Saturday

Hey, ya'll. I posted in the wrong order so please read the third one first. i know it's 2 long posts, but it's all about my trip.

S

I didn’t know what I wanted to do today Some of the members of the production crew I met the night before brought spouses with them who hung out at the hotel all day long. Some of them mentioned hanging out a bit, but when I got up, I had the urge to be adventurous. I decided to go to St. Martin. When I went to the office to have them call a cab for me, a very nice older man offered to give me a ride. He knew the front office staff, so I figured why not. In our car ride over, I come to find out he OWNS the hotel. This is the guy from last night’s father. He was very sweet and told me about his other children and where to go in St. Martin. So, I go to the ferry and I am thinking ferry, big boat traveling slowly, right? Oh no! it’s this little boat packed with people. This man was moving like he was on fire! He was driving so fast, I though he stole something. I think we made it there in maybe 15 minute. And that seemed a bit long. The way we were rocking and hitting those waves, I though I was going to be sick. I was thinking in my head how there was no way I could go back on this ferry! I’m going to have to stay in St. Martin. A very nice older woman distraced me a bit. She was really sweet and reminded me of my Maw Maw (Surrogate grandma in Kentucky.) She started yelling at me for being a single woman going to St. Martin. “It’s so dangerous. You gotta be careful. You don’t know how these men are, they’re slick.” Her daughter was nice too. She invited me to join them for the day. They had some errands to run, but afterwards, they would show me all around. They live here in Anguilla, but go over to visit family and shop in St. Martin. Plus, the mother was born and raised over there. So, I decided to go with them. The errands consisted of visiting family members and dropping off ripe papayas as long as my forearm and as thick as my thigh and fresh pigeon peas. Everyone was so sweet. The ferry lands on the French side of the island. They took me to the Dutch side of the island as well and drove me up into the mountains. The view from the top was breathtaking. I’ve never seen water soooo blue! They told me a lot of history and stories about the island. Once back in Anguilla, they even offered to drive me back to my hotel. I had a great day. We are supposed to be going out to dinner later in the week as a way of me thanking them.

Once back at the hotel, I saw some of my new found friends from last night. We started chatting by the pool when the sun was still up and ended with drinks at midnight. They were so nice. We had some drinks at the bar, and then decided to sit at a table and eat dinner. They told me about the shoot today and a big one they are doing tomorrow. There is this small island just about 3 miles offshore. It has no electricity and is privately owned. A guy set up a restaurant on it. You go out there on a small boat. They catch lobster and other seafood right off shore then cook it on the beach. It’s supposedly the thing the locals do on Sundays. Half of the people are usually in their bathing suits and the other half just came from church, in their Sunday best with the big hats and all. It’s an all day kind of lounge around and swim and eat and hang out thing. The director and one of the producers spent quite some time telling me I had to go out with them. Hmm, lets see, umm, heck yeah I’m coming! I’m excited to be going to this beach party and I get to see one of my favorite food network shows being taped! They mentioned something about me being an extra, but I don’t know about all that. We’ll have to see how the day goes. The crew is leaving at 7:30 in the morning, and I know I’m not up for that. This woman from New Jersey who has been coming here for years has been assisting them by introducing them to a lot of locals and becoming their unofficial tour guide. She has a house here and spends 1 month her and 2 back in the states. I’m so jealous! She was nice enough to offer to bring me and a couple of the spouses over at noon or so. Can’t wait!

Friday night

Ok, I guess my last post was a bit much. I’ve adjusted and have gotten the hang of island life. A guy who worked here at the hotel helped arrange for me to rent a cell phone. For about $20 you can get a phone with a local number. It’s much cheaper than using regular phones and this way I can be reached if necessary. It’s my connection to the outside world.


