The best thing I know

There isn't a much better remedy for feeling sad than to be around a lot of good friends who are celebrating the birth of one of our own. So that's what I did during the afternoon and evening of yesterday. After some gusher downpours that filled the cracks in the dirt and swelled the leaves and blossoms of all the plants and trees, the sun broke through just in time to head to the beach and decorate for the party.

Alicia had decorations and more decorations. Somehow, with a lot of tape, they all got put somewhere. Professional decorators we are not, but at night, they looked right fine.

Having 50 in my rear view mirror (no obvious jokes please, you are better than that), I enjoy watching others hit the mark to see how each deals with what can either be a glad embracing of second half of life to enjoy or a woeful clutching to youth that is receding into memory. Wilma is of the former camp. No one has a perfect life but she sure looks like she's had pretty close! She hasn't, and that makes her even more spectacular. It was meant to be a surprise and a surprise it was! A rarity on Culebra...

Like a little girl finding out she just got that long wished for pony,
Wilma continued to be amazed all evening, which just made all of us smile and laugh more.

The sun went down, the moon came up and the mood was just as high.

"I'm sorry I thought you were trying to kidnap me and make me late for work!"

A friend of Francie's...she couldn't keep up

Kate and me laughing about something (or I'd lost my drink again and wanted hers)

Filed: Don't ask, don't tell

While yesterday should have been Free Range Friday, it wasn't. And I forgot to take photos of what I made, which was a pasta salad with lots of veggies and chicken with an Asian inspired dressing rather than good old mayo. I'll do it again sometime with photos, because it turned out to be pretty good. It was lost in a vast wealth of dishes brought by everyone who came to the party; all of them good.




Topping the good chart though, had to be Perri's cakes, banana and mango. Beautiful and delicious...lucky us! She had wonderful home made whipped cream and lemon curd for each cake as well. Good lord.


It turns out it was also Jane's birthday and she showed up just in time to make a wish and help blow out the candles.

Alicia had arranged for Wilma's son and family to come in a day early to surprise Mom.
He's just a little wisp of a thing...

Sometime after that I went for a swim in the moonlight. The water was gin clear and I could (as I mentioned repeatedly) actually see down to my feet, the water silky soft and calm around me, the moon shining brightly above, palm frond silhouettes fringing the beach while the sounds of laughter and glad talk wafted down the sand from the party. It was an extraordinary experience, not unlike the feeling I have when the bioluminescence is in strong mode and I get to play in it, fairy lights dancing on every body surface inch with another sort of magic. Maybe I'll go again this evening, in the light, the beautiful light of full moon.