Annapolis, MD

0 nm
Wind: NW 20-25 knots
Seas: 2-3 feet

My overwhelming feeling today is one of frustration. I feel like we’re too late—too late for the winter, too late for the cold, too late for the gales, too late for everything. Florida seems an eternity away, let alone anyplace farther than that. Anyplace where it’s warm, where your toes aren’t constantly numb, anyplace where jumping in the ocean is something other than life-threatening.

We were all set to sail today, and then we listened to the forecast. More bad weather. The last time we tried to sail in 25 knots was in Delaware Bay, when we nearly killed ourselves, so it doesn’t seem wise to go out in it. There’s a small-craft advisory, but I still feel unbearably antsy. I basically read all day to avoid thinking about it, now that I don’t have a novel to write, which means I didn’t get anything done on the boat, either, which I realized thanks to Karl’s very pointed glances.

I broke the budget yesterday in Annapolis to spend $14 on Julie and Julia, the book I fell in love with in the Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, and spend all day reading it. I finally tore myself away two chapters from the end, so I could at least have something to save for later, like dessert. It’s such a fantastic book. A girl makes a simple—but not easy—goal, and in meeting it changes her life. I’m to the place where she’s getting interviewed by the New York Times and having film crews visit her house and cooking kidneys. Somehow I think that if I was being interviewed by the New York Times and eating kidneys that I could put up with numb-toe-syndrome a little better.

Then again, I have fish-head soup.

No new fish heads to report. Today the menu was cereal and soup. Delicious, heart-warming soup, created for me by the man I love, so I have nothing to complain about really. My toes will recover. One can think of worse things to do than read one’s life away.