When I finally got settled in, I decided to take a stroll down the beach. My first thought, “The sand is so white.” My second thought, “It’s so soft too!” My stroll was nice. I walked just down to the hotel that is $2500 to $5000 and decided to come back for a bite to eat. (YES, $5000 a night!!) When I got back, I went to the restaurant and decided to eat at the bar. The whole bar and restaurant are outdoors. I met the waitresses and the bartender. They were all really nice. The bartender flirted with me, but that may be because I was the only person under 30, the only minority, and the only sober person at the bar. He kept asking me if I was from an island and where my man was. Anyway, more people began to show up. I was chatting with people and all of a sudden someone walked up that I recognized. Not like someone I actually knew. I recognized his face from somewhere, then his voice when he spoke. We chatted for a minute then I got it! I’ve seen him on TV, the food network to be more specific. Now anyone that knows me knows just how much I love to cook and how I am constantly watching the food network. Well, this guy is the host of one of the shows I like. Now, being that we are on this fabulous island and that he is a regular guy like everyone else (Shawn, *wink*), I didn’t say anything about the show. So, we are chatting with a bunch of other people and a sister comes up. She tells me she loves my hair and I tell her I love her earrings. Instantly I liked her. She introduces me to her hubby and asks me what I do. We talk for a bit and I ask her what she does. She kind of smiled and told me she worked in television as a producer. Then she goes on to say that she is here working on a show and gives me some background on the show. At that point I level with her and the host and tell them that I watch the show all the time. They started telling me about what they had been filming and the new episode they were doing. I found it so interesting. I met the sound guy and the camera man and the director along with a gang of other people. They were so nice and after hanging out all night, we all planned on meeting up the next night. They had an early shoot in the morning, so they all left. Once they left, I was chatting with a really nice woman from Boston. She was very drunk and was complaining about how the airport had lost her luggage. She’s been here for 3 days already and pretty much stayed in her bathing suit the whole time. Then the guy I met earlier who got me the phone came up and started chatting with me. He was telling me about how he lived in Miami and DC for a while. Then he went on about how he spent time in Japan and Germany. Wow, you’d think he was stalking me or something. (A little background, I am half Japanese, born in Germany, lived in the DC area, and now live in the MIA area.) Well, come to find out, he runs the hotel and his father owns it along with half of the things on this island. We talk for a bit, but I am exhausted so I head off to bed. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was day 1.

Greetings from Anguilla

Ok, I've been very bad. I haven't checked my email in a while and I know Shelly's waiting for a post. I have been keeping a journal so i can just cut and paste when i do come in the office. So, here's friday and Saturday. I need to finish sunday and well, today isn's done yet. Let me just say that this place is absolutely beautiful! My room is steps from the beach. Within 10 steps, I can be at the beach, at the pool, or at the bar! From the beach you can look over and see St. Martin across the water. At night it’s so beautiful because you can see all of the lights over there and every star in the sky. Amazing!

Cut off

Ok, i feel competely cut off from the world right now. I have a beautiful beachfront room right on a white sand beach. The only thing is, I have no cell phone, no internet acces, no TV. What do I do with myself???


Oh, on the plane ride over, there was a bit of an adventure. I had to catch one of those little propellar planes over from Puerto Rico. I hate those! But that's the price to pay for paradice. Ok, i can do that. Then we are all on the plane. "Can some of you mover around so that we can balance the plane better?" Umm, ok. A little worried now. Then "Umm, The mechanics are trying to fix a little problem, so it'll take a little bit of time before we take off." Huh? What? A mechnical problem? Oh no! then "OK, since there is no air on(did i forget to mention how hot it was?) we are just going to go back to the terminal until they fix the plane since it seems be be taking a bit longer." WHAT? If I got off that plane, i surely wan't getting back on it! Luckily they just put us on another plane and we were good. I'm here all safe and sound. So far only one OLD man who was my cab driver has hit on me. Tomorrow, maybe I'll go to St Martin, or St. Maarten.(same island, french half and dutch half)

Just Rambling

Well, folks, tomorrow at this time I’ll be laying on a beach having cocktails. It doesn’t look like I am going to have easy access to the internet since I can’t find a wireless network card anywhere in the office. I’ll try to do a quick post or two but may not be able to. I think I have everything I need. Sunblock, Check. Chele's book, Check.(Can't wait to read it, girl!) Cute man catching outfits, Check. Oh yeah, and work stuff to, yeah, ummm, check?

