Back Into the Groove

Oh, blog. I have forsaken you. I am sorry that it takes the perfect conditions to write to you anymore. But, Good Friday (which means no work), no Katelyn (back in Ohio wedding dress shopping), badgering from friends and family to write are enough to convince me to get back into the groove.


1. "Guess Who"

No, I'm not writing about the Canadian rock band who's most notably known for quintessential classic-rock songs like "American Woman", "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature", "Share the Land", etc. nor the 2005 Ashton Kutcher, Bernie Mac flick. I'm talkin' the "Guess Who?" board game that I'm sure we've all played at least once or at least know the concept of it.

Now that I am pretty much fully acclimated with the job, the site, and the workers, I play a who's-who game with myself every time I walk the site. Only it's not like the racist board game where only 2-3 characters are non-white. You know what I'm talking about, if you happened to get a woman or a black person in the game you were instantly screwed because there were like only 2 or 3 of them. This game, however, involves about 40 character's who have at least 2-3 names they go by, and the caucasians are the vast minority, which means I am screwed due to my limited exposure to island culture and dialect. For example, one guy has: a birth name that he never goes by (it was only made known to me because it is on his official work records), a personal nickname (that his friends and co-workers refer to him as), and a work nickname (mainly a radio handle). There are still a lot of nicknames of guys that work in the field, in which I have no idea what their real names are or what they even look like oddly enough. It took me several months to piece together that "Kiki" is a nickname for Enrique and a several more weeks after that to put a face to Enrique. I swear, they do this just to confuse me. Just this past week, one of the workers came up to me and asked if I had seen "Koy" (or "Coi", or "Koi", or "Koye" or...."Quoy"?) come into work that day. I said to him, "As far as I'm concerned, he has NEVER shown up to work because I have no idea who that even is."


The game continues and I feel like I am losing.


2.  "Uke-an Do It!"

Wow. It has been a while since I have written on here. Well, since *cough January... Katelyn and I celebrated our anniversary together in mid-February. But a few days before that, we exchanged gifts. I got her a string of pearls with matching earrings and bracelet, something she has wanted for quite some time. And in return she got me something I have had my eye on for a while as well. A ukulele! Oh man, what better gift can you give somebody on an island? It is a pretty cool instrument too. Such a unique, recognizable sound. Now, before you start searching for my name on Ticketmaster to see if I will be touring at a town near you... I need practice. Quite a bit of practice. I grew up not appreciating music enough to ever attempt to play anything out of my own freewill, so notes, measures and tones are still a bit foreign to me.

I plan on re-stringing my uke this weekend with hopes of mastering "Paint It Black" in the foreseeable future. Maybe a video will make it's way onto here in a few months? Maybe I can drag Katelyn into it with me and we can perform a duet?... (I wouldn't put much hope into the latter.)

By the way, anybody have a good name I can call my uke? I've given nicknames to my cars and just realized I have yet to name my stringed friend. Just please, please don't say "Koy" (or various forms of).


Well, I hope everyone back home is doing well. And I hope everyone will enjoy their Easter weekend. Me? Think I'll go snorkeling. The water is heating up.
Ciao!

Shutter Island I

1. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

One of St. Croix's most heralded landmarks is Point Udall. Point Udall is the easternmost point in the United States and it also happens to be the first spot in the U.S. that sees the sun rise (makes sense, right?). Another swell little fact is that St. Croix rang in the new year one hour before all of you landlubbers who are stateside.

Below are a few pictures taken from Point Udall for your enjoyment. And you are not mistaken in thinking like I that when you look out into the vast blueness that is the Caribbean Sea, you can't help but thinking that somewhere out there the world just doesn't continue.

2. "By George! That's a pretty flower!"

Another hot spot in St. Croix is St. George's Botanical Garden. It boasts some of the most exotic, tropical species of flora known to man. Many of the plants there can only be located on the 17-acre grounds as development of the island has proved to be detrimental to their livelihood and even existence. Many of the pictures you'll see show these plants interspersed amongst ruins of a Danish sugar cane plantation and rum distillery from the 19th century. It truly is a beautiful site and sight. I took about 150 photos, but 1000 could have easily been taken because there was so much to see and explore.

Too bad that our trip was cut short due to rain, I'm approximating that we only covered about 80% of the garden. BUT, if it didn't rain I wouldn't have been able to capture Katelyn shying away from the rain by huddling under a tree, something I couldn't help but laugh at.