A Place at the Beach, Atlantic Beach NC - It's over and back to reality!

Atlantic Beach Condos - A Place at the Beach (APATB) Atlantic Beach NC.

Mom and Dad bought a condo room for the 12th week of the year (end of March) each year in the 1980s. It's a two bedroom 2 bath, but one of the bedrooms is small and has a single bed with a trundle/mattress under it. There is no bathroom attached to the 2nd bedroom, but it's at the front of the unit. When you wake up, you are facing the dining room and on the other side of the dining table is the sliding doors/beach view. Well, you can see you're at the beach but it's a long way away so you have to stand up and look out to see a small area of the sand/ocean. But I love it. Their unit is Unit 316 (3rd floor near the steps and now elevator). When they purchased it, there wasn't an elevator. There was many years of going here where I traveled those stairs coming and going. Building L. There is another building on the property and it's 2 bedrooms but the unit is larger. The Becks had a unit at #377 for the week before Thanksgiving. I always would try to go to that trip. It was tons of fun. We had Thanksgiving dinner there once.

The Condos are 3 building/units away from Fort Macon. You can easily walk there. On the other side is the inlet and once I actually saw a beautiful HUGE ship come out. I wish I'd taken a picture of it. That HUGE ship coming out of what appears to be a small inlet...close enough to almost touch.


Back to Building L, Room #316.

So, I left the beach early. Instead of driving home (3 hours) on Saturday Morning (after rushing around like crazy to be out by 10am), I packed almost everything up on Friday Morning, then went out to the beach and spent the whole LOVELY day (11:30AM - 4:00 PM) sitting on the beach. I took extra care and put up an umbrella and a chair, plus Megan's Snap On Tool beach towel (to lie out on of course). I started reading my Harlequin Mystery Books (two of them), then walked down the beach, came back and watched folks, sat and watched the waves coming in....just loving every minute. At 4:00 I took everything down, and dropped off the umbrella and chair into the car. No need to take it all back up to the 3rd floor. I knew I had 3 trips down to take all the baggage (including groceries, etc) and didn't want to make it four trips.

I went back to the condo (Room #334), took a shower and shaved my legs (with my nice sunburn/tan I wanted to wear shorts home. Cleaned up everything, and put the condo back in order, finished packing and took everything downstairs. I planned to be on the road at 5pm, but yeah...it was 6pm when I dropped off the keys and finally left.

It was a long drive home. My travels home took me through Morehead City, Jacksonville, Havelock, New Bern, Little Washington, Greenville, Farmville, Fountain, Macclesfield, Elm City and then TADA Rocky Mount. LOL! I entertained myself by adding these sites to Foursquare (not while driving) so by the time I got home, I'd received a new badge for over check-ins. LOL!

I was able to get home and bring everything into the house from the car. I figured I had Saturday to get everything put away. I'd washed almost all the clothes before I left. The condo had this awesome website where you could monitor your clothes washing...yes....that's just crazy sick, but I'll take it. First thing I noticed when I got out of the car, I saw both cars were covered with yellow. The carport and steps into the house were covered with yellow. The pollen had hit with a vengence.

Saturday, I awoke to the reality of being home and pollen. The good thing about coming home on Friday night is sleeping in my own bed. Another good thing of course is seeing my family (1st), and another great things this year is.....I didn't have to drive home in the crazy weather we had. It rained and stormed all day on Saturday. Tornado watches were out until midnight. Another reality I awoke to was being so sore. My hips and legs are horribly sore and my sinus cavities are on strike. They hate me. I have to put together a plan that provides enough money for me to leave Eastern NC every year when the pollen invades. Hopefully I will continue to work in an environment where I can possibly work from home and I'll just have to clean up and clean out my home (if I have to stay in Eastern NC) so there is very little dust or things to irritate my sinuses.

So, here I am at 1:31 AM on Sunday and I'm still awake. It's ok - I took a 2 hour nap earlier. I've been busy cleaning and putting things away and I'm still not completely finished. I have a lot to get done on Sunday so calling it a night. Hoping my sinuses will allow me to work at the farmhouse tomorrow. If not, I'll cook something to take to Dad and work on planning the garden.

I didn't get half of the things done this past week that I wanted. I will pray that God will give me the strength to get things done quickly. I want to get back to a point where I have time to enjoy myself. It was amazing to me that being at the beach alone, and thinking I would just let myself relax,....I couldn't. I have so many items on my To Do list that I can never truly relax. I'm always thinking of what I need to be doing and feeling guilty that I'm not getting it done. This wasn't always this way for me. But the past few years...it's the norm. Big plans for the future. Going to get it done and going to survive and GOD will help me, cause I'm going to do everything I can to make GOD's plan my plan. :)

Good night all! :)

2012 Mar 21 - God lives at the Beach

So, This week I'm at Atlantic Beach and I'm having a great time so far! Dad and Chaos (14 month old Pit Bull) and I came down on Saturday evening and Dad stayed from Saturday till Tuesday. Megan and Zack came down on Tuesday and stayed overnight. They left this morning (Wednesday) and took Chaos with them. Chaos enjoyed the beach so much! Even though, he had to be on a leash anytime we were outside. Last night he was able to run down the beach with Zack and so few people were on the beach, that we let him run loose. Chaos has loved every minute of being here.

After everyone left, I took a nap. I got sunburned on Monday so I wasn't in a big hurry to get outside during the hottest part of the day. So - I waited till about 3:30 and went out. I walked down the beach toward the entry to the sound and picked up a few shells. Funny thing I was only interested in ones that had rolled around in the surf until they were smooth. The first one was all white and looked like a guitar pick. It was so cool. As I was walking back passed Fort Macon, I started praying. I hate that I've not prayed much lately as lately is when I've needed to pray. I started praising God for all the blessings that I have, even though I know the flesh has been so weak and sad for the past few years. So much change. I can honestly say that although I haven't heard the voice of God, he truly spoke to me today and I was open and ready to listen. I was glad I was wearing huge sunglasses as I was crying and sobbing and although very few people were on the beach, I didn't want them to wonder what the crazy lady was doing. God told me that he has blessed me (and I know this is true). He also told me that he isn't finished with me yet. That like the smooth seashell that I preferred, I've had to roll around in the surf of misery and despair to become a stronger better Christian and person in general. It was amazing. I was this empty vessel and He was filling me up so quickly, that the emotion was too much and the tears flowed. Although I didn't feel the warmth (like a hot flash) that I had years ago in a small Church in Currituck County, I know it was the Holy Spirit that touched my soul and filled me so fully! I'm thankful to God! I will go forward differently! I will (with God's assistance) make plans for my future as I was so disgusted with my failures that I wasn't planning anymore and wasn't moving forward. I know that GOD's plan for my life will be the plan that occurs and I am supportive of his plans for my life. I will pray that he leads me to make plans for myself in the future, instead of just making plans on my own or not making any plans at all.

So - God does live at the Beach. Or - The Beach is the place where I'm able to hear him more clearly. Praise GOD and thank you Father for your love, understanding and patience with me. I will learn to be more receptive to you and your blessings in the future.

GOD bless you all and I love you all!