Do NOT Read This Book.....

Today I finished reading the second of the three books that I downloaded onto my Kindle. It was My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I love her writing style, and I found myself frequently bookmarking passages, which my Kindle will save for me. Maybe later I'll take all those bookmarked passages and create a poem. Or not.

The book was fine until the end. But the end really, really, really, really, really, really sucked. How do people write this stuff? I'm well aware that life is not all about happy endings and that sometimes things happen that you just can't explain, and well, that's just what life IS. But this crappy ending was so CONTRIVED. So CALCULATED. So JUST NOT RIGHT. I would have gotten all the messages the book was trying to send WITHOUT the crappy ending. Even if I were not a literature teacher, I would have gotten them. She did NOT have to whack me over the head with them.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I started on the third book of my downloaded three, and I was immediately struck by one of those oddities that fascinate me because they cannot be explained. And the fact that they fascinate me also cannot be explained.

Both the second and third books mentioned a character in passing, not a character at all really, just someone mentioned as a side note, who shares my name. That wouldn't be strange at all if I had a name like Mary or Louise or even Isabel, but my name is uncommon. And even when I do run across someone with my name, it is even rarer that it is spelled like mine, although my spelling is the only one that makes any sense because it has no wasted letters. But both of these characters not only had the same name, they spelled it right.

These two books were written by wildly different authors. What are the odds?

On a completely different note, I have spent most of the day reading because Hubby is horribly sick. And he just isn't the sickly type. He once had a terrible case of the flu, and all he asked was that I drive him to do his Pepsi route on Sunday. Not work it for him, mind you, just drive. Another time he had an abscessed tooth blow up, and his face was purple and his eye was swollen shut. He only allowed me to make an emergency call to his dentist AFTER he got home from work. He just doesn't get sick. He receives a lump payment every year for all of the sick days he has NOT used that year. Except for the year he fell off the ladder I was supposed to be holding, but that is a different story for another day.

It frightens me that he is sick in a foreign country. If we were in, say, France or Italy, I wouldn't mind taking him to the doctor. Not necessarily England, since that's one of those places they ask you if you've visited when you try to donate blood, like they may escort you out immediately if you say yes.

But here I would only take him to the doctor if he were losing copious amounts of blood. Or maybe if it were the first day of our vacation instead of our last. He is feverish and nauseated, but not throwing up. He says it would be better if he COULD throw up. Sorry if that's TMI. He hasn't drunk the water, and last night at dinner was one of the rare occasions when we had the exact same meal. So I don't think it's necessarily anything he ate, either. We shared nachos at lunch. I'm not feeling any ill effects, so I can't imagine what's ailing him. But he's just not a complainer, and he's also not one to spend thousands of dollars on a trip and then spend all day in bed.

Today at our all-inclusive resort, he has consumed one diet soft drink and one apple. God love him.

I went and bought him some Alka-Seltzer and some decongestant for the plane ride home, because landing causes him severe head pain right between the eyes. It has happened once before when we went to Las Vegas, and it happened as we approached Punta Cana, so I'm hoping the decongestant will hep with tomorrow's flight.

I was a little disturbed when I went to the gift shop that I could not only buy single packets of Alka-Seltzer, I could also buy packets of amoxicillin and ampicillin if I were so inclined. I were not, but still.

I didn't venture out much today either, because I would have felt supremely guilty for having a good time when Hubby was curled up in the fetal position. I grabbed a sandwich when I went to get the Alka-Seltzer and brought it back to the room, but I felt guilty eating it in front of him. Finally at about 5:00 this evening I took one last walk on the beach. It occurred to me that people who walk alone on the beach appear either to be traveling alone or like they have just had a huge fight with their significant others.

There may be nothing sadder in all the world than a single set of footprints in the sand.

It's been fun and hugely relaxing, but I'm ready to go home. That's the second best part of taking a vacation, after all.

Ocean......

