Beach Escape

I'm guilty of  being overly optimistic. It makes me a bit of an odd duck in the very serious, analytical world of auditing (as though I wasn't an odd duck there in any other way). But I do believe that there is usually good in everything, and I definitely experienced that on Sunday morning.

For the past few months, I've had a lot of trouble sleeping. I've blamed the lack of sleep on the kids and the dogs, and while they certainly don't help, I know I am to blame. (I am starting to figure out why I'm not sleeping, and that's a whole other topic.) I fall asleep without any problem, but I wake up for the day really early. Sometimes as early as 4:30.

On Sunday morning I woke up at 5:40 to a completely quiet house. No kids tiptoeing around and slamming toilet lids, no doggies pacing to go outside. It was nice. But I was also wide awake and stir crazy. The never ending to do list in my brain was screaming at me to stop wasting time. But what could I possibly do without waking everyone up? Then it occurred to me - I could sneak out for a walk. On the beach. 

I managed to get dressed and out of the house without anyone chasing madly after me. While I was driving to the beach it occurred to me that it was still not light out. I could actually watch a sunrise on the beach. It's a bucket list item that I've wanted to do for years, but I could never make myself plan to get up before 6am on the weekend for fun. That's just wrong. 

I was greeted by a beautiful, quiet beach.

 

I found a place to stash my flip flops and my water bottle, and I took off walking. I walked barefoot on the water's edge, and it was soothing. I was also lost in my thoughts. Thankfully, at one point I realized two girls were sitting on a blanket with their phones up recording something, and if not for them, I would've completely missed the sunrise.  

 

This little guy did not want to miss sunrise either. 

 

I was amazed at how quickly the sun came up, and I'm so glad I got to see it. 

 

And, yes, this experience probably just reinforced my optimism. But is that really all bad?