Seattle flip-floppers

When I arrived back into Seattle a week and a half ago, my friend Benny picked me up from the airport. Luckily I had thought to e-mail him a few days prior to my arrival to ask him to bring a sweater or sweatshirt or something that I could use to clothe myself, as, coming from a tropical zone, I was quite lacking in that area. Benny followed through and let me borrow one of his zip-up hoodies, and I had a pair of long yoga pants, but all I had with me for my feet were flip-flops, or as the British like to call them, "thongs" (which makes me giggle). I wanted to stop at a grocery store before going back to my apartment so that I could stock up on the essentials - 3 boxes of cereal, 2 forms of milk-like liquids and a banana. At the time I thought I probably looked a little silly wearing my flip-flops, (not that I MIND looking silly, it's just usually I look silly because I've planned it that way) and Benny even mentioned that he could hear me coming closer, as I was probably the only person in Seattle wearing flip-flops in November. At the time I figured he was right.

Then I started noticing something - Seattlites are either lazy or have no temperature receptors in their feet. Upon paying more attention, I've noticed a good half dozen or so people wearing flip-flops in the past week (and I haven't been out all that much). I saw a guy wearing shorts and flip-flops, and that's one type of crazy, but then I've seen several people wearing winter clothes, a scarf, and... flip-flops? I mean, far be it for me to judge another's clothing choice, it's just one of those things that makes my mind go... what?...

I used to despise wearing flip-flops until I realized easy they were to deal with and how delightfully they let your toes breathe. I lived in flip-flops the whole time I was in the DR. When I came back to Seattle and put on socks for the first time, my feet yelled up to me, "what are you doing! You're SMOTHERING me!"

"But feet," said I, "it's cold in this here place, and I need to keep you safe and warm, because you are so very pretty."

"Very well then," said feet. And then they tried to say something else but I couldn't understand the muffled words through the soft, cottony goodness of my warm socks.

Falling for fall?

I'm BACK, baby! Back in Seattle. I thought I'd be miserable, I thought the rain would seep into my bones in a manner of seconds after getting off the plane and depression would set in only minutes afterward. And yet the most wonderful thing has happened; happiness.

Happiness. I'm somewhat unsure of where exactly it's coming from, but I love it. I've never been this happy to be alive in the fall before. All the sights and smells are extraordinary to me, whereas in years past they were merely somewhat pleasant niceties that preceded the dark days of winter. I've become lost in the splendor of apples and cinnamon and crisp air and warm blankets. At times I'm downright giddy with electric excitement to be alive. It's a miraculous thing when just biting into an apple causes waves of luscious pleasure to spill about my body. And don't get me started about what happens when the apple has just been dipped in a chocolate/fig spread!

I don't know if it's the 2 1/2 month vacation, the fact that my vitamin D levels are sky-high, or the "happy pills" my nurse practitioner has had me take for the past few months (better living through chemistry?? - I guess it might be worth it, after all). I would imagine it's a combination of the three, plus great extras like super friends and general rat proximity, but life really is grand.

Maybe now I can try to write a happy song for my guitar.

Donde esta el ron!

It's hard to believe it's all coming to a close. I have gotten much into the habit of life amidst the Cossitt/Pernal household. Yet all good things...

I have learned quite a lot here, about myself, about kids and dogs and marriages and Spanish. It's been fantastically educational to dip my toes into the lives of these people so vastly different from my own life. I think a lot of times people get stuck in their own little worlds, and it becomes hard to remember that other people don't have the same ideas and thoughts on life, and often it is simply because their experiences and frames of reference are just different. My sister and her family lead a life so very different from mine. I am sometimes delighted by how things work in this household, and sometimes appalled. And yet I've enjoyed just soaking it all in. I'm sure they have many criticisms about the way I lead my life, (and they've made a few of them widely known to me!) in the end we accept each others' differences and for the most part, my two months here have been pretty even sailing. Each day I try to remember to take a moment and be grateful for such a loving and accepting family.

Oh, so date night, was... well, it was a lot of things. Mostly it was yet another reminder of my utter inability to feel attracted to any man who might actually be good for me. This guy is good-looking, well-educated, into music, fairly stable, wants to get married, wants to have kids, and yet I'm totally uninterested. Great. Honestly, at this point, I'd rather have Reckless Clive in my life than a boyfriend. Speaking of which -

I finally heard back from a group called Project Samana. They come to the DR twice a year to spay and neuter dogs here. I wrote to them about Clive and they've assured me that as long as they can find her, they'll spay and vaccinate her. The extra good news is that they are coming down the first week in November. So that means I'll only have a short wait to hear if they were successful in finding her. Crossing my fingers big time on this! I should be reciting daily prayers to the canine gods and leaving offerings of fatty chicken outside my door every night.

