"For here or to go?"

I am surprisingly grumpy for a girl who is officially on vacation. I don't have to pour a single cup of coffee or answer the same ridiculous questions while grinning an idiot for nine whole days, and yet I can't seem to sift through my dark mood to find the splendidness in it. It will come, though I am guessing at this point not until I am sipping my first cold Imperial on the beaches of Playa del Coco tomorrow evening.

I am sleep deprived and a 4 am wake up call is not a sunny remedy to the problem at hand. I left packing to the last possible moment,and already I am aware of the fact that I have forgotten to purchase Dramamine, which is my life force on most trips and has saved me in some highly unpleasant experiences, and I am extremely frustrated that I cannot find my iPod charger! Also I haven't flown since the " war on liquids", and swear to our dear gods above to throw a tantrum should they take my 4 oz bottle of contact solution from me.

I will NOT check my bag!

In packing however, I have realized that the next best thing to traveling to an equatorial location to actually being there is packing for an equatorial location. Anyone with some degree of skin pigment can survive with a few tank tops, a swim suit and flip flops. Meg likes to remember the "hottest day of our lives" in Costa Rica last year, followed a few weeks later by "the coldest night of our lives" in Peru. I remember her being really hot and me finding myself pretty uncomfortable, but more than the Costa Rican heat, the cold of the Salcantay Trail is what is burned into my mind. Warmer climates suit me.(The weather report actually does not look all that dissimilar to Boston weather for the coming week; upper 80 degree days and scattered thunderstorms.)

I fly into Liberia, CR tomorrow afternoon. Mike has manipulated his friends into picking me up and we will drive from there the half hour or so to Coco. Monday morning we are planning on taking a public bus and from Liberia to San Juan Del Sur, (this is when dramamine and iPods come in extremely handy), hopefully entering Nicaragua without too much difficulty. San Juan, from my understanding is a 'quaint fishing village'... host to surfers and turtles. I am hoping to see a few of each up close. :)

From there we'd like to make it up to Grenada, and possibly one of the islands in Lake Cocibalco. Apparently this lake contains fresh water sharks that enjoy eating human flesh. These may be rumors and hopefully I will live to prove them false.

I am curious to see what this trip does for me... whether it satiates my wanderlust or brings it forth with new vigor. I am liking life in Boston right now, though know with the first blustery frost of the fall I will be wondering how I could ever write such a thing. It has been great being close to my family, especially with the upcoming wedding, but the word on the street is that there is a relocation deal in progress for the newlyweds. Colorado will be their new home and with them they will take half of my family, and more importantly their amazing dog Jack.

The WonderDog!:

I need to quickly harvest some new friends and family members to keep me happy here and replace all the friends I am losing!

And perhaps I am. The coffee house has opened its arms to me recently and I am finding solace in its embrace. I may need to facilitate a move to Cambridge in the next few months. As much as I adore Brookline and our many trees, old ladies and Jewish babes, Cambridge has an edge, funkiness and community feeling that even clean air cannot quite compete with.
That and also simply, the boys in Cambridge are a lot cuter.