Tuesday, October 23, 2012
and we're off!
I went back to the doctor today. It wasn't so much that I was convinced that something was wrong, I just wasn't convinced that everything was alright. This is what happens when every plan falls through over and over again over 8 months. I am not trusting my body as I should. My body hasn't been behaving as it should. We must spend some time reconnecting. My plan is to leave this coming Saturday for Guatemala, head to Belize for the Garifuna Settlement Day festivities, back to Guatemala to meet mom and venture south through El Salvador, where she will fly home and I will continue on to Nicaragua for another 3 or 4 weeks. No return ticket purchased yet, but somewhere around the first week of January.
Doc said everything really was fine, that my pain is healing and muscle related, and moving in the right direction. No abscess, no infection, just a tender scar. This good news pumped me up, and I began closing the circle on the inquiries I've made. And within an hour, this is what happened:
My friend Athena's cousin, Carolina, who lives in Guatemala City, has offered to pick me up from the airport and transport me to Antigua.
My friend Pauline made arrangements for me to drop my extra bag of cold weather clothes and other gifts and necessities to be shipped by the luggage fairies to the city (Quetzaltenango) these things need to be in so I no longer have to carry them. I haven't met these fairies yet, but I already love them.
The crazy treehouse with volcano views is available to me at Earthlodge. Comes complete with a bathroom with HOT water, on an avocado farm during avocado season. And oh yeah, by the way, we have a visiting Americana musician playing music and we are having a BBQ that day. Guacamole music fest in a treehouse. You can't make this stuff up and I love it!
That's just day 1.
The Santiago and Sumpango Sacatepequez Kite Festival for Dia de los Muertos is on Nov 1, and Carolina also wants to share this with me. I equate this with someone from New Orleans sharing Mardi Gras. What an amazing experience with someone from the area.
More is in store. This may be the most planned trip I've ever taken, but so far this is working in my favor, so this is good. I am hoping Carolina will also join me for the weekend at Lago de Atitlan.
Quetzaltenango plans will be it's own post.
In all honesty, the fact that I can actually envision myself getting onto a plane for an adventure is enough to be grateful for. I've been working on that lemonade for some time. It's time to move forward on this adventure I've been seeking, regardless of the order it's presenting itself. I am a little homesick for NOLA, and thinking about a stop there en route to Bahrain in the spring. But that's another story I just can't jinx again. If ever there was a time to embrace being in the moment, this has been it. All year.
Tenga un buen noche.
Monday, October 08, 2012
ok, so...
I'm not sure what happened. I was doing pretty well posting while I was in transition. Then I got a new job and BAM, not only did I stop blogging, but I stopped writing at all, and my creativity came crashing to a halt.
Well things have certainly changed. I mean, not in the creative department, but in the job one.
Ok, so I was planning on quitting my job at the end of the year to go to Bahrain to be with my friend Jillene and her family. For those of you who don't know where that even is, it's a small island directly to the east of Saudi Arabia, connected by a land bridge. It did certainly get some attention during Arab Spring, and F1 racing, of course. But for the most part, it's a calm Middle Eastern country, and I couldn't contain myself with how excited I was to be going.
And then everything changed. I'm sure there are a few of you reading who are already thinking of something violent or an outbreak in damaging protests.And you're right, though it had nothing to do with the country I was planning on visiting. It was right here at home. In my body. I had recurring, non-life-threatening abscesses that made things very painful and uncomfortable. I took my yearly pilgrimage AWAY from New Orleans for Mardi Gras, to San Francisco to visit my family, and ended up getting very very ill. A week turned into a month, and when I finally returned home to New Orleans, the darn thing returned. Without going into too many details, it was a rough winter and spring. Thankfully during that month, I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandmother, who I was very close to. She ended up dying in late April. I was on medical disability for the remainder of the school year, and quit as I had intended to do, but primarily for my health. And I still really thought I would be going to Bahrain at the end of June. House rented. Car getting driven to CA by a friend. Flights purchased.
But my body protested, and I was forced to have yet another surgery. Instead of from Bahrain, I am writing from my airbed at my parents house in Millbrae, CA. A far cry from the adventure I was seeking, but an adventure indeed.
