Emergency

I don't think I've had one customer in the past 6 months that was not in state of freakish panic over the near death experience one might have if they don't have someone's name sewn on something RIGHT THIS MINUTE OH MY GOD!!!!

What is wrong with people? Is it so very hard to plan ahead, even every once in a while? I guess I am to blame for continuing to enable these boneheads. I honestly can not see the dire need to have something embroidered STAT, but whateva...

As we were driving home from softball practice last night we passed a house with outrageous amounts of black smoke coming from the chimney. It was gigantic - I wondered if they were having an emergency, but I was also driving 50 mph. What is the civic duty here? Turn around and go check? Call 911 and say someone's chimney has smoke coming out? I didn't know what to do and given the traffic kept on moving along. But in my gut I felt like I should call or do SOMETHING. The first thought is that there are hundreds of cars zipping by, one of them will call. That sort of thinking is what is wrong with the world today, and sadly it is exactly what went through my head. Then we were passed by a firetruck, likely on it's way to the scene. The house is still standing today, so I'm assuming that the fire was taken care of - if there was a fire at all. The firetruck could have been purely coincidental and headed somewhere else. In essence I did NOTHING, even though I felt in my gut I should do something. I'm becoming a part of the problem...sigh.

Home

Home at last! Spent the better part of last week in Costa Rica. A truly beautiful place, and now returning to reality is hard. I've had 24/6 with Kevin and now it is back to the grind, something that is more difficult than I imagined.

We had no kids with us on this trip and it was purely self indulgence at every turn, but a well deserved reward for the hard work Kevin has put in for the past year to support our family. He really does his job well and he gives 110% effort to the company he works for. The best part is that he really does enjoy his work. This trip was giving back to him. I, of course, have done basically nothing all year except to spend his earnings, so I feel kinda like a mooch. I did my part to service the king's every desire and we had a very romantic and smoochy trip. Now I miss him like crazy all day long.

We went to a beautiful resort near a small town called Jaco. As resorts go it was amazing, and lush and full of iguanas, running under our feet by the pool, on the rooftops - tons of them. The food was incredible and the service was great. When we left the resort to see the "real" Costa Rica it was much different. No one is in a hurry anywhere - such a difference from home! Most meals ended up taking over an hour due to service. The atmosphere is very laid back in the entire town and there were no worries. While there were some areas which seemed they could be a little shady, we never felt unsafe.

The beaches in this area are black sand, something I was not expecting at all. It really looks dirty and is hard to get past after being exposed to such white sand beaches as we have. There were also no seashells along the shore, but only rocks. The rocks were smooth and rounded from the constant tumbling in the ocean. There are 121 volcanoes in Costa Rica so the black sand is a product of volcanoes I'm pretty sure. We did not get very educated on Costa Rica and unlike most of our travels we did very touristy things. We did the adventure tours advertised by the resort (zip line the rainforest, ATV the mountains and forest, surf, etc.). And while we had a lot of fun the day we were leaving I realized that we missed an opportunity to go to a National Forest and see tons of wildlife. I would have enjoyed it immensely and this is what we would have NORMALLY done. And now, I feel sad that I missed a great opportunity and I have nothing really poetic to share. And I did not see ONE, not even ONE poop throwing monkey!!!

I did, however, drink tons of fruity concoctions and feel like a queen, so that must be good for something, right??? I suppose now I'll have to go back and do it right...