Unwritten

beach day with Conal, me and Maria

I am unwritten, it's just the beginning, the ending is unplanned.  I was almost finished with this blog when my trusty macBook decided to suddenly shut down on me, it's amazing the things that breakdown here.  It's like a vortex for things breaking down; both people and things.  I had everything done except for the ending, but I guess I'll just have to try it again.  Staring at the blank page before me, I'll search for the words and hopefully they will come to me again.

Lets start with last night.  Last night was my first night as a bartender at the Blue Marlin.  Who knew that I would come down to Roatan and become a waitress and bartender.  I guess I just do things in opposite order than most, seeking out my own way, my own path and sometimes breaking tradition.  I started my "work career" in corporate America, moving around small business and now almost finishing the dive master and waiting tables and bartendering.  I show up at the Marlin around 7 after another wonderful day at the beach with Amanda, Mo and Max at Sundowners.  Eddie gives me the lay of the land and then around 9 pm or so the power goes out.  No problem because they have a generator.  Eddie goes to turn on the generator and someone, one of our neighbors has been tampering with it.  We decide to light the candles and continue serving beers and maybe soon we will be closing down and drinking somewhere else.  It's Pete's last night and Joe's too.  People start filling in the bar and Eddie turns to me and says, wow we might actually makes some money tonite.  It's a fun crowd and after a couple of hours the power turns on again.  It was a good night, Eddie sure knows how to run a bar and the tips were decent.

my roommate's porno x rays and retard pills

I worked at the Argentinean on Tuesday again and have picked up a few more shifts this and next week.  I'm holding my own and trying not to get too frustrated that I have to share my tips.  I had two tables that tipped me $30 and of course had to share with the other waitstaff, which I don't mind giving for two of the three because two of them work their butts off, but the third doesn't speak English so never takes orders.  Whatever, it's better than at the other restaurant I worked here.  Tuesday night was slow, but I got to hang out with the always fun and sassy Maria Jose.  I had seen her Sunday at the beach and she was a pretty tipsy and sassy then.  I've been going to the beach a lot lately, working on my highlights and tan before I go to Colorado, I have to have something to show for my time here especially if I can't tell my boys back home that I am a dive master officially.  My friend Lanai might be helping me with the equipment exchange when I get back because he is an instructor.  He says he wants to do it in Lake Dillon in May when it's cold, I say no, I say warm, maybe a pool and I can't go too deep because I want my ear to be all better.  It comes a bit full circle all the time because my boys are one of the main reasons why I am here and doing my dive master, it's a bit funny if Lanai finishes my certification.  Really, my show should be a life... you can't write it better than real life.  You cannot make this shit up.

I saw Dreamboat again last Friday.  It was my first shift at the Marlin doing the tables and he pops in to say hi before he went to have dinner with his crewmates.  I took Amanda's shift at the bar because she had fallen down the stairs while it was raining.  She's an instructor at one of the other dive shops in town and can't dive until it's clear that her ribs are not broken.  We went to the hospital on Monday which was a bit of a fiasco.  We go into Woods Clinic to get X rays.  I tell the nurses that she needs X rays because she has fallen down the stairs, we don't have to wait too long and soon they are taking the X rays.  After the first slide was inconclusive the doctor orders a second look.  The X rays aren't that clear, you can see her spine quite well but the area that is hurt, her ribs that connect to her sternum where the pain is are very vague.  The doctor thinks that one might be fractured. So they take a second look, this time she thinks that they are fine.  Since it's very important to know if they are fractured or broken because she's a diver they ask for the specialist to come down and take a look.  If her ribs are fractured or broken and she goes diving they could puncture a lung and then she could never dive again.  So while we are waiting for the specialist, the doctor decides to put her on an IV with codeine for the pain and give her oxygen.  The nurse stabs her multiple times while trying to put in the IV, I'm watching as Amanda's watching me make horrific faces and the lady is stabbing her.  Finally the specialist comes and this time what do you know they put her in a different position to look at the ribs.  The specialist also asks again for her name, they've asked about 5 times for her name and age and the specialist also asks when she fell, which is something the other doctor did not do.  When we finally do get the X rays for her to take home they have her name completely wrong; it says Aminda Lawrence- not even close to her last name.  So for the final X rays they have her face the slide instead of take a picture of her back.  We had heard a horror story this weekend about a guy who had broke his arm and they took X rays of the wrong arm, we thought how hard would it be to mess up the ribs and wouldn't you say that if they were taking X rays of the wrong arm you would say something.  Oh, lessons to be learned.  Well, the X rays are inconclusive and she has to go back for more in a few days.  We go to pay and they are trying to charge her for the X rays that the doctors messed up, they also are trying to charge her for pain pills which she doesn't want and anti-inflamatory pills.  We discuss with them and take off the bill by about half and head to find the bus back home.  I had asked a few different people how to catch the bus back to West End and got a few different answers and we walked around for a little bit in the pouring rain.  The directions were something like take a right down the sidewalk across from the grocery store, down the side walk and at the end of it.  First of all there are so many little groceries in Coxen Hole and yes there are sidewalks everywhere.  We finally get it and walk down a sidewalk only street and find a bus back home.  At home, Amanda looks at her pills and they say retard on them.  She got retard pills for falling down the stairs.

