Saturday, April 3, 2010

One Man Band

getting pumped

10 days, 10 days, 10 days, I leave in 10 days.  It's even less here on Roatan because I have to go to San Pedro Sula, which means I have to take the ferry to La Ceiba and then a bus ride to San Pedro, spend the night and then catch a flight.  I think it finally hit on my birthday.  I turned 29 on Friday, it also hit that next year I will be 30.  I know it's not that big of deal, people most likely turn 30 every day.  Just like people, most likely, leave the island everyday, but those people aren't me.  Ok, so it's more like 8 days left here and then on top of that less than a year before I turn 30.  I'm sure I had some idea of what I would be like when I turned 30 and I'm positive that I never thought that this would be me, no I'm sure I didn't think past the age of 27 which is when I thought I would be married and having children.  The thing is I still think of myself as 18, ok maybe 19 now.  Now, I can't imagine my life any different and no way in hell can I imagine being married with or without children.  I am so thankful for the choices I have made in my life and all the wonderful people I have met along the way.  So lets get on with it.


yes, amanda fell down

Conal left a few days ago, it was crap, see I need to get off the island, I don't remember what day he actually left.  I've always kinda had the problem of remembering the exact days here, but this was only a few days ago.  Well, I do remember Monday night.  Ugh, Monday.  So with a little discussion with the powers that be I am officially a Dive Master.  And most Dive Masters, although it is not required, do a snorkel test when they finish.  Conal and DMT2 convinced me, well with not too much effort and the ok from Kala that I should do my snorkel test with them.  The snorkel test is a little bit of like joining a fraternity, binge drinking which is something that mature 29 year old women probably shouldn't do, but I was 28 and so young and you make mistakes.  Snorkel test means donning a mask with a snorkel attached and someone pouring alcoholic liquid into a funnel like contraption and the test is to swallow it hole without stopping.  You can't breathe out of your nose because it's in the mask and what usually happens is that people take half before taking the snorkel out of your mouth and then continuing, or they never really put it all in their mouth- like Conal, or they complete it with flying alcoholic tendencies and drink all of it without stopping and then throw up- like DMT2.  The two boys and I did our snorkel test on a Monday at the Blue Marlin.  During the day, I'm pretty sure I hung out at the beach and then went to the Blue Marlin with Mo, Max and Amanda.  No wait, I don't think that I went to the beach, but I was smart enough to be wearing my bathing suit so when I spit out half of the liquid I wouldn't get it all over my shirt.  Before the test, we had dinner for Conal's last night, (it's all coming back to me as I write, so Conal must have left on Tuesday), before dinner Max, Amanda, Mo and I played with legos.  Amanda is the best at making things out of legos, but I did manage to make a little Paris in Roatan.  Max made stairs, or maybe someone made them for him and for 10 minutes he amused himself my making one of the legos walk up and down the stairs and then let the lego fall and said Amanda fell down.  He's a little obsessed with it, but Amanda gets back into the water (hopefully) on Monday after finding out that she fractured her rib by falling down stairs.  We've been hanging out tons since both of us have been out of the water and also we work at the Blue Marlin together, live together and have birthday's one day apart- but I'll get back to the birthday celebrations in a few.  Eddie said he was nicer in making the beverage for me then for the boys, apparently that meant I didn't get an egg or whiskey.  Well, I went first because, really I finished my DMT before the other two boys even freaking started.  Chase poured my test because he was the last to get his Dive Masters.  I poured Conal's, who again was a bit a of a puss and drank about 1/5th of his and spit out the rest.  Conal poured DMT2's who took his snorkel test in full, then puked and spitted for the next 5 minutes or so.  I think turning almost 30 means that I shouldn't really chug alcohol anymore... although my friend Ivan back in Colorado loves doing it, but I think, for me, 29 is the age that we need to retire that.


