Preparation for Sag Harbor

For lunch, I went to the new salad place that just opened up, Chop't. I think the salad I ordered was the best tasting salad I have ever eaten. I customized it entirely: romaine lettuce, avocado, grilled asparagus, kalamata olives, grilled portabella mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, red wine vinaigrette. The ingredients were all chopped up into fine, tiny bits, and it all tasted so sweet and heavenly. I ate it while reading Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale. I was so engrossed in the meals of both my salad and my book that I almost lost track of time.
Last night, I pulled out my usual black duffel bag with its many compartments, and the huge blue cloth tote bag that zipped on top, and I packed up clothes, undergarments, sweaters, toiletries. Everything I will want to take personally to Sag Harbor is in those two bags and in my purse (which contains makeup, moisturizers, travel toothbrush, travel toothpaste, compact mini hairbrush and mirror, paperback book, wallet, cell phone, pens, folded paper, napkins, keys, and medication). No, my purse is not big. It has many compartments. Everything in it is small, except for the Helprin book, which is a trade paperback and heavy.
Once we get to Sag Harbor, I'll get Mom to take me to TJ Maxx in Bridgehampton so I can buy some new winter shirts and tops to take home. I don't plan on spending a lot of money there. I'll probably go to the organic store Provisions in Sag Harbor or Second Nature in Southampton to buy some more deodorant and some organic chocolate. Bookhampton, to look at books of course. Rite Aid or CVS in Southampton for new Dr. Scholl's insoles. Conco D'Oros pizza place and The Bagel Buoy shop in Sag Harbor, because I cannot leave the Hamptons without eating at least one real New York bagel and at least one slice of real New York pizza.
As far as shopping goes, there's not much beyond that for me. Clothing boutiques that ask for half a paycheck for one outfit. Tsotski shops that sell pretty trinkets. Jewelry shops on every street, but I'd only go to Lee's, the family friend and master jeweler who made my engagement ring and employs my mother. He only works with his left hand and right thumb; he was born without fingers on his right hand. Yet he can make dazzling gold jewelry as well as any good jeweler.
There are thrift stores and consignment shops, ice cream shops and libraries, variety stores and drugstores, movie theaters that only show indie films, small food markets and delicatessens, all with that old town feel that welcomes anybody home.
When I get to my parents' house, I will meet Toby the orange tabby for the first time, and revel in the pure sweet silence that is Noyac. No traffic, no obstructive noises. My parents have friends in Brooklyn and Manhattan who visit them and sleep. And that's fine, because in my parents' house, a person can sleep undisturbed for hours without trouble, wake up feeling as refreshed as a new life. Nothing but nature and crickets and birds to lure a mind to sleep.
My parents call their front and back yards Bambi-land. Dogs take themselves for walks throughout the neighborhoods and town and return home safely and smartly. Sometimes they will visit my father as he works on another stone sculpture in the backyard, silently watching as white marble turns to flesh and beauty and magic, tails waving back and forth in appreciation for a true art form.
And then there is Long Beach, and the Sag Harbor Wharf. Where we can sit for hours and watch the water.
I'm going to sit for hours with my husband and watch the water. And perhaps we will recreate our first real date on the wharf, feeding each other bites of chocolate cake and spoonfuls of chocolate pudding, giddy in love in a beautiful place