dreamy Charlie, Dreamboat and me

Oh ya, did I mention that I'm living with Amanda now?  I'll get back to the Dreamboat story in a bit or maybe I'll tell it in chronological order from now on instead of jumping back and forth.  It's fun this jumping back and forth isn't it?  It's like me, I don't know what's happening next.  Today is where the book begins, the rest is still unwritten.  Ok, Dreamboat, he is a fun story.  So after he eats dinner with his crew he stops by the Blue Marlin.  I'm sitting chatting with Mo because the dinner crowd has calmed down, the band The Lyin' Fish are now playing and soon crazy Paul will start up his show of playing the Rolling Stones on the big screen.  A 100 ft screen on two plywood pieces, it's a bit comical.  Dreamboat comes up and starts chatting with us, Mo tells me that I can go and hang out with him and they don't need me anymore at work.  The boat crew, their newest infatiuations and my newest decide that they want to check out all the bars.  Being the only "local" I take them to Perry's Floating Bar.  We hang out there for a little bit and then head over to the new bar 50 Bar.  Amanda had gone home earlier in the night but we found her and a dreamy guy named Charlie at 50 bar.  We dance, we have fun, we kiss it's fun.  He was fun to talk with and to kiss.  He was one of those in your life that maybe he was a figment of your imagination.   A charming guy to make you believe in fairytales, so freaking cute and at least for the two nights that I saw him we could believe in fairytales again.  

max and his ice cream

amanda and her wine

The day after Dreamboat night Amanda, Mo, Max and I decided to go to West Bay for a beach day.  The girls had some wine and Max had a few ice creams.  We sat under the grass huts for lunch and then worked on our tans for the rest of the day.  I was moving out of Pete and Bridget Jones' place and into Sunset Villas with Amanda, so we left the beach and moved me from one place to the next.  Amanda and I had many tentative plans that night but only ended up going to Kala and Chase's for indian curry dinner.  We were supposed to meet Conal and DMT2 at the Blue Marlin, we of course were running late and when we got there only Conal was there.  I needed to find Pete to give him the keys to his place because Bridget Jones was in La Ceiba figuring out what was wrong at a far superior hospital on the mainland.  We ran over to Sundowners and found DMT2 talking to some girl and he said he may or may not being coming to dinner, still no Pete.  I ran back to the Marlin and dropped the keys off with Fou for Pete in the likelyhood that he would stop by there, which of course he did.  We took a taxi to Kala and Chase's bungalow in the mangroves.  There apartment is awesome.  Most of the living space is outside with an amazing deck, a short walk to the beach, a fountain with a bench to sit and read and a boat slip for the owner.  There is also a jacuzzi but they haven't used it quite yet.  Kala was making amazing chicken curry and Chase had made the delicious naan bread.  We sat down to eat when Chase got a call, 5 minutes later DMT2 and the amazing Jenny Blenny show up.  I love Jenny Blenny and was so lucky to hang out with her.  There was 2 instructors, 2 dive masters and 3 DMT's so of course we talked about diving and shops.  Jenny is still on crutches but her spirit is still strong.  After dinner we headed back into town and stopped off at the Blue Marlin.  Jenny, Amanda and I are divers who have been out of the water and we saw the most amazing thing at the Marlin.  3 small eagle rays played for 45 minutes off the back deck where Tyll's keeps their boat.  Amanda said they were there just for the 3 of us.  Jenny said she loved how they would flip their wings so for a few seconds you would see the white underbelly exposed, quite coquettish like a girl showing the underside of her skirt.  Amanda said that they looked like they were learning how to fly.  I agree with them both and was so happy to see 3 eagle rays while not diving.  They floated back and forth in between the light and dark.

Saturday was another beach day!  The waves had picked up because a storm was coming and Amanda and I took one of the last water taxis out of West End to West Bay.  We met up with Chase, Kala, Conal and DMT2.  Chase and Kala brought their blow up turtles to lounge on and we lounged on the white mattresses at the Beach Club.  I ran into my coworker Maria who was on fire and a bit drunk.  We had a good time goofing around.  We also ran into our neighbors and dreamy Charlie.  Since there was no more taxis back to West End we hopped into the back of a the neighbor's truck and back to Sunset Villas.  At our place we had our second dinner party in a row.  Conal, two neighbors, dreamy Charlie, DMT2 and I ate Amanda's amazing pasta dish.  Someone had a little bit too much to drink and he entertained us for most of the night, our stomachs hurt from laughing too much the next day.  He slept on the couch and in the middle of the night I woke up to him coughing his brains out, but luckily he just needed some water.  The next night since Amanda made the boys dinner, they decided that they would make us dinner.  It was a rainy day and Amanda and I had been walking around Coxen Hole going to the hospital and then trying to find the bus station.  We had felt the rain on our skin all day and it's always nice for boys to cook for you.  Mo and Max came over and dreamy Charlie made an incredible dinner.  We had a good time and went to bed early.


I booked my ticket, or I should say after much hassle wit the travel guard people who were  of no help what so ever my mom bought my ticket home.  I'll be living in my parents basement for a bit, but it all comes full circle.  I'm leaving April 13th and flying out of San Pedro Sula.  DMT2 is leaving around the same time out of San Pedro so we might go together, but things can always change.  I can't believe it's set in stone that I'm leaving.  I watched Alice in Wonderland this morning with Amanda and at the end, don't worry I won't ruin it for you, at the end the Mad Hatter says to Alice, why don't you stay in Wonderland forever?  She says, well there are things I need to do at home.  I feel you Alice, no more wonderland for me soon.  I'm reaching out in the distance to home but still  having a great time here.  I have 2 good paying jobs now and an amazing roommate/friend, great friends and a good clean place to live.  It's so perfect I can almost taste it, but lets not get too ahead of ourselves it's still unwritten here.  As that song Nasha Bedingfield says " feel the rain on your skin, no one else can feel it for you, only you can let it in, no one else, no one else, can speak the words on your lips, drench yourself in words unspoken, live your life with arms wide open, today is where your book begins... the rest is still unwritten."

two eagle rays at the Marlin