And then something happened that made me think, for the first time, that the Universe was telling me I was doing the right thing here. Check this out. We're playing in the water and I don't know much about body surfing. Consequently, when a particularly large wave came upon us, I had no idea what to do, besides think, "Oh shit." And then I got smashed with it. I got tumbled around a little bit, not too long, but long enough for me to wonder what it felt like to be caught in a riptide, and then I was out of it, awkwardly stumbling and spluttering.
And realizing that I'd just lost my glasses.
I'd lost my glasses, see, because I'd kept them on while I was playing in the water. I'd kept them on even after I'd thought about taking them off, even after I thought about what would happen in the likely event they got knocked off my face, even after I told myself to stop being lazy and stupid and just go to the shore and drop them there, for god's sake.
So then, my friend and I actually tried to find them. We actually went through the motions of peering through the water, fanning our feet across the bottom, and even ensnaring another couple in our search. I was the first to give up, because I realized how ridiculous and futile the whole thing was and how slim the odds were that I would ever see (pun intended) them again. My friend, however, had much more faith than I did, and continued to look even after I'd returned to playing. Finally she gave up, too, and we headed back to our blanket, with her maintaining the hope that they would eventually turn up on shore. An hour or so later she was called back to the waves, but I stayed on land, trying to soak up some more Vitamin D. (By the way, the couple I mentioned? They eventually came out to dry off, too, and told me they'd kept on looking even after my friend and I had stopped. I love Trinidadians.) A little while later I re-joined my friend in the water, and after a particularly large wave hit, I stood up and felt something hard by my feet. I reached down, thinking there was no way, and pulled up ... a reed. I laughed, but then felt something else tucked in the sand by my feet. I kept my foot planted there so I wouldn't lose it when another wave hit, and then I reached down, and pulled up ... my glasses. Against every odd imaginable, I'd found my freaking glasses. I found them in the same circumstance I was in when I lost them, hours later, in an entirely different spot. After I'd decided I wasn't going back in the water.
If that's not a message from The Universe, then I don't know what is.
When I found them I started flailing and screaming to get my friend's attention so I could share the amazing news, until I realized that probably wasn't the best thing to do while playing out in the waves at the beach.
Okay, so Miracle: Check. Onto the Weirdness Factor. When we got back to the parking lot at the end of the day, I saw a dog lying on its side. I thought it was dead at first, until I noticed it was breathing. So I kept on walking, and much to my surprise, I came upon another dog on its side. Then I looked across the lot ... and saw another. And then another, and then ... another. I am not exaggerating. Five dogs littered across the parking lot, looking like they'd been hit by the plague. I was dying. So I made a spectacle of myself scuttling all over the place trying to steal their souls so I could do a pictorial essay on The Dogs That Dropped Like Flies, but the stupid things had that annoying trait dogs have, of hyper-sensitive hearing and alertness, and kept waking up every time I got near.
Today's Trinidad Impression: "Flies and chickens something something something dickens". So apparently dogs are not the only creatures to be found all over the place here. First there were the chickens. When we initially pulled into the parking lot, there were a couple of chickens calmly strolling around, utterly heedless of the giant death machine bearing down upon them. It was really weird. And the other creature that can be found all over the beach? Mother f***ing sand flies. I got introduced to this delightful native nuisance after I got out of the water the first time. Let's just say I left that day a couple shades darker, with sand in my clothes and constellations of bug bites all over my legs. Literally, constellations. I've got the big dipper on my right leg.
Today's Trinidad Horribly Depressing Discovery: I CAN'T GET HULU HERE. Which means, no Office, No Southpark, No Family Guy, No Tool Academy, even. YES, this matters, leave me alone. You go to a foreign country all alone and see if YOU don't freak out when you can't access your preferred method of escapism.
Blargh.
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