ana

i have been at each ocean. i have stood on the pacific coast and the atlantic. i have lived in places that sat upon each. san francisco, boston.

but i have never seen clear water next to sand. and i won't, until tomorrow, it seems. nor have i traveled so quickly (24 hours) between pacific and atlantic. aye.

i have found there to be something extremely bizarre about all this, though my spanish is improving, you know. gracias, muy bien, perdon, como esta, buenas, hola. si, si.

i spent all morning lying by a pacific beach reading a food quarterly devoted solely to ramen. then i spent two hours in the car.

then i tried to bake a cake in the tropics. don't attempt this. the cake will be fine, but you will never manage to get the frosting on the cake without it melting, melting, melting - everywhere.

i saw a spider in the house that was the size of my palm. my chigger bites remain unrelenting. i am going to wear a giraffe dress to casco viejo tonight and probably be out entirely too late before my 6:45a flight to bocas tomorrow. the second one in less than a week.

i can already see this all ending, though some days remain. i will spend an hour in customs in the worst city in texas and then i will go home, i will go home. it will be a backwards shock; i will drive the yaris back to fort worth and not arrive until 7p or 8p. i will probably not even bother to unpack as the next morning, 4:55a, back to routine: yoga, BRIT, a full day of work. this is it, yes.

oh, yes, and also, because we all like a bit of crappy news: my autofocus on my camera has stopped working altogether. when it tries to autofocus it makes a horrible dying skreel. any thoughts? i assume it is either a late relic of it's fall back at big bend, a dying autofocus motor, or an intense hatred for me going on vacation. let me know.