my husband and i rely on our friends for a lot of information.
i was fortunate enough to have my lodging paid for by my friend during our sixteen days in hawaii.
however, or perhaps therefor, i never quite felt qualified to be there.
every visit to the pool, every. single. day. for five hours a day, i sat and observed them.
how were they affording their visit at the Four Seasons?
they looked a lot like me.
they had their kids at the pool.
every day.
but they paid thousands of dollars to take their kids to the pool everyday.
and to eat overpriced pool food.
not to mention the dinner menus and the twenty-dollars-each cocktails.
and the spa treatments, the tennis lessons, and the eighty dollar pedicures.
a half-gallon of milk at the "general store" cost ten dollars and fifty cents.
were they spending their life's savings for a week at the pool?
did a benefactor sponsor them?
all of them?
were they all in some profitable line of business i've never heard of?
i had the luxury of being in a condo with a kitchen and my husband stocked the fridge from costco before he went on his man-cation.
to save money, i stashed grapes and pita chips, apples and bananas in my pool bag, rolled down the sides of the cabana and fed my kids as if i was hoarding food during a famine or something.
many nights at the condo i whipped up a little mac-n-cheese, downed a glass of pinot grigio, put The Baby in the sling, got behind the wheel of my golf cart with The Boy riding co-pilot and headed down to the resort (and bought another glass of wine) where we luckily discovered early on that the best part of the whole trip was included, at no extra cost.
a s'mores station.
now that's island paradise.
early last month, as my girlfriend and her family were getting ready to go back to their ranch, i told her to tell that spotty horse of hers (who snuffled on me and my baby and then kissed her a big wet horse kiss on her face) that i said, "hello, in a sultry voice."
"tell her yourself," she said to me.
and so i went back there, and i did.
thankfully my husband has tons of opportunity to flickr away, so while he is off surfing in his own little paradise, i will share the photos he took of this place before he left us here.
it is awfully nice.
my fifteen year old cousin stayed with us for a few days last week and we managed to sneak away to get pedicures. when The Boy saw our lovely toes he expressed the need for some polish as well.
with some groups of our friends, this is a given; everyone deserves a little color splash, and their boys regularly wear blue, black, green, or some other "boy" color on their toes.
with other parents we know, they notice and either are so bamboozled that they don't say anything, or they say something like, "oh, well, milo. i just looove your nail polish," and then they flash me that you're-such-a-wacky-mom-you-know-you're-gonna-turn-your-son-gay look.
and then there are the strangers in stores and restaurants who are always telling him how pretty his hair is and, "excuse me little lady, what would you like to drink with your pizza?"
they really do like his daring choice of nail color.
i had a couple of hard-to-explain emotional moments when we were in the high elevation of new mexico.
one culprit could have been the high elevation.
on the fourth of july i was having a conversation there with a woman i had just met. i was simply relating to her how beautiful i found the land, how it was a beauty i had not expected, and i started to cry.
i had only had one margarita at this point.
i have, of course spent time in high elevations, in mountainous regions, in stunning parts of the world, and i mean, i live in dazzling, urban los angeles (blech), but never have i had this, shall we say, spiritual? reaction.
it's ridiculous that i post such pictures because certainly you don't feel tears suddenly welling.
oh yeah? try this one:
no? not yet? well, grab your tissues . . .
ok. but it IS beautiful there.
and the weather! warmish in the hottest summer (not even 90*), then cold at night (under 50*)!
perhaps it was the several nights of no sleep leading up to and including our travels to taos that led to my sensitivity.
regardless, i am more aware than ever that i do not live where i belong. where i belong, i do not know.
i do know that i left my new love in that field by the chapel.
but that's a story for another day.
