Happy birthday, Mom, Nessa, Bartle, Jon, and Lisa! (I’m not going to be able to keep this up. Where’s my calendar!!??)
The spiral, the touchdown, the calm, the comfortable feeling of inertia. Back to the warm hug of humidity, to the taste of beans, rice, and papaya, to the linsguistic and cultural cadence of Latin America. Back to the land of spiders the radius of my palm, caterpillars as thick and long as a grown man’s finger, and giant moths whose bite will make your eye swell out of your head (such moths should not be picked up after being removed half-dead from the front grill of your rental car just to appease your screaming toddler – I’m just saying). I encountered all of these things within my first 12 hours home, plus mosquitoes wasted no time in making an absolute feast out of my still California-sweet flesh. Ha ha, back in paradise! But it sure is beautiful, and we’ve also gotten to dine with speckled grasshoppers, stand in flurries of big, bright yellow butterflies, and frolick in a bit of mid-winter sun to counterbalance the nuisances.
Our last couple of weeks in California were also blissful …and blistering. Mid-July California (with a little help from global warming), forced us into the hotel swimming pool almost every day, drove us to seek oases of shade or freon, and baked us to a crispy golden red. It was Arizona in Northern California! How funny that we had to come to San Francisco for sun. And though Chris' immediate regression into the sneezy-runny-itchy world of allergies was doubtful all that lovely, our trip was lovely, truly.
For those of you now thinking, “That b%$#@” didn’t tell me they were coming to California!” Or “That f#$&@% didn’t call me!” – you’re probably right, but it wasn’t on purpose! Excuse our tired, tap-dancing, and travel-worn souls until the next time. We missed you.
Chris worked full-time during our visit, but of the time we had together to cavort with friends and family(my goddess, we have the best), we had so many fun and varied experiences that to chronicle them all here would be potentially more self-indulgent than interesting (as if a blog isn’t self-indulgent enough). Besides, if we must get technical, this blog is supposed to be about our life in Costa Rica, not our exotic and exciting outbound adventures in Northern California with hippies, city dwellers, goddesses, Rastafarians, and techies. (Though I know I can be influenced to diverge …). Anyway, we were happy to return to the East Bay, City, and Sonoma County to reconnect with our people and resubmerge ourselves in all of the beautiful characteristics and contradictions that Northern California has to offer: dreadlocks, bronzed bodies, gold teeth, Crest White Strip smiles, sunglasses, hairy armpits, cheese enchiladas, vegan hotdogs, business suits, flowy skirts, urban bravado, and political correctness. I miss the sheer volume and daily variety of folks and fancies. "All the freaky people make the beauty of the world." Someone said that. ;)
We’re continuing to settle back in here after our time of summer barbecues and poolside days. Our suitcases are still full, the cupboard’s still a bit bare, my Spanish still needs a bit of oil, and Wilder’s still not going to bed until midnight. (How can you have jetlag with just a single hour’s time difference? It’s called Daylight Saving Time!) Our reassimilation continues, and this tale will too...
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