The Rules of Beach Combing According to Diane

Bob and I spent a few days in Monterey last week. He was giving a presentation at the ACWA conference and I tagged along. It was a great opportunity to see not one, two but THREE of my former employers (SAIC, Bookman Edmonston/GEI Consultants, EDAW). I am kind of embarrassed about that fact. Mainly because I should have never quit employer #1 in the first place. However, I did. I worked at employer #2 for about four months. The drive/commute sucked so I called up employer #3, asked them if they would hire me. They said yes and I promptly quit employer #2 and went to work for employer #3. About one year and a half later I got pregnant and quit employer #3 and started working on my own. Looking back, it was really cool collecting a paycheck every two weeks. Working on your own is more rewarding, but there are a lot of great perks about a regular job for a big corporate firm.

So the conference was fun for me. I went as a "spouse". We went to some various happy hours sponsored by various law firms and engineering firms. I ran into all my old bosses and associates. It was really great to see all the familiar faces that you never see when you are immersed in changing diapers, chasing an 19 month old and being a domestic goddess. I proudly exclaimed a few times that, "No, actually, I do NOT miss Santa Barbara!" I should blog about that subject some other time. But anyway, people from Santa Barbara think that EVERYONE wants to live there, and if you once lived there, then surely you must miss it and wish you still lived there. Well I can say with absolute certainly that I am someone who a) used to live there, b) does not miss it, and c) does NOT wish I still lived there! You have no idea how liberating it was to say that out loud!

The very best thing about being away for a few days, besides getting quiet time with Bob to talk, enjoy each others company and chew our food at meal time slowly was walking on the beach. Mother Ocean and I have a special bond. She speaks to me and I speak back. I feel home when I'm near the ocean. One of my favorite things to do is to beach comb and search for beach glass (also called sea glass). Sea glass (or beach glass) is glass that has been tumbled and smoothed by the water and sand, creating small pieces of smooth, frosted glass. Sea glass originates from bottles and jars that enter the water as litter and become broken up by the waves and rocks.

I have a set of "rules" that dictate what pieces you keep, and which pieces you throw back. The rules change depending on the day. For example, a great day, when there are many pieces of beach glass along the sand, perhaps you can only collect the rarest colors: blue, red, yellow, etc. Green, brown, and white are left behind. Some days, when there are only a few pieces of to chose from, the rules change and brown, green, and white are keepers so long as they are smoothed. Rough, sharp pieces get sacrificed back to Mother Ocean until she works on them some more. My ultimate rule of beach combing is that you take no living creatures (or future homes of living creatures) from the ocean. Shells, sand dollars, abalone shells, ANYTHING that could possibly constitute a home for a living creature must stay at the beach.

There wasn't a lot of beach glass to collect while in Monterey. It is a bay after all and there isn't a lot of wave activity. However, I did find three special pieces and I'm happy that I haven't lost my touch.