Doing. One More "D"

Doing.
Last night I wrote "as if I didn't have enough to do." And that I sometimes had regrets about retiring because "there's a lot of things I could still do."

I remember a time, not too long ago, when I wandered around the house during the day looking for things to do. I think it was probably bounce back from all those years of working 12 hour days (and nights). It's taken me five years since I moved from the ranks of "on duty" to "former"(once an Agent, always an Agent) to find a comfortable place where I simply enjoy doing anything I want. Or, lots of times, when I do nothing. Gianni has helped a lot with that. He's an expert at enjoying himself while doing nothing. That may sound harsh and critical: it's not. I admire him.

Recently, however, I've started agreeing with two of my other "former" friends, Nell and Peggy. There is SO MUCH TO DO these days that I can't find enough time to do it all. An abbreviated list:

TOP 10 THINGS TO DO TODAY:

1. Final edit of yesterday's post; witty repartee comment on my sister's blog (I love a competition!) and this post
2. Answer 6 emails (responding to 6 other TO DO things)
   
3. Breakfast, shower, and pack lunch
   
4. Stop at Starbucks for the usual iced triple grande coffee latte, non-fat, 2 Splendas.
5. PD work: Ah..... the TO DOs are endless. So many new projects, so little time: City Map address verifications; design forms in Adobe; verify criminal State Statute tables; maintain laptop inventory; encourage my boss to "de-stress"
6. Check in on-line with my Weight Watchers group, "Been There Done That," and give/receive motivation
   
7. Run an EASY 2 miles tonight (Sunday is my first 5K race in 5 years!)
8. Finish entering REEF surveys from Cozumel: I still have 4 to upload (and they're a month old!)
9. Watch season premiere of LOST: so excited about this one, I may have to enjoy a glass of champagne in front of the tube, with my feet up after my run, cat curled up on my lap, Gianni snoring on the couch beside me
10. Wake Gianni up from his yoga room stretching and nap and crawl into bed with the latest OPRAH before nodding off to sleep.
    

Game On, Sista!

As if I don't have enough to do -- now I am in this competition with my sister, Linda. Again! It seems like we were always competing with each other for something or other while we were growing up in Brooklyn, Ohio. Boys. Interesting things to do and/or get into trouble doing. Dad's attention (here in about 1958).

It's probably because we were (and are still?) so different than each other. I mean, really. There I was: Miss Prim and Proper, mathematical, logical, future wannabe Astronaut, eventual Fed. There was Linda: hippie, extremely creative, wildly anti-establishment. I still marvel that I managed to pass security clearances to get into the Bureau. I was certain some of Linda's liberal notions and activities would lead to my rejection.

Anyway. I thought we had stopped competing long ago. In fact, I very distinctly remember a long walk in Alexandria, Virginia -- back about 1990 -- when we decided to stop competing. And when Linda finally visited the Villa here for dad's surprise 80th birthday, about the only thing we competed for were tequila shots for our margaritas. Gotta hand it to Linda: her creativity extends not only to photography, animal herding, Web design (and just about anything else), but to making horses douvers and "Margaritas to Die For." Of course, the honky tonk bartending she did out there in Albuquerque probably didn't hurt none.

But this one is just too fun to pass up. So I accept the challenge.

Linda tagged me today with a game called “MEME.” Here's the rules:

• Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Post seven random or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
• Tag seven people and link to them.
• Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.
  

SEVEN RANDOM / WEIRD THINGS ABOUT ME

1. I love to stand on my head. It's my favorite yoga pose - Shirsashana.
2. I do math problems in my head when I'm running: always working the numbers for pace, distance, time until I drop into exhaustion.
   
3. I've been counting fish for REEF since 2001: I am a Level 3 Fish counter, have conducted 74 fish surveys in 4 Caribbean regions, spent 63 hours underwater, and identified 185 different types of fishes -- the most common: Bluehead Wrasse and Stoplight Parrotfish.
4. My favorite food is sushi. (I know. I know. Kind of a conflict with #3.) If I don't eat raw fish at least once a week, I go into withdrawal.
   
