Girls Gone Mild

A few weekends ago I had the absolute pleasure of going with three of my best girlfriends to Port Aransas on the Texas coast. This little getaway was the exact vacation I needed to recover from the intensely busy vacation I had with Grace. It was so nice just to get away and be with the girls and take a nap on the beach without constantly wondering where Grace was and what she was doing. She had a wonderful time with my parents, and as always, I was so grateful to them for allowing some much needed "me time."

Tropical storm Dolly hit the coast three days before we were there, but other than a lot of churned up seaweed on the beach, Port Aransas didn't have much to show for it. South Padre Island got the brunt of the storm and had quite a bit of damage. Thankfully, Port A was our destination, and I had been assigned the duty of renting our umbrella and chairs for Friday and Saturday's beach lounging. On the Wednesday before, the day Dolly hit, I called a place I found online to reserve the umbrellas and chairs. Rick answered the phone, "Hello! Beach Service. How can I help you?"

Me: "I need to reserve an umbrella and some chairs for the beach Friday and Saturday."

Rick: "Yeah, okay, we do that, but you know we're in the middle of a hurricane as we speak?"

M: "Oh, yeah. Well, is this a bad time then?"

R: "Well, I'm standing in three inches of water on the floor of my office, but go ahead and tell me what all you need."

M: "Okay, thanks. We will be there this Friday and Saturday after the storm passes and want to rent a beach umbrella and a couple of chairs for both days. Do I need to make a reservation?"

R: "No, no reservation needed. Just give me a call Friday when you get here and we'll come down and set everything up for you."

M: "Thanks, Rick. And, good luck with this storm."

R: "Thank you. Bye."

I hung up the phone completely pleased with myself for arranging this for us and told the girls we were golden; no worries; we'd have an umbrella and the chairs we needed; perfection! And, since my best friend Tammy has a "fake" sun allergy, I knew she would be relieved that I had taken care of providing her some shade. (HA! Just kidding! She really is allergic to certain sun rays and I've seen the proof, but it's hilarious to give her a hard time about the preposterousness of being allergic to the sun, for crying out loud.)

Friday morning came, and we headed out of town, drove the four hours to the coast singing and dancing in the car as I played DJ Jazzy Steph (lots of Neil Diamond), crossed the ferry into Port A and checked into our fabulous condo overlooking the beach. We ate a quick lunch (which was easy to do because Beth brought enough food to feed the entire island) and right before we headed down to the water, I called my new buddy Rick to tell him we were there and he could come set us up.

No answer. Hmm... guess they're pretty busy. I called again. Nothing. And again. Still no answer.

I wouldn't say I'm a patient woman. As a matter of fact, I'd say the day God was handing out patience I got tired of waiting in line and left before it was my turn. So I was slightly perturbed that our perfect umbrella and chair situation was being threatened. Deciding it wasn't worth getting my feathers ruffled over yet, we headed to the beach anyway and set up without an umbrella. It was later in the day, and overcast, so we didn't miss it. But, because I knew we would want the umbrella and extra lounge chairs for all day Saturday, I gave Rick a few more rings and left a couple of messages to make sure he knew we really needed a call back. We had a great afternoon relaxing, chatting, reading, and shell-searching. Right before we headed back to the condo for the evening, I gave Rick another call. Much to my surprise, he answered, "Beach Service."

Me: "Hi! I've been calling all day!"

R: "Yes. I know."

M: "Oh. Well, I called you earlier this week and you said we could just call you when we got here. Can we reserve an umbrella and chairs for tomorrow?"

R: "Ma'am, we have not been cleared to do business on the beach yet."

M: "What? What do you mean you haven't been cleared?"

R: "The city will not give us the go ahead to set up on the beach. They're still doing hurricane clean up."

At this point I looked all around and saw nothing of the sort. It was beautiful weather, and there were people everywhere.

M: "Well, that's dumb. There's nothing wrong with the beach and it's gorgeous out here."

R: "We hope to get clearance tomorrow. Call me in the morning and I'll let you know if we can set you up."

M: *huffing* "Allright."

I told the girls how ridiculous it was that they wouldn't set us up, especially since the beach looked so good, and what the heck was this Rick guy's problem, and we really better get an umbrella for tomorrow and yada yada blah blah... Whatever. I would call back in the morning. I wondered if he was just out of umbrellas and making up a story to cover his tracks since he told me earlier in the week I didn't need a reservation. I was annoyed.

