Left, right: The beat goes marching (and slipping and stumbling) on

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Aug. 8, 2015

After a nearly two-week-long trip that included a few dips in the Atlantic Ocean, I returned to Durham, N.C., around midnight on Thursday.

That night, I experienced an extended, detailed dream about working as a newspaper reporter. Things seemed to go pretty well over all, but near the end of the dream, I started to worry about whether a certain interaction with a colleague was going well or not. (I don’t recall the details.)

As my anxiety peaked, I felt like kicking my legs to relieve tension. And indeed, I awoke feeling as if I’d done just that.

In fact, I was experiencing a major charley horse — a muscle spasm — in my left calf. I briefly cried out in pain and terror before calming myself.

Book overboard! (Trigger warning: Accidental violence to books.)

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Aug. 8, 2015

Author’s note: Earlier today, I began chronicling my mundane exploits on a recent Sunday while on vacation at a beachside apartment complex in Ocean City, Md. And now, the conclusion to my not-so-thrilling adventure! MEM

A few minutes after leaving the parking deck, I stepped out of the elevator and onto the 14th floor. I turned to the right before remembering that I had to head the other way to get to our apartment.

I got there, unlocked the door and headed inside. My head was a bit fuzzy, and I had to concentrate to make sure I did everything I wanted to before I went back down to the beach: Trade sneakers for on sandals; grab my book; locate and swallow the pain reliever; take a towel.

After I accomplished everything I’d wanted, or so I thought at the time, I locked up the apartment and began walking toward the central elevator bank.

But then I got annoyed at myself again — there was something I’d meant to adjust inside the apartment, where I could safely put stuff down and devote both of my hands to a given task without fear of having sand get everywhere, or of having my belongings taken by passers-by. Oh well, I thought, I’ll just go over to the railing and make the adjustment.

Sunday-morning banalities: Summertime Ocean City, Md., vacation edition

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Aug. 8, 2015

As I wrote the other day, I recently was on vacation on the Atlantic coast. My Sibling-in-Law’s family was kind enough to invite my Parental Unit and I to their summer retreat in Ocean City, Md. — my first visit to that part of the Eastern Seaboard.

P.U. and I had two full days in OC: Sunday and Monday. We drove in with one of my Sibling’s and SiL’s children Saturday late morning/afternoon/early evening. (It was a seven-hour drive, thanks to a combination of traffic and one or two confused and/or ill-advised attempts to circumvent traffic.)

On Sunday, P.U. and I were the first to head down to the beach. We shepherded the SiL’s clan’s young-uns (all four of them, if memory serves). As P.U. watched the kids frolic in the surf, I checked in with the rental company employee — a Romanian national about 20 years of age, apparently, who was deeply tanned and adorned in a flattering bikini — to obtain the beach umbrella that SiL’s parents had secured for the week.