Bittersweet international weekend...

Let me tell you... we went to St Marys this weekend. We lived in St Marys for four years, during which time we had two of our three children, we bought and renovated a great first house, and my wife gained much valuable experience in her field. We also made some good, lasting friendships. For two of these reasons we returned this weekend. Our house is for sale and we had to be sure that Fay did not raze our former residence; total destruction cannot be good for property value. Everything was okay and a little teamwork cleared away the debris. We were lucky enough to stay with old friends, Tony and Lena (Braithwaite) Bell. Tony is from Jamaica, and is very shrewd, intelligent, and fatherly. Lena is the daughter of a famous Barbadian politician and a wonderful mother. Lena is very caring and just wanted to assure our comfort. To be in their house is to smell, see, and hear the Jamaican and Barbadian cultures. We had a great time talking and being cared for by the Bells. We also spent time with the Thompson/Tuazon/Pruitt family. This group is made up of Mitzi, a medical student, her fiance Jason, an aspiring sergeant with the federal reserve in Jacksonville, Gary her dad, who is a contractor, and her Mom, Mercy, a civil engineer. Mitzi Tuazon made my wife's life at her former school infinitely more tolerable than otherwise. They became great friends and Mitzi is currently making us proud while attending medical school! During our time with Mitzi and her family, we talked, ate wonderful Phillipino cuisine (Mitzi and her Mom are from the Phillipines), flew a parrot shaped kite named Polly, listened to Gary's Z06 Corvette as he drove it 10 feet backwards and then 10 feet forwards (the water was too deep to go for a proper drive), and watched video that Gary took of fifty Leatherback sea turtles laying their eggs on a beach on the island of Tobago... it goes without saying that even the video alone was breathtaking; it can be compared to meeting a favorite celebrity for Jenny and me. So after much visiting and general merriment, we regrettably had to leave. But wait, on the horizon lurks a weekend trip to Atlanta to see Ryan and Cheyney. Simply the prospect of seeing these two wonderful people is enough to send us to the ends of the Earth. During this trip we will visit the Aquarium in Atlanta. This promises to be yet another experience that will render us speechless as the red carpet of sea life is rolled out before us. I wonder how arrested you can get for jumping into the whale shark tank??? I would stride proudly from the building, soaking wet with plastic handcuffs on but with the permanent title of "that idiot that jumped into the whale shark tank" to keep for my own. Stay tuned for the full report (to this blog and network news). So the moral of this blog is the following: we have at least been smart enough to forge friendships with all of the people listed above. They are the kind of people that give one the assurance that life is good and that you are a fine enough person to be associated with them.