#dSavannahDefects – J is for…

… journey

So, basically the dealio with me getting behind (as I alluded to in yesterday’s post) in my personal blog writing and my visiting of fellow #AtoZChallenge blogs and reading them and commenting (snarkily, in many cases) and tweeting them is… (and I’ll try to make this long story short)…

I went on a little journey.

Last week was Spring Break for my hubs’ niece & nephew (and yes, I claim them as mine, too), and we promised to go with them (and their mom, hubs’ sis) to the Georgia Coast (Beach time!). Well, hubs and I were supposed to leave on Sunday, but I felt like death warmed over, so we didn’t go. I didn’t feel any better on Monday, so hubs went without me. (We’d promised!)

Well, he felt bad for me missing out on the family fun, and the beach, which I LOVE and where I actually feel better, so he *drove five hours up to get me* on Thursday and we drove back down to the coast on Friday.

{I do NOT know how I got so lucky to have such a great husband. Yeah, he’s a man, and there are some things he does that drive me bonko bananas, but overall, he’s wonderful to me and we have a great relationship, and I’m ever so joyous we’re together.}

The thing about all this journeying: I’ve mentioned before that *any*, and I do mean ANY, extra activity wears me out. So packing? Wears me out. Loading the car? Wears me out. Plus, those activities give me extra pain.

And riding in a car? About kills me. Seriously. I might as well be dragged behind the vehicle, that’s how great I feel after. Every bump and dip and pothole is shattering. I try to sleep, but it doesn’t always work. And it – wears me out.

And any activity (seriously, even cleaning the kitty litter or doing the laundry) basically requires a day to recover, and I had no days to recover from some super extra severe exertion. (Tho sitting on the beach and staring at the waves certainly helped a little.) (As did spending time with my sis-in-law and the “shorties”, as we call the kids.) (Tho they are teenagers. And the eldest, my niece, is now taller than I am, and my nephew isn’t far behind.)

They had to leave Sunday (sniff, sniff), but hubs and I went to the Blessing of the Fleet in Darien, Georgia. Shrimping is a big trade there, and this annual festival has vendors, artists, and the main event – the Blessing. It’s a Big. Deal.

Every minister in town joins together, and the shrimp boats on the Darien River pull up to the Highway 17 bridge over the river, stop, and one of the minister blesses the boat and its captain and crew for a good shrimping season.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The boats would then back up, turn around, and head back down the river, and the next boat would chug up, while the MC told really terribly stupid jokes.

My photos are flat-out terrible because I forgot to take my real camera and was using my iPhone, and a) I couldn’t see the screen or what I was shooting and b) I took a veritable ton of photos of my thumbs and fingers blocking the boats.

Some of the boats are very agile, and some are terribly cumbersome. Which meant doing turns similar to that of Austin Power in that golf cart. (Here’s the clip. Too funny.)

I actually felt pretty good that day, and some of the gregariousness that I’ve lost over my illness came back in full force…  I don’t know where I got the energy, but I talked to practically everyone with a dog (and petted the dogs), hugged small children, and talked to all the artists.

One of the exhibitors is a friend of mine, Kimberly Sheriff Purcell, who paints cool ocean paintings. Check out her etsy store.

Met a potter named Gary Delevante. He’d had a stroke at a young age (late 40s, I think, and now he’s in his 60s), and lost the use of his right arm. His speech was also kind of difficult to understand, but he had a smile as big as the sun, and his pottery was so delightful and fun. All of which he made with just one hand. (The style would probably be called “primitive”.) I purchased one of the turtles, seeing as how I a) love turtles b) his pricing was very inexpensive for a hand-made item and c) I love to support fellow artists.

Hubs and I were around at packing-up time, and a friend was helping Gary with his inventory. She said that doing pottery pretty much saved his life. That he had been so depressed after his stroke.

A good reminder to me, and the rest of us with #InvisibleIllnesses, that we don’t have to give up. There are things we can still do. We can’t overcome every obstacle, but maybe we can ignore them.

Aside: It’s clear Gary doesn’t do much with electronics, and internet selling is foreign to him, so I can’t point you to his site and tell you to buy his work and support him. But if you ever find yourself in Darien, GA, look him up and buy something. 

Fun day.

But it wore me out. Drained me of every ounce of energy, and then some, so I slept most of yesterday, then got up to eat and do my “I” post, part 1, then couldn’t sleep. (Oh boy.)

Unfortunately, we had to come home. Which was today. So, pack everything back up, load the car (which hubs did most of), and head out. (sniff, sniff.) (More activity. More pain, more exhaustion.)

I attempted to sleep in the car, and sorta drifted in and out, but again, travel about kills me. I’ll probably sleep all day tomorrow, too. So who knows when I’ll get caught up on all of the above listed in the first paragraph.

And this isn’t even the topic(s) I wanted to cover for J, so I might end up writing a Part 2 on this as well. 🙂

But despite the “payment” I’m making for all the exertion, we made some great memories, and had a great day, and it was kinda nice to be my old self again, even if for just a bit.

This doesn’t fit under “J” at all, except it gives me great JOY to support my friend and artist. Faerie Goatmother makes wonderful soaps, and she needs some help.

She was solicited by Berkeley Microfinance, through the UC Berkeley School of Business, to apply for a Kiva Zip business loan for Faerie Goatmother. In 36 hours, she got the needed 22 people to contribute $25, and now her profile is public for funding.

Note, this is not simply a donation, but an actual LOAN for her to remodel her workspace. I can tell you from *personal experience* that she repays her loans, and her soaps are da bomb diggity (second only to my BFFs soaps, but she’s not yet ready for me to help promote her business. I will, trust me.).

She makes her soaps from milk from her very own pet goats, and then each bar of soap is lovingly wrapped in pages torn from old, unusable books. And she donates proceeds from sales to literary charities. As she said, “each bar is as unique as the words that enshroud it”. So true.

Please help her by loaning whatever you can to help take Faerie Goatmother to the next level.

In good news, I contacted Amazon Vine (where I got my ARC of the book I drowned yesterday, and who I review for), and they are being kind enough to send me another copy. Guess I’ll start reading another ARC I received from them, this one titled My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights by Brooks Benjamin. (I am really into children’s and teen books right now. Can’t deal with adult books with their heartache and blah blah.)

Seriously, thank you everyone for reading. I was really really nervous about my theme and these topics, but the responses have been nothing but supportive. That’s why I keep going, even with the blasted body aches. Because of you. Thanks. A million.