Oh this is gonna be gooooooood!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ahhh all my favorite people..all doing reports at once! I could just die!!!! So much to read, and I can hardly keep up...all my friends are such excellent writers I didnt even bother this time....Side splitting laughter you have provided thru my whole trip! Im back at the camp fire and here come all my friends....feet up and smiling....we are ready! ...LOVE you guys...I'll never be the same! ( well.... hand to forehead.....thank god ! ) hahahahha
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This is wonderful reading, making me long for a trip soon. I'm anxiously waiting to read and experience more as well as looking forward to some pics.
Sweet guirigay. Your words makes my heart sing, hearing our story, everyone's story, makes me feel so lucky to have been a small part of something so wonderful. I long for a reunion back in negril with everyone who has become so intrigral to my being that I can not imagine having lived so long in my life without having them in mine and gurigay's life sooner. I long to be backin negril, where I belong, with all the people that I love.
Well said Sweetie Pie!Originally Posted by Sweetie pie
Guirigay...loving it. Holding my breath for more.
Sweetie Pie...you said it perfectly! I agree wholeheartedly.....and I miss you both so much! And all of you! And Negril! Sigh........
The magic bus was prepped for the trip. A cooler up front had chilly Red Stripes waiting for us. I’m chatting with Ninja as we get on the bus and he is wearing this completely bad ass Red Stripe hat, all kind of beat up looking with what looks like a Stripe cap on the bill. “Dude.” This is my common greeting to any human I feel a connection to, a leftover from my hippie surf punk adolescence in Southern California. “Dude, I love that hat!” “Yeah, it’s cool,” says Ninja, “ I got it our last trip, check this out.” Ninja pops this smile, a little mischievous, a little excited, that I would see SO many times in the coming week. A Red Stripe comes out of the cooler and the cap comes off Ninja’s head. He holds the bottle to the brim of his cap and with a quick pop hands me a ready to consume beverage. “Bottle opener,” he says with a grin, holding up the brim of the cap to reveal just that on the underside, “And it always catches the cap!” He shows me the crown of the ball cap and there it is…
I shatzed myself.
We stop on the hip strip at Digicel to get our phone situation set up. I have never cared about having a phone in the Caribbean. One of the reasons I go there is to disconnect but this time I know I’m going to want to get a hold of folks at different places at different times. We now own a Jamaican cell phone and were very glad we got it for this trip. Saved us one night…
Tizzy got her phone before us and by the time we get out to the bus Tizzy has walked down the alley to some local vendor shops. First wayward turtle of the trip. (Thanks BeccaJ, this is now a permanent part of our vernacular!) We fend off a rush of vendors waiting for Tiz but EVENTUALLY get back under way.
The energy in this quarter filled commercial bus is stupid off the hook. We are probably lucky there weren’t any more of us, it was combustible as it was. It is a crazy thing to finally meet someone you already know. How is that possible? This right here MADE that right there.
Thank you Rob Graves, thank you VERY much.
What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understanding?
We’re on the road to Negril, pulling out of Mo Bay and I’m ten kinds of jacked up with a cocktail of adrenaline and ephedrine and pheromones and probably just about every physiologically produced stimulant there is. And I’m drinking, and I seem to be drinking quickly. Before we get to Lucea I’m past a sixer. “I can’t believe how GOOD I feel for a six pack!” “You look good for a six pack!” answers Marley.
I think we stop at a bar for a drink and bio break and I get my first Appleton and Ting of the week. God I love Appleton and Ting. It was perfect before the Rum and Ting and now it’s better. It seems perfection was being constantly improved upon all week.
Just around the corner, Bigga’s! We have been looking forward to this. I have shown Sweetie Pie pictures of Bigga and his never mussed white T-shirt. Unfortunately Bigga is not working tonight but the jerk is there. Spicy little jet black cubes of AMAZING pork. HOT sauce but not unbearable. Close, but bearable. I’m now in ecstasy mode.
All key ride in items accomplished we saddle back up for Negril. Things start to hit quickly after Lucea as we run through Orange Bay and Green Island. We’re watching the sun as we close in on Negril, it’s very low as we hit Bloody Bay. Chicken pulls over at a break in the trees at Long Bay Beach Park. We slide open the windows and catch our first sunset of the week. Sweetie Pie gets a couple of nice shots. What a sensation, all the excitement and pressing energy of FINALLY being there combined with the serene satisfaction of a gorgeous Negril sunset. A perfect way to arrive home…
What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understanding?
We rolled through downtown and up the West End. Not too far up the road we turn and head up a lane. Sweetie Pie and I had arrangements to stay in a Jamaican guest house. We were very excited about this. We have visions of being in Jamaica long term at some point in our future and had an offer to experience the sort of long term lodging that is available in Negril. We jumped at it. I will offer some advice and considerations involving these types of arrangements a little later. It was an eye opening experience for us.
