1. “Glad All Over”
Well. You-know-who made it down here and life is good again. For those of you who don’t know the history of Katelyn and I, we’ve gone through many sad-yet-necessary periods of time where we were split apart due to different circumstances. We spent an entire summer apart when she studied abroad in the country of Jordan while I was in Ohio. We spent a whole school year apart while I was attending my fifth year at Ohio State and she was attending her first year of grad school at American University. Sure, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I’m not aware of any other dating couples who have been together over 5 ½ years and have gone through something like that. But. Now she’s here and baby, I’m glad all over.
2. “Buck-aneers”
The first full day Katelyn was here (10/23), she and I got to enjoy a rad day on Buck Island. Buck Island Reef National Monument, or simply just Buck Island, is a small, uninhabited, 176 acre (712,000 m²) island about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the northeast coast of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. It was first established as a protected area by the U.S. Government in 1948, with the intention of preserving “one of the finest marine gardens in the Caribbean Sea.” ….Yep. The point is, it’s lovely there. Now, some of you may say: “Gosh, Ben. Traveling to a tropical, paradise-like island while already living on a tropical, paradise-like island?! Kinda greedy, no?” The thing is we were invited to join several other people on this excursion headed by Joe, the owner of TTC. He borrowed a boat (yes, I was on a boat….insert frat song here) from a friend and sailed it to Buck Island where we pigged out all day and wondered what the rest of St Croix was doing. Sailing over warm waters, crude jokes, a slight sunburn and cool people all make for the best weekend I’ve been on St Croix to date.
3. “But I don’t wanna be a pirate!”
As promised from my first blog…post…..thing, I told you I’d be updating you on any island “trophies” I pilfer for myself. Now, I must mention, the word or term “pirate” has a tad different meaning down here in the Caribbean than back in the States. “Pirate” in the States refers to a rum-guzzling, yar-har-har-ing, peg-legged, swashbuckling, swindling, thieving seafarer. “Pirate” down here pretty much means hippie. All the more reason I could get used to referring to myself as a pirate.
Back to the trophy pilfering. I was at work (what better place to steal things, right?) and was asked to run a tape with Anthony, a civil-y/CAD guy I work with, to dimension the new trailer office that we will be using for the next project that is set to commence in less than a month. We dimension the exterior of the trailer and then make our way inside….to the booty. The first thing I notice after entering the trailer is that it is not completely empty. An old beach towel, a few filing cabinets, a Florida phonebook from 2002 and miscellaneous rubbish scattered across the ground were just some of the non-trophy-worthy things present. Anthony and I continued to dimension the interior of the trailer, marking rooms, doors and partitions when I saw something I had to have. A slick pair of new, old shades! Now, few people know this and Katelyn rags on me because of it, but I had never bought a pair of sunglasses my entire life prior to moving down to St Croix. I gave in then to Katelyn’s badgering and succumbed to buying a brand new pair of aviators. My personal life goal of never paying for sunglasses vanished at the cost of four paper Washingtons (ZZ Top would still be proud though). Stumbling upon this pair of shades in the trailer has since “re-invented” me. Trophy #1. Trophy #2 came just mere seconds after the rush of blood and elevated heart rate from finding the sunglasses. This trophy came in the form of a Florida Marlins baseball hat that couldn’t have been made in the 21st century. It had the signature green bottom-of-bill design that I adore. Classic 90’s cap. If it was a snapback as opposed to a tetherback, it wouldn’t leave my side.
