a fond adieu.....( not to be confused with fondue)

Yesterday afternoon my friend Sarah came out to the house. After hanging out and chatting for a while we went to La Lagunita for dinner ( the local restaurant). Since it was a Sunday afternoon, it was packed with families who had come to the beach for the day. Cars, vans, trucks and busses full of people filled little Santa Clara like a tummy on Thanksgiving. Beach towels, sundresses and laughing children flavored the scene like any other summer hot spot. Music pumped through the speakers as we ate botanas and drank lemonade waiting for our food. Vendors strolled by , the breeze was hot and above it all blazed a crystal blue sky. I got stung on the back of the arm by a wayward bee but isn´t that part of summer as well? The fish was freshly caught and delicious. Sated, I leaned back and took it all in. My last day. For now. We went back to the house and relaxed, talking , reading, laughing. It was a really pleasant evening. I felt so glad to have met sarah and become friends with her. That led me to think about all of the people i have had the pleasure of getting to know here. A varied and quirky bunch each with their own odd story and set of circumstances but all sharing the spirit of adventure it takes to create a life here.

This morning we ate the last of the yogurt with some granola. sarah had brought sweet rolls with her and I set them on a plate. We had a leisurely breakfast, sipping tea and talking. When we finished, I washed the dishes and put them away. Not on the counter to dry as usual, away. After showering, I stripped the bed and bagged the sheets along with my bath, hand and dish towels. These would get dropped off at Marcias house for Marciel to wash, bring back and put away. He will be looking after the house. I then proceeded to pack the couch cushions into large plastic bags. I ran to the dump, and returned with the truck, rolled up the windows and patted the dash thanking it for being such a trusty steed to me. For driving me safely over many, many miles. We loaded the kennel in the car-realizing it wouldnt fit, we had to take it apart. This means I will have to re-assemble it tomorrow morning at 4 am at the airport (my friend Michelle who flew down for two days just to bring it to me wins bonus points ). From Merida we go to Mexico City and on to Las Vegas where i will rent a car and we will drive home.

I locked the casita, closed the back protector, shut the windows, turned off the fans and closed the door. Closing my new protector on the front door, I slid the shiny new lock into place. Sarah started the car and pulled it out to the road as I walked behind her and shut the gate slipping the chain into place and securing the last lock. I looked at the house as we pulled away. Melancholy. Sad to leave..so much work and heart put into it. A five year plan in preparation to move here and two years here slowly creating a little piece of perfection. But also excited about going back to friends and family. Home for the holidays, an oven! Soups, fall leaves, pumpkins, halloween, turkey, movies, Red Vines and Hot Tamales! Mexican food! and along with it all a return to work, a phone that rings a lot, schedules, a much different life. I was reading a book and in it they were discussing how people go to work, spend the day thinking about going home and spend a lot of time thinking about when they can relax or go on vacation to some sunny, carefree place. Ive gotten to live in that carefree sunny place and its been amazing but it has also been a bit lonely from time to time. Circumstances change, plans need to be altered and life goes on. How lucky am I that Ive gotten to live out not one , but several dreams. I don´t feel like my dream is over, I get to launch into a new one. So many people truly care about me, I am loved, I am healthy and still filled with the spirit of adventure. Let the games begin!

( sound of a scream)...!!!!!!

