Saturday

Bora Bora Chapter 5




Bora Bora Chapter 5

Jade was escorted to her cabana by a nice valet named Joseph who moved to the resort from the big island of Tahiti, “to get away from it all”, he said. He politely opened the sliding glass doors and ushered her into luxury. The king sized bed was centered between the palm leaf ceiling fan and smooth bamboo floors. Marble and granite gleamed along with the brass fixtures in the Jacuzzi tub bathroom, and both windows looked out onto open water. In the middle of the floor stood a 3 foot square, glass box. There was no floor underneath it, just water straight below. The valet flipped a switch on the wall and watery blue light glowed through the box, filling the room.


“Underwater lighting attracts the fish at night.” he said.


Jade could see a man-made reef directly under her cabana, teeming with tropical fish of all colors and shapes. She could watch this for hours.


One last rundown of the amenities and Joseph took his tip and left Jade alone for the first time since she arrived. She felt the warm breeze dance on her skin from the open window and could hear the saltwater lapping under her feet. She wanted to be enveloped by it, but the bed called her name. Stripping down to her birthday suit she climbed into the soft, white covers. Burying her face in the warm down pillow, she laughed inside at her good fortune. This is a dream, she thought, I hope I never wake up from it.


Insomnia does not take a vacation. Nor does it stay behind for one. Jade dozed for few hours, drifting in between sleep and awake. In that place where your dreams are real and you can still feel the world around you. Small sounds catch your attention and won’t let you go. Sleep was not to come this night. Well, she thought, if I’m not sleeping, at least I’m not sleeping in paradise.


Jade got out of bed and flipped the switch on the underwater light. Pale blue light glowed through the glass box and the fish came in swarms. She grabbed a soft terry cloth robe and sat on floor. Her legs crossed like child sitting in a reading circle in Kindergarten, waiting for the story to unfold. Rainbows of fish in all colors and all manner of sea creature swam in and out of her view. They shimmered and danced in the glowing light. They fed off the small reef and played games with each other. Shining lights reflected from their glittering bodies. Blues and yellows, large and small, round and thin. They danced in circles and enthralled her. She had never seen such a beautiful display of color and grace. So fluid, so peaceful. The light reflected off their sleek bodies and moved with the water. Silver and gold.


Gold. A golden colored fish just at the edge of the light, caught her eye. It didn’t come closer to the reef and play with the other fish. It stayed just at the border of the glowing shafts of light, as if it was scared to come in. It stayed. It didn’t swim like the other fish. Indistinct in the watery beams. Was it moving at all?



Jade focused on the golden fish and realized that fish don’t stay still this long. What was it, if it wasn’t a fish? She stared through the glass and tried to focus on this new find. It was nearly impossible to make out at the edge of the darkness. It stayed perfectly still, shining like gold. What is that? she thought. Immediately she decided that she had to know.


Dropping the robe, she opened the sliding glass door, the warm night air breathed over her bare skin. She wouldn't bother to put anything on. It must be around 3am, no one was up. She looked down the walkway connecting the bungalows to the shore. Small lights spaced along the path glowed a soft yellow. She could see the main hotel and make out the roofline of the beachfront suites. The moon was nearly full and the clear water inviting. She hadn’t even dipped her foot in since she’d arrived and thought, what a perfect time to start my real vacation.


A short set of curving stairs directly in front of her door led into the water. She stepped down softly and glanced back toward the hotel, just to make sure no one was watching. The water touched her toes and she sank into the sweet warmth of tropical paradise. Enveloped by the welcoming water, she slowly sunk under. No sound, no world. Just serenity and peace.


Bit by bit she broke the surface of the water. A few smooth strokes and she floated, looking up at the near full moon. No one could see her here. She heard no sounds of life or the world. No stress of phones and faxes, voicemail and meetings. She was alone and she loved it. She let the tender water wash away the weight of every day and felt reality slip past. Jade held up her hand and watched the water run through her fingers, tinkling back to where it belonged. She could almost believe that she belonged here too. The world would wait for her. And if it didn’t, would she really be missing anything?

