It's All in the Name

This trip I found myself noticing the catchy, kitschy beach house names, wondering if there might be fodder for Dee there. Garden City is a charming and eclectic mix of old and new (more accurately pre and post Hugo), small and large, plain and fancy, traditional and modern. But the names....from the iconic Purple Rain to The Big Chill, the definitely, well..... southern Southern Pause to Southern Comfort, the merrily maritime Dolphin's Dance to Barry-Cuda, the truly Ocean Drive-esque Sandy Toes to Beach Music, the signs of the times Stress Relief to Frayed Knot or Clam-ity Jane (I think I knew her), the beachy yet Biblical Fishers of Men to Shorely Blessed and the quite literary Endless Summer to Neon Moon....you've gotta love them!

I know there must be clever or emotional (or both) stories behind all these names. As we drive the Waccamaw Strip and Drew and Kate jockey to one-up each other in reading out the cottage names, my mind is in a race of its own inventing stories to fit the names. (There it is again, my sometimes worrisome habit of "filling in the blanks" when I don't know the whole story.) And, of course, the inevitable next step in my "beach house dream weaving".....what would I name my future and, at least for now, ficticious beach house? I posed that question aloud. Maybe that was a mistake. My husband, a little too deftly and with at least a hint of sarcasm (if I am truthful, probably more than a hint), suggested Never Satisfied. Funny he would say that. My daughter and I talk frequently about her tendency to never be satisfied and about what a hard life she will have if she maintains that trait. She always wants more. (Kind of reminds me of someone.....) But, the truth is that I am not convinced it is always a bad thing to be never satisfied. Perhaps being never satisfied can mean you are always striving...always trying to be better, never resting on laurels, as one might say. In that light, maybe Never Satisfied deserves consideration as the name for my fictional beach house.

I would like to be a better wife and mom, a better sister, a better realtor, a better neighbor, a better writer, a better person. I would like to think in many ways I am never satisfied. For now, I will just continue dreaming the beach house dream, writing the beach house fiction, and hoping one day it is fiction no more . Hey, there's a name to consider....