Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Or so the saying goes. Awoke this morning at 7:10am, put on the coffee, swept the kitchen and patios and skimmed debris off the pool. I love being the only one up at that hour. I can plan my day, prioritize my to-do list and read and think. It is the most wonderful time of day.
It is another beautiful morning on St. Martin. The forecast is for sun and a light breeze, highs in the mid eighties and lows in the mid seventies. You can’t ask for better weather than that!
The plan for today is simple: lounge around the pool, nap, then get ready for New Year’s Eve dinner at Sol e Luna on the French side of the island. Our reservation is at 8:00pm and Rolando, our driver, will pick us up at 7:30pm.
Now that the sun is shining we have visitors of the four legged variety. Lizards! Iguanas, geckos, chameleons…and I’m not certain we know all of the varieties but they are a colorful addition to our island holiday. We have taken to naming them as if we can tell them apart — who knows if we’ve actually seen the same beast twice. The two smaller grey ones are Frankie and Johnnie. They like to hang on the adobe wall and …well…just hang there. There is a large green iguana we’ve named Iggy who comes charging out from between the rocks when he wants to sunbathe by the pool. Iggy swaggers up to the pool apron and lazily peers over the edge at whatever reflection he sees in the water. He reaches out apparently in an attempt to feel the water six inches or so beneath him. Just when you think he is going head over tail into the pool he retreats as if suddenly realizing the peril he had placed himself in. Iggy is at least two feet long, tip of the nose to tip of the tail, green and yellow and orange and brown. Gregg and I got some great pictures I will post then when i can finally figure out how to connect my camera to the computer without cables.
I am reading Michelle Obama’s book Becoming. I am enjoying it. It may be one of the first biographies I’ve read of a contemporary, and her perspectives on life and career and doing something meaningful and being someone of significance and substance resonates with me. Of course her story is her story – with the overlay of being a perpetual minority even when she was with her own tribe. Her trek thus far through life is inspiring.
