La Isla Bonita
Barely a week after I arrived in the Dirty Jerz, I flew away again to hit the Dominican Republic for LB's wedding. I was excited to go and see everyone, but, honestly, I was so tired at that point that staying home would have been okay with me, too. I guess that makes me sound spoiled and unappreciative, but I'm not, honestly! I know how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends and opportunities, but right now I think that that particular breaker needs to be reset in my brain. There's just been so much going on in my life that it's fried all my circuits.
I picked up my Partner In Crime the night before the flight and then we came home and went straight to bed. Back in the day we would have gone out and raged the night away, but I guess you have to slow down some time. It's not that thirty is so very old, but it is not twenty, by any means. That next morning I felt like I had been out into the wee smas, but I guess that's pretty normal when you get up at a disgusting cow milking hour of the morning. My body doesn't like being awake a four AM unless I haven't gone to bed yet. Actually, scratch that - it doesn't like me very much in that situation either. Jeeze, tangent. I'm kind of spacey today.
N-E way! The first leg or our trip was uneventful, for me, that is. PIC was apparently seated next to a farter, which I can say from personal experience is beyond awful. I missed the whole thing while whacked out on valium. (I'm telling you - it's the only way to fly. You take two of mama's little helpers and bam, you're conked out for the whole ordeal. It's like it never even happened, yet here you are in a whole new place, brilliant!) Luckily, the ride was of the short variety, so poor PIC only had a limited torture session. When we got to Puerto Rico, we were so excited to see a friend that we missed the multiple calls for our next flight. I don't know how it happened; we were literally standing right next to the appropriate gate! I guess our chatter, chatter, chattering away was loud enough to drown out the announcements for Punta Cana. The first indication we had that our plane was boarding was the final call. Whaaat?!?!?!? We hustled our bustles right over to the counter and turned in our tickets. We were, in fact, so late that a separate bus had to take us to our little puddle jumper. Thankfully, the rest of our journey went smoothly, and soon we were in the DR on a shuttle driving us to our resort.
Even if our travels had been travails, it all would have been worth it for the Riu Resort. Holy Mary, Mother of GOD was it beautiful! Mosaic tiles, soaring ceilings, fountains, creamy stucco, and, best of all, a swim up bar! Now, us being us, we visited that bar immediately after we unpacked. Everyone else was already there, and the atmosphere was festive. I definitely had to shriek like an excited fishwife when I saw the bride. I was also forced to drop all my stuff at the side of the pool, jump in and practically tackle her with a hug. Hey, what can I say? Not only was her wedding the next day, but on top of that I hadn't seen her in a really long time.
We were there for a while, taking advantage of the free drinks. Not surprisingly, no food and very little sleep meant that the mojitos I was sucking back with the quickness hit me pretty hard. By the time we needed to go upstairs to shower for dinner, I was feeling no pain. Good thing, too, because the wicked corners on the bathtub ambushed me and gouged a huge bruise on my right thigh, which looked absolutely lovely for the rest of the trip. How I managed to shave my legs without cutting one of them off, I'll never know. After that we went down to eat with everyone, but to be honest, alcohol + exhaustion = I barely remember it.
Despite the fact that I was struggling to keep my eyes open (and so was PIC), we gamely hung around after dinner and chatted with everyone. I really wanted to spend some time with LB, guessing it would be one of my only chances, but it wasn't to be. My body just flat quit on me. It was probably better, in the end, since the next night turned out to be apeshit bananas crazy.
