Hi-Ate-Us

Last time I left you, I was a sad broken excuse for a human be-in. Now I'm an actual person ("I'm a real boy!") again! And I have officially submitted myself to the ballet gods again. Although, today's class, the first class I have taken in almost 4 weeks, was somewhat of a disaster (nothing like I fell into people whilst turning, a la Jody Sawyer, or somehow breaking something). But the good thing was nothing really hurt, and I could actually move without hearing the rusty creaking of my joints (slight exaggeration). Tomorrow though, everything will hurt, and my joints will probably be creaking again (not an exaggeration). But it feels good to start back into it.

I was worried that I was taking too much time away to turn into a lumpy muscle-less "regular girl," but I realized that if the thought of going back to take a maintenance class instilled dread, then I probably wasn't ready to go back. So after getting back from vacation in the Caribbean, and having my best friend visit for a couple of days, I was actually rarin' to go. When I got to class, I started to get nervous since the most time I took off during the year was 2 weeks...and yeah everything felt like hell. The positive thing is that everything didn't ache like it used to, and my feet actually felt like feet, not swollen sacks of fluid.

But let's talk about vacation. I left Annapolis a rainy nasty mess, and arrived in St Thomas, which had just finished being a rainy nasty mess. Unfortunately when I was there, it was almost always cloudy with snatches of rain here and there (with one exception, when my sister and I went to Magen's Bay), but I wasn't complaining. I missed seeing the sparkling blue water, because the gray skies made the water look like regular ocean water (which isn't unappealing at all, but St. Thomas can do so much better than that!) I spent a lot of time on the beach, reading, shopping around, and just hanging out with my sister. It was very very necessary. And I noticed a malaise begin to seep in, as a result of my sultry relaxing surroundings. I couldn't actually remember the last time I felt bored like that! It was nice to remember that such a thing did exist.

One of my favorite places to visit when visiting my sister is the island of St. John. The island is a nature preserve, so the energy there is so wonderful...it has even been dubbed by the hippies "Love Island." So my sister and I were going to go camping there on Saturday and Sunday, at Maho Bay (it was actually ecotourism because it was all self sustaining and green. Which made it so much more awesome!). I was so excited, but the moment we got on the island and began to hike we were swarmed with mosquitoes. I have never seen them so prevalent! I had 15 bites on one arm alone, AFTER bug spray (multiple applications), and only after 10 or 15 minutes. I am also incredibly attractive to mosquitoes, so that didn't help. When we got to the campsite, I continuted to be miserable...constantly checking every arm and leg to swat them away. When we got into our tent, they would come up through the floorboards and bite me when I thought I was safe. All in all, I got about 5o bites on my body. I actually looked diseased! And I used so much bugspray it's a wonder I didn't poison myself. So we didn't stay very long. An acquaintance of Meg's said that the bugs were so bad because the island had gotten 10 inches of rain 2 weeks ago. Ugh, if only we had known!

It was a pretty cool trip though. When packing up my stuff, I discovered a small cockroach hanging out in my suitcase...which was scream inducing to say the least. Ew. Now I am constantly shaking out my clothes, just in case one of them decided a trip to Annapolis would be fun. Ugh.