what was I thinking!!!

Here it is, Sunday morning and I'm now feeling more enlivened than I did yesterday. Coley and I went to a Japanese themed dinner party on Friday night in Hermosa at an absolutely beautiful home. Here's a picture of a couple of the women who were there. On the far end is Freckles, who I will be pet sitting for and in the foreground is Vicky. She belongs to a church I will probably check out called Hope Fellowship. She also told me about their book club that meets once a month, and because not everyone can get the same book, they simply read one and give a report to the group. They also bring books to pass around. Freckles is going to take me to the next meeting. The food was really great---Coley and I made a wonderful Asian cabbage dish, here's the recipe:

one head of cabbage, or mix two (we used green and red) chopped

green onions (tops included, use to your liking) chopped

1 pkg. chicken flavored Ramen noodles (separate noodles on baking dish)

set aside the flavor package

on same baking dish add a pkg of slivered almonds (we used regular almonds cut up)

Place in 300 degree oven and brown 8-10 minutes (we then turned on the broiler to really brown them)

Dressing mix:

4 tsp. cider vinegar (we had to get red wine vinegar, just as tasty)

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 1/2 packets of sweetener (or sugar to your liking)

chicken flavoring pkg.

Mix dressing, pour over cabbage then add noodles and nuts, mix well, and serve. Bon Appetit!!

After the dinner, Freckles, Coley and I went to Zi's to hear a band called Electric Storm. I can honestly say I've not heard such head banging music since I stopped going into bars, almost 20 years ago.....Freckles' husband, Mike had a table for us to sit at. My twin LOVES to dance. After 7 days with me trying to find my rhythm, she finally got to find her rhythm. Again, I haven't danced for any measurable time in nearly 20 years, give or take the few times in my apartment when I danced by myself for exercise. I finally got out on the dance floor, sans shoes, and danced to such songs as Smoke on the Water and Honky Tonk Woman. I think I danced to about 5 songs. I also got Coley out there to do the dance called "the rock". We'll have to work on that step a little, but it was fun dancing with her.

We got home about midnight (way past my bedtime) and I noticed when I walked my two big toes felt "funny". Would you believe I have a blister on each one, from dancing!!!! What was I thinking!!! Guess I'll have to develop my dancing feet.

Today, Sunday, I'm going to try Coley's bike out, see how I do with my new knees on that apparatus. I think, however, I'm going to invest in a motorscooter so we can get around better.

Sending you all sunny skies and warm smiles!!!!

Life is good

As you can tell, Coley is kicked back and having a great morning in the pool. We have both finished our swim and exercises and now I'm about ready to get out and read for a while and she's ready to get on a float.

This a view of our condo from the pool. Our balcony is in the center of this picture.

This is really an interesting picture. I looked up at the sky while I was in the pool, and the ring you see in this picture is actually a rainbow circling the sun. It kept getting more colorful and then the sun would peek out a little more and you couldn't see the color. Wish I had a better picture, I've never seen a rainbow circle the sun. Gorgeous!!!!

For all my friends who love to play games with me and know how attached to numbers I am, you'll love knowing Coley and I played tri-dominoes yesterday. The game ends at 400, but since we were still playing our tiles, it went on a little longer. What was really "auspicious" is my score was 333 and Coley's score was 444. Way cool!!!! Huh!!! Two master numbers in one game.

Tomorrow will probably be my first day to swim in the Pacific. Coley wanted to go today, but the weather wasn't cooperating.

Sending hugs to all!!!!!

Finding my Rhythm

How would you like to wake up in the morning, fix your first cup of coffee, add a little Bailey's and grab your Kindle so you can resume the book you started the previous night and go out on the balcony below to begin your day? Well, this is how I start nearly every day here in beautiful Costa Rica.

This morning was especially nice, because Coley slept poorly last night so I was on my own schedule. After putting on my bathing suit, I walked down the stairs to the pool, which was totally devoid of other people - - how great is that to have a whole pool to myself. Here's a picture of just what we have to enjoy:

Our roommate, Shanna (below) celebrated her 40th birthday over the weekend, and of course we helped. Here she is the night of her birthday.