5. My husband tells me I should be a "Beta Tester." I break things: stuff around the house, mechanical objects, and (this is really bad) computers.
6. I'm a "Sex and the City" addict: I TiVo the girls and watch reruns over and over - especially Carrie and Alexsander Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov).
7. I sometimes regret "retiring." I loved every minute (well, almost) of my 21 years with the Bu. There's a lot of things I could still do.

Well, like Linda, I don't know a whole lot of people who blog - so tagging seven others may be tough. But here's a start:

• The 7MSN Ranch --- Linda's Ranch: 7 Miles South of Nowhere Place
• TraSea Dives --- Tracey's Place: My Best Dive Buddy
  
• Alexander's Addictions --- Tracey's Hubby (and My Other Best Dive Buddy) Alex's Hangouts (or Hang Ins)
  
• The Infinite Knot --- Jeremy's Family: Cousin of Claudia (my stepdaughter) and Gianni's niece
  

I also have a secret game plan I'm implementing. We'll just see who gets the most hits/responses! Game On Sista'!

Death, Destruction and No More Ds!

I've been killing ants for two weeks now. We returned from Cozumel only to find our house had been invaded by thousands of tiny black ants. Weird - they didn't like food on the counter (tomatoes, bananas, crumbs). They just loved climbing up the wall alongside our sink, hanging out around an electrical outlet, and crawling all across my marble counter while I was trying to read my morning newspaper, check my email, or blog.

We finally had to call in a professional exterminator two days ago. Now I'm cleaning up thousands of DEAD ants. They are everywhere in the house. But at least they're dead.

It's had me thinking a lot about Death these days. Lots of that going around this week. What's up with Hollywood? Two young actors have died in the past couple of days. Then there is Brit and LiLo -- certainly on their own path of Destruction these days.

When I went in to work yesterday, I learned that the husband of one of the ladies I work with had (finally) succumbed to the ravages of cancer and mercifully died. It horrifies me to think about Gianni dying - but at least we talk about it and have planned ahead for our ultimate demises. We signed up a long time ago for long-term care insurance so that neither of us will have to take care of each other when we're Drooling and in Diapers.

And let me tell you right here - no funerals for me! The very last thing I want is to be laid out in a casket in some room filled with thousands of flowers and memorabilia while people solemnly view my dead body and express what they think is appropriate to Gianni or whoever is still around to mourn me. No siree.

Let my wishes be known right here.

1. Burn my body.
2. Give my ashes to Tracey and Alex (somehow I know you guys will do this) in a little tin box.
   
3. T and A [Aside: Oooh, I just realized how that looks; did you guys ever consider your joint initials might be considered obscene?]:
   
• Please take me down on a reef somewhere in the open ocean (preferably Bequia).
• Open the box and let me finally swim with the Angelfishes.
• Tracey: Count every fish in the area.
• Alex: Take photos.
4. Back on land (with Gianni, if he's around), hoist a margarita, beer, or glass of red wine and remember all our fun times together.

Of course, all of this D and D has been aggravated by the fact that I sliced open my finger yesterday with a BIG knife while I was trying to remove a property tag from a laptop computer. Lots of blood - but not much pain. Made me question my own life (and stupidity!)

So, between the great Ant Destruction, Dental visits (the crown I had replaced last Friday was VERY painful!), and Death reminders -- well, I've decided to skip the rest of my theme "D" week. I need to move on to E - quickly.

Dolphins and Sunday Football

Sunday afternoons.
September through January.
Watching football on the couch.
Gianni, me, and Pooper.
We really have a good life.

This photo is quite typical. I took it this afternoon, New England Patriots winning AFC Championship against the San Diego Chargers. I sat here watching the game -- while blogging, surfing the Internet, shopping on-line, entering my REEF fish count surveys, and answering email. Gianni and Pooper napped. (Notice the "always handy" remote control.)

Napping makes a lot of sense when you consider how poorly the Miami Dolphins did this year. Our season was unspeakable. I watched three *former* Dolphins (Chris Chambers, Junior Seau, and my favorite man Wes Welker) help New England win today. And now our famous 1972 undefeated Dolphins are on the verge of losing that distinction. I, for one, remain a loyal Dolphins fan (not like the rest of Miami) -- just like I still love Cleveland Indians baseball -- and I really hope next year the 'Fins see improvement under Bill Parcells and company. And that Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor are still around to play for us; Ricky Williams - I have a love/hate relationship with him, but maybe we should give him another chance.

