A change in the current?

Having gotten a great deal accomplished early in the day, I sit on the front porch shucking oysters as a small storm continues its daily business. The tip of their shells are fragile and flake off as I stick the blade of my knife between their two halves and start to wiggle it back and forth. Sometimes the knife slips; I've got several cuts on my thumb because of it. Listening to the rain I gently wiggle the blade further and further back, and then there is a release as the knife tip cuts the the abductor muscle. The internal organs of the mollusk are so fascinating, because they are so clearly defined. I scrape the insides of the oyster out, delighted that some of the shells I'm cleaning have such beautiful mother of pearl interiors - promising pieces for the jewelry Jackie is  making. I throw the shells into a bucket of water and then pull another small thin mollusk from another bucket, which contains yesterdays harvest.

While out in the tide pool prying the oysters off chunks of rock or dead coral I referred to it as "collecting" oysters; Jackie corrected me - harvesting. She's right. I'm not casually picking up random shells. We are actively hunting down oysters, well at least I am. The idea that I could find a pearl electrifies me. On average three tons of pearl oysters produce three or four perfect pearls, which does not bode well for my search, because I'm not even sure if the mollusks I'm opening are actually one of the species that are commercially used to produce pearls. Along the Rawai beach front there are merchants selling millions of perfect pearls and shells. I doubt that any of them are wild pearls, but none the less the sheer quantity is stunning.

    

                                               

Luckily for me I'm not looking for a perfect pearl. I'm looking for any little precious gem, regardless of its market value, and all species of clams and oysters do produce pearls, some just produce better ones more often. Walking along through the tide pool searching for the big waving lips of  one of the giant clams I keep imaging finding one with a pearl the size of an egg and it being the largest ever found. It's fun to run through all the details of that sort of discovery from finding it, to the auction house, to the way I'd spend the money. I've gotten hold of several giant clam shells now. I say "giant clam shells" hesitantly, because they are very big, as long as my forearm or maybe as long as my arm, but they aren't the infamous "man-eating" giant clams of South Pacific lore. I absolutely love the "giant clam shells" and have several projects involving them on the back burner. Sadly I've left the best giant clam shell I've found so far out in the tide pool. We stumbled on it early on our walk and they are surprisingly heavy and hard to carry, so I dug it up and decided to come back for it, but sun had set by the time we were heading to shore, so I didn't have much of a chance.

I have an interview tomorrow. Jackie and I switched back phones (long story) and she received a call from Chris and relayed the message that I needed to call him back ASAP about the sub-editor position at the Phuket Gazette. I've ironed my lavender dress shirt and matched it with a dark purple tie that Barbara gave me when I was still working for Arthur Murray. I polished my black dress shoes, while watching Casino with Jackie. I've also taken the time to look over the Phuket Gazette's online publication again, as well as lot of the most common grammatical mistakes people make - I will be taking an editing test as part of my interview. Chris sounded very enthusiastic about meeting me and giving me a chance. He said that after reviewing my CV he had a much better idea of how I could fit in with the team. We talked about some of practical elements of getting the job, such as my visa, where the Gazette is located, what the hours would be and that sort of thing. To say I'm nervous doesn't even come close to capturing how I feel about this. I am more like a hyper-aware prize pig on slaughter day, than a man going to an interview. How this opportunity has been flung back into my path is beyond me, but I'm very grateful for it. A large factor in me getting the job, outside of the obviousness of being able to edit, will be how long I am willing to stay in Phuket. Chris originally got a cold start, and he's willing to give me the same opportunity, but the learning curve will be extremely steep. He estimated that it would take about six months before they could take the training wheels off me and another six months before I'll know the island. I know I would be willing to stay here for at least two years if I had a job that I enjoyed and was moving my career down the right path, so I'm planning on telling him that I'll be willing to stay a minimum of two years and I can only hope that it will be enough.