the journal of a temporary grey lady

The writing below is a journal entry from the two weeks I spent living with my Aunt Beth and Uncle Mark in Nantucket this summer, which I mentioned briefly in my first blog post. I wrote this while sitting outside at a picnic table at Something Natural.

8/3/2019 - I am confident, after being here for five days, that I made a great decision to

escape to Nantucket. This is the most unrealistic dream of a place. They only allow eleven specific colors on buildings, which makes everything blend together to create a grey salt stained smoothie that can only be consumed by financial executives and the offspring of sports team owners.

No one is local to Nantucket. They import their employees from European colleges because

they can work until after Labor Day unlike American kids who are pressured into spending their summers securing internships in their perspective field of study and required to return to school in August.

I have eaten more sandwiches this week than I did when my parents would drop me off at the pool in middle school and the closest food I could walk to was Subway. The water is sold in cans, glass or paper boxes and by Labor Day 2019, plastic water bottles will be banned everywhere. Plastic straws cease to exist here as well. Which has helped me to figure out the proper time to place your straw into your iced coffee to ensure full usage before the straw expires.

Hydrangeas are in full bloom and decorate everyone’s yards and city streets. Taking a photo of the harbor boats and marsh greenery that surrounds Beth’s house is impossible because of how flat the land is. But, the view is still beautiful in a way that makes you feel like you’re being hugged.

Everything stays unlocked - cars, houses, bikes, etc. - as a result of Nantucketers overconfidence in the idea that nothing bad happens here. They eat sweets with every meal. It is as if lunch, coffee hour or dinner can’t be considered over until a cookie or brownie has been consumed. This is what I feel I have most in common with the people of Nantucket.

As I head to the beach I am debating buying a piña colada at The Sandbar or buying another canned water from Something Natural because both would cost about the same. I’m also wondering if my snakeskin high rise suit is about to send some of these Lilly print onesie moms into cardiac arrest.

Cheers to the joys of traveling alone!

xoxo,

lexy