I’m excited to be going, but also know I’ll be happy to be coming back in a week. And that’s only because of the long awaited reunion of BenDaBald, ShellyP, and myself. We’ll get a chance to party and drink the night away at a co-worker’s wedding. And of course, get to see the babies a bit. That, naturally, will depend on the amount of partying and drinking we do the night before. I wish they were staying longer, but if you’ve read Ben’s blog you can tell he’s busy working hard for the man. Oh wait, not the man, the wo-man otherwise referred to as Wifey and himself. I ain’t mad at you. Ben, you’ve got to bring the kids back so I can take them to WannaDo City. Someone was telling me about it and I want to go, but I have to borrow some kids to go. Yes, Shel, Sid can come too!

3 days till my trip

Did I ever mention how I don’t do things by myself? I know, I’m a wimp. I should suck it up and learn to do things by myself, but I haven’t/can’t/don’t… Next week will be a real test of that. I’m going to a conference for work. Every other work conference or trip I’ve been on, someone has been there with me. Who do I have dinner with, co-workers. Who do I go sight seeing with, to the movies when we are bored, just to the bar for a drink? My co-workers. Trips to San Francisco, England, wherever have always had built in company. It’s not like we don’t meet other people while there. My co-workers and I always manage to make friend, usually in strange bars. We socialize and have a good time. It’s just nice to know you have SOMEONE to talk to if you don’t meet others. Well, not this trip. On this trip, I’m going to Anguilla for a conference all by myself. I’ve got to get over my phobia of going places alone. So, I’m going to make a real effort to get out. Maybe on Sunday, I’ll take a ferry over to St. Martin and play tourist. I am going to avoid ordering room service and make sure I get out. I’m not sure what kind of internet access I’ll have over there, but I’ll try to keep you posted on my progress.

FoL update

What is wrong with NY? She started the show by getting pissed that Flav didn’t pick her to go on the first date. Then she was talking mess about how Goldie wasn’t any competition. She was “cute for a big girl” but that was it. Then ol’ girl had the nerve to tell Goldie that if Flav didn’t pick her she would never date again. Why is she so dramatic? The funniest part was at dinner when Goldie was getting all of the attention. NY was holding that knife like she was gonna cut Goldie for stealing her man AND cut Flav for giving Goldie more attention. That girl is a trip. And did you see the previews? She attacks Pumpkin next week! Unfortunately, I’ll be out of town. Do they get Flavor of Love in Anguilla?

What was wrong with Pumpkin, Hoops, and Goldie? Why are these girls fighting to make out with Flava? Is it just me? Every time one of them kisses him, I just say EWWWWW!!!!

And Pumpkin is the worse one! Do ya’ll think she slept with him that night? I do. That’s the only reason he’d keep her around. I don’t think he’s actually had a conversation with him that doesn’t involve her tongue down his throat.

Interracial Dating

The other day I went to the movies with a girlfriend of mine. We saw that new movie, Something New. The basic story line is a successful black female CPA (I think, it was something like that) meets/dates a white man landscape architect. Besides the obvious racial undertones, there is also classism prevalent in the movie. It was actually a very good movie, much better than I thought it would be. Afterwards, my girlfriend and I got into a whole discussion of interracial dating.

I really don’t have a problem with it, obviously. I think the Asian mother and Black father kind of have something to do with that. We have always been a very open kind of family. My sister is married to a white man and I think I’ve dated just about every race/ethnic group out there. The color of skin doesn’t really matter to me one bit. But then as we were talking, I realized something. If I married outside my race, well the black half anyway, I would encounter some of the issues that they did in the movies. In my case, it wouldn’t come from my immediate family, but my extended family and even some friends.