disaster waiting to happen


play that funky music white boy


It was one of those nights where you aren't sure what will end up happening.  Brion James was playing at the Dive across the street and our Conal is an amazing singer.  He really should try and be famous and buy me a boat so I can sail around the world, or I'll take a vineyard in Italy or France, or a villa someplace beautiful and tropical or a chateau in the mountains or hell, Conal if you are going to be rich and famous you can buy me all those things.  Even better you can buy them and I'll just stay at them for free.  Conal told me once that if he and I were the last people alive in the world, no don't go there, that's dirty, if we were the last people in the world he would be afraid for his life because I am a survivor and would steal all his food from him and make him gather and hunt for it.  Scavenger?  Manipulator?  Does that make sense?  Well, I think it was a backhanded compliment, anyway here's my compliment, wait for it.  So Conal sang with Brion James and rocked the hell out of the Dive.  Brion James is good but seriously Conal's voice is amazing and should be a professional singer.  Oh, I'll get back to the night of the snorkel test night but I just thought of the Sunday before the Monday.  DMT2, Conal and I walked down to West Bay.  I'm a little sad that that might be the last time that I walk to West Bay.  It's one of my favorite walks, along the beach, climbing over a few rocks, mounting a little unstable bridge (which yay Roatan, they have fixed it since I've been here).  We spent the day with all good people around lounging in the sun and as the sun was setting I realized that everything ends at one time or another as the sun set.  Max wanted to take a water taxi back to West End, so we all jumped in one of the last water taxi's back to West End and went for dinner at Rotisserie Chicken.  2 chickens, 7 sides for 10 and a half (Max) people and less than $50 and very good.  After dinner we went to Karaoke to listen to Conal sing.  Again, Conal get with the singing already, make me some money.  We danced, well Kala and I danced and we had a great time.  Semana Santa started and as I was horribly singing Like a Prayer I turned around and saw a stream line of traffic lights coming into West End at 11 pm or so.  I got a little distracted and really shouldn't be singing, but sometimes I think that I sound better than I actually am, well at least when I'm driving I feel like that.  God, it's been forever since I've properly driven.  Wonder if I'll remember. :)  Ok, I'm getting to the good point, well it's all a good point, but I'm getting to the boy point of the story.  First of all, dear readers don't judge me because I have written quite a bit in this blog about drinking and if you read this blog I do have many crushes, but I can't help it.  I'm crushable, or have tendencies to have crushes or something like that.  Ok, so karaoke ends, Conal, DMT2, two girls that the boys are hitting on, a guy that one of the girls is hitting on and me decide to walk to Barefeet bar which should be open a little later for one last drink.  Although, at this point drinking is the last thing on my mind.  A dutch friend named Bob who is also a dive instructor on the island and who is absolutely adorable and his friend, hmmm, this is the point of the story that I can't think up a witty little name for him.  All my crushes on the island have had nicknames; Mystery Guy, Mr. 1, Mr. 2, Mr. 3, Mr. 4, Charming Billy, Fish, DMT2 and Dreamboat.  Crushes, I'm not slutty, don't judge, judging is bad.  But Bob's friend deserves a good name, because he is a good guy.  Conal was telling me, while we were talking about boys and girls and relationships that I always fall for the bad boy types and that nice guys always finish last.  To which I jutted in well they finish last don't they, that it's better to be (well not completely, but) a nice guy because that means to me that there is no one after the last one.  Oh gosh, I have still a lot more to tell you and I'm on such a tangent, lets try and get this thing back on track.  I'll just call him by his real name, (internal cringe, should I really do this??) ok here it goes, (breathing a bit rapidly and shallow).  Ok, so back to the story, so I bumped into Bob and his friend Brett while I was heading out with my disaster crew.  Brett says to me "Hello gorgeous" as I go up to say hi to them.  Sigh.  Ok, so we start walking to Barefeet, Bob's on his bicycle and the rest of the crew is far ahead of us walking, so for about 10 minutes I walk with Brett.  He's a nice guy, I have a crush on him.  Barefeet was of course closed and at the end we all walked our separate ways home.  Ok, back to Conal's last night; Monday night.  Well get to Brett soon enough, oh and my birthday celebration.


