Author: Neal Saye

A post from the past about the adventurous fun of procrastination. I was retired from teaching full time at Georgia Southern University but working as an adjunct at the Savannah College of Art and Design, SCAD. This was eight years ago, and as you will see, I had much to learn about cell phone photography.

[An actual serious and sort of embarrassing TIB—Truth in Blogging—here: For those of you following NealEnJoy, you know that I am now married to a wonderful man, Robert. At the time of this blog post, I wasn’t completely out, so I didn’t include Robert in my posts. EVEN THOUGH HE WAS IN EVERY SCENE I DESCRIBE. I feel terrible about that now. But now is/was not then.]

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Last Saturday, loaded down with a big stack of research paper first drafts, written by my delightful and intelligent international graduate students in our Research, Reading and Writing in Art and Design class at SCAD, I escaped down to Amelia Island, Florida.  My Distinct Intention: sitting, for the next two days (since Monday was a holiday) on the patio of the condo, listening to the crash of waves …

… and occasionally eyeing a sea turtle meandering up onto the lawn from the protected dunes …

… (this one’s about sixteen inches long) while Determinedly, Professorially marking up student texts, never putting down my pen or moving from the patio. And even though the papers are on fascinating topics, such as the spread of memes through websites, the commercialization of global opera, color’s impact on productivity in the work environment, and how video games make our lives better, I WAS at the beach, for goodness sake. Can anybody besides me see a potential problem here?

But, to be honest, and to defend myself a little, the BETTER part of Saturday had really already vanished by the time I arrived at the condo, unpacked (I ALWAYS unpack–my mama says not to live out of your suitcase), took a much-needed barefoot walk on the beach to calm my nerves after the hour-and-a-half drive from Savannah (okay, maybe I stopped at Starbucks in Brunswick for a quick Salted Caramel Mocha), washed the shells I found …

… thought a while about whether I should make a hip Christmas sea shell wreath or just put them in a glass jar, ran to the Lucky Wok for a spring roll and Balsamic Vegetable Medley, rushed back to the condo and soaked my feet in bath salts–thus it was simply too late to think about grading.  Seriously.

So Sunday morning I got up energized–ready!–but, discovering there was nothing in the condo for breakfast except some peanut butter which had gotten beach sand it in and several pints of old strawberry ice cream, I had No Choice but to hightail it over to my favorite historic district Fernandina Beach breakfast place, Bright Mornings Café.  (Isn’t that a cool name?)

As soon as you sit down, the FRIENDLIEST wait staff rush over with a variety of muffins, jam, marmalade and coffee.  (I wish I lived inside that place.)

(I forgot to take the above pic until after most of the muffins were gone.)

Well, the neatest thing happened next!  I was lucky enough to have the World’s Best Waitress,  Laura, who, after recommending the breakfast potatoes (boy, was she right!) shared a terrific story.  Actually, she shared after I complimented her on her interesting necklace:

She told me that her daughter had given her the necklace, and it represented the body’s chakras. You know about them, right? Energy distribution centers throughout the body. The lower one is the root chakra, which seems to be powerfully related to our contact with the earth, helping us to be grounded into the earthly plane. Also it represents the center of manifestation, especially with the material world. Anyway, after getting the necklace, Laura explained that she took off her shoes and enjoyed feeling the ground, the earth, with her bare feet. The next day she received a large amount of money. Wow. Whatever we may believe, material increase came to Laura. So cool! I haven’t worn shoes since hearing the story, and ain’t planning to anytime soon!

Leaving Laura and Bright Mornings (darn it), I thought I should probably go back and start grading, but as I walked down 3rd Street in Fernandina Beach, I saw this sign …

… and it pointed in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION from where my little car Skedadler sat waiting for me. So, being the lawful person I am, I traversed the way of the sign, and within minutes started hearing people (bunches of people) speaking French and Spanish and Deep South Georgia Drawl and other languages I couldn’t understand.

Well, lo and behold, I stumbled upon a major national sports tournament!

I found myself smack-dab in the middle of the International Pétanque America Open Tournament! How exciting is that?! One of the biggest tournaments in all of Pétanque!

Okay, okay, I had no clue what Pétanque is either. Other people, from all over the world, apparently DO know what it is. Before I explain, a few pictures:

Pétanque (pronounced “pay-tonk”), I found out, “is one of Europe’s most popular outdoor games, a cousin of both horseshoes and of the Italian bowling game called ‘bocce’. The game originated in the South of France in the early 1900’s. The aim is to toss, or roll, a number of hollow steel balls (‘boules’) as close as possible to a small wooden target ball, called ‘but’ or ‘cochonnet’ (French for ‘piglet’). Players take turns, and the team that ends up nearest to the target ball when all balls are played, wins” (petanque-america.com).

Players must stand with both feet firmly planted in a circle when tossing their balls.  (Why did I just giggle like a seventh grader?)

Those pétanque folks were all SO friendly, even when I kept mistakenly walking onto the playing courts or talking to the players in the middle of their games. (It was all just a bit confusing to me, like Harry Potter’s quidditch, but then again, I never quite got the hang of horseshoes.)

I discovered that the only store in the Americas dedicated to pétanque was right there in Fernandina Beach, Petanque America, owned and operated by Philippe Boets, an emigre from Antwerp, Belgium. Doesn’t he have the coolest name, Philippe? I’m thinking of changing my name to something hipper than “Neal.” Any suggestions?

Here I am sitting on the sidelines, trying my best to stay out of trouble and wondering where that man standing in the circle got his shirt and whether or not I should roll up the legs of my pants to look a little more European.

And here I am with Rosemary Szczygiel, a Fernandina Beach petanque enthusiast, who filled me in on the basics of the game.

Such new-discovery fun!

P.S.  I had the papers marked by the time I headed back up the road to Savannah.