Beach Days

Don't grow up too quickly, lest you forget how much you love the beach.

- Michelle Held

Caribbean Christmas

 A few silly photos from this year's Caribbean Christmas, according to my iPhone:

 Goof balls in Santa hats:)

Our sweet little Christmas tree!

Presents!

Oh Christmas tree...

Festive ferry dock

The car got in on the Santa hat action!

My sexy Santa

Surfing on Christmas Day

The waves weren't very big, but they were fun!

Pretty palm trees

 Cruz Bay Christmas tree

Friday Mind Musings

* I feel like December just started, and already it's 2 DAYS until Christmas!!!!! How did that happen?! I swear my life is flying by right before my eyes! But I've finished my shopping and all my Christmas cards went out, everything is wrapped, and we've been baking like crazy so I'm feeling pretty accomplished as far as Christmas spirit goes!

* My laptop is broken, AGAIN. I hate Gateway with a passion, and I will never, never, never, EVER buy an Acer product again. This makes 7 repairs on a laptop that's under 2 years old. So very frustrated...

* Sky got me a new engagement ring! To make a long story short we found out through a jeweler that blue topaz (the stone in my first e-ring) isn't suitable for everyday wear. So when we found that out I was a little sad and disappointed, but then Sky pointed out that it means I can have more than one ring, since they suggested I rotate it with another ring! And now I love the idea of having more than one ring! The second ring is a white topaz solitaire, and I love it! Yay for sparkly things:)

* The island seems to be so cold lately! And I should clarify that it seems cold to those of us with island blood now! It got down to the low 70s the other night and people on island were walking around in sweats and jeans and jackets and long sleeves (including me!). It was hilarious! And if you think I'm joking that people were calling it "cold" you can ask anyone who lives here how the weather has been lately and see what words they use to describe it!

* I'm currently reading The Radleys by Matt Haig. It's about vampires, although I didn't know that when I picked it up. But so far (about 100 pages in) it's funny and dark and takes a slightly different view of vampires than the norm. Very interesting!

* Not having access to my bank down here has got to be one of the most frustrating things about living here. It takes way too much time and effort to do business with Wells Fargo from St John. But the alternative is banking locally, which for many reasons I just won't do.

* Christmas and Hanukkah music has been playing non-stop in our home, much to Sky's chagrin. But we only listen to it once a year for 3 weeks, so really I'm going to keep playing holiday music until Christmas is here, and maybe even until New Year's! I just can't get enough!

* I am one slacker of a bride. Less than 9 months until the wedding and Save the Dates are still not out! Ahhhh! I need a kick in the pants, or maybe just some inspiration. It seems like every time I decide on a detail of the wedding, I change my mind! The joys of indecision!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day! Happy Friday, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

Thursday Mind Musings

* Christmas is only 17 days away!!!!! I'm so excited I can barely stand it! How am I going to get all my shopping and decorating and baking done before Christmas?! Ahhh!!!

* The weather is definitely cooling down here on St John! The days remain a balmy 80 to 85 degrees, but the nights have been bringing cooler air in, which is awesome since like a majority of the island, we don't have AC!

* I've been listening to Christmas music non-stop! My playlist of favorite Christmas and holiday tunes grows by the year:

Christmas Eve/ Sarajevo 12/24 by Trans-Siberian Orchestra

The Holly & The Ivy by Annie Lennox

All I Want for Christmas is a Real Good Tan by Kenny Chesney

Ave Maria by Celtic Women

Carol of the Bells by Mannheim Steamroller

Last Christmas by Wham!

Christmastime is Here by Charlie Brown Holiday Hits

Silent Night by The Temptations

All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Andy Williams

Happy Xmas by John Lennon

* To sum life up these days: work, beach, bar, home, love, friends, happiness & laughter: Life is good, and I am very thankful:)

* Oh and I've decided to rename these entries from "Mind Dump" to "Mind Musings" for two reasons: first, I love alliteration! And second the word "dump" was making me uncomfortable!

Hope everyone has a beautiful day!

Halloween 2011

My 1st Halloween on St John was a blast! An entertaining time was had by all! I didn't get any good pictures of us, but here are the few we did manage to capture...

Helping Hand

When I lived in Atlanta I did a lot of volunteer work with just about any and every organization I could find that needed help. The work, time, and occasionally money that I put into my volunteering was always well worth it and made me feel connected to the community and to people in general. And to be super honest, it makes me feel good to volunteer! Unfortunately I have fallen out of volunteering and community service since moving to St John. But that's going to change next week! Through my job at St John Catering I have met a very sweet women on island who heads the St John Community Foundation. I have a meeting with her next week to sign up for volunteer opportunities and I'm very excited about it! I'm not sure what I'll wind up doing, but I will blog about it next week and share what's going in my life volunteer-wise. Wish me luck!

War Wounds

Surfing kicked my ass yesterday! I wound up having so much FUN, but the first 30 minutes were tough. The water was pretty rough and choppy, and the waves were bigger than I've surfed before. I wiped out several times and I got pounded by wave after wave. Not to mention paddling through those waves were pretty hard! Waking up this morning found me with bruises, a cut on my foot and sore muscles. But... I can't wait to go out there again!!!! After I give myself a day of rest, though. I think surfing is one of my new loves!!!!

Tuesday Mind Dump

* I am rocking the hippie look today. Colorful scarf in my hair, long white flowy skirt, and bangles. I love it!!!