Thinking back, I realize that my family in Alabama are not really that open. My cousin has been known to make comments like “Well, you know how white people are…” Umm, excuse me? Did you just say that? You know you’d be pissed off if you heard someone say “Well, that’s how black people are.” And, one time we were talking on the phone. I had just sent her pictures of my niece. She is the most beautiful thing, but the mix of half white, ¼ black, and ¼ asian and produced an asian looking child. I commented that if I were to marry a white man, this is what my baby would look like. She said “Oh Lord! Please don’t marry a white man!” When I said WHAT? She tried to back track and say something about not being able to help who I fall in love with but that it would be nice if he were a black man. I could just see the drama if I took a non-black man to visit Birmingham. With some other extended family members, I will always be the girl that brought the white girl to the family reunion. See, I was going to drive up to ATL for a reunion. My friend Kathryn offered to drive with me. She is a little blond Welsh woman. We had a great time and two of my cousins absolutely fell in love with her, one being 3 the other 33. The next reunion 2 years later, I was greeted by a distant cousin while checking into the hotel. “Hey cousin, I ‘member you from da last reunion. You da one dat brought da white gurl.” Imagine if I married someone non-black and had kids with him. I’m sure there would be all kinds of comments on good hair and skin color not to mention the comments I already get about speaking proper English. Some of my friends are probably just as bad, but not so open about it. I have girlfriends that always talk about finding a good black man, a fine brother, a black man that can take care of his own… There is always the adjective Black in there. What about a good man period? Is he good to you? Does he make you happy? Can he pay all of his own bills? Then what does it matter what color his skin is?

Flava of Love and Project Runway

I have to admit it. These 2 shows are my indulgences. I spend most of my time working, but I make sure I see these shows. They are hilarious. Have you been watching?

Shawn- I’m glad you are still reading blogs since you are on a posting hiatus. I’ll have to do Flava and PR updates for you. And, my girl has WE. I told her to Tivo that show for me. I'll have to go over this weekend and check it out.

Ok, Flava is a trip. Did you see the preview for next week? When NY was talking about “I have to watch my man is kissing another woman, and a big woman at that!” I could have reached in the screen and smacked her, being a bit on the chubby side myself. Next week is going to be hilarious.

Hottie has issues. It was so funny how every question she lied about then told Flava "I've been completely honest with you." I would have stepped back before the lightening stuck! And did you notice the cha-ching side effects that Blind date used? Where are we going to get our little sound effects now?

Pumpkin should have told him she was on Blind date too. If not, she shouldn’t have said anything to the other girls about it. They are going to use it against her later on. Oh, and on one of my mental health days last week, I was flipping throught channels. Why did I see Pumpkin on the MTV show Next? I guess she and Hottie are making the reality TV rounds. And what did she do to her head this week???

Smiley was stupid! She should have know she couldn’t trust none of them, especially not NY. And I KNEW she was the stripper.

Gita is a trip. What is with her? Isn’t she married now? I loved the lunch where she was like “No, she’s not good enough for you… No, not her… No, she’s too young.” She doesn’t want Flava with anyone!

On to PR, so it’s Santino, Chloe, and Daniel. I knew Kara would be out because all her outfits are so Blah. And can you believe how they all turned on Chloe on the runway? I bet she’ll be bitter in the reunion show they are having next week, although she was stupid for saying she didn’t know if she “wanted this”. When he first started, I though Santino’s dress was going to be nice. But then he put all those gold coin things on it and it was not cute. Neither was Chloe’s. Her model looked all washed out. And Daniel's was something you could get anywhere. I was not impressed.

Oh, Did you see Cara was kicked off RW/RR? I’m glad but I’m sure they’ll be a crying Susie in the next episode.

Oh no, not Crack!