That night, back at the condo, Patty cooked us a great meal and we sat around afterwards talking and cutting up until we had tears in our eyes. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. It was wonderful. So wonderful that Rick and his "Beach Service" (yeah, right) didn't even cross my mind.

Saturday morning was perfect. Beth and I got up early and we sat out on the balcony overlooking the beach and talking over coffee and bagels. If only every morning were that relaxed. Soon the other ladies joined us and we began to get ready to go down to the water. It was time to give Rick a ring. No answer. I called again. No answer. I called again and left a message telling him I really needed him to call me back so that we could plan our day. Meanwhile, I found another service (the only other one we could find) that we could rent an umbrella and chairs from, but we would have to go pick them up and haul them down to our spot by our condo and set it all up ourselves. This may sound like no big deal, but in order for the umbrella to stay in the ground all day, it has to be planted deep into the sand, otherwise it blows away with the first gust of wind. Rick's place was going to bring out a big drill with a long bit and bore a hole into the sand for the umbrella. I asked "new guy" how we were going to get the umbrella in the ground, and he said, "I'll give ya a shovel and you'll dig yerself a hole."

Me: *frustrated* "I don't think we can do that. We're girls."

New guy: "Well, we'll be here if you decide you can." Click.

I called Rick again.

He answered, "Beach Service."

Me: "Rick! Hi! It's me, Stephanie! You know?"

R: *sigh* "Yes, I know."

M: "Are you clear to set us up today?"

R: "No, I'm sorry. We don't have clearance to do business on the beach yet."

M: *beyond peeved* "How is that possible? We were on the beach all day yesterday and it was perfect! There is hardly any damage at all!"

R: "Well, they're still getting debris off the beach and we can't set up legally without clearance from the city."

M: "Uh! Do you think that will be soon? We really need chairs and an umbrella today."

R: "No, it won't be today. I'm sorry."

M: "Well, is there another place that will do it?"

R: "You mean, illegally?"

M: "Yes, whatever! We need chairs and an umbrella. My friend is allergic to the sun."

R: "No."

M: "Uh-huh! There is too. I just got off a phone with a new guy and he said we could come get the stuff from him and set it up ourselves."

R: "Then he's doing it illegally."

M: "Fine. Well, I guess we'll just go with him then and be illegal."

R: *sigh* "I am sorry I can't help you. Some of the hotels provide this service. Have you checked with yours? Where are you staying again?"

M: "The Pelican Condos on 11th."

*pause*

R: "The Pelic... wha?... where is?... ARE YOU IN PORT ARANSAS?"

M: "Well, yeah..."

R: *laughing hysterically* "Honey! I'm 200 miles from you on South Padre Island!" *more laughter*

M: *confused* "What?"

And then it hit me. When I googled beach service rentals in Port Aransas, Rick's place must have popped up since it's also in south Texas, and in my hastiness I failed to actually look and see where he was located.

M: "Oh my gosh. Ohmigosh! I'm so sorry! I'm so embarrassed!"

Rick was unable to respond because he was still laughing at me. And so were the girls who had been sitting around the living room listening to the entire conversation and had caught on about the same time I did.

M: "I feel so bad! I was kind of mean to you and didn't understand why in the world you couldn't set up!"

R: *through laughter* "Well, I couldn't figure out why you thought there was nothing wrong. We've had relief workers on the beach for three days doing clean up and there is hardly anyone out lounging around!"

M: *finally able to laugh at my stupidity* "I am just so, so sorry. Thank you for putting up with me and I wish you all the best in your hurricane clean up efforts. Bye."

Rick was unable to answer clearly due to the snorting noises coming from his mouth, but he mumbled something that sounded like "Goodbye."

Yeah. We continued to laugh about this for the rest of the weekend. Poor Rick; had to deal with "Crazy Steph" in the middle of hurricane Dolly cleanup. The girls assured me that he was getting as much of a kick out of it as they were. Needless to say, I learned a little lesson that day. Patience and planning are not in my skill set.

We decided to rent our umbrella and chairs from "new guy" and the shovel worked wonderfully. I actually dug the hole myself.

I'll be writing more on the hole digging soon and some interesting conversation it sparked about men. I know y'all can't wait for that post!

All in all, Girls Gone Mild was a success. We talked about making in an annual trip... but I'd be good with making it a quarterly one. As long as I didn't have to rent the umbrella.