1/2/2016 Where do I begin?? Holidays in the tropics are pretty darn amazeballs. Last Thursday was, of course, Christmas Eve. I cooked a Mexican Chicken casserole and made a loaf of beer bread for the party. Alex picked us up in their boat at BJ’s at 4:30 and whisked us off to Carmen and Brett’s who live on Calabash Bight Key. The evening plans were dinner at Carmen and Brett’s, then some boat caroling, then drinks and dessert at Alex and Marilyn’s.
When we stopped at BJ’s dock (the place everyone hangs out on Fridays) she and Carmen (her husband) came out and we sang for them. Let me digress here for a second. THEY, not we sang for them. {I can not sing. I have known this for years. Others say they can’t sing but they can, I am physically unable. I wish I could but I can’t so I don’t. You should thank me.} In my mind I was singing, loudly and as on key as Adele. Rosalie recently sent me the words to BJ’s version of Rudolph called AMBROSE THE AMOROUS ANTELOPE:
Ambrose the amorous antelope had a very shiny ass. And if you ever saw it, you would say it was made of glass. All of the other antelope used to laugh and call him names. They wouldn’t let poor Ambrose play in any antelope games. Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say, Ambrose with your ass so bright, won’t you be my backup light. Then how the antelope loved him, and they shouted out with glee, Ambrose the glass assed antelope, you’ll go down in history!
That was pretty much the best thing ever! After all the treats for the people were gone we went back to Marilyn and Alex’s. The other 2 boats came and Bill and Brett (they didn’t go caroling) came over from Brett’s also. Marilyn had a variety of desserts and of course, more drinks. FYI: I was at the water point, that’s all I drank. We hung out for awhile and chatted with people. We were the only ones headed west for the night and didn’t want to keep Alex up by having to taxi us home at O dark 30 so we got a ride while he was still up and moving. It was a semi wet, salty for sure, beautiful ride over to BJ’s and our car.
Christmas came and went, not much fanfare here. We talked to the boys and to my parents and wished everyone a Merry Christmas! Around noon we headed down to Sandy Bay to have Christmas dinner with Dave and Trish and Bob and Rosalie. We sat down in Dave and Trish’s new area for drinks, then moved to the dining room for roast chicken, mashed potatoes corn and other goodies. After dinner we had dessert on the front porch. The dessert was pretty spectacular itself, chocolate rum cake. Ohmygosh, decadent. It was a wonderful Christmas day spent with good friends!
Saturday I was back at the airport and it was a freaking zoo. Four major airline flights came in within 30 min. max. It was chaos but we had it controlled so it was all good. Good chaos is the best. I got out of there a little after 2:30.
On Sunday I was brave and took Max and Barrio swimming to Parrot Tree. I did not take Gringo because he had a hot spot on his leg and contrary to what people say, I don’t like open wounds in the sea..too much chance for bacteria. He had to stay home. I was stressed about taking the 2 of them, together they weigh 100# and are strong boys. They were much better than I expected.. I didn’t take beach pics of them because my friend Susan came over and I was chatting with her. These pics are before I turned them loose.
I stayed for over an hour floating and chatting with Susan while the boys ran all over. They were really good, when they started to go where they shouldn’t, I called to them. Barrio came right away and Max has to push it, he goes for a minute, then he comes. Need to break that habit. I brought them home, bathed the 2 of them, fed all of the dogs and took a shower myself. Susan and her friend Gayle picked me up for lunch. We went to Herbie’s and ate. It gets loud in there on Sundays, a football day. Every football game in the whole world is on one of their hundred TV’s. A loud place to be on game day, we sat outside.
Monday I was going to Monday’s Don’t Suck. I rode out with Trish and Dave. There were only a handful of people along that day and it was so much fun. We ate, drank, swam, floated and played volleyball. I have not played volleyball since high school and despite the fact I can’t run b/c of my knee, I had a blast and wasn’t as totally sucky as I thought I would be. I look forward to playing again!
We actually played VBall twice, that’s how GOOD we are. Afterwards we all packed up our stuff and headed home. Dave and Trish dropped me off around 4’ish. I was exhausted from all the fun of the day. Jeanie brought me some new coloring books when she came to the beach earlier so I started coloring that evening to help me relax. I love my coloring books, the new favorite is called Lost Ocean. Right up my alley.
One of the gals who works on Tuesday at the airport was sick so I volunteered to take her Tuesday afternoon gig. There was only one flight coming in, 118 people and it took FOREVER to get the passengers through immigration. I felt sorry for the people in line.
My friend Nancy who has the Balinesian home 4 minutes from us has been bugging me to come over spend the day to meet her friends who are here visiting. I had lots of stuff to do Wed. afternoon so I popped by unannounced in the morning. I met her 2 friends plus Nancy had invited Maggie, Jeanie and Susan too. I only hung out for awhile, I had too many errands to do that day. One of them being the bank and I totally blew it off on Wed. Thursday morning I had no options other than go to the bank, ugh. I got there and there were no lights on but the guard let me in and there were many other people in there. I saw my friend Ven in line so I was talking to her when I realized Carmen was in there too. The bank said they couldn’t give out any $$ so Carmen and I went outside to chat. While standing out there, the lights came back on. Obviously they were having a generator issue..I finally got my money and came on home.
I was trying to decide if I was going to the NY Eve party or not. Bill was opting out because he doesn’t like the house empty so I decided rather than stay home and do nothing, I was going. I got ready and left for Jeanies, who lives on the north shore, around 3. Once I got to her house we gathered our shit and headed back over the mountain to Calabash Bight Resort on the south shore. There were a few people already there but soon after we got there people started to come. For 400 LPS (about 20 bucks) you got roasted pig, chicken and shrimp with many sides for the meal and they had an open bar. I had already decided early in the evening not to drink much so after a glass of wine I hit the wine glass with water thing..We danced and laughed and watched tremendously fabulous fireworks, á la the Christophers. They were some of the best fireworks I’ve ever seen, all out over the water, gorgeous evening with wonderful fun friends!
I have no photos of Martina, the hostess who always goes out of her way to make things pretty damn perfect!! Such a fun party, I’m so glad I went. Amazing shindig Martina, thank you!
What would my blog be without some dog photos. I find it amazing that my dogs match the floor so well. It’s almost like I knew they would and that’s why I have them. In my mind I often rationalize things logically that way. It’s one of my gifts. Singing is not.
Jeanie had a watchie at her house for NYE so we had to leave at a reasonable time. I went back to her house and crashed there rather than drive another 30 minutes home alone from the eastern boundaries of the rock. I awoke this morning at her fab house to the sounds of the waves crashing on the rocks below. What a fantastic sound to hear when you wake up, nothing better. New Years Day I came home, walked ALL 6 dogs, fed them and slept for 3 hours, tomorrow back at the airport for the day. I’m ready for bed, again.
Mermaid on a Raft 