I was home from work the other day when a friend of mine called me. It wasn’t unusual, but she started the conversation with “you better sit down…” That’s never a good sign! The conversation was about someone we knew. Now I haven’t talked to her since her birthday incident, which I mentioned here. And the whole conversation made another incident that I mentioned here a little bit easier to believe. I really thought she hadn’t done it, but maybe she did. Anyway, this is how the story went.

My friend K, who originally introduced me to Lisa called to tell me she stopped by a Jamaican restaurant owned by a mutual friend. Lisa and K haven’t spoken since they had a falling out in 04, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. S, the restaurant owner, told K that she and Lisa had a falling out too and they didn’t speak anymore. It’s such a long story that I can’t really go into it here. Basically S ended up telling Lisa she didn’t know how to treat people and she couldn’t have someone like Lisa in her life. If you hear the story, you’d agree. Oh, and the story also mentions Lisa pursuing W, who I mentioned before while she was encouraging me to go out with him. Needless to say, I was not happy about the story. That’s not the point of this though. S heard some things about Lisa and thought we should know.

A guy that knew Lisa stopped by the restaurant the not to long ago and asked S if she spoke to Lisa lately. When she said no, he said she needed to call her because “Lisa needs a friend.” He told her that Lisa was on crack. CRACK???? WHAT? HUH? She has lost a ton of weight and was doing drugs, according to this guy. Now, I haven’t seen Lisa since last year, but she was rapidly loosing weight then. When I first met her, the girl was a size 18. Last time I saw her, she was probably a 10. According to this guy, she’s 100lbs soaking wet. I knew she was losing weight rapidly, but I had no idea that was why. It also explains why the girl never had any money ever and why she would do that escort thing.

But that’s not the end of it. Lisa, one day, up and moved to Ft. Myers. Ok, for those that don’t know, Ft. Lauderdale is on the east coast of Florida while Ft. Myers is on the west coast. She didn’t really bother to tell anyone. She just kind of packed up and moved. By not bothering to tell anyone, I also mean she didn’t bother to tell the mortgage company. She just stopped paying the mortgage. I’m sure she didn’t mind so much since the condo was in her mother’s name anyway. Oh yeah, did I mention that she neglected to tell her mother she was moving too? Well, her mother recently moved about 2 hours north of here. The mortgage company tracked her down just in time to tell her that the house was being foreclosed on. She had to jump in her car and come down to try and stop it from happening.

What is going on with this girl? I’m so concerned, more so for her son than for her. Is he in Ft. Myers with her? How can she manage with him when she couldn’t manage while over here? At least here she had her mother and the baby’s father to help out, not to mention me and S and various other people who brought over food and loaded money when there was nothing to eat in the house or she had no gas or money to get to work. I know I haven’t talked to her since Nov, but should I call? I worry, but am I willing to put up with her crap again? To be used again?

Ok, the previous stuff was all written last week, but I hadn’t posted it yet. I didn’t call Lisa. I was still very unsure if I could be used like that again. K was obsessed with finding out if the rumors were true. She even resorted to calling someone she hadn’t spoken to in years. Unfortunately, the girl hadn’t talked to Lisa in forever because they had their own issues. So, K started pressuring me to call some people I knew to see if I could find out anything. She even wanted me to call W. I almost forgot that I never told K that W and I dated, so I just told her I didn’t have his number which is true. I did have the number of another mutual friend of ours. I called her last night so that K would get off my back, but I am still a bit worried about Lisa. Well, girl told me that Lisa moved to Ft. Myers and was doing well. When I mentioned how she hasn’t called or emailed me since back in Nov, she started talking about how Lisa needed to find herself. Yeah, whatever. I do know that Lisa is either not on crack or this other girl doesn’t know it. If she were, this girl would have told me to call Lisa and that she needed me. We chatted on for a while and this girl asked me about my future plans. I told her how I was still planning to move, but have been having a hard time selling the house. She couldn’t sell hers after Wilma either, so she is just renting it out. Skip to this morning. After getting ready for work, I noticed that my cell had a missed call. It was LISA!! I listened to the voice mail. “Sherie, it’s Lisa. I spoke to Lee last night and she told me you still haven’t sold your house. I have someone who is interested in buying over there, but I don’t know what you are asking for. Please email me today with your asking price and if she is interested, I’ll have her call you.” That was it. No “Hi, How you doing”. No “Sorry I haven’t called in a while”. No “Hey girl, I moved to Ft. Myers!” Nothing! I was so pissed off this morning. I can’t believe this bitch had the nerve to call me about business after not speaking to me in 3 months! Lisa is playing real estate agent now. I was so tempted to call right back and tell her to go to hell. I was going to get to work and send her an email telling her to kiss my ass. That I would rather work at my crappy job for 70+ hours a week than to have her get any sort of commission for selling my house.

