Not Much to Say

There's a title.

Makes me think of Joel giving me a hard time about using the expression "to make a long story short" while telling really long-winded, poorly-summarized stories.

Life down here continues to provide daily adventure. Things more or less follow the sleep patterns of Gabriela's fiercely rest-fighting spirit. She continues to wake up during the night and Alison with her- I don't know how either of them are not complete and utter zombies sometimes. Gabriela has the benefit of being able to make up for her fitful nights with days of napping. Alison not so much- she's got to go and be at the hospital for a twelve-hour shift today. Als is tough.

Phil's out working. I got a small taste of what it's like for him to do handy-work in this particular climate yesterday. He asked me to come and help out with clean-up at one of his work-sites. It took all of 5 minutes for my t-shirt to be completely saturated with sweat, and after 10 minutes, the humidity was so heavy that somehow the sweat had congealed like bacon grease in a pan. Seriously though- I had a layer of goo covering my skin from head to toe. I don't know how he does it. Phil is tough. 

Last night I got to play ultimate frisbee in this same swampiness. I attempted to be extra-pre-hydrated before starting. I think it made it worse. I was covered by the aforementioned goo in even less time (probably had to do with only having like two subs on the sidelines). Still, the team that Phil and I are on, Bush Divers (yeah, I know- you should hear our cheers), always has a cooler full of ice-cold beer. Most nights, this sounds completely revolting to me (ok, well, mostly). But when, you can't find respite from the invisible but very palpable heat- blanket that surrounds you, High-life is like 12 ounces of pure heaven. Well, maybe it's not heaven so much as it's a nice break from Hell. I am not tough.

Today is Friday and I will have officially been 'manny' for my first week. There have been many highlights. From Gabriela's constant stream of hilarious sounds (her favorite expression of joy and excitement sounds something like a cross between a monkey's howl and a bird's chirp) to her pooping on the floor in a brief diaper-less moment to her endless fascination with the spice droor (seriously, she can spend 10-15 minutes just digging through the thing)- she's made it a great first week. She seems to have mostly gotten used to me. I could tell that, especially in the mornings, she wasn't used to seeing me. But she let's me hold her, seems to know that I am part of the clan, and even seems to recognize me in the mornings now. She does such a great job reminding me of the basic, important things in life. 

After all, what could be more important than loving, eating, playing, pooping, and sleeping? I guess we adults have to work so that we can provide these basic things. But the irony is that those things are the basic things that bring the most joy anyway. But what do I know- I'm just the manny.

Thanks for sharing Gabriela Phil and Ali-

Thanks for putting up with me Gabriela-