i bought two cool new toys i'd never seen before today. mama and i drove down to charleston on a mission for spanish pottery (her) and gnomads (me)....oh, and the beach, since i cannot be within 30 miles of a beach and not stop to pick up seashells. bodhi (one of my gnomads- you know, i think my latest hobby is actually bordering on obsession. could it be a bad sign when you form travel plans around a 4 1/2" tall plastic toy? ah well, i'll look into therapy for it later.) was unable to join us, since he still hadn't returned from his trip to the superbowl, so we took along f-stop (my latest gnomad), as well as aurora, whom we gnome-napped for the day.
in charleston, we bought mass quantities of pottery, wandered around to rainbow row (somehow underwhelming, but i have a sneaking suspiscion we weren't looking at the section they've prettied up for postcards), checked out a couple of toy stores (struck out), and then williams-sonoma (did NOT strike out- when i get a house, i'll need a big kitchen with lots of storage), before wandering back to the car and paying an outrageous $4 to get it out of the lot. our next stop was mt. pleasant, where there were no gnomads to be found, though that didn't stop me from buying 7 rubber duckies and two of the coolest toys i didn't need but had to have anyway.
from mt. pleasant, we took a wrong turn, righted ourselves, and ventured out to isle of palms. we stopped at the subway on the way to the beach, then bypassed the parking meters in favor of the public lot ($5 when attended, free when unattended. thank goodness it's not tourist season!). we ate a late lunch on the beach, surrounded by seagulls and a few intrepid blackbirds, who nearly pecked each others' heads off over a few bits of bread. i wandered down to the beach to collect shells while mama guarded the gnomads and camera.(i guess that house i'll have one day will have some sort of rock/shell garden, as i am incapable of going to a beach without picking up a couple dozen seashells.) one of her coworkers (also down from maine, apparently), screamed her name repeatedly, though it was mispronounced, so neither of us paid any attention initially. (note to any of mama's coworkers who may be reading this- the accent is on the FIRST syllable- not the second.) anyway, introductions were taken care of and small talk was made. coworker's companion asked yours truly if i went to school here in columbia. while flattered (i guess the combination of braces and youthful good looks throw people off), i was a little disappointed that she was referring to college. (normally, i get accused of being in high school. i must be getting old. dammit.) after a few moments of pleasantries, they wandered off, and i resumed hunting for an ever-elusive intact conch shell and/or sand dollars.
so anyway, about these new toys of mine. one is a little sandcastle making kit, and the other is a jar of 100 plastic beetles that form tessellations. they're currently perched on one of my piles (not the recycling or goodwill- both went out yesterday, thankyouverymuch), waiting for me to clear a space.
all for now- sorry it's not terribly interesting, but i have a little cleaning to do before i can dump sand all over the desk and build a house with a big kitchen and seashell garden.
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