Monday

Cubeland


Here is the view from my desk, cube, cage. My friend Mary, hard at work. Someday I will have an office with a real door again. Maybe it will be in my house, and it will be my bedroom, where I can run and hide. Until then, I live in CUBELAND!!!

Sunday

HAHAHAAAAAA


Your Love Life is Like

The Graduate

"Would you like me to seduce you? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"

You believe that you can't pick who you fall in love with. And that sure explains a lot about your past! For you, love has always been dramatic and crazy... which suits you just fine.


Your love style: Unconventional and a bit shocking


Your Hollywood Ending Will Be: Eerily calm


Saturday

FINALLY!!

SUCCESS! I have found a GOOD Sushi place here in the Queen City! It's called Ru San's and I will definitely be going back. Now, if I could only find a decent carne asada burrito place... The search goes on.

Thursday

Bad Analogies and Metaphors

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one those boxes with a pinhole in it.

She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

"Oh, Jason, take me!"; she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.

Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

The Zen of Sarcasm

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.

2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and leaky tire.

3. Its always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

4. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

5. Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.

6. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

7. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

8. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

9. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is probably not for you.

10. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

11. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably a wise investment.

12. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

13. Some days you're the bug; some days you're the windshield.

14. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

15. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

16. A closed mouth gathers no foot.

17. Duct tape is like 'The Force'. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

18. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

19. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

20. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

21. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

22. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

Wednesday

?

10:33pm. Where is he?

free


I like...

I like chocolate cookies and milk.
I like fuzzy blankets.
I like the wind in the trees.
I like the sun on my face.
I like my kitties.
I like dumb jokes.
I like kayaking.
I like chocolate milkshakes.
I like backpacking, and knowing that everything I need to live is right on my back and I can go anywhere in the world and be just fine.
I like my life.

SAT's and College Degree's

The above are not SO required. I have neither. No SAT score, no degree. I've learned that experience is worth more.
DIRECTOR!!!!
K.M.A.!!!

I GOT THE JOB!!

Since the move here, I have been working to bring Bank's onto the LPL platform. It is a broken system as LPL is not designed to work with Bank's. I am also sitting smack in the middle of a corporate merger power struggle and am the bearer of bad news when the promises that were made cannot be accomplished (not in this lifetime baby!)
Needless to say, it has not been a healthy working environment for a large multitude of reasons. Alas, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And it is NOT the train!!

I GOT A NEW JOB!!!

Master's Transitions Director! I will be bringing on large producing, independent advisors to the platform. No More Banks!! I will also be traveling out to the advisors offices to help train their staff and get them up and running.

I'm very excited about this. I got a very nice raise and a promotion, from Manager to Director!

Today was a good day!

10 Thoughts

1. I made dinner tonite. Go me!!
2. D makes me glad I chose him, everyday.
3. There was a PostSecret event in Savannah today. Wish I could have been there.
4. What will my next postcard be?
5. I got new hiking boots, and they're waterproof!!
6. People are mean sometimes, but it's only words.
7. I thank God everyday that He chose me to find His true Gospel.
8. I love camping.
9. I miss my friends in Cali (and carne asada burrito's)
10. I GOT THE JOB!!!

Quote of the Day

We promised them the moon, but could only deliver New Jersey.




sorry villa, heehee

Timely

This is my life...

------------------------------------------------------------
Term Of The Day: Acquisition Indigestion
------------------------------------------------------------
A slang term describing an acquisition or merger in which the
companies involved have trouble integrating with one another.
Acquisition indigestion may also describe a situation in which
the purchasing company has difficulty making the most of a
takeover.

Investopedia Says:
------------------------------------------------------------
Indigestion occurs when you eat too much or when you consume
food that doesn't agree with your stomach. The same outcome
relates to mergers and acquisitions that have gone sour, as
companies may get indigestion when acquiring too many targets
or purchasing firms that don't integrate well.