We get settled in and pay the landlord for the duration of our stay. It’s a nice ground floor one bedroom apartment with lots of room, a full kitchen with a midi-fridge and a nice porch looking out on a well kept yard with three dogs that Sweetie falls for immediately. There are stairs up to the roof above the second floor that provides a gorgeous view of the sea. A nice crib we think.
We walk down the lane to the West End road and flag a route taxi. “200 to Seastar lane?” we ask and hop in. “It’s a long way to Seastar,” says the cabbie. “Long walk, yes,” we say, “We’ve done it a few times.” I give him 500 when he drops us off at the lane. The walk up the lane feels a little like a processional to a life changing event like a graduation or wedding. Remembrances of our last walk up this road a few months ago and huge excitement about what we’re going to walk into tonight. Suddenly we’re at the gate then have our wristbands and are looking around. Seastar has set up tents for the evening and the place looks great. We see the webcast set up and look nearby to see a table of familiar faces.
How many roads have been travelled, how many thousands of miles have passed, how many journeys, trials and tribulations have transpired to bring all of us to this table tonight. We don’t know it yet but I have an inkling. We are about to partake in a ritual of creation, the Genesis of New Family…
We approach the table and raise our hands in exultation!!
What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understanding?
The table is LOADED with people I’ve been anxious to see. Booger is there tooPatty and Kopper, Beachgirl and her friend – a quiet, lovely lady who smiled the ENTIRE week, Clarity and Hubby-man, Boogers better half Pooper, Marley and Ninja, and sitting right next to Tizzy and happily chatting away is a young Amish fellow who appears to be on his Rumspringa…
It turns out this is Jon, Boogers long time friend. I’m going to bust on Jon just a little bit here and there because, damn, he deserves it. I mean, come on, a single, good looking, athletic, charming, funny guy goes on vacation with his married pals and ends up LIVING THE DREAM?!?! He needs a little smack just once in a while to remind him “Yes, I’m alive and awake and this REALLY happened!” Of course, it never really happened…
Jon. Dude. RESPECT. Many bow before you…
Patty and Kopper are just perfect together. I had too in there for a second and then deleted it. Not too perfect together, perfect. I don’t remember what Patty was drinking but it had to be orange. Kopper was even in matching attire this evening. Patty was super excited to find out Booger was born just down the road from her in Chino. She was babysitting Joe and Manda (YES, BABYSITTING!) and looking for someone to give her a little relief. Those two were a handful. Mandy, you’re lucky you made it home alive! Joe, you are a sly dog, my friend!
Beachgirl is just super sweet. One of many I have to say I wish there had been more time for. And we had some lovely conversations. Just not enough. Can we go back NOW?
Clarity and Hubby-man are just exactly what I expected. Clarity is so nice and genuine and shy. Terribly, terribly shy. And beautiful. Just stunningly beautiful. I should probably look away now ‘cause it feels like I may have been staring beautiful. And because I knew her before I knew her, I knew the person inside was even better than the carriage outside.
And Hubby-man. Markus. Dude. Brother. A million words later I will say the same thing. Deep Love, One Love, and total respect.
Pooper is a great lady. She reminds me in a lot of ways of the better aspects of my Ex. Strong willed, bright, wild and fun. Hell, she flopped! My ex would have flopped. And she loves dogs, loves ALL animals. Sweetie Pie and her bonded, and for the rest of the week Sweetie Pie had to consider how Pooper would feel about some of her various dining choices!And on top of everything, Pooper is going to be canonized a saint because she is married to…
Booger. Everyone we met on Saturday was pretty much exactly as we expected from our board interactions. This was roundly agreed to by just about everyone. Booger, though, not so much. I’d always kind of pictured Booger as a crusty, twisted old coot with a snarky streak. Turns out he’s a young, snotty fratboy with a snarky streak… And he takes it every bit as easily as he dishes it out. I’m usually pretty good in the group party dynamic at throwing out the last comment on a riff, the one that nails it or, frequently, goes just that little bit too far that everyone says, “New Topic!” I think Booger owned me on this front. Truly funny guy, wild man from time to time, and a MACHINE…
GerryG swoops in for a few SECONDS, says hi to everyone and disappears. Dude is a whirlwind. His Negril Chill is to see as much of Negril as possible each reach. I think he succeeds every time.
And Marley and Ninja are just soaking the entire thing up. You can see it in their eyes, in their perma-smiles. Happiness, satisfaction and knowledge that we all now share of the certainty of expectations being exceeded. Again, I must ask, how can you exceed expectations that are through the roof? Like this. Done and done.
I know we meet more boardies this evening but it gets a little blurry. I know I hear more than one time, “Have you met SpottyCatz? They are hilarious!” To all I’ve missed here, we were so glad you were there.
What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understanding?
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