So Monday ended up being a very bohemian night hanging out with Jenny, DMT2, Aaron Daniels and his girlfriend, whose name escapes me (another sign I need to go if I forget people's names), oh I think it is Ree.  After all the bars kicked us out we hung out at the Jenny Blenny house on her deck.  The deck has a this amazing view of the waves crashing on the iron shore, it has a hammock and also a bed to lounge on.  Aaron Daniels and Ree currently live in Seattle.  Aaron used to live here, he's a musician.  An amazing musician.  He does a One Man Band, which I think he calls a One Man Banned.  Clever and it's amazing to listen to him, but I'll get more to the music when we discuss my birthday.  Aaron and DMT2 talked for a bit and the girls were talking about The Cube Game.  I, was never in a fraternity and never should have been in one, and had too much to drink so I was fading in and out of their conversation and listening to the waves crash and watching the full moon fall further into the western sky.  The girls asked me, or maybe I asked them what the heck they were talking about.  So the game, is based on a book called, I think Secrets of the Cube.  Jenny did my cube and it goes as follows.  Jenny told me to picture a desert scene, my desert scene was bright sandy desert with the most amazing jeweled sky.  So the deal is, to play the game you have to go with your gut and say whatever comes first.  So you imagine a cube, my cube was kinda of big.  You could fit more than a few people in it and it was made entirely of glass, you could see the beautiful sky and desert reflected in it.  The position of the cube is also important, my cube was floating in the middle of the scene.  Next, you picture a ladder in the scene.  My ladder was made of teak wood, which Aaron's girlfriend is actually a self-healing wood and had 12 rungs.  Next you picture a horse in the scene, my horse was tan and had beautiful blonde hair.  The horse did not have a saddle on it, it was roaming free but it was gentle enough that maybe someday it would be tamed but a little wild still.  Then comes the storm, Jenny asked me to tell her if there was a storm in the picture.  No, I looked everywhere in the picture and couldn't find a storm, behind me, in front of me, to the sides not one storm, beautiful sunny skies.  Finally, I was to tell her if there were any flowers in the picture.  In front of me I couldn't see any flowers, but all behind me I saw a field of flowers.  I won't explain it all to you what mine means, because if this is really interesting to you and you want to do your own picture your own scene I wouldn't want to ruin it for you.  :)  Well, Ree and Aaron end up snuggling up on the bed on the deck as Jenny, DMT2 and I start talking.  Then Jenny decides to take pictures of the sun rising with the waves crashing.  This is when things get a little sour.  DMT2 had a bit too much to drink and was in a weird mood and starts being mean to Jenny.  Which she frankly tells him to stop it.  He continues and finally she kicks him out of her house as the sun is rising.  Jenny then made me breakfast, we were bitching as she was cooking me steak and spinach.  We were both bitching and while we were eating lovely, adorable Jenny says to me, Oh shit, I made angry food.  Meaning that she thought she over cooked the food and the emotion that she was feeling when she was cooking went into the food.  Well, Jenny went to bed downstairs and I climbed into the bed on the deck, Aaron and Ree had left at this point.  I woke up, knowing that I shouldn't ever drink too much.  I puked in Jenny's bohemian paradise, in the toilet of course.  Thank god.  I'm classy like that, when I'm 29 I shouldn't do those kind of things.


Well, lets get to my birthday.  So all week has been Semana Santa, which means tons of Spaniards from the Mainland come to Roatan.  I worked my ass off at the Argentintean on Thursday only to get very, very little tips, because according to everyone on the island the Spaniards don't tip for shit and are a bit rude.  Well, I'm not sure if that's entirely true, but a huge part of it was.  Annalia, the manager at the Arg had asked me if I could work on my birthday, but I had told Eddie that I would work with Amanda behind the bar for our birthdays.  Did I tell you that Amanda's birthday is the day after mine?  Well it is.  Oh crap, I'm skipping something during the week.  So it must of been Wednesday, well whatever I have no clue what day it was, but it was this week.  So I saw Brett again at the 50 bar.  Crush is growing as I write this, I'm leaving in 8 days and so sad that I didn't meet him before.  Well, we hung out chatting, making fun of some people's outfits- like the guy on a tropical island who is wearing a velour blue suit with leopard print lining.  I'm sweating just wearing shorts and a top, he must insanely hot, and of course looked insanely hot and a little bit like a pimp, but that could have been the sunglasses that he was wearing at night and the gold tooth.  Ok, I made up the gold tooth, but the rest was totally serious.  So, I can't tell you all my secrets, but I hope I see Brett soon, before I leave preferably.  :)  Ok, back to the birthday extravaganza!  