Tuesday

Quote for the Day

Today there is a complete absence of awesomeness.
-Kyle Starnes
heeheeheeheeheee

Sunday

Weekend at Linville Gorge

D and I went camping this weekend for the first time out here. It was beautiful. The sunset on our way out to the mountains was breathtaking.




We camped at a private little campground where the owners lived in a house right on the campground. It was their property and they let people camp there. What a dream job! The campground was very well taken care of and the bathrooms had hot water and clean showers! We will definitely be going back.





Saturday morning we drove out to a trailhead at Linville Gorge "The Grand Canyon of North Carolina". The trees were so dense it felt like a rainforest, not like hiking in Cali at all.




The trail was pretty easy as we started, but got steeper the closer to the Gorge. There were some pretty crazy switchbacks that didn't seem like trail at all. Then you come around a corner and see a huge wall of basalt columns and water trickling down.


The moss grew everywhere and the ground was soft with layers of leaves and pine needles.




Beautiful flowers of all colors sprung up out of crevices in the rocks. Trees grew between cracks, the never ending battle between wood and stone.

This is our first view of the Gorge floor and Liville River. We hiked down about 1000 feet. The trail was a bit treacherous in places. There is so much rainfall here that the trail has to be rebuilt regularly. It is cut out of the side of a mountain and the fall is straight down.


It's September and the river is low. In the spring these rocks would be covered with water. The river runs about 10 feet deep during the spring. We played around down at the riverbed and took pictures and ate some snacks. There were little fish in the river too. A little trout, a catfish and a sucker-fish that D called an Oscar. I also saw a huge millipede. It was longer than my finger and had a thousand little tiny legs that moved in waves down it's body. The hike back up took my breath away, literally! A thousand feet ascent up a steep, switchback, mountain trail. The rocks and roots made for interesting footfalls. But it was worth it. Back to the truck, we're off to check out the waterfall at the head of the Gorge.


Linville Falls has an easy trail from the parking lot and there were a lot of visitors on Saturday. I heard a few different languages and saw some interesting folks on the way down and back.



The falls start with a little rapid spilling into a large pool. This would be a nice place to swim and play in (if the people who owned the National Forests, ie, us, could actually use them, but I digress). All we could do was take pictures. When I first saw these little rapids, I hoped the Carolinians had a better definition of 'waterfall' than this. I turned to my right and saw...

This picture is straight down. The gentle pool of water funnels into a tight crevasse and spirals down this chute of chimney rocks. This would be an awesome inner-tube ride! In the spring, the water finds it's way down a few different routes.

Here is a shot from Erwin's Viewpoint. The falls are gorgeous, the hiking superb and the scenery enveloping. We ate lunch at a sweet little restaurant called Famous Louise Rock House Restaurant. It is situated on the border of 3 counties and has signs inside indicating what county your table is in. I moved across all three counties to check out their brochure rack. I felt like such a traveler!

We had a great weekend away from the world and computers and phones and bills. There are few things in this life that are more rewarding than sitting by a campfire listening to the sounds of the night. Hiking down a trail to turn a corner and see the beauty that God has created for us.

I hope that we will step outside our front doors and look around. Take a walk down the street, a drive to the country, a weekend in a National Forest. The world is waiting.



My Own M&M's

This is how much my friend loves me.
She made me personalized M&M's.
I have an M&M with my name on it!
Dang Cool!!

My Husband Rocks!

Thursday we had some serious lunch difficulties at work and by 2pm I was starving to death. Withering away in my chair, who comes strolling in to my office, bag of food in hand? My amazing husband!! He listened to the Spirit telling him that I needed lunch. So he went to a Mexican food place I wanted to try, all the way across town from where he was working, got some burritos and brought them to my work. Now realize, that I work in the again opposite direction from his work and the food place. He made a huge trip to bring me lunch.
I was so excited to see him when he came in I jumped up and kissed him!
What an awesome husband! It's like he has ESPN or something.

Question of the Day

If the wind is still,
is it still called wind?

Tuesday

I've almost got the new job! Cross your fingers for me XX