Of course, the really incredible thing is the MINUS ONE degree weather that the Giants and Packers are now playing football in (with bare arms!). Third coldest game in NFL history. Now those are real manly, men football players (not to mention the fans!)

So I guess Gianni and I really have a great life here, even if it's only 66 degrees in South Florida. I have wood stacked beside the fireplace and I can start my annual fire tomorrow on the holiday. Gianni just poured me a glass of red wine from the case our dear dive friend, Andrew, (check out this Photo #3 and the other fabulous shots of us diving in Curacao this summer) sent us for Christmas.

We're barbecuing sweet Italian sausage and portobello mushrooms on the grill. Because I don't have to work tomorrow, I can play on the computer some more and run during the late afternoon before it gets dark. Doesn't get much better.

Alexander's Queen Angel

She's so pretty.
This is why I dive .... to gaze into the eyes of Queens.
Thank you, Alex , for this photo and for all of your other great ones!

Chichen Itza

So many C's. So little time. Christmas. Cozumel. Chichen Itza. Claudia (I really owe her a long Chat!)

Where has this week gone?
One week ago today, Tracey, Alexander, Gianni and I were climbing all over the ruins, gazing into ceynotes, Jeep driving through the jungle, and eating grilled Mexican feasts in Tulum.

Today, I'm back to fighting ants, visiting my accountant, working on computer inventories, and (hopefully) running my 2.5 miles tonight. Love my new Audi - but I'm thinking that shifting gears a whole lot during the past few days aggravated a muscle I probably overused while running the other night. And then, of course, I had to do HOT Yoga last night. Which was actually pretty fun. I needed it - for a whole lot of reasons.

Primarily because I keep forgetting to stop and BREATHE. I feel "frantic". About my weight. About getting back into a 5K running schedule. About my yard and all the weeds and plants I need to prune because of the bad weather. About downloading all my dives in my computer. About editing and uploading all my photos from Cozumel (and Utila!) About all the new tasks I've been assigned at the PD. About all the ideas I have and paperwork I need to do for Kat Eyes. About trying to plan our next vacation -- and wondering if anyone really wants to go to St. Vincent; tired of trying to convince people to come along.

So much to do, now that I'm back at home. Must be this New Year thing, plus being away for the holiday. It is so easy to be right back there (at least in my head) --in Cozumel, playing with my friends and Gianni at Punta Sur. Enjoying a wonderful New Year's Eve dinner and Mexican fiesta.

I feel Sooooooo far behind. Cozumel was like living in another world. It was so peaceful and charming. I dream of having a second home there where family/friends can all gather and we can have fun exploring new things together. I love speaking Spanish. I love diving the Cozumel reefs and counting fish. I love the sunsets. I love the friendliness of the Mexican and Mayan people. I love the food - Oh, the margaritas! And the fresh fish. And salsa to die for.

Funny story. Last night in Cozumel we went to dinner at La Chosa and had wonderful chips in their special cheese salsa sauce. It's so special, I bought a bottle -- salsa sauce from La Chosa, NO label, stored in a recycled clear plastic water bottle. And, yup, managed to sneak it in my backpack, under my regulator, past 3 security (2 x-ray machines and a hand check) at the airport in Cozumel. So much for terrorists.

Cozumel - Then, Now, and in the Future

Back at home only a few hours after spending 11 glorious days with great friends in Cozumel over the New Year's holiday.

Already my soul aches for diving on pristine reefs with families of Queen Angels, elusive Sargassum Triggers, sleeping Hawksbill turtles, Puddingwives chasing Slippery Dicks. My mind's eyes see quaint and colorful Mexican streetscapes filled with blankets, masks, silver, and T-shirts. My ears hear the echoes of mariachis and cruise ship blasts. My tummy cries for salsa, picante, margaritas, and fresh fish.

And my dreams are inspired by the possibility of owning a tiny piece of paradise on this lovely island.