I can't seem to get enough of the ocean. I take picture after picture of the ocean, and Hubby says they all look the same.



He says the same thing about the pictures I take in the mountains.



I feel drawn to the ocean. We can't see it from our room, so every time we go down to the pool, I have to go look over the wall at the ocean. Just in case something has changed since yesterday.


I only wish the rooms at this resort were closer to the ocean. I like to leave the sliding glass doors open at night and listen to the waves.



Today we walked to the point seen in the distance in the picture above. We wanted to see what was just around the bend. We found crowds and lots of "little bastards" (that's what Hubby calls annoying little children) and decided it's a very good thing we're staying where we are.

When we got around the point, we saw this shipwreck (you can barely see it dead center), a local snorkeling attraction:


We saw the same wreck when were in the Dominican Republic four years ago, but we approached it from the other direction. That was the only reference point we had to figure out where we were relative to the other resort.

This sign is on the beach right in front of our resort. I found it quaint, especially considering the luxury that is everywhere else on the resort. No really, it's quaint.

This one made me think of Billy Joel's song "Storm Front." To be honest, there aren't too many things that DON'T make me think of a Billy Joel song. This sign said, "Caution. Undertow. Hole here." Well duh. If you stick a sign in the beach, there's GOING to be a hole.

The warning flags weren't out on the beaches either below or above our stretch of beach. I'm not that familiar with undertow and what causes it, so I don't know if it's the curvature of the shoreline, the currents, or if there's just a steep drop-off there.

I think I met Mr. Undertow once. When I was young, I could never understand it when I heard stories about people drowning. With all my youthful logic and ignorance, I remember thinking, "Why don't they just learn how to swim?" I was absolutely certain that I could not drown because I knew how to swim. I don't mean I thought it would never HAPPEN to me. I just thought any person who knew how to swim could swim out of any situation.

Then one time when we were at the beach either in Jacksonville or Savannah, I lost my footing in fairly shallow water and got pulled under. I didn't know up from down or surface from bottom, and I panicked. I guess that's when I figured out that it was indeed possible to drown even if one knows how to swim.

And when I saw the warning flags today, I stayed out of the water. In spite of the fact that it is in my nature to rebel against all cautions, red flag or not. Plus Hubby wouldn't let me go.

Not ALL Fun and Games....

In addition to all the other amenities, this resort has a top-notch fitness center. Which was empty except for Hubby and me when we went in there.

Like many other areas of the resort, it isn't quite finished yet. The televisions haven't been mounted on the walls yet.

But they have tons of equipment.

Pretty nice stuff, too, from what I can tell based on my rather limited knowledge.


Here I am on the elliptical, just in case you thought all I did was wander into the fitness center and take pictures. I had to make up for some of my all-inclusive indulgence.

And here are some early morning sounds of the ocean. The color of the water is beautiful, no?

Update from Paradise......

I can't begin to describe how huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge this place is. Or at least it will be, when they finish it. They're still building steadily. And it isn't nearly full, even the buildings that ARE finished.

There appears to be approximately one swimming pool per registered guest. We had to ask a couple very nicely today to please get out of our pool. Just kidding.





While downloading pictures from yesterday, I found several I couldn't explain. Like this one:

Problem is, I took them all. Did I mention this is one of those all-inclusive resorts, where all food....and drink.....is included?


We even sat through a sales presentation for a membership at this lovely place. For a mere $5000, we could have 10 weeks to use anytime at this or one of its sister resorts. Sounds like a bargain, but we'd also have to pay an additional $2000 each time if we actually wanted to eat. It was difficult for us to calculate exactly where the savings came in. But it wasn't high-pressure, and I had read online that it was worth it to sit through it for the $400 spa coupons. We're not even likely to use those, though.

Everything is huge. Our room is ginormous, the balcony is spacious, and we have our own jacuzzi in the room. Even a two-person shower.


Now I have some work to do for my online course. Goodnight!