I lost something

Yesterday was an amazing day. I woke up at about 9:30, lay around for a while, read for a while, got up and cooked myself scrambled eggs and french toast that were both delicious. Then, we walked down to the beach with our boards and a bag of things to do and surfed for about 3 hours. Then, we decided to get out of the water (in part due to the absolutely blazing sun) and go lie in these hammocks that are nestled under palm trees right on the water front. As I'm walking up, I check my neck for the familiar feeling of my two necklaces. The first, the dog-tags my mom got for me for my birthday this year, was right where it was supposed to be. The other one was gone.

When I was twelve and at my beloved summer camp, I became the proud owner of a hemp necklace, decorated with wooden beads. The clasp was simply a safety pin. I'm not sure who made it for me--I may have even made it for myself. Regardless, I wore it constantly for a few years until highschool. Thinking it wasn't cool enough for my sweet image, I took it off and left it in my room for about three years. Then, when I had been feeling upset with myself, I took a good hard look at it and decided to put it back on. I'd been wearing it ever since.

To me, it was a symbol of what I was like when I was younger--too young and inexperienced to think about things (or to overthink things), I acted passionately and naturally. Sure, I acted immaturely and often offensively. But there is an element of purity that comes along with unadulturated youth, and the necklace reminded me to hold on to that part of my life.

After 8 years of ownership, I couldn't think of a better time and place to lose it than on a trip that exemplifies my independence and youthfulness. To see it was swallowed up by the Pacific Ocean is to see a chapter closing of my life--not the end of my youth, but rather the end of childhood. If that makes any sense. To me, it is a fitting grave for such a valuable metaphor.

After relaxing in the hammocks and surfing some more, we headed back to Casa Zen, only to find everything locked up and closed. No food there apparently. To make matters worse, the power had gone out on our street again, so we started the 20 minute walk into the town to buy food from a market. As we walked, everything was closed and boarded up. It was very eerie. Finally, we found what appeared to be the only open restaurant in town and ate some delicious pasta with chicken by candlelight, as there was no power to be found anywhere. We came back to casa zen, played some cards by flashlight, and crashed.

It was a great day.

Oh yeah and I lost 7k the day before it.

Love
A