Now, I have to say, all things being out of my control, there is no better back up plan than spending the late summer and fall in California with friends and family. I knew I was starting to feel better when I suddenly couldn't handle limbo anymore. Specialists, too much TV, packing and unpacking a strange assortment of things meant for winter in the Bay Area, and summer in Bahrain. So I made a phone call to my old boss and good friend, and within a couple of hours, I landed myself a teaching job in my old school district. Ironically, the trip to Bahrain, and unplanned-as-of-yet gyspy like travel that was going to happen beyond Bahrain was part of a bigger plan to make a career change. Jumping in to 8th grade didn't really meld into this big picture plan, but I was in a fog.
The job was offered to me full time for the rest of the year, and I really did consider it. I mean, I had to! Good kids, good gig, save up some money and perhaps replenish some of what I spent on my protesting body this year (insurance doesn't take to it kindly when you get sick out of state). But after opening up the books on Saturday and Sunday morning, reuniting with my procrastinating inner self, and a long conversation with dad, I realized that, surprisingly, taking a job in teaching isn't really going to help me get out of teaching. I know, duh, right? But what's that saying about the forest and the trees?
So here I am, finishing up a month long commitment with some goofy 8th graders, and I feel like I have come out on the other end of this experience in a different space. I'm feeling better, and most definitely more confident than I did two months ago, but not well enough to be so far away. Yet. I am, however, ready for a practice run. I don't want to jinx it by typing it yet. Doctor appointment is tomorrow so we shall see how far I've come, and then a plane ticket will be purchased. Hoorah!
Hopefully I'll be writing more. Soon. And better!
Well things have certainly changed. I mean, not in the creative department, but in the job one.
Ok, so I was planning on quitting my job at the end of the year to go to Bahrain to be with my friend Jillene and her family. For those of you who don't know where that even is, it's a small island directly to the east of Saudi Arabia, connected by a land bridge. It did certainly get some attention during Arab Spring, and F1 racing, of course. But for the most part, it's a calm Middle Eastern country, and I couldn't contain myself with how excited I was to be going.
And then everything changed. I'm sure there are a few of you reading who are already thinking of something violent or an outbreak in damaging protests.And you're right, though it had nothing to do with the country I was planning on visiting. It was right here at home. In my body. I had recurring, non-life-threatening abscesses that made things very painful and uncomfortable. I took my yearly pilgrimage AWAY from New Orleans for Mardi Gras, to San Francisco to visit my family, and ended up getting very very ill. A week turned into a month, and when I finally returned home to New Orleans, the darn thing returned. Without going into too many details, it was a rough winter and spring. Thankfully during that month, I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandmother, who I was very close to. She ended up dying in late April. I was on medical disability for the remainder of the school year, and quit as I had intended to do, but primarily for my health. And I still really thought I would be going to Bahrain at the end of June. House rented. Car getting driven to CA by a friend. Flights purchased.
But my body protested, and I was forced to have yet another surgery. Instead of from Bahrain, I am writing from my airbed at my parents house in Millbrae, CA. A far cry from the adventure I was seeking, but an adventure indeed.
Now, I have to say, all things being out of my control, there is no better back up plan than spending the late summer and fall in California with friends and family. I knew I was starting to feel better when I suddenly couldn't handle limbo anymore. Specialists, too much TV, packing and unpacking a strange assortment of things meant for winter in the Bay Area, and summer in Bahrain. So I made a phone call to my old boss and good friend, and within a couple of hours, I landed myself a teaching job in my old school district. Ironically, the trip to Bahrain, and unplanned-as-of-yet gyspy like travel that was going to happen beyond Bahrain was part of a bigger plan to make a career change. Jumping in to 8th grade didn't really meld into this big picture plan, but I was in a fog.
The job was offered to me full time for the rest of the year, and I really did consider it. I mean, I had to! Good kids, good gig, save up some money and perhaps replenish some of what I spent on my protesting body this year (insurance doesn't take to it kindly when you get sick out of state). But after opening up the books on Saturday and Sunday morning, reuniting with my procrastinating inner self, and a long conversation with dad, I realized that, surprisingly, taking a job in teaching isn't really going to help me get out of teaching. I know, duh, right? But what's that saying about the forest and the trees?
So here I am, finishing up a month long commitment with some goofy 8th graders, and I feel like I have come out on the other end of this experience in a different space. I'm feeling better, and most definitely more confident than I did two months ago, but not well enough to be so far away. Yet. I am, however, ready for a practice run. I don't want to jinx it by typing it yet. Doctor appointment is tomorrow so we shall see how far I've come, and then a plane ticket will be purchased. Hoorah!
Hopefully I'll be writing more. Soon. And better!
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