* I have a surfing date with a friend on Wednesday and Friday! I'm super excited about it. I love surfing so much I've been dreaming about it. Did I mention that Sky and I plan on getting surf boards for Christmas?! Super excited!! We plan on getting boards that we can both ride so Sky has suggested getting a pink and blue board that says His & Hers. How cute?!

* I was doing so well reading real books the last few months! You know biographies, self-help, educational books, NYT Best Sellers, and whatnot. But the last two weeks I find myself devouring trashy romance novels at a very rapid pace. It makes me feel a little guilty, but reading is reading, right?!

* It seems like everything online is constantly changing! New Facebook, new Blogger, new 20 Something, new Yahoo... I never realized how much I am annoyed by change until all of my favorite sites started updating. The positive side to this? Every time something new does change, I bitch a little less about it. I figure the internet is helping to make me a better, less irritable person in a roundabout way.

* I am happy (finally!) on the work front here on St John. During the day I work as a receptionist at a catering company, and I work in a little gift shop on nights and weekends. This means I work 7 days a week, but I love it! I'm busy and it helps to relieve my boredom, since I have something to do every day. I think I'll eventually get burned out so I don't plan on doing this schedule for long, but for now it's awesome. And my bosses are great, and so is the pay! Love my jobs!

* Life is sooooo slow on island these days. It's slow season here, which means that about half of the restaurants have closed for about a month, very few tourists are visiting, lots of the locals are on summer vacation and there seems to be NOTHING going on event-wise. If it weren't for work, I would be stir crazy. I am so glad October is almost here.

* Speaking of October, WHERE has this year gone?! I swear I was just celebrating my birthday (February) and now it's the end of September. I feel like life is flying by and I'm in slow motion or something. Crazy!

* Almost finished with work for the day. I have a date with the beach this afternoon:)

Happy Tuesday!!!
xoxo

Surfer Girl

It's my goal to work on becoming a surfer girl. I love surfing! How could you not?! It's fun, it's exhilarating, I get to spend time in the sun & surf and it is such a great workout! Sky and I have decided that we both want surf boards for Christmas, which I am super excited about! Blah, blah, blah for him (this seems rude, but really I honestly can't remember what he wants!) and a pink long board for me! Yay! Not to mention, when we decide to relocate to Hawaii, owning our own boards will definitely come in handy!

Today is a perfect day to go surfing, especially for me since I'm still very much a beginner. The waves are baby-sized, the weather is gorgeous and the ocean is pretty calm. So that's how I'm spending my afternoon! Pictures to come!

Happy Hump Day!!! I hope everyone's Wednesday is going smashingly!!!
xoxo

Life is Good

I haven't blogged in some time! One reason is that my laptop has been broken and I've yet to have it fixed. The other reason is that I haven't had too much to say lately! Life, for the most part, has been good and happy and fulfilling recently. I've had a few bad days sprinkled in here and there, but I'll take that over constant sadness any day! Sky and I have been spending a lot of time together with just the two of us. We've put a lot of energy and work into our relationship and things are good for us! Our little island (and our livers) are recovering from Carnival which just ended. Summertime is hitting St John full force. The crowds of tourists have visibly thinned, the weather is scorching and the whole town just seems lazy and sleepy. I'm looking forward to doing more of what we've been up to recently: lots of beach days, dinner with friends, movie nights, going sailing, and just hanging out and being happy! Life is good these days:)

Island

Apartment Hell

Mice, non-stop bugs, a smell from HELL when the wind blows the right way (due to being located very near the septic) and outrageously expensive. <---- Description of my awful, terrible, no-good, very bad apartment.

Oh and two days ago I had the pleasure (SARCASM) of seeing my 80-something year old landlord's junk as he took a restroom break outside in broad daylight. 10 feet from his house. I am particularly pissed about this and in my head it's the last fucking straw.

WHY am I still here?! Because I haven't found anywhere else to live yet. But I am trying to remedy that with the utmost swiftness.

I am in apartment hell. But not for long.

$15

This is what $15 got me today! A box of cereal and a half gallon of organic milk.

I Fell in Love

Sky and I have been looking around for a new place to settle into (again!). Yesterday we looked at a house described as a "Shackteau" and I absolutely fell head over heels in love with it. It was such a bright, open, adorable house. And super affordable. Everything we've been looking for! It's the kind of place I imagined living in here on the islands. The only downside was that it's only available as a short term rental. So we're passing on it to keep looking. I'm a tiny bit heartbroken over not being able to rent that house. All I can hope it that something perfect is going to find us, and very soon!!

Lovely Afternoon

Lunch with my friend Jim at Caneel Bay was wonderful! And I was a bit of a bad girl and had a couple of drinks even though I have to work in about an hour... I love Sex on the Beach!!! It's one of my favorites:)

St Thomas Carnival 2011

Here are a few pictures I took during the parade in St Thomas for Carnival this year. These shots aren't the greatest, but you'll get a vague idea of what the Carnival parade was like! I'll try to upload a few videos in my next post of the dancing and music!

Work, Work, Work

I have accumulated dozens of work horror stories since living here on St John. And to be fair (and not bad mouth anyone) I will just say this:

I would LOVE to find a job where I actually work, get paid, get the hours I'm promised, not have to do anything illegal and get treated like a human being. I don't think any of these are too much to ask of a job. But it's been hard to find a job fitting these standards.

Back to job hunting, again. Oh the joys of island life:)

Out of the Sea

I finally made it to the beach!!!!! And it was much needed. I had so much fun splashing and swimming and snorkeling!!! Some time in the ocean was exactly what I needed:) And some time goofing off in front of the camera of course!