The Hotness

An extremely more detailed report will follow, but let me just tell you how amazing Costa Rica is. It´s amazing. I do NOT want to leave. A brief listing of activities that I have engaged in over the past week and a half:

bungee jumping
canopy zipline tour
surfing
crazy hiking through rainforests
hiking to a few intense waterfalls
jumping off one of the intense waterfalls
mangrove tour in a boat replete with monkeys (originally I didn´t know nor did I care one iota about mangroves, but now I consider them part of the hotness)
absofuckinglutely fresh roadside fruit stands with the biggest carrots I have ever seen (i.e. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde episode of LooneyTunes circa 1983)
Turkish Delight smoothies
wild horses
fresh coconuts cracked open by machete beachside
hell yes
Dope.

Goodness Gracious Me!

As you may know, I visited the southern portion of this great state this past week. I am happy to report that I lived through the experience, but not without sacrificing a small percentage of my soul to the great wasteland that is Columbus, GA and it's surrounding areas. I did not do it willingly; it was stolen from me. Fortunately, the way soul-stealing works (at least with me) is as soon as the buildings of Atlanta are visible from the freeway, the portion that was stolen is immediately returned back to me and all is well. The suffering is undone. I do not completely understand how it works, but I am thankful nonetheless.

Despite this painful process, I did try to enjoy what I could while I was ensnared in the thickets of hell on earth. I took some pictures. I make some funnies. I did some laughs. I tried to focus on the good things surrounding me: cows, peachtrees, grass, summer thunderstorms, heat lightning, fireflies, and vegetable gardens. But I could not entirely escape the insufferable boredom that accompanies these beautiful things. As soon as I stuck my head out of the window to breathe in a lungful of that precious polluted air, I felt real comfort and joy.

Ray Bradbury

So I'm back into reading literary fiction again and it is quite refreshing. I always loved Fahrenheit 451 and I finally got a copy of Something Wicked This Way Comes. I'm lovin' it. Here is my fav excerpt so far:

"His wife smiled in her sleep.
Why?
She's immortal. She has a son.
Your son, too!
But what father ever really believes it? He carries no burden, he feels no pain. What man, like woman, lies down in darkness and gets up with child? The gentle, smiling ones own the good secret. Oh, what strange wonderful clocks women are. They nest in Time. They make the flesh that holds fast and binds eternity. They live inside the gift, know power, accept, and need not mention it. Why speak of Time when you are Time, and shape the universal moments, as they pass, into warmth and action? How men envy and often hate these warm clocks, these wives, who know they will live forever. So what do we do? We men turn terribly mean, because we can't hold to the world or ourselves or anything. We are blind to continuity, all breaks down, falls, melts, stops, rots, or runs away. So, since we cannot shape Time, where does that leave men? Sleepless. Staring."

Wow.

Good times, great oldies.

For those of you who are not familiar (god bless you), Columbus, GA is a military town. I have always had an ongoing *almost* love affair with all things military, but I have never immersed myself in the knowledge or been able to be fully swept away with the lifestyle. It is still fascinating, though. I respect the discipline, the hierarchy, the extreme commitment by those involved. It makes so much sense from the outside, but it is flawed like everything else. It is a human organization, so there are mistakes and politics and probably an enormous amount of bullshit to be tolerated. But they have supremely fast aircraft and that's a big draw for me.

Recently, I heard an interview with Gregory Levey on NPR who was talking about how, as a (bored) law school student in NY, he was unceremoniously drafted into writing speeches for Ariel Sharon. You should listen to his story. The U.N. is actually a really kickin' club and I want tickets to their tea parties.

Thoughts on Violet Crumble

An Australian candy with this melt-in-your-mouth buttery crunchy stuff covered in chocolate. They call it "honeycomb"; I call it "delicious whatever". The chocolate is not the best, but it's minimal and the crunchy middle makes up for it. Get your mits on one of these (these were obtained from A Taste of Britain in old Norcross. They are probably also at Harry's or Whole Foods). I think it's one of the few foodstuffs still made with hydrogenated oils these days. Maybe that's why it's so good. Yum.

Creatures of the Night, Unite!

I forgot to describe the plethora of lightning bugs that I spotted on the way to TN a couple of weeks ago. I felt like a kid with her nose pressed against the glass in the van. I thought I was hallucinating at first, but I focused my eyes enough and the bugs were bright enough so that for several miles, I saw lots of tiny flashes of light along the highway. There were millions of them in the evergreens. I was so excited, I thought surely the locals would have been writing a blurb or two in the newspapers, at least the editorials. Right? I would much rather read about trillions of lightning bugs than half the stuff that's going on today. Can't I just bury my head in the sand and it will all go away?

Speaking of flashing things, I'm researching bioluminescent bays in Costa Rica. I know Puerto Rico has some famous phosphorescence, but surely CR has some, too. It's been sort of a priority{wish} for years now.

Sharon + Wii + Amphibious Sneakers

Friday I finally got to see Amy's mad marionette string pullin' abilities in the Cinderella Della Circus at the CPA. She explained to me how she does it, but I still do not understand. I believe that what she was trying to say is that it is some kind of old magic. Later, we made my very own Mii that ended up looking kind of like Cindy Lou Who.

Games at which Sharon excels ("excel" is used very loosely): Knitted cow racing, skeet and empty beer can shooting, tennis, and bowling. Games at which I suck: the matching faces game. This involves matching two or even three similar Miis while they're doing various activities like swimming in a stupid ocean or running through the streets. They do it progressively faster and faster so it's nearly impossible. Amy's score: 189 million Sharon's score: 0. Fail.

Saturday was Lauren and Patrick's wedding. The food was excellent and that's really all that matters, in my opinion.

Today I went to Abbadabba's and bought some amphibious sneakers for all of the globe trotting that I am preparing to do. They are red with stripes and they are fabulous. On my wishlist: a Camelbak & a 5-day hiking backpack.