slightly worried about keeping my laptop dry (it was fine in my
backpack) the rain was great. It came while I was attempting to body
surf and generally dick around in these big-ish waves (from the
blustery weather) with a group of a dozen or so people. Ran out of
the water, checked on the lappy toppy, and read a book for a while
under some beachy shelter. When it stopped the beach was mostly
empty, the sky looked awesome, and I think it even washed some of the
salt and sand off me because my hair didn't feel as salty that evening.
Because it's a small island and most people here are on vacation (of
the normal or extended variety) everybody's very used to doing each
other favors. So you can sort of insert yourself into the favor
economy and run with it. Yesterday I woke up and the evangelical
family insisted I eat breakfast with them (a cheesy, meaty, egg
submarine sandwich--very PR). I must be throwing off some serious
"lost soul" vibes, so they worked with that in a pretty touching
way. I practiced my spanish. They told me to watch out in Brazil
cause I could get kidnapped.
Walked downtown and an old ("not crazy, eccentric") lady who I'd
previously noticed some people avoiding asked me to help her walk to
the breakfast joint. She said she sometimes had seizures, but she
also clearly wanted company. She wanted to buy me breakfast, I let
her get me an OJ. Later in the afternoon I got a ride to the beach
from a couple that had spent the long weekend here and were killing
time before the ferry left. Surreptitiously drinking Heineken in
their new red rental jeep (there are tons of these in assorted
colors, so new and uniform that they look like toys and remind me of
Jurassic Park). An older couple gave me a ride back from the beach
as far as the restaurant they were going to. There I saw this couple
who I'd cooked dinner for on Friday (a motley crew dinner party at
the house of an author I'd met: Honeymooners from New Hampshire, a
husband-and-wife pest-control team (him: NYC italian / her: from PR,
had the intense warmth you'd have when talking to a TV audience of
children, reminded me of Sesame Street) and another mild mannered
couple in their 60s with an ex-hippy air). It was the last couple
who spotted me out at the restaurant. It had started to rain, so
they offered to buy me dinner and I let them get me a yummy pumpkin
soup, explaining that I had to run once the rain stopped, because I
had a date to cook for another family I'd met (her dad was in the
band that wrote "Ghost Riders in the Sky", her son plays xbox live
with a phone headset for making, talking to, and blowing-up-the-halo-
characters-of off-island friends). Ate my pumpkin soup, took off
down the road, and made it to the supermarket just in time to get
fixins for a delicious rice and black bean dinner for four. Yum yum
yum!
It's happened at least once that I'll leave my sunglasses in
somebody's rental jeep on a ride back from the beach, and they'll see
me again and be like "hey, we have your sunglasses".
Spent yesterday afternoon working on a couple dance mixes of R&B favs
(Rhianna SOS / Timberlake My Love) and I did a Jay-Z / Beyonce Deja
Vu remix yesterday. Maybe if I really get stuck here I can DJ my way
through the favor economy? That would be hilarious.