So, I´m at the internet place in Dzidzantun where I currently spend a good portion of each morning..I won´t go into a lengthy explanation of my cancelled reservations, lack of ability to manage my own affairs, feelings of frustration, powerlessness and just generally being on the edge...i would rathe spend this brief time telling you a story...
The other day, I was quietly sitting and reading a book about the brain. Still no functioning DVD player ( though last night I had the portable DVD player on the counter and the one thats hooked up to the TV both open trying to hand spin the DVDs to get them playing...I was SUOER stressed and needed a distraction..) anyway, the afternoon clouds and thunder rolled in and a deluge started. ¨wow! listen to that¨I said to, of course, Lucky. Then I heard an odd noise and looked up. It took me a second to realize it was a small human on the prch huddled by the door. Being Sunday, i thought it might perhaps be Didier, ChuChos son...maybe they were there for a Sunday visit. i got up and as i approached the door i see who I believe to be Marie, his mom. As i open the door and beckon the saurated two inside, i realize it is in fact not Didier and Marie. I don´t know these folks but regardless, they need to get out of the rain. Not like its cold or anything, but still. So, I put a big rag on the floor where they are standing to soak up the puddle they are creating. She takes off the childs wet shirt ( i see he´s very tiny..small and frail like a fledgling). I offer them water, don´t have much else..tea? No gracias...so, the idle chit chat, such as it it when the other person speaks no English and i am limited...we go through this for a bit and establish she is riding a scooter..ok, so i cant really give them a ride in Dzidzantun where they live. While we are struggling with more conversation topics, here strolls Mr Iguana across the front near the porch. This is Luckys nemesis. He is constantly on red alert to get this guy but of course hes much too fast and wiley for Lucky to ever catch. as i wonder what the heck he´s doing out in this downpour, Lucky spots him and flies out the back door. We all laugh as we see him running around the front in pursuit of senor iguana. However, Mr I is for some reson impaired and Lucky is catching him!! Next thing you knwo, they are thrashing around on the porch in front of the door. Im screaming ¨Lucky no!¨as the iguana gets pinned to the screen door, hissing , he has no option but to climb so up the door he goes! Where he stays out of sheer terror forthe next hour or so....Once this excitement dies down. i realize they have been here a long time now and the conversation has sadly lapsed...I decide to play solitaire..what else can I do? I have given the tyke a car to play with ( it was my grandsons) so hes busily playing and making universal car noises..then i hear a different noise..? what? what the..its liquid..liquid hitting the floor and i realize with horror that he is casually relieving himself down the stool and onto the floor and mom is just sitting there like its all in a day...when the sound ceases, she casually removes his tiny underpants and wrings them out near the front door. as in inside the front door..ah yes..the smell ..¨he needs to drink more water¨is the first thought that comes to mind. I want to start laughing. in light of all thats going on with me, here i am, a very large iguana has stationed himself to my screen door and this little boy just peed on my stool and his mother wrung the underwear out on my floor...ahhhh yes...ya gotta love it...So, anoth half hour passes and Im thinking its going to start getting dark soon. When are they leaving?? As if she telepathically registered that thought, she got up and walked out front. soon she returned with a fella. ¨Papa!¨little bird exclaims. So, after initial banter, they start to get the little guy dressed and ready to go. Here is something Ive noticed here...the child goes on the childs time. this is not the first time Ive seen this. The parents are giving the child direction like¨come here and let me put your shirt on because we have to go¨but it might be 5 min or so before the kid decides..ahhh Ok..I guess...so, as they left, thanking me, the guy got a stick and dislodged mr iguana sending him on hisway. By the time the sun started to set, it was as if nothing had ever happened. The rain had stopped, the reptile was presumably back in his hole under the back step. But there was that urine smell to deal with......

as i make crazy preperations to extricate myself from my life here in the Yucatan with harried facebook messages about reservations and friends phone calls in the evening to ground me and the internet guy graciously letting me spend three hours in the place with my dog, I feel so blessed that i got to experience all of this. The giant spiders, scorpions, iguanas, friendly people, urinating children......I wouldnt trade any of it....I´ll be keeping you posted, as of today, Im shooting for leaving a week from today flying into vegas and driving home from there..we shall see.....

tic tock .....

As if I haven´t been brief enough in the last few months.....this too will be short. As I wind down my affairs here and prepare to close up shop as it were, my computer has thrown in the moist, humid towel that it has been engulfed in for the past two years. It has made a valiant effort indeed. But alas, I am now left without contact to the outside world!! On top of that, the DVD player has stopped working as well..( or as poorly..). Now, its not that Im hooked on video viewing. I´ll admit I occasionally buy a bootleg (oh no! Ive gone public with my criminality..I could get picked up....) movie. Sometimes they are so bad I can´t watch them. For example on one the volume was so low I actually had to position myself inches from the television. Then there was one where I kept hearing the rustling of the recorder going on through out most of what little I watched. The best was one dubbed in Russian with Spanish subtitles. But I digress....What i watch DAILY is Seinfeld. I was recently discussing this with my neighbor. ¨I dont know how you do it¨she said. The other night when the DVD player decided to give it up ( this is actually the second time..it resurrected itself so Im holding out hope for a second coming) I felt so saddened that I couldnt watch i fell into a slight depression. Now, is this because I really find epesodes Ive seen many many times so hilarious I cant stand the thought of being deprived? Well, partially..but more then that, living in a remote village in another country without a computer, the cast of Seinfeld is the closest thing I have to friends. I know, it sounds crazy but think of it.I know them all so well, Ive had them in my home for years now, through thick and thin they´ve been there for me. Right now, as I wind things down here, packing away hammocks, getting the rugs washed and packed away, showing the caretaker what i need him to do, I am feeling a lot of loss. Loss of a home I love, loss of the terrain, the flamingos , loss of a dream. Thats not to say im not looking forward to and thankful for the house, the wonderful people, the love I am heading back to, but hey, loss is loss. So as I sit here cut off, for now, from everything and everybody, my Seinfeld family was a comfort to me. A rudder, something Im familiar with that makes me laugh. Nothing unexpected, safe. That is, until the DVD player breaks. There are no guarantees in life. We knew going into this that the future was unclear and thank god we did it anyway. What an adventure its been! So this isnt the first or tenth or twentieth go round of launching into something unfamiliar..its just these places in between the steps I dont care for. I am waiting, in a holding pattern until my next launch. There are many times in life we have to go through things alone. So though my friends and family are thousands of miles away, my video pals are a comfort. Until I leave, Ill keep trying to get the player to work, and though the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, sometimes I push ¨play¨and it works...you never know if you dont try, right? 12 days and counting........