Saturday, March 20, 2010

Springtime Perversion


Ah. Cozumel. Cozumel. The island of my heart. The place where the air is the softest I've ever felt, where the water is the clearest and bluest and greenest and teal-est and purplest I've ever seen. Where the people's smiles are the sweetest and where I've been quite possibly happiest in my entire life. Where I was with my husband who loved me only for me and my very own charms, and not for ironing his shirts or shoveling shit on the garden or cooking his venison or raising his children.

Just. For. Me.

And why am I talking about Cozumel on the first day of spring, the Vernal Equinox, a day when it is bright blue and clear and the fat buds of the flowers are bursting as we speak?

Oh, because I am perverse I guess and also because in some strange confluence of events, my beloved Garrison Keillor is docking in Cozumel this morning with a cruise ship full of people who also love him and who, in fact, love him enough to pay the big bucks to cruise the Mexican Caribbean with him and his cast of characters, his musicians, his actors, his sound effects guy. Garrison Keillor is in Cozumel as we speak!

Perhaps on a ship like this one:

I took that picture seven years ago when Mr. Moon and I were on the island, staying at a place downtown right across from the damn cruise ship pier (or one of them) and the boats were so big that they blocked our view of the sunset. That's big, people. That's really big.
But still, it was a wonderful trip.

Sigh.

And despite the fact that I adore Garrison Keillor, I wouldn't really want to be on a cruise ship. I am not a cruiser. Did it once. It was not me. So not me. And I'm pretty sure that if by some strange reason I found myself on a cruise ship and it docked in Cozumel, I would get off that boat and I would not get back on. I would just go down the street until I found a cheap place to stay and I would give them my credit card and I would go to my room and I would take off my bra and my shoes and I would lie on the bed and be happy, just smelling the air and knowing I was home. Or, some parallel universe of a home and I wouldn't get off that bed until the cruise ship steamed off without me.

Even if Garrison Keillor was on the ship. Even if.

But all of that is fantasy and I am in Lloyd where I walk around with my camera and take pictures like this:

of my blooming Buckeye and my peeling, beautiful old house and this:


the opening oak-leaf hydrangea and I will work in the garden today and that will all be fine but there's part of me which is here:

Doing this:

And there are no weeds to pull, no meals to cook, no floors to sweep, no worries or schedules or even Garrison Keillors. And I do not wear denim overalls.

So there you go. I am being perverse today and it is spring and I am in Lloyd and Garrison is in Cozumel and Mr. Moon has been turkey hunting and is now helping a friend build a rabbit trap and I haven't even seen him yet today except in my dreams after he left the bed to go to the woods and at six o'clock tonight I will turn on the radio and listen to Prairie Home Companion which was taped on board that cruise ship which brought Mr. Keillor to the island I love and which I know, because I read a Cozumel message board, that a technician named Thomas uploaded from an internet cafe near the cruise ship dock to Minnesota for my listening pleasure and I'll probably be on my ass in the garden, weeding, weeding and I'll listen through my head phones and the world will be even stranger than it is already, Garrison there on my island, me here in my garden, my heart who-knows-where and none of it mattering at all when you take into account the vastness of the universe, the vastness of the neurons in my head, a universe unto themselves, really.

And I'll be confused and I'll feel the earth spinning and I may grow dizzy with it all.

Happy Spring, y'all. Wherever you are in this world, I wish you happy spring.

18 comments:

  1. Happy spring day to you too, Ms. Moon. That looks like a beautiful place, your Cozumel.

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  2. this is completely unrelated to your post-

    is it better in a northern climate to start peas from seed inside or can they go outside now? we could get at least one more good snow (typically) and it will still be potentially below freezing for at least two more weeks.

    xxalainaxx

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  3. Nicol- It is heaven to me.

    Mrs. A- I have never heard of starting peas inside but perhaps it can be done. Here we plant our peas (if we're going by the book) by Valentine's day, meaning we'll be getting a few more freezes and the freezes don't seem to hurt the tender peas. BUT- that isn't snow and it isn't usually long, hard freezing.
    Is there a chart on the back of the seed packet? You could go by that. Also, try finding your county's extension agency's website and see if there is a planting guide. There may be one, even if you live in an urban area.
    Gosh! I wish I knew more and could help you.

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  4. Mrs A: It's a New England tradition to plant your peas on April 19th outside, the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, hoping to have your first crop by July 4th celebration. Always works for me. No need to start inside. They can handle a litle cold.

    Ms Moon, Fabulous post this morning. It's okay to be dreamy for Cozumel. Gosh, you've been working hard, both writing and weeding and taking care of everyone. I wish you could just fky off there. Loved your description of abandoning the cuise ship. Perfect. Me too. Those things are the antitheses of me.
    Happy Spring to you too.
    Love that pic of you and Mr Moon, just LOVE it!

