Dear November....

I find myself anxiously awaiting your arrival every year. I tend to place you on a pedestal, slightly elevated from the other months, with more prestige, more honor and just a tad bit more distinction than the rest. Sweet, sweet November, this year is no different, and I need you more now than ever to work your redeeming magic as a saving grace for the year.

January and February were full of change. March brought expectancy, only to lead to let downs in April. May hit me with newness, but June, July and August saw that newness fade, masks came off and revelation, rejuvenation and realization showed its face in September. October you left me tired, and now I am just ready for November.

I'm ready to see another year of my life, my 35th. I am ready for the shift.

November, you have so much promise.

Please, please be good to me.

A Whole Lot of Weddings & Other Monday Randoms

Ever since my return from Costa Rica, I feel as if I've been in one huge whirlwind of weddings & flowers & champagne & baby shower gifts & birthdays (oh, my!) & yes I could keep going but I won't.... Plainly stated, it's been hectic and now we are approaching that time of year when there's just so much going on that you have to legit keep your calendar up to date or risk being confused as heck. But I digress...

Today has been a random hodgepodge of sorts. The morning after a busy non-stop weekend will have you questioning your life choices. I tried to find some reprieve last night, but that was shortly lived as I journeyed out for a surprise party for one of my friends. Sunday was weird as well. I woke up hating everybody and really just in my feelings which is weird after a great Saturday and an even greater Friday night.

But let's back track...

This all began on Friday, October 7th. Wedding rehearsal and dinner for my friend V's nupitals, which would take place the following Sunday. After stuffing myself with shrimp and dirty rice Friday night, I was back up early for a mimosa filled brunch before the wedding party headed out to a twerk class. We twerked and came reaaaaaal close to ruining those fresh wedding presses, but got our sorts about ourselves. The wedding was the next day went off without any hitches, and poof my friend was married. I also caught the bouquet.

PS., Apparently bridesmaids can't (well one did, but I promised not to tell on her) smuggle their cellphones into the procession, so I have to wait for the official pictures..

I honestly can't remember anything that ensued the following week. But I'm sure it involved petitions, and court settings & settlement agreements, or something along those lines. Then right before I knew it, Thursday rolled around and it was time for the bridal shower dinner for my friend D, who would be getting married the next day.

Many glasses of wine and laughs later, it was right back to our wedding scheduled programming and time for her big day. In lieu of bridesmaids, she had a council that consisted of all the ladies & gentlemen who were near and dear to her heart and played an important role in her life leading up to her wedding day. She didn't want us in the same dress, so she merely instructed us what she wanted us to wear and left the rest up to us!

Her wedding was a Pinterest dream made in heaven. Perfectly executed & a truly wonderful occasion that I am happy to have been apart of. The actual ceremony was cell phone free, but I did manage to snap a few shots when I wasn't too busy dancing or singing at the top of my lungs to her wedding soundtrack.

That following Saturday was filled with brunch with out of town guests & loving on the newlyweds before they jetted off to Aruba yesterday.

And then Sunday rolled around, and I'm not sure if it was the exhaustion taking over, my looming birthday extra-ness or what, but my emotions swan dived into the abyss.

I just still feel some type of way about the level of support and care I have in my life. Just thinking of the many relationships I have garnished over the years, I whole-heartedly can't say if I have a real tribe. I feel like I have a pocket full of close friends, that don't all necessarily live here (some do), and a million others whom purport to know me, but only know certain layers of my true self. Albeit I am pretty transparent, and freely speak my mind, I am a true Scorpio, so there are certain sides of me that are hidden from the masses. I sometimes wish I had people in my life who genuinely understood me, and had my back the way I usually have others. I just feel a void, and I can't quite put my finger on it. My mother has a million theories as to why I feel that way, and usually her answer is I just need a husband to fill that void, but I just don't know. Maybe she is right. Then that leads me to the feelings of, well if only that were easier said than done & I could click my heels like Dorothy and wake up in Never-land with a husband and son just ready made.

