Never Too Much

I'm jamming out (seriously, it is my actual dance party of one) to Luther Vandross "Never Too Much" while feeling somewhat pressured to come up with a clever and entertaining blog entry.  Why don't they write love songs like they used to?  Now I'm on to "Ain't No Woman Like the One I Got" thanks be to the Four Tops.  When I was 20 years old, my best friend and I used to take a shot of bottom-shelf vodka or gin (yes, of course I had a chaser and drinking chips) to every Jay-Z song on our playlist.  Now I am merely blogging one sentence to each throwback love song on my playlist.  30 really isn't the new 20.  Who came up with that anyway?

The thing is, when you go to an island and plan to stay there for 2 months, you just don't have busy days.  Don't get me wrong, I am just fine with this change of pace, but I'm not yet sure how to translate it into really interesting public-journal information.  But I'll do my best to come up with the news of the week.

Our best friends here are Rodney and Luna.  They are a couple in their 50s who decided to quit their jobs before the conventional retirement age so that they could actually enjoy themselves while they were still spry and able.  Our best friends before that were another couple in their 50s from Canada, one retired, one taking a 6 month leave from her nursing job, to travel for 6 months.  We must have old souls, what can I say.  Anyhow, Rodney and Luna work here at Deep Blue and are both Dive Instructors, living here for about 2 years now.  They are happy, laid back, and fun - we've been out to eat with them a few times and went to a fundraiser last night for BICA (Bay Island Conservation Association).  There was a pretty decent band but the long drawn-out raffle persuaded us to make an early departure. 

I completed 14 dives since I've been here!  My favorite was a deep wreck dive at a site called the Halliburton.  It was awesome.  A purposely sunk 189 foot ship, 102 feet to the floor of the sea.  We spent about 20 minutes exploring it, including a few swim throughs!  I'll probably complete another 6-10 dives while we are here, then do some diving in Roatan too, before departing the Bay Islands.  Unfortunately I missed a couple of dives Brandt went on and hunted lion fish!  He is becoming a master hunting right-hand man!  Luna made delicious lion fish ceviche this week too for all of us to enjoy.  That was a first for me!   

I've been really enjoying reading books.  When I was an old kid, I read like a book worm all the time and I loved it!  Then college and trying to date and trying to obtain degrees happened.  Now I can read again.  Brandt and I decided just to bring one kindle and share it, which is working out ok.  Mostly he reads it and I read books I find around or switch out from a book exchange.  So far my book list includes:

        1) The Other Typist - Suzanne Rindell.  I liked this book and would recommend it.

        2) The Good Guy - Dean Koontz.  This book was garbage.  After reading books that are actually interesting, this was really a waste of time.  I don't recommend this.

        3) The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver.  This was really a lovely read.  I like so much about it and really like this author.  This is highly recommended. 

        4) My current read - Mexico - James A. Michener.  So far really interesting.  I hope to recommend it as well when I am finished.

Please, if you have read some really great books (I know you have), share them with me in a comment.  Kindle + library cards = access to great books from anywhere in the world!

Lastly, I must comment about traveling with my fiancé, Brandt!  Previously, I traveled mostly solo, and once on a great 2.5 month adventure with a wonderful girlfriend.  Of course I can't say that one way is better than another, but I can say that traveling with Brandt is a dream come true!  It's wonderful to spend so much time together, experience new things together, share our thoughts and ideas and plans, and wake up next to the one you love.  

(And as I close, I listen to a different type of love song - one that reminds me of all the greatest loves of my life.  You know who you are :) "Wagon Wheel" - OCMS)

Please excuse any typos and grammatical failures.  Sent from my dream world.