I questioned the purpose in my productivity; I wasn’t saving lives or growing cabbages to feed the masses. I was gainfully employed, passing time with piles and stacks of papers. I hadn’t given up entirely on sea dreams or loitering at marinas as close to boats as I could get without stowing away.
In the post Cooper world, there were no men who commanded my interest for longer than a few weeks. They were ordinary. The men who were not ordinary were erratic, creating chaos on the way to ruin. I attracted sailors, fishermen, and the occasional misguided Henry Higgins-doctor/lawyer/dentist, generally much older than I was. Geoff was my savior. He fell in love with Randy a focused, dependable, sweet, naval officer and they set up housekeeping. I spent a lot of time with them, staying out of trouble. Randy got orders to Japan and Geoff, being established in the hospitality industry, found a position at the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo. I didn’t like to see them go.
Left to my own devices, I became involved with a red-haired, Irishman two decades my senior. It was a bad idea, an emotional disaster. He was self-righteous. Like all of his predecessors, he professed to find me enchanting, precisely the way I was, then commenced a perfidious campaign to change me. He didn’t like it when I swore. I cussed extravagantly. He liked me to read excerpts from Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World to him, which I did once or twice, wishing he would sail around the world alone. I couldn’t manage to shake him. I didn’t have the courage to face the fallout from a direct break. I transferred to Boston, said goodbye before I escaped, intending never to be seen again. Uninvited, he followed me across the country. I was imperious. He was shattered. I was free. It was a relief to breathe the cold, tangy, brine scented air of the north Atlantic.
Stay away from red-heads. But the title might now be the name of our band…
I am THE source for band names, ask anyone, that’s my real job.
Do a post with 100… I did.
Do a post with 100 band names?
Yes.
1. Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five
2. Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra
3.
Oscar Sanchez and the Trumpeting Troubadours
Fat MamaLu and the Wailing Whiners
Wow. Only 95 to go.
Little Dot and the Polka Dots
Going to Boston sounds like an excellent way to dump someone.
I like to move.