Midnight Train to Georgia . . .

or noon flight out of Costa Rica, i get confused.

so i'm headed back to atlanta next tuesday, and as much as you all would like to think paradise is always paradise, leaving guanacaste (the province in which i live) in mid-september is not such a bad idea. in fact many of our friends have already bailed. and i don't really mean that in the hurriedly-bucketing-water-out-of-a-sinking-boat way, but i could, since in this little slice of paradise, most things are dripping or drowning or decaying from mold, water, vines, water, moss and water. did i mention water? while the south and the carribean has been slaughtered by hurricanes, we have been lucky enough to just be drenched with several inches of water a day for the last two weeks. part of our kitchen ceiling fell in, at least three of our walls are actually dripping from seeped water, and most of our ceilings have lots of mold splotches, if not at least one really good water pouch just waiting to fall through. did i mention too, that paradise is not always paradise?

and lest i sound like i'm complaining too much, rest assured, today is gorgeous and sunny, with little white puffy clouds and blue sky. i've little yellow butterflies flitting around the red-blossomed hedge by the pool, and my dog is lounging happily under the mano tigre plant. hubby and i drank our coffee this morning while doing a garden tour (yards aren't called yards here, they're all gardens and we think this is really cute, so we call the whole yard, mess that it is, a garden) and pulling out a ground cover that's out-competing our rose-moss-like flowers and generally enjoying the morning. we followed this up with a quick swim in our very-cold-for-us pool. not such a bad way to start the day (and this is an average morning for us).

but i digress. so i'm leaving again and will be back in the states for about a month. steve is joining me for the first week, which is a treat, and we get to go to a wedding of two of my most precious friends, katie and brad. katie and brad put up with me on a regular basis, (i stay with them whenever i'm in the ATL), and are wondeful, fabulous people. i'm very lucky to have them in my life.