Birthday extravaganza night; Amanda and I woke up, I put on a pretty dress and the only heels that I brought here and we walked down to the shop.  As we are walking down a little boy stops me and says M'am you are very beautiful.  Uwe and Dorte gave me two big hugs and a card that made me so sad to leave them, but hopefully things will work out like they said in the card, that I'll be back soon with all of my friends that they know and love.  Oh, I forgot about this part.  So on the snorkel test night, Jenny was telling me the reason why she choose Tyll's Dive.  It was my boys; Todd, Lanai and Brad.  Jenny had just got to the island and the boys were so much fun and had such a good vibe that she decided to dive with Tyll's and the boys.  It comes full circle once again and now, Jenny is a part owner and I'm here diving with them.  I think those boys are pretty cool, I guess, but don't tell them.  So Mo and Max and I were going to do birthday cake around noon or so, so Amanda and I decided to head to Coxen Hole to get some much needed water, some food supplies and to look for crowns to wear and a present for Max.  Fail number one; groceries are closed for good friday.  Fail number two; we didn't get water in Coxen Hole but ended up carrying the empty one around all over while trying to find our crowns.  Fail number three: it's hot as hell, I'm wearing a dress and high heels.  Fail number four: I forget how to say crown in Spanish... really?  I figure it out, Corona.   We walk up and down, most stores are closed for the holiday, but then we meet up with Dreamy Charlie, who I've taken to calling Boy Charming and he calls me Babyface.  So we finally find a crazy store that is open that sells freaking crowns and toys for kids.  Thank you universe.  Amanda and I immediately put on our crowns and are walking to the bus stop with  Boy Charming.  We catch a full bus of crazy loud people ready for the beach.  Charlie pays before we get off the bus, still enroute and I think they are trying to charge him more than regular.  He speaks Spanish fluently.  The boys on the bus make all sorts of comments.  One of the guys says that it's much more because you are riding with queens... yes Amanda and I are wearing our corona's.  We wait for a family of 5 in an already packed and hot bus.  They have all their stuff for their beach with them.  One of the guys says, hey you forgot the pool.  It's funny, the little girl of the family looks at me after the guy says the thing about me and Amanda wearing crowns.  I turn to the little girl and tell her it's my birthday, she gets big eyes.  When we get off the bus the little girl comes up to me and give me a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek and says have a happy birthday.  All day long little girls are staring at me, their mom's saying it's a real live princess.  We have cake with Max and he opens all his presents.  He got a bike, cars to play with, an etch a sketch, a motorcycle (from Amanda and me), and a few other things.  Then Mo gives me a present and we drink a bottle of champagne and chat.  I'm going to miss you Mo.  I go home at some point to change before work.  Oh gosh, I still have a bit more to tell.
aaron working

So Amanda and I; crowns- check, busty shirts- check, attitudes- check.  We start at the bar, Eddie tells us that it's just the two of us working the bar.  Aaron Daniels is playing tonite too.  Aaron starts around 9ish.  He does this amazing thing where he records what he play and then plays it back.  The effect is that the music sounds like a full band although it's just a guy, a guitar and a speakerphone.  Pure brilliance and amazing.  A lot of people come to the bar.  A lot of people had the same birthday as me too.  There is Captain Ron, Max and Christine (Brett's roommate) and then a girl that I met who was wearing a huge cut out penis on her head for her friend's stag party.  We had seen the guys earlier in the night wearing reindeer antlers.  I hope that they brought those with them instead of trying to look all around Coxen Hole for them.  So at the bar, Fish and his new girlfriend come, DMT2 is blatantly flirting with a girl at the bar.  I'm fine, I just wish that they all wanted me the most and even though I don't want them.  It's an ego thing, ya I know now I'm 29 and need to get a little mature and realize that they love me individually but that it's ok for them to love other people too.  Before Aaron starts playing, Amanda and I play "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" which has become my theme song.  We play it every morning while making bacon.  The night was awesome, we had a great time.  My legs hurt by the end of the night, so I called it a bit earlier than everyone else.  The Blue Marlin closed early at 1, but all other bars could stay open till 3 because of Semana Santa.  I went to 50 Bar, perhaps looking for someone or something, but I didn't find it so I left my lovely Amanda on her birthday to dance her heart out with Boy Charming and friends.  When I got home, I couldn't sleep so I started writing my blog and making bacon.  Ugh, I love bacon.  A little after hours party started when my roommate came home, there was some salsa dancing and finally, I fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning.

Well, now I'm 29 and a day and only here for a less than 8 full days.  I better stop writing and go enjoy this beautiful island and maybe, maybe if I'm lucky I'll find what I'm looking for.  I'm pretty used to being my own one man band, but even the one man band has his girlfriend.


birthday princesses

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