Did you ever have one of those days?
Usually, when I start a sentence like that I'll be referring to something bad, like an unruly cowlick or a broken washing machine.
But today..today was one of those days, but in a good way.
A great way.
A damn near perfect way.
Jim got his room service just as he ordered it. There wasn't an ounce of passive aggression in his demeanor.
Shane has left the White Lotus, hopefully for good.
We are literally thirty-one steps from the shoreline, and the water was calmer and prettier than usual. It started off more on the green side of teal, an opalesque green, if you will, and wound up to be the aquamarine color of a Windex bottle.
Or am I thinking of Top Job?
I don't want to be thinking about ANY cleaning products on vacation, let's move on.
We found beach chairs near Morika and her sexy husband, Daniel, once again. He is tatted and so hot..the perfect match to her Julie Delpy. I've never heard anyone make English sound so soothing when it's not their first language.
We talked a little politics and a lot about American customs that are making their way to Germany. Morika never celebrated Halloween as a kid, but her own children do. She showed me their picture..they were bloodied zombies.
(Must be from all that cardboard consumed by Lilly.)
The General Manager stops by our chairs to tell us about the wonderful BBQ lunch that would be taking place on the beach in a matter of moments. I heard the disco music from several yards away, smelled the smoke wafting from the grill and even saw some of the staff members in their sequined blazers, making their way to the center of action.
And even 'though I didn't feel like reapplying sunscreen and putting on flip flops and walking, I was consumed with the idea that the fabulous beach BBQ was moments away.
My mouth watered for the steak, the ribs, the perfectly seasoned chicken. I wanted a burger so badly that I would have auctioned off a major body part for one.
And what do we see when we finally reach our destination?
A grill filled..with octopus. And a table filled with already grilled OCTOPUS(and mussels)
Effin' octopus!
I became the passive-aggressive Shane this time, saying that a "plateful of pico de gallo would suffice for lunch, thank you very much" while Jim tried the octopus, an experiment that made him miss the entire afternoon trivia game, while begging for mercy as the octopus worked its way through his GI tract, making him thank every deity known to mankind for the invention of Imodium.
He didn't really miss much at trivia, called "Coffee Games" here. We were divided into two teams which I decided to call The Rude Smokers vs. The Ones With Healthy Lungs.
(I wasn't sure what team I belonged on..neither seemed to fit)
The game was music trivia, where the emcee would play the tail end of a famous song("Reverse Name That Tune") and needless to say, I pretty much sucked at it.
Jim comes over and says that I had to meet the new couple he had just greeted who made a fuss over his t-shirt with a Yogi Bearra quote, insisting that Ariel really wanted to meet me because he told her I was from Philly.
Blah..blah..blah..
I wasn't sure if someone named Ariel would be interested in anything I had to say about any topic at all, but Jim really wanted to make a match.
And..
For the next forty five minutes of so, we met the most wonderful people we have ever met in all these years we've gone to Club Med.
Ariel is a therapist, married to Jessie, and our conversation was the opposite of the dreaded small talk.
She would never tell me about her ordeal returning tea towels to Target; we became kindred spirits within minutes.
Ariel told me about her two kids, staying at home with her Mom so they could enjoy their tenth anniversary trip, and they, the kids, are the same ages as my great niece and great nephew, and that led to me disclosing that I haven't seen them since our trip to Woodloch in July, and that led to her saying that a client told her she saved her marriage because of her skills as a mental health care provider..and because of her recommendation that the couple go to Woodloch.
I was already smitten, and kept getting more smitten by the minute as we discussed our mutual hatred for creepy politicans and our mutual love for Scrabble.
And nothing makes me happier than discovering a shapely soul like Ariel despises "fattism" as much as my plus-sized friends do. I am going to start the book she recommended later today, but this is where our small world connection took an incredible turn.
When I asked where she lived in Bala Cynwyd(in suburban Philadelphia) I told her that my nephew and his wife lived there several years ago, in walking distance to a terrifc kosher restaurant that was at the time called The Citron and the Rose.
Ariel knew the restaurant quite well--her brother Chad worked there, and I told her my niece's fiance Todd Van Wagner worked there as well, as a chef.
This leads to Jim texting Todd to ask if he knew the guy, to which Todd responds almost immediately with "he's one of my best friends!"
Then Ariel confirms this by texting her brother, who is indeed one of Todd's best friends..and knows his fiancee, my niece Marissa, as well!
An eavesdropper got so excited to hear we made such a personal connection in such a remote part of the Dominican Republic, but that's how it is at Club Med.
You talk, you relate, you connect!
What a perfect day..
It was capped by our visit to the adults-only "Zen" pool that smelled like mens' aftershave and has the look of an exotic jungle if exotic jungles had swim up bars.
And like magic..a staff member in a golf cart appeared as we were leaving and asked us if wanted a lift back to our room and..of course we (I) did!
Getting ready for a romantic sit down dinner and an exciting night.
Sometimes, even we "Karens" deserve that perfect day.
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