The Sea Got the Best of Me (Day 4)

My apologies for not posting yesterday. I fell asleep at 10pm. I’m a night owl. Midnight at the earliest for bed. According to my friend and host, when you spend so much time in the water and lay on the beach, you get indescribably worn out. Yesterday was a gorgeous day, although most of them are here. But I woke up and read for a while, then fell back asleep. I am working my way through Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home by Kim Sunee, hoping to get some inspiration for my own memoir.

When I finally awoke, breakfast was waiting for me. I lightly toasted a day-old Jonny Cake my friend had made for the BBQ stand the day before. My friend and her sisters run a BBQ joint from Friday evening to Saturday evening. They’ve been doing this for years to supplement their incomes. She says when it’s tourist season, they do really well, but business is slow now. They serve fish, ribs, and chicken with a variety of sides and my friend’s special recipe Jonny Cakes. I added this one to my plate of vienna sausages and fried plantains with a side of salad. I savored this while taking in the morning breezes on the wrap-around porch. A 20-minute shower front blessed us mid-morning and eased the heat that was fast building.

When I arrived on Wednesday, my friend informed me that there would be a boat race on Sunday, and for which she was catering. After eating breakfast, I joined her in the kitchen to help with the cooking and fixing of items for sale. Once we were done, I dragged out my manuscript and looked at it. I literally hadn’t looked at it since I presented it for my CIIS thesis with Carolyn Cooke in May of 2012. It looked daunting, so many loose-leaf pages. I read Faith Adiele’s critique of it. This time I wasn’t so emotional about it. I felt a surge of love, admiration, and gratitude for having had her be a part of such an important phase in my life. The manuscript has come a long way since that first VONA 2010 when I presented it to Evelina Galang and she gave it back to me bloody and mutilated (love you Ate!). I’ve had Minal Hajratwala and Andrew Pham also look at a selection of chapters. I am grateful that some of my VONA giants have taken a look at it and given me comments. Now the book is back in my court if you will. I’m not sure where to proceed yet, but I will keep you posted.

I showered and left for the boat race around 3 and had a good time. I bobbed up and down in the sea until the sail boats headed out then I laid on my straw mat and read for an hour. Then went back in the water until the boats came back. It was fun to watch the last few minutes of cheering as the boats came in to dock. I went back to the house to change (we were a 3-minute drive from the house) and returned to have a cold Corona and shoot the breeze with my friend and her sister. The guy who gave me his number on the ferry (Day 1) came up to the car as I was getting ready to drive home to change and asked if I had lost his number. When I asked how he knew it was me, he said “I can recognize that ass from anywhere!” Turns out he was walking right behind me as I headed to the car. I found out he’s married with two kids. He says it’s no sin to look at the menu. #smh #beyondredemption