Testing My Patience

I am so ready to leave. I could care less about anything right now. These people constantly make my head hurt! “Well, at my old company we used to do this.” I don’t give a fuck what you did at your old company. I’ve been here 6 years doing the same crap, I think I know how it’s done. “Well, you’ll just have to work that into the schedule…” Fuck your stupid schedules! “Aren’t you going to explain how this works to me?” WHY? You are the project manager! You aren’t going to do any real work. Besides, can’t you read the spec yourself? I leave in 2 weeks for my conference. It’s not nearly quick enough.

I was really going to do a very upbeat post today, but I don’t have the strength or energy right now. I’ll have to do it later. I’ve got stories about the new movie Something New, strippers, LA, a wedding, and crack.

Chele – I ordered your book at my local Barnes and Nobles. It should be here any day now.

Shawn – I was laying in bed last night watching Flava of Love. Within 5 minutes of the show being on, I was wishing I had your number to call you so we could talk about it!

Shelly – Missed you at work today. You always seem to have a calming effect on me when they stress me out. You better get back to work soon. You are all I’ve got since Ben left me/us.

February Already

It’s February first. Do you all know what that means? That means it’s almost Valentines Day. I HATE Valentines Day. I know, I know, I’m probably going to sound like a bitter single woman. Well, I AM! In the past I am usually very indifferent about it, but this year I seem to be more bitter than normal. I can’t stand seeing hearts everywhere and commercials with kissing bears and singing cards. It all stems from the fact that I NEVER have a good Valentines day. It always seems like I am single. One year a girlfriend and I went to dinner because her boyfriend was in England and I was single. She made it a point to let people know she had a man. Since he wasn’t in town she was out with her poor single friend. I had an ex in college that gave me flowers and candy one year. That was probably the first and last present I actually got from a romantic interest. A few years back I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers at my office. I was so surprised because it was my first year here in FLA. I hadn’t been dating anyone and didn’t know who would be so sweet. Yeah, it was my mom. She thought it would be nice to send something to her 2 daughters. Sweet and all, but not really what a girl wants on Valentines Day. Then there was last year. I was seeing this guy, W. He invited me to dinner. I was looking forward to it since I never do anything. For once, I was not bitter. We hadn’t been seeing each other too long, so I wasn’t expecting much. I was just happy to have plans. Well, work ended, and I head off to meet him at a nice restaurant he picked out. We were meeting there because we were coming from completely different areas and the restaurant was in the middle. I called him when I left work so he would know I was on my way. Well, about 10 more minutes pass and my phone rings. “I’m kind of tired and I feel rushed. Maybe we should do this another time.” WHAT? Seriously? You know I’m on my way! Do you know what day it is? So, guess who ate a bowl of microwave popcorn in bed watching some sappy lifetime movie? Yup, me. We kind of stopped seeing each other shortly after that. I’m not saying that Valentines Day was the reason, but it didn’t help his case any. And when the guys at work ask what ever happened to W, I just roll my eyes.