carving yaupon drive

i probably had the most amazing day of my life today. our census assignment finally completed, i wasn't quite sure what to do with the day. i went to the beach. brandon moved to emerald isle, so...rock on! he is hah, down the road from the beach. it's beautiful. i drove past, saw him outside bert's w/ mrs. bert taking inventory. i honked and threw a deuce. hit a coffee shop. it was a kind of foreign, yet very familiar scenario. oh how many times have i met with my Lord in a coffee shop? it was nice. brandon asked if i wanted company. i didn't respond. his black truck pulled up within minutes. hah. boys.

he showed me his sweet new set-up. nice. it's a place. we walked up the road to the ocean. past the dunes, onto the shore. Mmhm. woop there it is. so we discuss life a bit, and this new twist to his life. he had decided to move back to arkansas. in a week. yet. he moved closer to the beach instead. : ) haha, this kid.

turns out. brandon had bought the longboard (skateboard) that i absolutely adored from bert's. haha, there it is, just setting in his house. in all it's wide, neon, rubber-wheeled glory. yeeeeeeeeeeeees! so i do work with that while he goes back to work at bert's. i rode it across the island, basically. all the way to the pier. only after i had gone up and down yaupon & ocean view drive more times than i could count. 2 solid hours i longboarded. it was so sick. that's why my fingers are dancing across the keyboard right now. sick. oh my gosh. carving on that sector 9 was glory. bubble-wrapped & golden-crested glory. wow. ugh. it's so beautiful. the beauty of snowboarding without the safety of the snow. the art of surfing without the chase of the wave. it is what it is. and it rocks. never in my life had i been more of who i want to be. riding the challenge. going forward, never even touching the ground. not going to/on my way to the next challenge; rather, never leaving the challenge. no waiting. for waves. for ski-lifts. let's roll. weaving my way down the smooth blacktop, with soft, (detrimental to longboard) sand oozing from the land onto the road. sights set on the ocean. in brandon's aviator's. and sweatshirt. and flip flops. (made of track pads! these shoes are bomb..hand-me-downs).

i think what i liked most about it. ...beside the way it felt. was the knowledge that it could go with me anywhere. snowboarding's limited to snow. snow's in the mountains. surfing's limited to the ocean. the ocean's on the coasts. but, hah! turns out pavement does serve a thrilling purpose. and it's everywhere.

then i smelled outdoorsy fresh, so casually perused the food lion aisles for a quick shot of spray deodorant. near-fatality when i passed this sucker...

then we ate at el zarape. yum. just relived the amazingness that was that spicy white queso dip. then at the casa, i busted out my guitar. hah (i travel in the jeep, armed & loaded with both guitar & surf board. you never know when the mood is right. or the swell. naturally, let my mind get carried away with the melody. ultimately ending in a diddy about how 'brandon's got himself a neeew house!' he loved it.

oh yes. the reason it was the best day ever, was because it was setting up to be the worst. end of census work (for about a month..pending). but i had faith, and hoped and prayed on the way to emerald isle, that something unexpected and exciting would happen (even today), Lord!

haha. hah. i had no idea. God is so great! i love the way he surrounds. and encloses. and wraps me up tight.

Let your unfailing love surround me Lord, for my hope is in you alone. Psalm 33:22
The angel of the Lord is a guard; He surrounds and defends all who fear him. Psalm 34:7
You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Psalm 32:7
And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst. Zechariah 2:5