Saturday, June 30, 2007

Sabado

We walked across the street to an internet cafe today, but we were told that the internet's broken! I'm not sure when these entries will be posted. We're thinking of tearing ourselves away from the beach tomorrow to explore in town, so we'll see...

Eric is looking tan and handsome, but my DNA is more boggy than beachy.

Such a lovely vacation!

Friday, June 29, 2007

Friday

Friday evening and it feels like this has been our whole life together: swimming, lying in the shade of a palapa, reading.

I've (almost) read two books in our three days here. It feels like one of those never-ending summers from my youth. This morning we were noting our amazement that it's still only June! There's so much more ahead of us...

The beach here is perfect -- water ranging from just-warm-enough to almost-too-warm over a day's time. In the morning the water is glassy, with the occasional slow, long, wave. As the day goes on the water becomes choppier, and wavier. There's nothing threatening about the waves. You can turn your back on them and the worse you'll experience is a small dunking, and a little salt water in your nose. But they're big enough to jump over and play in, which I've been doing for an hour at a stretch.

Some folks love the beach for an hour or two, but if Eric and I have a comfy place to sit (no towels on the sand for us at this stage of the game) and a bit of shade, we love the beach all day long.

Now we're back in our room and showered, resting before heading out to dinner. What a life!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

We're here!

(This blog entry was posted after finally finding internet access!)



It's only our first full day here at the Royal Decameron Costas Flamingo but it feels as if we've been on vacation for a long time. Today was a beach day -- we walked a hundred yards to the beach after coffee this morning, and except for a quick lunch we didn't leave until after 4:00 PM.

We've been playing in the low waves for an hour at a time. A bucket of SPF 45 later, I still have the tinest bit of pink to show for my hours in the sun.

So... all is well! The grounds are lovely, our room is clean, the air conditioner works, and the beach rocks.

Yay!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Wild Ride

The cab driver who picked us up at 4:00 AM was a speed demon -- 90 mph on 880, and we were at the airport in no time!

Now we're in Phoenix, enjoying the free WiFi and waiting for the 3 hour flight that'll take us to Mexico.

Late last night we finalized our plans to travel to Hawaii after the Oregon Country Fair. We're going to the big island and to Oahu, where we'll get to see Yoko and Luana!

It doesn't feel like a travel day. It feels like the fun's already started.

Quickie

Our bags are packed and we're ready to head out the door at 4:00 AM to catch a flight to Mexico. That doesn't leave much time for sleep. Still, I'm happy.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Poetry Alert

Lisa and Tom came to our house yesterday, and we drove together to Corinne's birthday party. Janis met us there, and (aside from missing Pennie) the gang was all there.

It was goodgoodgood to see everyone.

Now I'm anticipating ten days in Mexico, where one sun-soaked, sleepy, day will lead to the next.

Not so long ago I believed I'd never travel outside of the US again. I figured I wouldn't want to be that far from my health care providers, or even be in a plane that long. I just didn't feel good enough. And I didn't mind (so much) being bald on the California coast, but I didn't think it'd be so hot in other parts of the world.

Even when my hair grew back and I started feeling better, I still had the unhealing wound-of-mystery, and it seemed unlikely that I could spend days and days and days in the ocean.

So all of this is gravy. I know to appreciate a bonus when I receive one, because I've felt that my life with Eric has been like winning a cosmic lottery. Even if I'd been lucky (lucky lucky) enough to grow old and cantankerous with Eric -- even if my years with him had far outnumbered my years without him -- I still would have considered that time a prize.

Writer Ray Carver was a worst-case-scenario alcoholic for much of his life. He was the sort of drunk who would drink tall glasses of nyquil when trying to stay off the hooch. But his hard-won sobriety cooincided with meeting the love-of-his-live (writer Tess Gallagher), and each day of his life post-alchohol felt like gravy to him.

He died of lung cancer after ten years of sobriety. I recently read his last poem, and I wanted to share it here, even though I KNOW people don't like poetry. Here it is.


Late Fragment

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Paradise

It's been a very pleasant stay at The Atlantis -- fun gambling, good food, and Eric and Lisa for company... how do you beat that?

I don't want to leave today.

Have to go downstairs and meet Lisa for a final buffet breakfast!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Bliss

I left work early today. My joy was too great to be contained within the walls of the building. If I hadn't left when I did there might have been an unfortunate accident.

It's summertime with Eric, and that about says it all.

They Mysterious Case of the Missing Posts

There's a ghost in the machine, and my posts to this blog are missing! There I was, happilly typing away and clicking "publish post", naively believing that my posts were posted!

Oh, well. It's not like anything earth shattering was lost in the ether.

Today's the last day of work. Eric's still snoozing, which is a bee you tea full thing. I hope to sleep in tomorrow, although it's difficult to sleep knowing that all of those bells, buzzers, and whistles are sounding on the casino floor.

Eric's mother flew home last night. It was good to see her. I hadn't seen her since before Eric's father passed away. I wasn't well enough to fly to Florida to attend the funeral... something I would never have imagined. She's staying very busy and she misses Bob very much.

I'm off to work soon. I'm anxious to leave work, and I'm not even there yet!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Stuff

It's been a festival of food since Eric's mother arrived -- we've had dinner at Lulu and A Cote, lunches out every day, and Sunday I made my favorite-new-summer-adult-beverage (VodkaStillWorks) and "gravy". Gravy is what Eric's family (and other east-coast types) call tomato sauce cooked with meatballs, sausages, and pork.

At this moment I feel like I'll never be hungry again.

After my final day of work tomorrow, Eric and I are hooking up with Lisa and heading out to the lovely Atlantis Casino Resort & Spa, Every Players Paradise. We'll just be there for two nights, then we're coming home to celebrate Corinne's birthday. On Tuesday we're flying to Mexico for 12 days of sun and swimming. Then we're home for a few days, and off to our annual road trip to the Oregon Country Fair.

I tire easily, but I don't feel sick. I'm not in pain, my nose isn't bleeding, my bones don't hurt, my hair isn't falling out, I have no open wounds on my body, and my finger nails aren't falling off.

What's not to like?