Scuba Cuba

The photos are online here

Happy Holidays!

It's back to reality tomorrow - setting the alarm, and not for a good reason, like making an early dive or catching a plane heading south.

The holidays were wonderful, even though we only got a white boxing day, not a white Christmas. No xc skiing, but I still can't complain : )

Here's a pic of our non-traditional Christmas dinner:



I'll put the vacation pics on Flicr asap. I'm still working on getting our increasingly belated holiday card out - I sent a desperate plea for help to Dodi - hopefully she can help or I'll figure it out tomorrow.

Handling rejection

We got back early last night and our neighbor brought over our mail pile this morning. At the bottom of my pile was an SASE I had sent to the agent I met at the Midwest Lit Fest. Getting your SASE back is always bad - if they want your story, they'll call. So yes, I have received my first official rejection. On the plus side, it was a personalized letter specifically about my story, not a form rejection. So while I'm a litle sad about being rejected, I'm making my list of who to send the story to next. It's all part of the process.

Shark

Went diving for the first time Monday and we saw a shark! It was just a small (3.5 ft) nurse shark - not dangerous, but it was neat to see - our guide made the 'shark' sign, and I thought he was kidding, but then he pointed to the shark tail, then wiggled the tail and the shark swam out of the coral and under us. : )
Of course no one in our group had a camera, including the professional photographer who is doing this trip solely for the photos. Getting a photo of one of the sharks is turning into a quest like photographing bigfoot.
We're set to dive again today at 1 at a different location, right by the resort. Diving near coral is unbelievably beautiful - it is literally like being dropped into a giant aquarium. The fish don't swim away - they pretty much ignore you, swim next to you and between you. It's a lot of fun. E. was true to his word and held my hand - I pretty much had him in a death grip. I wasn't scared per se - just a little freaked out - it's a little weird to be in the ocean, plus it was an extremely rough day - the boat that dropped us off was tossing around in huge swells. I ran out of air pretty fast (nebies tend to pant instead of breathing slowly) so I went up before E. When I surfaced with the 2 other low air people, we couldn't even see the boat - just ocean. That's a little weird, plus we were bobbing around like corks in the waves. Getting back on the boat was by far the hardest part - I have bruises up and down my left leg from being thrashed around on the ladder as the boat rocked. All in all an amazing time. We hooked up with a Toronto dive club for dinner and had the biggest langouste tails I've ever seen, plus real mojitos (with mint), music, actual bottles of wine, plus a star-filled sky and walk on the beach as E puffed a Monte Cristo-like cigar - it was all good.
Our birthday dinner had a few hitches including them having no idea what a private table meant or realizing that chapmagne should be chilled, but we enjoyed ourselves once I got E to laugh about the situation.
Hasta Luego!

Last ni

HOLA AMIGOS

So far so okay in Cuba. A few stolen items from E's luggage including the underwater camera got us off to a rocky start but after lots of rum drinks we're starting to recover.

No diving yet - too much wind today, but we did try out my new mask in the pool yesterday and I can clear it no probnlem, so I feel ready. Today will most likely be a day of slack - we're adjusting nicely to the despacio pace here.

We've almost got our little side trip to Havana planned - probably next weekend.
Time for my first siesta soon.

see you later : )

Holiday Meme

Since I'm supposed to be paying bills and preparing invoices and trying to get wrinkles out of a no-iron shirt I need to wear tonight, I will instead do a Holiday Meme. No one tagged me, so I guess that makes me a bit of a loser, but hey, it's December, MY month and it's MY blog so I'll do what I want.

Christmas Meme


1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
I had a bad Jack Daniels and egg nog incident in the late '80's - I will NEVER touch the stuff again. Hot chocolate definitely. Preferably WITH marshmallows :)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
Wrapped!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No - isn't it poisinous? It's really not that nice-looking either. No idea where that tradition started.


5. When do you put your decorations up?
Normally I would get a real tree the weekend around my b-day Dec 12, but we'll be gone this year and my decorations are still in storage in Plainfield, so we'll be decor-less. Maybe a wreath.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Chcolate gingerbread people hand-decorated to maximize originality and creativity. The sad-face ones with broken limbs are the best.

7. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
What do you mean?

8. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it!! I have spiffy new xc skis ready to go this year.

9. Can you ice skate?
I can stay upright and move forward but it isn't pretty.

10. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Getting a good book and spending the afternoon reading it. I know, not really Christmas-related, but it's nice to relax once the hoopla is over.

Ok, I admit I cut this down from 20 to 10, but I think 10 is enough.
I tag Dodi.

December!

I love December - my birthday, holidays, people generally in a good mood, lots of chocolate and wine and cheese up for grabs - it's all good.

E. and I will miss most of the gala events this month because I wanted to do something different for my big 4-0 - remember I got my scuba certification last summer? That was in preparation for the scuba trip in less than a week!! I can't believe it's here. I still need to find a short wetsuit, but otherwise I am ready to go. So no writing, no freelance, just looking at the fish and coral and keeping an eye on my air pressure.

I warned E that I need to finish 4 to 5 books during the vacation, and he swears he can keep himself occupied during my hammock time. I don't even want to try to guess what he has planned - shark wrestling? spear fishing? cigar rolling? whatever - we'll make plans to meet for dinner.

Did I mention I can't wait? : )