I fell in love again yesterday, yes you San Diego. Yes you Brown Pelican.
October 31, 2021
by drplasticpicker
I fell in love again yesterday. I am still happily married but Mr. Plastic Picker was in an irate mood. Sometimes when you are married for a few decades, it’s hard to remember the other person is a separate person. And sometimes, separate people have to have some alone time to deal with their emotions. But as I’m going through a time of growth and change, Mr. Plastic Picker also is going through a time of his own growth and change. So he was home walking our puppy and taking our son to his activities, and I was at Girl Scouts.
It may have been the emotional transference from husband to wife, and my need to get a way a bit from my husband. But we went on our first outing for our Girl Scout Troop for the year. And it was wonderful. Absolutely amazing. I’ve lived in San Diego my entire life, but I’ve never been kayaking and I’ve never seen La Jolla Cove from that perspective.
It was a wondrous adventure from the time Mr. Plastic Picker dropped us off at La Jolla village until when we returned home after the bonfire filled with pizza and s’mores. I didn’t intend to kayak but my fellow co-troop leader was not feeling well, and there needed to be another troop leader. So my daughter and I were in a double kayak. She was in the back steering and I was the power in the front.
San Diego you were so beautiful yesterday. This native daughter fell in love with you again. And I fell in love with the brown pelican. Brown Pelican you are 70% blind. You return to your nesting place because you need to see the bright white splotches of your white excrement on the cliffs. You can keep gallons of sea water in your gullet. And you are always true brown pelican, returning to home where you’ve marked things with your excrement. And perhaps Mr. Plastic Picker spirit animal is the brown pelican. And you were beautiful gliding over the calm waters of the cove and diving in to skim for fish. You kept on gliding over me yesterday. Or Mr. Plastic Picker, is your spirit animal the bee that tried to sting me while I was in the kayak? How in the galatic universe a bee found me in the middle of the cove to try to buzz around my face? I did not squash you bee, because you are a super being – indeed one of the most powerful living things on earth. But I did not know why you were in the ocean trying to land on my nose? Were you trying to pollinate me? I don’t think that would be appropriate! Good Lord!
But yesterday was a wondrous day spent kayaking in La Jolla Cove. I really did have a wonderful invigorating time. Even getting tipped over at the end as we tried to return to shore, and shivering in cold but saved by my dear friend’s extra blanket and jacket. The entire day was about reconnection and nature and community. And even Mr. Plastic Picker was touched by that community because he picked us up and our parent friends said hello to him. I love my husband. But even after almost twenty years of marriage, we can be mysterious to eachother. Is he the 70% blind brown pelican or the annoying bee? I don’t know. I do know that I love him and my giving him space yesterday, and being joyful is the best thing for him. I know he drank all of my plant-based almond milk and he got to see the weird bananas that by friend Dr. Joe gave our family. They are La Jolla Bananas. Who else gets to eat bananas grown in the backyard of a a La Jolla House but the Plastic Picker family?
Much love to you all, and it is so important to support your spouse when they are having one of those days. Yes I fell in love with you again San Diego. Yes you brown pelican. And every day you, Mr. Plastic Picker.