Then there's the baby showers. My best friend from college had her baby shower in Alabama this weekend, and unfortunately I could not attend. I not only feel terrible for not making that journey, but also an empty space because I know life as we know it will soon be changing in a few months. It's like a weird combination of selfishness, jealousy & extreme jubilation. It's like I know all friendships change when somebody has a baby, and I wasn't ready to give up my partner in crime just yet, and with baby bumps come baby fever & I'm sitting here like well, you'll be 35 in less than a month, the goods won't work forever, what are you doing, and then I'm like yes, a new baby to dress up and love on. Then that overwhelming rush of emotions leads me underneath blankets on my couch thinking deeply about life.

I'm learning to not worry as much about the surface level associates, but so many life changing occurrences at once with my key players makes me feel vulnerable and lost in a way I'm not quite sure yet how to handle.

Trust the timing of your life, they always say. But some days, all I can do is reflect on it all & bask in these far-fetched Monday randoms.

Puerto Viejo ~ The Destination

After a night of extreme turn-up, walks along the beach, bonfires, reggae and Spanish infused melanin... it was morning & we had a full day ahead of us to enjoy Puerto Viejo. We devoured breakfast at Hotel Banana Azul, rented bikes and set off to explore the town in the daylight and find Punto Uva and Manzanilla beaches.

First off, I'll start by saying I legit hate riding bikes with my friends. I found that out when we randomly decided to go bike riding in Houston once before, and it was no different in Costa Rica. I'm not out of shape by any means, but I'm okay with admitting extreme bike riding is not my thing. I don't want to speed race down streets, I want to take my time and enjoy sights. I want to wander around aimlessly taking everything in. I want to stop at random shops, look at souvenirs, and local jewelry. I enjoy a good bask and take it all in. This was not the agenda. I tried my best to keep up with them, but to no avail and a group ride quickly turned into them pedaling at their own pace and me literally being alone for stretches of road at a time. At first I tried to keep up, but then I realized that would do nothing but result in me either injuring myself, having a heat stroke, or re-injuring my knee that I had just went to the doctor about the week I went to New York. Wasn't happening.

I can further admit that those long 7 miles of bike ride, with only one real stop, almost ruined my trip. I had a lot of time to think as I struggled to pedal up hills, and through city streets and over bridges and into the unknown. I thought a lot, and with each difficult stretch or bridge or truck speeding by me in a foreign country with not a friend in sight, I grew angrier and somewhat sad. I'm not the type of person to ever leave anyone behind. Regardless of how fast or slow someone is going, one thing I would never do is totally disregard them and track off ahead. That was definitely a moment of clarity that regardless of how good of friends you are with someone, ultimately you have to be responsible for yourself and not expect people to treat you the same way you would treat them. I definitely didn't want to be a buzzkill, so by all means if you are in a rush and leisure is not your thing, then go ahead and leave me behind. I'll manage in my own time and in my own way. But I digress...

One of my friends doubled back to check on me which I was grateful for, but that moment in time definitely made me feel some type of way about a lot of things.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm from the bike ride, the destinations almost made up for my angst. Both beaches were beautiful. The water was the prettiest of blue, the waves were crashing and it was a perfect moment to capture both in my memory and in my camera. I walked around on the sand and tried to gather myself while they played in the water. Then we headed to our next beach and had dinner at a Jamaican restaurant on the beach.

It was a quiet late lunch, and another long & lonesome 7 miles back to our villa. We washed up, snacked & I called it a night.

I woke up extra early for some alone time, quiet reflection and reading in the front bedroom while it was still relatively cool in the house. The villa was truly beautiful and I enjoyed that time to just think and exhale. Everyone else eventually woke up and were sore from all the bike riding the previous day. We lounged around, then decided to spend some time in town and enjoying the beach near our villa. We ate with the locals at Johnny's Place and the fried fish was delicious! We then headed back to our side of town and enjoyed the black sand beach before turning in for the night.

We took the shuttle back to San Jose, and 5 hours later we were back and passing our time till our flight back to Houston. We ate at Hooters and walked around Walmart while we waited until our airline opened for check-in. By the time our flight boarded we were all delirious and laughing hysterically at everything. It was a super late flight. Some of the people who were on our flight to Costa Rica were also on our return flight and one group especially provided us with plenty of comic relief and inside jokes, like the forever funny, "Poor Sandboy" moment. By the time we boarded it was well after midnight. I was sitting next to one of the people who was in the group that provided our comedy relief and we talked for the first hour or so into our flight before falling asleep. Then finally we heard the announcement that we were making our final descent into Houston and that was the end of our weekend of Pura Vida in Costa Rica.