It's the final countdown

So at last the end is breathing down my back. I've less than a week left in the DR. I'm trying to remember to embrace the good parts about going back to Seattle; amazingly enough I am looking forward to resuming a life of actually having work and responsibilities. I don't have much of either, but I think I have just enough to give some meaning and purpose to my life. While my idle decadence has been enjoyed to the fullest here, there is a facet of happiness that can only be met from physically applying oneself. Sloth is great for a while, but I do yearn for activity. My waistline especially yearns for physical activity, as I've managed to gain 5 pounds since I got here. Hopefully I can be strong-willed enough to rid myself of the bad habits picked up, such as rum and cokes at all hours, neck-packing at dinner (dammit, Dave, why is it all so delicious!), dessert every night, 50 oz. bottles of beer, butter, butter, more butter, corn chips, breakfast-noonsies-lunch-snack-appetizer-dinner-dessert, and all the while rum rum rum.

I sure am heartbroken at the thought of leaving my nephew. It finally makes more sense than ever how you can love this person so much at yet sometimes want to throw them off a cliff. Just when you think you can't stand the relentless questioning and the overly dramatic temper tantrums and the hard iron stubbornness, he'll do something that absolutely melts your heart. And I'm just the auntie who's been here two months. I imagine the feelings must be tenfold in both directions when it's actually your kid.

So, yes, I'll be leaving behind Adian, and the warm tropical weather, the decadent food, the free rum, the absence of responsibilities, the lascivious stares from the Latin men, the 8 hours of sleep every night, the tremendous thunder storms, the fantastic amount of living space, the hammock, and my amazing family that will forever have my utmost gratitude. But Seattle has a lot of great things too, like... er...

My rats!
My friends!

and... um...

good beer!

Geeze I think I might really miss this place ;)

Date night postponed, good news about Clive!

So date night was postponed, but the good news is that date night is still on for Sunday. Dave is making fried chicken and my paramour will be in attendance. Which will be interesting for sure. I already feel kind of like I'm a teenager and Dave is my dad, so Sunday has the potential to be truly uncomfortable, but get enough rum in all of us and I'm sure it'll be just fhaaaaaaaaaane.

And there is good news on the Clive front!!!! I got word today from a woman who lives on the Samana peninsula who works with a group from the US that comes down twice a year to spay and neuter street dogs. I told her about Clive and asked her if there was anything she could do to help get Clive spayed and vaccinated. I didn't hear back for over a week and a half, but she finally got back to me today and said that the group from the US would be in the area the first week of November, and if they could find Clive, they'd spay and vaccinate her! So that's a huge stumbling block potentially cleared. There's still a lot of hurdles to contend with - they may not find her when they are in the area, and even if they do, she may not be there by the time I can come back down here. But still, the spay and vaccination were the biggest difficulty, and even if that's all I can get for her, at least I will have been able to do that for her. So now all I can do is sit back and wait til the first week of November and hope that they are able to find her.

Date night!

Hello gentle blog-readers. Today I tell you of my impending date night. And here I thought I'd make it out of the DR without any liaisons with Dominican men.

I met him while walking the dogs last night, he's one of our neighbors. And here's a shock - he's a skinny guy who plays guitar. My, my, Allison, really breaking away from the norm, aren't we? Hey, at least he's not the typical Allison so white you can partially see through the pale flesh white boy. I told him to take me to a place where we can get really good mofungo. And no, that's not code for something tawdry, that's a local food made with plantains and meat.

And now I'm off to eat deep-fried cheese-filled bacon risotto balls.

Life is nice.

Tired

Today was by far the most active day I've had here yet. Started the morning off with some yoga with Joan, and in the middle of it a friend called and asked if I wanted to go to a Latin dance class with her at a local gym. "Yeah, sure," said I. It was fun and I'm glad I went, but I much prefer dance classes where there is essentially no routine. I'm a great dancer, I just don't learn steps very easily, and although I find some enjoyment in ultimately learning the routine, I much prefer just dancing whichever way the music moves me. But still, it was pretty cool to participate. Went home for a wee rest, and then took off to another Saturday softball game. This was the first time playing without any trace of cloud cover and it was OMG hot. Still, I managed (with the help of some beer and rum) to have the best time playing so far. Someone cranked up the tunes from their car so we had Latin dance music blaring for most of the game. It was hella fun and sweat was epic. Plus, we ALMOST won! Almost ;)

So now I'm up getting ready for bed, and will probably succeed in watching about 10 minutes of The Tudors before passing out in a well-deserved coma sleep.