So it’s May and Memorial Day is on the way and already the beach talk has started. Which is great except for the beach part because I’m not a huge beach person. I love the friends and the food, the swimming and the Frisbees, but the sand makes me crazy, the wind is worse, and that freakin’ sun is a killer. And that’s about 75% of what’s waiting on the other side of those dunes.
I am always officially on the fence about the beach trips my peeps plan. Or at least I used to be before I found my two BBFFs (best beach friends forever). Now I’ll go anytime anyone is ready because I’ve got what it takes to beat the bummers.
I will not go without my Sport-Brella. No way. No how. Because this thing is amazing. Think a giant semi-umbrella that turns into a sort-of-tent. Open it, tilt it, tie it, and in a minute or two you’re throwing all the right kinds of shade. Perfect for a sun-sensitive girl like me.
My friends call it my cabana. I call it my shore thing. I move it with the sun to keep cool. I open its windows when I need a breeze. Or I use it to block the wind altogether. Rain, too. It’s a little heavy, but it still carries over my shoulder without me feeling like a pack mule. Love. It.
That and an old twin fitted sheet gets me where I need to go. Which sounds completely stupid, I know, but don’t judge me yet. Because when I stretch that sheet out and wedge a cooler, my beach bag and whatever else I’ve got into its corners to keep it expanded, its sides stay up and turn into walls, and those walls form a sand-free oasis, a kind of magic anti-sandbox that beats what I don’t like about the beach.
I know, right? Brilliant! (Thanks for the trick, Mom!) Under my Sport-Brella, with a chair in the middle, I’ve got a budget beachfront condo. All I’m missing is a good book and a cabana boy to bring me a mojito.