People who need people… are the luckiest..

And so we reach the part where the Mom or Dad reads to the little kid and  says "and so they lived happily ever after" as I type this last entry into my vacation journal.

We will do just that, in our non-traditional way-- as we are so comfortable with each other that we can say anything(and we do!) and laugh about everything(and we do!) and the insults are so far and few between that they barely register as insults.

Jim:  You don't look as bad in what you're wearing now as you do in some other things

Karen:  Remember when you asked me if your shirt smelled like a horse and I told you it did, and later I told you that everyone sitting around us in the theater had to change seats? Did that  answer your question?

Both:  Courtesy flush, please!!!

When I recently saw the (annoying) "Scenes From a Marriage" (a remake of the Swedish classic with Liv Ullman) I could only think about how great the acting was, how loathsome the characters were, and how unrelatable every thing about the series was to my own relationship.

Back to the fairytale and its last chapter:

I'd say this is a Cinderella story, but my feet and ankles have swelled (as they usually do in exotic climates as the trip nears its end) so no glass slipper will ever fit. 

I'll be lucky if I can get on a flip flop.

Also, the whole Cinderella thing really bothers me and always did.

If the glass slipper was such a perfect fit, why did it fall off in the first place, and does the most eligible, desired bachelor in the village really make his decision on who is marriage worthy and fit to run a queendom based  on her shoe size?

Tangent again..tell the readers about your day, Karen. They've heard you complain about fairytales before, move on.

I so love our European friends..I will miss them so much, even 'though we exchanged FB into.  They are so easy to please..they find humor in everything--reliving their tale of woes upon arrival, after a long and exhausting flight from Frankfurt with two toddlers, only to find their room was occupied.

Or cursing in English.

 I can never hear the word "douchebag" again without thinking about them.

Or how much they loved one of my favorite sitcoms of all time, "Superstore"

My NJ friends wouldn't take my recommendation to watch it--but my unmet ones did..in..with German subtitles to boot !

  Such a bonding moment!

A young, sexy, athletic European couple(and their adorable children) made this trip so special, as did so many other things and people.

We met Hassan in the rough surf yesterday, a West African from Liberia who is Lebanese and now living in Toronto.  (I am showing off my geography knowledge  for a reason that will become apparent momentarily)

Hassan and Jim nerded out with tech talk and bless their hearts, it was fun to listen to  them and  enjoy their passion  vicariously, and to watch them dodge the anchored boat that seemed to be chasing us due to the current, like a hungry shark.

We were aware of the 5:00 PM  scheduled Covid test, and before we left for the the infirmary, I told Norika and Daniel how much we enjoyed meeting them, and if the test came back positive, they were both  invited to witness my suicide in the surf.

(It was negative, for Jim as well, but this time, the cotton swab was stuck so far up that I feared it was going to damage the part of my brain that controls my sarcasm, and then what would I possibly have to write about on vacation?)

We go to the beautifully lit sit down restaurant on the beach, and because I can't sit at a high top table, we were moved to the patio where we got the nice surprise of seeing Elaine and Monty next to us, and Tall Guy (Jim) and Carolyn next to them

We kept the conversation civil..no talk about armless people or  backpackers  who haven't showered in a month--just nice pleasant small talk, as we were entertained by a fantastic singer/guitarist who played songs we knew(and sang along to) from the 70's.

Beef:  It's what's for dinner.

And lunch.

And breakfast.

Jim got the wolf fish, which I nicknamed Chief Martin Brody, because as it looked at my husband with that fish face and those fish eyes, I'm sure I heard it say, "you're gonna need a bigger gut."

My filet did NOT have a face!

Well..it might have at ONE time, but not while it was on my plate, but Jim said it was the best piece of fish he has ever consumed.

We stroll down the beach(how much do I love listening to those waves at night??) wondering where the evening show was going to take place, because even though we saw a stage and theatrical lights, the seats themselves were large pillows, and if you think I was going to plop down on a pillow in the sand, even onto a large comfy one, you're living in some kind of fairytale.

We meet Akiva from New York, who tells us we could pull over a bench(which we did) and he asked us how we liked swimming in the turbulent Atlantic that day.

WTF??

The ATLANTIC????

All those jokes about the Jersey Shore, and we were NOT in the Caribbean, like I could have sworn we were all week ?

Jim pulled out his google maps and yes indeed, this part of the Dominican Republic is on the Atlantic Ocean.

I'm glad we're leaving today before I see all that disposed medical waste.

The ATLANTIC!!???

I know where Liberia and Lebanon and Toronto are on a map, but not the Caribbean???

We are so naive.

Everyone is bopping and bouncing to the "Bee" show presented on the stage, and we had no idea it was a Beyonce salute until "Single Ladies"..the very last song.

Time to pack, to figure out what to do with all the dampish clothes so they don't bother the unworn ones, and say thanks.

Thanks to Christine Cherry Hommel for your swan song, for planning one of the best Club Med trips we've ever taken.

Thanks to my friends who commented on my blog and stuck with it, even when it got more rambling and disjointed and insane as the week progressed.

But mostly, thanks to Jim, for celebrating our 32nd anniversary with such style.

 And so many lauughs.

One last question:

Will the seat belts still fit on the return flight?

Au revoir, mon amis!