Revenge of the babysat

“In order to blog about life, one must live it.”

That quote is from a very important person whose name I will not bother to make up, partially because I am too lazy and partially because I want you to know that I, in fact, came up with that quote myself this very moment.

The purpose of the quote, of course, is to let you know that I have not written for so many days because I have been out there in the ACTUAL WORLD soaking up potential blog material like a sponge, so busy enjoying the fullness of life that I had to postpone writing about it. The truth is, I have been more busy with babysitting and schoolwork and being tired than anything else. Also I have been making silly choices like actually going to bed instead of staying up till all hours of the night writing here. (Crazy, I know!)

This week was what I like to call a “Savanna Week.” Savanna is a delightful almost-eleven-year-old girl whose mother has been asking me to babysit her a couple weeks out of the summer for the last three years. Of course, “babysitting” is really the wrong word, as Savanna would be quick to remind me—a more appropriate term would be “responsible supervision of a highly independent individual who could probably take care of herself but likes to have me around.” At any rate, Savanna and I, as different as we are, have grown quite fond of each other over the years, and we both look forward to our “together” weeks during the summer.

Among other things, this week we have gone to lunch, the library, and Borders each once; we have listened to music and taken pictures, and we have done a lot of house cleaning and playing of Uno. (Savanna and I have mastered two-player Uno strategy like nobody’s business. You may say there is no strategy in Uno… but you would be wrong. So very wrong.)

I also already managed to accomplish one of my summer goals: Spending some actual time outdoors. (I don’t know that I accquired any new freckles, however. I’m still working on that one.) Savanna, unlike me, has no trouble getting herself outside. She loves to climb trees and jump on trampolines and go fishing and camping and generally be a more active person than I have ever been in my craziest dreams.

One lovely morning, after she had momentarily exhausted herself doing flips on her big backyard trampoline, we spent about a half hour lying in the cool grass underneath the trampoline, just talking and taking pictures and relaxing. It was such a pleasant way to spend time that I forgot to worry if there were bugs crawling on me or if I was going to get sunburnt or if I was missing calls on my cell phone inside the house. If I had not been “on the job,” I would have thought it was a fine place to take a nap, as well.

As it happens, through the years I have also come to be good friends with Savanna’s mom, Ann. So in the afternoon of that same day that we were underneath the trampoline (it was Tuesday, I think), Ann invited me to go with her and Savanna to the coast. I happily accepted—it had been at least a year or two since I had been to the coast, which is really inexcusable considering Florence, Oregon is only about an hour’s drive from Eugene.

For those of you who do not know, Oregon beaches are not the kind of beaches that you see on movies and TV shows—you won’t find any bikini-clad, suntan-lotion-toting persons here. In fact, you will often find very little sun at all… and unless you are planning on swimming, wearing only your swimsuit to an Oregon beach is pretty much insanity. We prepared for our walk on the beach by bundling up in our warmest sweatshirts and bringing ear-warmers and mittens. I kid you not; even in June, it is really that cold. Not to mention windy.

So, uh… what’s the attraction of going to the Oregon coast again? Well, I could tell you it is because of the natural beauty of those beaches strewn with driftwood and shells, or because of the vast presence of the ocean, or the sea creatures that you sometimes get to glimpse… but that would pretty much be a lie, because basically I just wanted to go take pictures. Yes, I was that crazy cheat-hoodie wearing, camera-toting geek running around in Florence like a total dweeb last Tuesday. Guilty as charged! Honestly though, I really do love the beauty of the Oregon coast… but I’m not sure I would be quite as willing to put up with the facefuls of wind-propelled sand if there weren’t some light at the end of the tunnel like reviewing my awesome pictures when I get home.

Speaking of pictures… I think I have created a monster. I let Savanna play with my camera as much as she wanted this week. (Only, of course, after giving her a severe lecture about how precious that small hunk of plastic and glass and circuitry is to me and how I would probably die if she forgot to put the strap around her neck and dropped it and how she should offer her own life as a sacrifice should anyone attempt to take said camera from her.) (I am SO kidding, Ann! ) I think she was rather lukewarm about the whole idea at first, but on our trip to florence she spent a good fifteen minutes on a boardwalk we visited taking pictures of anything and everything—just like I do. And, I have to say, her photos were really good! After she got the hang of the auto focus and stuff like that, she took some very interesting shots of lampposts and bolts on the side of the bridge, among other things. Looks like I’ve discovered another budding photographer…

As we were getting ready to leave the beach that evening, Savanna was playing in the sand near the shoreline while Ann and I sat behind a big piece of driftwood to stay out of the wind. After we had talked there for a while, Savanna came walking up and announced that she was ready to leave. We asked her what she had been working on out there… so she showed us. There it was, in the kind of huge, sand-scrawled letters I always knew would someday be announcing my presence: ERIN WAS HERE. The sign was too big to take a decent picture of, so you’ll just have to take my word for it… it was, as Savanna put it, “big enough for aliens to see!” I’m trying to decide whether to be touched by the fact that she thought to write my name in the sand, or worried that she’s trying to get me abducted. She’s probably hoping to inherit my camera.

(Psst… you can see an album of the photos we took on this day here on Flickr.)

Posted on Saturday, June 24th, 2006 at 1:16 am.
Belongs with: Happening Things, Photo Things.
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