Ready for home

Today was a weird day for me. I had a realtor meeting which went well and then I had a bunch of little things to finish up. I had no energy. But, I made a bunch of phone calls, did some work on the beach, and then ran out to finish up the few things that I had left to work on. I was feeling emotional. I learned that Ted Kennedy died. I cried in the car. And then, for some reason, I started thinking back to when my Mom’s friend Doris died of cancer, and our last visit with her, and then I cried some more. Then when I was out, some lady in the shoe store got mad at me for writing down prices of her shoes, and I felt really bad. I tried to explain to her what I was doing but she was offended I didn’t ask first. Then, I tried to ask prices of some medicines at the pharmacy next door and they wouldn’t give me any prices. It was only for 2 things, I was feeling discouraged. Then, I saw some crazy man hanging out (literally) with his penis out on the side of the road. I noticed his pants undone and then I took a closer look and I was so confused. I wasn’t sure if he was peeing or what was going on. I had to park right around the corner from him.

I went home, thought maybe having a couple drinks, relaxing, and writing up some reports would help me, but it really didn’t at all. Then I ate dinner alone and it was a bit depressing. I’m not sure where it came from all of a sudden! I was meeting Josue to go to Lady’s Night that night, and after thinking about it a little I was feeling like I really didn’t want to go. I didn’t have a good feeling about this either. We drove the 25 minutes to Red Hook, had a drink, and then he wanted me to try the Shark Attack which was their version of a scorpion bowl; literally was a jug of alcohol meant for much more than one person and I drank about half of it and felt a bit tipsy. Josue doesn’t drink, so at least I could feel good about him taking me home. But, when we finally reached the hotel, I had heard a bunch of compliments from him, and was semi-prepared when he tried to get me to come back to his room with him that night. I knew it was going to happen, he had semi-tried many times in the past few nights. I politely brushed him off and got back into my hotel room, safe and sound and not worrying about boys. It just wasn’t a very good day, all-around.

Every now again, someone comes into your life and inspires you – for whatever reason. It happens very rarely, but it is someone whom leaves a stamp on your being, and may even change who you are or how you feel. Usually you will never see this person again. Sometimes I think they may be an angel sent from God meant to reinforce that you’re doing the right thing and you should feel fortunate for who you are and what you have chosen to do with your life. In walks Larissa. I was at the absolutely gorgeous Trunk Bay when the beach was starting to become sparse of people. I had seen Larissa talking to some people on the taxi over about the beaches and St. John in general, she lives on St. Thomas (in a boat which she doesn’t know how to sail!) and had a store in St. John (so she worked here). She is originally a micro-biologist. She was still here and was lying not too far from me, so I wanted to ask her how you get back. “Well” she said, “either you run to catch a taxi (looking at her phone clock) around 5 o’clock before all the taxis leave the beach and don’t come back, or you hitchhike back” (which according to Larissa is completely normal and safe here). She is a very pretty 41 year old woman, who could pass for being in her early thirties, but she has a tone of voice that came across to me as experienced and made me wonder if she was older than early thirties. Her body, by the way, is way more fit than my own. She invited me to grab a bite with her before we left St. John, and I couldn’t have spent my evening a better way. We chatted as though we were long lost friends catching up. All the while, she wanted to see all my pics, she was completely inspired by the way I lived my life. She gasped at my pictures, at my stories, and you could just tell she really appreciated everything I have been through. She even called me an inspiration, but in a way – I felt that way about her myself. She has never been married, never had any children, and doesn’t regret it. I wonder if that will be me. She was so easy to talk to, clearly a very happy, positive person, and I really wish I had met her sooner and had been able to hang out with her for longer. She invited me to visit anytime on her boat.

St. John was beautiful. Now I know, that would be an amazing place to go on vacation, and stay at The Westin. I wonder how expensive that would be. Seriously though – it was unbelievable. The beaches were pristine and turquoise. Many of them were part of a national park on the island. St. John was quaint and cute. I got off of the ferry and went to where all the people were going and I was asked, do you want a taxi? So I said, I guess so. Where to? I have no idea. So, I decided to follow the crowd to Trunk Bay. So glad that I did! The seagulls dive and steal food from you though. Not good. I got some sun, a really yummy cocktail, and I did a lot of hanging out in the water. And then I met Larissa. I was glad I did, because even though I knew I was on the way home – I was feeling a bit discouraged. Maybe it was all about being ready to come home.

I thought I was going to die driving from the ferry to the hotel. There was no one behind me on these super windy roads, and I was going a very decent speed, but randomly I looked up and the car behind me was so close I couldn’t even see the headlights. I started freaking out. I sped up significantly and maybe drove erratically not even paying attention to the cars coming on the other side of the road because I seriously thought I was going to be, and expected at any moment, a huge crash in my rear-end. Maybe the guy was trying to drive me off the road. I really couldn’t tell what his deal was. I was pissed though. Thank God the maniac eventually passed me on the right. Geez, driving is hard enough here on the left side, through windy hills, is there a need to throw in an erratic driver??

This trip The Marriott has been a bit of a huge pain in the ass. They took almost 2 hours to deliver my lunch one day, they lost my DHL slip copy (but luckily found it the next day), my damn laundry was not finished by the time that I needed to leave the hotel this morning for the hotel, and also the blow-out of my air-conditioner probably left me with lungs full of smoke and needing to change rooms in the middle of the night, and THEN, the other night, I came home to no running water. They never warned me they were going to turn the water off. Then the next day in the morning, the water ran brown and eventually the cold water was fine, but the hot water was still running brown until I got home at night. Grrrrr!!

Funny enough, last night when I was on the way home from St. Thomas, I was on the American Airlines website and was just poking around, and I thought maybe I would change my seat. And I did. But considering it was only a 30 minute ride, I figured that I would leave it where it was. Maybe fate was such that I would meet a nice person on the plane ride to PR, in the seat that was randomly chosen for me. So, the next day I go to sit down and there is a pretty girl to my right. I mentioned to her that I loved her dress. As the plane was going up, we started talking because she mentioned that she was scared to death of flying, and I could tell it helped her to talk about it. I agreed. I mentioned to her that she looked familiar. She currently lives in Marblehead and went to Wheaton. She was a year below me, and then I knew exactly who she was. I had seen her many times and knew she was on the dance team. So, we’ve been hanging out since St. Thomas. Way to go fate! I had a feeling you would pull through. It was somewhat humbling to see this pretty girl whom I had thought had everything: the looks, the friends, the activities – get freaked out by flying. I guess I’m not the only one, am I! I wonder what percentage of the world actually can’t stand flying either. (PS I love you airplane  - I’m currently on the plane now, haha. )

I can’t wait to get back to Boston. We will be arriving in less than an hour now (50 minutes) and I might cry when we land.