Future is like yesterday but newer
June 4, 2005Pacific Harbour, Fiji
6:45 pm.
I am tired tonight. Not really in the mood to write. Not really in any mood really.
It rained for most of the day, so we hung out, Hud and I played tag, Steph and I burned some mix CD’s. We lounged. We had a late lunch at the resort. We dropped by Deb and Eddie’s to pick up some DVD’s. Steph thinks I was rude for leaving abruptly. I did not want to take place in their kava ceremony. Bongos were coming out. CSNY was on the stereo. You get my drift.
Steph and I had a nice talk about the future today. How I have resolved that I have to make my future earnings by writing. It may be a pipedream, but it is a type of dream I have never really had before. All my work and or educational experience kind of fell into my lap, no real effort or struggle. So if this is what I have to struggle or make effort to make it successful so be it, coasting along at 51 per cent is not going to cut it anymore.
Besides if things don’t work out, Sam can always give me a job. Congratulations by the way Sam, I hope you can make it out here at some point. I will buy the first bottle of Shiraz. Or at least Sam you can help me self publish my book. CV Studio Publishing has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
Steph has yet to decide what will tickle her occupational fancy when this magical journey ends. She knows she thrusts herself into her work with such electric vigor, that she tends to put partial blinders up to the rest of her life. She does not want to do that again. Maybe freelancing. Maybe a flower shop. Petals and Pages. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
We kind of promised to not think about the what ifs after the year is over, but it is difficult not to. It is difficult to not think of the next stage of your life at this true midpoint of your life.
We are lucky to have the emotional support of so many big-hearted people back home.
Thank you all for letting us do this. Not that you could have stopped us, but you know what I mean. We love you all so much. Don’t ever think we do not think of you five hundred times a day.
We do.
We just do it with nice tans, sun kissed hair and lots and lots of mosquito bites.
Love to all,
J.
p.s. Hud is about 90 per cent toilet trained. Overnight and everything. He is a big boy now.
June 3, 2005
Pacific Harbour, Fiji
8:06 pm
Everything is quiet. Hud is down and Steph is in the bedroom with the last 20 pages of her book. Crickets fill the air, and the occasional extended caw of some bird in some palm tree will break the hum for a spell. Fiji shuts down early, or at least our smidge of Fiji does. I am sure somewhere the mad Bula dance is being danced and NZ women are sucking back mixed cocktails drooling over the ripples in some young buck’s stomach.
One week to go. I will be ready to leave. Don’t get me wrong, I think Fiji, particularly the open armed locals and the unspoiled coastline is wonderful, but the wet hot climate, and extreme midday sun are something I could not do much longer than three weeks. I probably could have handled more adventure; white water rafting up the Navua, or Jet Skiing to Beqa island to weave in and out of coral shelves and lagoons so blue you would think the sky and the ocean reversed. But economics prevented it. Steph and I agreed that even though we will be over our budget, there is no reason to rip it up and add Jet Ski, or a scuba adventure to the mix. Call it half assed responsibility.
Today we all went to the cultural centre in the morning. Coffees for us and homemade banana pancakes for the Hud. I went online and checked all of your nice comments and messages. Particularly for all the help with my heat rash. Dante. You need more to do at work. It acts up when I stay too long in the sun and cedes when I cool down. I can do the math. Hopefully it will not prevent me in the next week or so. I don’t think it will, I can temper it with t-shirt or 60 sunscreen. Do they make 60? Do you care?
We met an Aussie named Nikki in the centre and her daughter Mercedes. Mercedes is a month younger than Hud and has bright orange hair and perrywinkle blue eyes. Pretty pretty. Hud did not pay much attention to her. He kept following the local boys who were tossing bread into the pond to watch the 6 inch fish frenzy feed. It was kind of cool.
Nikki has moved to Fiji with her husband and two daughters (Isabella is 6). They have traveled extensively with their kids, pausing only to make money I would imagine, to finance the next leg of their life adventure. There are people like this all over the world. It really causes a blip in the traditional way of thinking of get a job, get a house, have a kid, get a raise, have another kid, get a bigger house, establish the nest egg, send kids to school, and then retire. The comparative scale seems to tip to the life of adventure.
I know all the responsible people are out there shaking their heads thinking I have my head up my ass as I am only 11 days into my own life adventure which is skewering my thought process. I give you the whatever look and walk away. I am weighing every option in this year. I am responsible to my son, my wife and myself. Not denouncing my family or my friends in any way. Just saying we have to live up to our expectations not everyone else’s. I am not lashing out here, just waxing and waning. Nor am I warning anyone, so just take it easy.
Not that my friends are tut tutting either. They maybe silently cheering us on. They maybe living their own lives, not really giving us more than a passing thought.
I tend to think I am more important than I am. Everyone lives their own lives.
Anyway, Nikki is hopefully coming over for a swim tomorrow morning. Her life is interesting and her perspective is hopeful. And she has really big bushy pits. Tee hee.
Also, in the afternoon, the owners of our villa came over to meet us as they had been in Australia on a business/pleasure trip. Deb and Eddie came to Fiji in the mid 70’s from central and southern California with the Peace Corps. I am sure they had long hair, bad mustaches and were chock full of idealism. Well, they just about seemed like the happiest people I have ever met. They talked like teenagers. They were earthy without being wow man. Deb even hugged Steph as they had some really nice correspondance prior to our coming.
They basically did the same thing as us, quit their jobs, sold their home and booked. In a much different time as well. They have four kids. Their youngest is finishing his last year at University, majoring in Tropical Agriculture. By the end of June, all four of their children, with spouses and kids will have moved back to Fiji after spending various amounts of time in the States. Chris, our greeter and his Dad are building a house on a 16 acre parcel of land they all purchased together, each giving an acre to the local Fiji community to they can build a centre. The house is only going to be 600 square feet. That is for Chris, his wife, and two kids. I know. But as Eddie said, with his surferesque twang, “that is a million dollar view”. It is right on the ocean looking out onto Beqa Harbour, out to Beqa Island. All of their kids and grandkids will be living with them until all construction is finished. They were so happy about it.
So I am guessing that Deb and Eddie were once hippies. But he was the head of the Peace Corps here and they must of eventually created some financial opportunity to allow them to own two separate villas that they rent out. They are also about to open an ice cream/smoothie stand in the Cultural Centre to see “what that is like”.
Awesome people with killer smiles.
And yes, they left a Tupperware container full of homemade granola with us. I kid you not.
Sometime in our last week here they are going to take us to the site where they are going to build the house for Chris and his family.
I can’t wait to see the view.
Love to all,
J
posted by Jason @ 4:25 PM
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