Shanna and Jim (our downstairs neighbor) left for Nicaragua this morning and Coley and I had a chance to go shopping and for me to check out Playa del Coco. Once we had our purchases of groceries and adapters for these pictures, we walked to Zi's (the local tavern Coley likes to frequent) for a soda and then walked to the beach. Met a man from Winnipeg, Bob, who has been coming here for 7 years. He decided he hated the winters in Canada. Don't know what your weather is like, but here it's about 85 degrees with 100% humidity.

We got back to the condo just in time to sit on the porch, have a glass of water and watch a rainstorm. Very nice!!!!!

I was hoping to show a picture of a cute little black and white dog who came into Zi's and then layed down at my feet to take a snooze. When I got up to leave the bar, he got up and left also. Dog energy is about loyalty, family, unconditional love. Wish I could figure out how to get the picture off my camera.

So a I continue to discover my balance in this tropical paradise, I've had an opportunity to talk to a couple who have lived here for some time, but just recently returned to selling real estate. I asked Roland if he liked to play cards and his response was "I don't have time, got to work". It got me to thinking about being in Memphis and keeping my schedule so full there wasn't alot of time to play either. And this whole idea of finding balance in all things. So as I continue to look at all areas of my life, from the physical, the emotional, the mental, and the spiritual, I know that balance is a matter of choice, desire and willingness to stay in the moment. Each day I also have an opportunity to find balance in being and living my twin after such along time apart. We are both enjoying the company, the camaraderie and trying out different drinks and food.

To each of you I send love!!!!

The adventure continues

After spending the week in New Orleans (not much to say about NOLA that you don't already know), my twin, my friend, Smitty and I made it to the airport about 4:45 am. Smitty dropped us off, and headed back to Senatobia with my "big ass truck".

Coley and I had a pretty easy trip to Atlanta. I had my usual body search after my knees set off the alarms. Coley was very patient while the woman went up and down, and up and down, and up and down (well, you get the picture). They loaded the plane about 10 minutes after we got to the gate.

When we got to Atlanta, we had to take the subway to the last stop at the far side of the building, and just 100 feet away we hear the announcement "all passengers for Delta Flight 533 must board now", so we hurried along and found the plane wasn't full, so we got to sit in the same row, rather than across the row from each other.

It took about 4 hours to get to Costa Rica, but it was an easy flight. We arrived under a sky filled with dark clouds and no sooner did we get into the building when the rain came in torrents. For those of you who are familiar with humidity, well, you ain't seen nothing until you step out of the plane on to the tarmac and immediately it feels like you stepped out of a warm shower. I've already
flowed into the idea of staying damp while I'm here, so don't expect any pictures of me.

When we finallly got through the lines at custom, I stood before the official as he looked at my passport and when he asked me how long I was staying, I very proudly said "5 months". He then asked me for my return ticket and I almost panicked. Yes, me, cool, calm, collected, panicked!!
"my sister booked the flight for me and she just went through the line over there." Of course Coley was off on a mission to find a cart for us to load our "way too heavy" suitcases and was nowhere to be found. So I started to back peddle "I know I'm leaving on March 18th, I just retired, blah, blah, blah". The official then tells me I can only stay 90 days, then I have to leave. "Oh, yes sir, I'lll be leaving the end of January on a cruise to celebrate our birthday, yadda, yadda, yadda!!! They did let me in, but we then had to have our bags searched. When another very nice official opened up my little suitcase, what really did look like birdseed, but was really a multi-bean soup, had opened somehow and was all over everything. He held it up like I was trying to transport drugs. He did the same thing with my Uncle Ben's brown rice. Good thing I wasn't transporting drugs!!!!

The coolest thing happened this afternoon. Coley, Shannon (her roommate) and I walked over to the ocean, which really is only about three to four blocks from their condo. While we were walking down the path, I looked over to my left and saw something move that looked like a huge, hairy yellow and orange spider, but what I found out is a rainbow crab. Way cool looking. It seems rather auspicious to me to see such an incredible creature. Rainbows remind me of beauty, unity, and harmony and crab "medicine" I'm sure has to do with being at home wherever you are, since many crabs carry their homes with them. So that's my first message: I'm here, I'm home!!!!