out, Rawhide!' -  that's my motto. Just git 'er done. Yup, that's how I roll.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world usually doesn't. 

So rather then work myself into a stressed out lather over something I have no control over, I decide to pull up my big girl panties, and give myself a 'time out'.  I need to get out of the house.  I need to go for a walk...something to dissipate my anxious energy.  Fortunately, I live a five minute walk from the lake. It's a gorgeous Lake Tahoe summer day...and gratefully, the beach doesn't cost me nothin'.

I sat there basking in the sun's rays, while finally cracking open a book that looks to be apropos for what's going on in my life right now (Repacking Your Bags).  I'm only half attentive to the text though, I'm distracted by the many mini scenes going on all around me .  As small children play along the shore, I have a flash back on how nice it was to be that age; when your biggest worry was getting sand in your pants (especially that super fine stuff that gets into every crevice.  That's the worst!)  and the inevitable pouting when those 'big people party poopers' (parents) decided it was time to leave.

The wind is blowing a soft but persistent stream, tossing the water into something you don't normally see on mountain lakeshores during summer months - waves that could almost pass as ocean surf. A few older kids are on their boogie boards, riding the waves.  I doze in and out of consciousness, but instead of hearing the familiar gentle lap of water meeting the shore, there is the sound of mildly crashing water.  I smile while telling myself a little joke, wondering if this whips up enough negative ions to improve my 'tude.

The sun becomes intense despite the wind. I wade in and brace myself to take the first swim this summer, wondering if the water has warmed up enough to be past icy, stop-your-heart temperatures. The initial shock of cold water hitting warm skin makes me shiver.  Once committed to taking the plunge, it's really quite refreshing.  The water is warmer than the wind above it. I float below crystalline blue skies as I let the water wash my cares away.  Yeah, today was trying.  But really, in the grand scheme of things, it's really not all that tragic.  As a boss used to say whenever the proverbial sh*t hit the fan -"hey, what's the worst they can do? -they can't eat ya".  True enough.

Some days, life's a bitch...
But at Tahoe, even on a bad day, Life's a Beach.