Friday, January 8, 2016

Be Happy.....


You can take almost any road heading east from my house and it will get you to the coast eventually. One route will take you through South of the Border. If you live around here, you most likely have seen or heard of this insanely ridiculous place. It is a tourist stop on I-95, once designed I suppose, for travelers going from NY to Florida. I won't bore you with details, you can google it and see plenty. Gerry and I go this way sometimes, and you pretty much have to stop and take pictures if you have a camera. It just beckons you to point at something and photograph it.


I took a bunch of photos, Gerry wandered around shooting instagrams. He has shot some really incredible pics here in the past. Its fun for about a minute and then you start to wonder what is wrong with human beings anyway!

I took a photo of one family that was sitting at a picnic table behind two enormous chicken sculptures having a picnic, and it was kinda cold. They seemed perfectly happy as if it was the most normal thing in the world to be eating behind two big chickens asses on a cold New Year's Day.  Gerry made a great instagram of a tiny Asian woman standing under a giant gorilla and growling at her friend who was also making her picture. They smiled and wished us a Happy New Year as we took their pictures. It all started to get a bit surreal..... but we had a good laugh.


Instead of a romantic walk on the beach, we were lost in our own camera world making photos, shooting instagrams, which one of us (and its not me) is obsessed with. I mostly practiced manual shooting, taking underexposed frames with my new camera. We must have been a sight on the beach with our phones and camera pointing at each other, the ocean, and most everything else around us.


We found a pub near my mom's house (heaven must have arranged it!). Wesley lives near this brewing company in Petaluma, Ca. and suggested this beer to me when she was here. The pub had it, so Gerry and I both got one and toasted to our girl, and the new year.


My father in law gave Wesley one of her grandmother's journals for Christmas this year. It was a journal I gave her years ago for a birthday present. A prompt journal that encouraged a grandmother to tell her grandchild about herself. It is amazing, a treasured gift for sure. So many words of wisdom. He had copies made for each of his children as well. I would give anything to have a journal like that from my grandmother.

One of the best pages asked what advise she would give to someone. Her advise: to always be happy and content with whatever comes your way. I can't say I could ever live up to this advise. Content doesn't come my way that often. Happiness, yes. My mother in law is always one of the happiest people I know and I am going to try and use her wisdom this year to make it a great year.


I bought new pages for my leather journal. Last years journal was full of pain and sadness. I did not have the best year. This year I started off the first pages with these words:

Be Happy
Be Kind
Be Tolerant
Eat well
Love
Laugh
most of all though

Be Happy.......

7 comments:

ShellHawk said...

Great advice! Being happy really is a choice, isn't it?

smartcat said...

Thanks for the memories! My sister and I stopped there once when we were driving from Florida to RI. I don't think our hysterical laughter was appreciated!

Barbara Rogers said...

Sometimes just "let it be" must be the answer...rather than a forced happiness. But go to South of the Border and laugh hysterically and see what happens! Otherwise, a place to avoid!

Michèle Hastings said...

I think I blogged about South of the Border in 2014. Danielle came south for a visit right after my mother died. On our way to Brook Green Garden, we stopped there and took some fun photos. We drove by many times, mostly in the middle of the night, on our way to Florida, when she was young. She always told me to wake her up as we drove by. She ALWAYS wanted to stop but we never did (her parents were so mean!). At last she can say she has actually been there... and we have the photos to prove it!
I hope you are are content and happy in 2016. You know you did a good job as a parent when your child can take flight with her new wings.

Laurie said...

Sounds like a great plan for the year! I think I once stopped at South of The Border years ago. The billboards are amusing to read as you drive.

cookingwithgas said...

Good beer, good choice, good life, good times.
Email me and give me your days off.

Vicki said...

Love it! A good mantra to live by.

For me it'll be - "be patient".
In a year where we're de-cluttering, downsizing and preparing to sell/move... but don't have a clue where to, that's difficult, as I'm a planner (read - control freak) and need to know. I already feel unsettled.

Anyway, here's to 2016!
And, dealing with whatever comes along as well as we hope to :)
xx