Bahamas Bound

Yes, it's been a while. Just remember, this is a log, not a blog. So. I flew alone today on JetBleu which I love to Nassau, Bahamas. Why? Because I was cold and lonely. I'm still lonely but not cold. So that's good. Actually I'm not lonely either. Back when I booked, I thought I was sooo smart to get on first flight out, to be able to be on the beach by 11 am.

Well. I plum forgot how hard it is to wake up at 4 am. Hard as in I couldn't do it. But I've done the trek to JFK so many times now (going to Maine) that I just thought I'd be fine. Totally forgot, also, that international flights require at LEAST one hour before boarding. Oops. I had to wheedle and plead and do my kewpie doll sad face to get them to let me even get a boarding pass. Phew! Then 2.5 hours, window-seated, next to I swear one of the Jersey Shore couples. We landed, got through customs, found a working ATM, found cab, got to hotel, sweating gently.

Then I hit the beach, swam for nearly 40 minutes and luxuriated. Then had to eat at the outside bar (great burger) and met a nice woman from Atlanta who had been to Maine! In her childhood! At a camp for underprivileged kids! Just like my dream Frog Pond Fund project.

We drank guava margaritas and chatted until the sun came back out. I told her there were many more black people there now, which is good. Damn, she said, pissed that she wouldn't be special there anymore.

Notes on hotel: still love it (British Colonial Hilton) with its rich history and great private beachfront. Did not like the concierge (hello, you've never been asked where a girl can get a pedicure? really?) and the hotel's messed up wireless system (2 out of 5 floors have it in-room. Huh?).

But that's okay. Tomorrow it's back to the beach and meditating and reading (Let the Great World Spin, which is oh so very good). Update: Watching Hope for Haiti program on the teevee. Amazing. I never watch this kind of thing but the twitterverse compelled me and I'm so glad. So moving, so well done. 50 hankies for this production. I hope everyone who watched has or will give to help Haiti. I've also fallen out of love with my netbook which is NOT all that light and too damn small and just today lost its magic ability to transmit my voice so goodbye Skype and for pete's sake. It's yours if you haul it away.

The Odd Moment

Funny how the mind retains some memories, no matter how mundane, forever. I'm going to try to capture some of them, here, before they are finally whisk-broomed away. As I drank my orange juice this morning, I remembered (or... re-remembered) a moment in the deli when a beautiful young French woman bought a small carton of OJ and, at the counter, couldn't open it.

She seemed very thirsty and frustrated, in a quiet, French way. She kept pulling at the carton and the deli man finally reached out to help her. He had what looked like very dirty hands with bitten and discolored nails. I watched silently, in horror, as he grasped the little mouth of the carton and pulled, totally mangling it but getting it open. The girl smiled, uttered a charming and heavily accented "thank you," took the carton and walked away. I never saw her actually drink from it and would like to think that she dumped it in the nearest trash container. But I'll never know.

UPDATE: I love JetBlue again. I half-heartedly filled in an email form on their site explaining how a service rep in Salt Lake City had told me my flight back from Maine to NYC was delayed by two hours, only to find out it had left on time without me (see below). I expected nothing. But they wrote to me after a few days, sounding horrified that I'd been inconvenienced and told me they'd refund that portion of my trip. YAY! I should have asked to be reimbursed for the second ticket I'd had to buy but I didn't want to seem greedy.