Ten years ago my husband and I took a cruise. It was the beginning of absolute infatuation with the Caribbean.
Fast forward to March of 2013. After visiting several West Indian Islands and researching lots more (plus watching International House Hunters ALL the time!), we focused our infatuation on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. With the help of a terrific realtor, Lisa Christenson-Harris, we experienced a little house hunters of our own and bought a house. Well, we made an offer. The house didn’t become ours until July, and by then we couldn’t afford to travel there until Christmas time.
On Friday, June the 13th, we came home. Our return tickets are dated mid- August. We are home on St Croix for a bit over two months. Bliss. Paradise. I still pinch myself thinking this isn’t quite real. Of course there are bugs, and it’s hot, and the house was built in the ’70s and never updated so I live with an orange kitchen for now. I don’t care. This is where I want to be.
So, here’s my new normal: I wake up when I want. After reading for a while ( George Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow – geeky, huh?) and drinking a cup of tea, I wander upstairs and turn on the computer for two to three hours with my hands on my keyboard. In the past two days, I’ve written about ten pages on my new novel. Yeah!! I can’t describe how good it feels to let the story out of my head and finally have the ability to get it into words. All the time I am writing, Karl is downstairs sawing and pounding and working. So far, the upstairs bathroom has been gutted and a wall on the main floor has magically, while noisily, disappeared. When I finish writing for the day, we stop for a late breakfast, then I become his laborer. My first project, besides “Hold this,” or “Have you seen where I put my jigsaw blade?” was to rip the green shag carpet off the stairs. I did a little victory dance yesterday when it was all gone. Did anyone ever really like green shag carpet? Why? We have decided to stop working every day at 3:00. Then, we slide our sweaty selves into our swimsuits, add some drinking water and other goodies to the little cooler, grab the snorkels and go. First stop, the dump to get rid of the carpet, the remnants of the walls and other offal, then to Armstrong’s – the absolutely best homemade ice cream anywhere ( coconut ice cream is to die for!) – then to the sea. I saw a sting ray and some humungous starfish on Monday. Yesterday I stayed close to the rocks and saw fish of all hues and sizes, plus a living conch scooting his heavy shell along the bottom of the sea bed, and some little creature that looked like a nearly transparent spider. I’ll have to look that one up to know what it really was. After an hour or so in the sea, we head home for a shower and dinner. Then we sit on our gallery (the patio is called a gallery here) to watch the night embrace us.
Our new normal. Blessings abound.
