LIFE IS A BEACH

The 4th of July my son stayed with his father, a rare occurrence, and I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with myself. I had participated in the Blue Star Mother's parade, walked to my car and contemplated the day. Seems like you are always
supposed to do something on the 4th, a big barbecue, block party, what ever, but since on our block , several people tend to dislike one another, there was no block party, and no barbecue I had been invited to. I set out for the club I belong to .
They were having a barbecue during the day and there are several swimming pools. I figured I could just hang out there, and then figure out what to do next. When you are not dating anyone, and your best friend lives about 150 miles away, you sort of feel displaced on these holidays, but you seceretly don't want anyone to know how frigging messed up a 4th of July holiday can be. If your Christmas Eve is messed up and lonely, you can hide out inside by a fireplace and watch television.
Later you can tell people that you attended a family event with twenty five people and ate roasted pig and chestnuts, but
the 4th is some big outside thing. You can really feel exposed on this day. So, I went to the club figuring I'd have a drink, eat some food, and swim and read my book. I headed off to the pool, plopped down on a chair, and was going to apply the sun screen and read when I noticed some family friends playing some type of volley ball game in the pool. I said hello,a couple of friends of theirs invited me to pull up a chair and we got to talking, about the club, teaching, etc; . I headed off to the
makeshift bar to get a drink, something that this couple I was talking to called a MIkey, sort of a tequilla sunrise improvised
with a splash of lemonade named after some guy they knew at the club that sort of only drank this one drink. any way, I returned with the drink, and the couple , who were actually quite friendly had to leave, to head off to another party, and I was left knowing only the family friends, but not the rest of the volley ball crew. They stayed about ten minutes longer, and now I was alone with their friends, none of which I knew, and none of which cared to even ask my name,I was now sitting
in their group, not talking, but sort of too paralyzed to move. I attempted to enter the conversation a couple of times, but it was feeble and weak. Those socially inept feelings from college crept over me, that is a whole nother Oprah show, and I
now found it really difficult to talk since again, no one even knew my name. One woman was quite attractive, a blonde in her forties quite taken with herself, another woman was sort of large, but equipped with that old high school attitude, the one that translates into, I may not be that good looking, but I am mean so I fit in. I managed to last about another twenty to thirty minutes sitting nervously with these people, kind of like a goldfish in a tank with some Jack Dempseys, when I decided
I have got to go before I have a melt down.I packed up my stuff, wished everyone a happy 4th, politically correct and all, turned to go, and heard, just as I reached the pool gate, with my back turned, I am sure it was the big gal say, "She's weird!"
I swear I wanted turn back and punch the big tanned whale. You always think to yourself, I left highschool behind me. I don't have to deal with people like this anymore , but it's not true the mean girls never DIE! I returned home, took a shower
and went to see THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. It was sort of symbolic of the day.