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  5. Ms. Moon, Happy Spring to you too!
    From one dizzy chick to another, my head is spinning quite a bit these days. I too am so not a cruise person, thankfully I didn't have to take one to find out. Our best friends go every year and are heartbroken that we will not go with them, and they just don't understand our aversion. Kindof makes me question the foundations of that friendship sometimes!
    I loved Garrison's recent news article about family vacations, it was so funny. Hope you read or heard that one too.
    I'd rather walk around Lloyd than float in the sunshine any day. But I sure could use some sunshine, sand and seashore today - we got snow for our first day of Spring, what the heck?
    Have fun weeding your garden, I do my best thinking when I'm working in the dirt.

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  6. We did a cruise once...Alaska...I am not a cruiser either. I want to be in the thick of locals, eating where they eat and trying to blend in...I don't like being told I have to eat at a certain time (early or late meal on board), and I want to stay without having to be back on the ship or it would leave without us.

    Cozumel....I could use some beach time...minus the Cruise Ship!

    Garrison Keillor! My Love and I use to enjoy hearing him do the Prairie Home Companion in Sunday afternoons...

    Your garden is awakening in a lovely way..and your Buckeye bud's are way ahead of CA ones.

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  7. My idea of hell is a cruise ship. The average person gains 13 pounds on a cruise, so I call it "float and bloat." And tying in with yesterday's blog - the only germs I'm scared of are OPGs, other peoples' germs. Cruise ships remind me of a germ and virus infested holocaust. YUCK.

    I feel the same way about Santorini Greece as you do Cozumel and can't wait to get back...all the while something tells me to stop making Santorini the be-all and end-all because there are sooo many other places just as fascinating, if not more so.

    It's such a gorgeous day in Tennessee it might as well be heaven.

    And that's all I need or want to know today. Enjoy every minute!

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  8. nothing can hold a candle to a red umbrella
    holding
    the lips of your heart pounding
    moment of love.


    sigh.

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  9. Happy Spring to you as well, Ms. Moon!

    You look so much like May in that lovely picture with your braids.

    I think I need to come over and go bra shopping with you. I'm starting to think you have bad bras if they're that uncomfortable.

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  10. Happy Spring to you, too, dear friend. Your posts are the first I read each day and they never fail to lift my spirits, make me think and laugh and sometimes cry. I find it so amazing that I actually don't know you "for real" because it feels sometimes, like we're in some kind of Jane Austen novel or something, idly chatting and laughing and eating and drinking and watching the children and gathering flowers and planting seeds.

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  11. I loved seeing your pictures of Cozumel. Many years ago, before I went straight and got an RJ (Real Job), I sold scuba travel to the Caribbean and Cozumel was our primary destination. Looks much more built up than it was in those days.

    Glad you had good times there and hope you take yourself off for more. Maybe even try some other islands--British Virgin Islands are wonderful with all of the things you liked PLUS they speak a lilting British-accented English.

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  12. I haven't gotten down here to Lloyd for far too long, obviously. So I have been reading and reading and reading, and must get back to my quilt, but first I just want to say that I do love this dizzying post. Bravo. I love parallel universes, it allows us this kind of travel. A kind of stacking, really, like a woodpile.

    The Rooster question... he is standing watch. He will not eat the eggs. He is a tad mesmerized, and that is just what springtime does to Roosters.

    xoxoLC

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  13. Ms. Moon, I just love you.
    I love your voice, I love your honest, full-hearted self. I just love you.
    Angie

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  14. Bethany- It's odd- I never consider that I work hard. And yet- is it possible I do? Huh. Maybe.

    Mel- I read that article. I loved the part about where, if people lay there in lounge chairs for two long they may start to do something crazy like discuss their marriage. Ha! I get that. I spent hours weeding yesterday and have the numb hands and painful wrists to prove it.
    It was lovely.

    Ellen- And yet- who knows? As I get old, I may decide that I want to go on cruises. One never knows. Probably not, though. And really? Our Buckeye is coming on faster than yours? Isn't it funny how these things work?

    Laynie- I would love to go to Greece. I have always thought I would find that to be heaven. And yes, cruise ships are probably as germ-ridden as hospitals. And yet- they look so clean!

    Rebecca- I just love your little poem-comments. I really do.

    Mwa- Well, I don't like socks either and I think they fit okay. I JUST DON'T LIKE BRAS! Period. But I'd go bra-shopping with you. Anytime.

    Elizabeth- Well, your Neruda poem quote the other day explained it all nicely, I think. I am still pondering that one and nodding my head.

    Kathleen- Cozumel is more built up every day. Mostly due to cruise ships. Dang. But I think part of the reason I love it so much is the people. I love that they speak Spanish. I love that culture.

    Swallowtail- I often find myself in parallel universes. I suppose we all do, having imaginations as we do. Really? You think that's what Elvis was doing?

    Angie C- I love you, too!

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  15. I like it--your own piece of paradise. We have ours here too.

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  16. Love, love, LOVE that picture of you and Mr. Moon. Cozumel should start fining the cruise ships for blocking the sunset like they do in Key West.

    No cruises for me. The all-inclusive resort was boardering on too much interferece for me. My idea of vacation is privacy and solitude. I don't want people at every turn. If I wanted to deal with people I would just stay home and work! :)

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  17. Happy Spring to you, dear. It is cold and rainy here in Buttfuck, Ohio, today though.

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