What's unique about Costa Rica is how each part of the country is so different from the other. When I found out about the cheap flights to Costa Rica, I immediately let my blog turned in real life friend Carla know about the deal since the airline also flew out near where she lives. We ended up in the same country at the exact same time and never crossed paths. From looking at her pictures and reading her blog, we had completely different experiences in different parts of the country. I would love to return to Costa Rica, both to visit Puerto Viejo for the cultural beach experience, but also to see the volcanoes and lush side of the country. I feel like this trip was necessary, not only for the face value, beach and fun, but also for the moments of insight and thoughts I was able to share with myself. The moments of clarity, the overcoming something that was very difficult to me and the realizations that were made. I enjoyed my time there, and this destination was very necessary.

Costa Rica - The Journey

Once upon a time, I went to Costa Rica. I got back early the morning after Labor Day & then waited a month to talk about it. This is my story. 

It all began on a random Saturday afternoon. A text with a screen shot came through in my groupchat and it was an image of a flight deal to San Jose, Costa Rica. Usually we will either pull the trigger, or give some reason why we cannot hop on the deal, but this day it was a full go from everyone & we were booked for Costa Rica. We were set to fly into San Jose the Thursday before Labor Day and be back in Houston in time for work that Tuesday morning.

We collectively decided to spend the majority of our time in the country in Puerto Viejo, which is in the Limon province where there are beautiful Caribbean beaches & and beautiful beautiful men people. This is the most diverse area in the country and where the descendants of hundreds of slaves brought to the country live. It's about five hours away from San Jose, but it was decided that we would fly there versus taking a shuttle.

 

We went directly to our hotel upon landing in San Jose, and set out early to grab some food, see a little bit of the city and head back to the airport for our flight. We had the BEST uber driver ever. He was from the province we were heading to, and graciously escorted us around San Jose and took us for the most delicious meal we had while on our trip.

I'm gracious for our driver because without him we probably would not have been able to navigate our way around the capital city. It was very crowded, very cluttered and very mountainous.... but beautiful. I'm still craving the beans and fish we had at the restaurant he took us.

That sauce was ridiculously good. Needless to say, I did more eating than picture taking....

To be honest, in my mind the flight to Puerto Viejo was going to be on a plane similar to the one we arrived in. It wasn't until we left Houston that I realized we would be in a super small plane flying over all those mountains. Two girls who were also on our flight there, talked so much shit about the type of plane we were taking. They obviously were doing a little bit of hating, but I didn't let it phase me too much. It wasn't until we had checked our bags, which consisted of not only the bags being weighed but us as well, did I slightly freak out. I kept it together for the sake of not having to curse anybody out, and we were off to our next stop... in a teeny tiny aeroplane.

Despite the fact that you could hear and feel every little thing, the flight wasn't that bad. We had a quick layover and about 35 minutes later we had landed in Puerto Viejo. We took a taxi from the shack where planes landed airport to our Airbnb about another 45 minutes away.

We literally traveled through jungle, and banana trees and villages & slightly got lost, but finally made it to our villa right as the sun was going down. Villa de Aragon would be our home for the next few days, and it was truly a beautiful property. I fell in love with the room on the back patio, but since there was only one air conditioning it was too hot to sleep back there. But in another setting, and a different climate, or if there was more air circulating, that back room would've been perfection.

We didn't spend much time exploring our home for the weekend because we were hungry and anxious to get out and see the town.

Not too far from where we were staying was a hotel and black sand beach. We walked to Hotel Banana Azul and enjoyed dinner and drinks before taking a taxi into the city to enjoy the rest of our night.

We walked a few feet away from where we had just dined, and took in the stars, the sounds of the waves crashing and the pretty black sand on the beach.

After that we bar hopped in town, and walked around mingling with the locals. We went to a reggae bar and made the DJ amp the music up for us from relaxing Marley, but flat out dance hall. We then proceeded to another venue called Lazy Mon's, where we literally got our whole lives. Well, I got mine. I can't speak for everybody else, but I can definitely attest to the fact that life was GOTTEN. But I digress....


My night ended with a few things crossed off my bucket list, and then it was time to head home for the evening. Well, I guess, the morning? We made it back to our villa and probably went to bed around 4 in the morning.

It was a great welcome and reception into the country.

It was the beginning of our journey.