Plate o' Shrimp

Home sweet.. what tha.....?

I should have know that re-entry into Grenada would be a little tough when they wouldn’t let me take my favorite pillow on the plane in Albuquerque. The woman at the security check point said it was an extra carry on item and so I had to leave it behind. I found out when a day after I landed in Miami that the shipper (Amerijet) I had planned to use to ship Shade to Grenada was now flying dogs through Barbados. If you fly a pet through Barbados, the veterinary officer is allowed at his discretion to remove your dog from the plane and destoy it. Rumor has it that they shoot dogs. So flying shade through Barbados simply was not an option for me. American, the airline I flew to Grenada, flies pets but will not fly pets if it gets above 85 degrees.

I had flown to Miami so I could put Shade on Amerijet if the heat embargo came into play. It was averaging 90 degrees in the afternoon. I was, to put it mildly, stressed out. Mom had flown to Miami to help me get Shade on some sort of plane. We spent Saturday driving to Key west, which was really beautiful. On the way home, we encountered bad traffic only to have it end with a cornoer’s van and what looked like a body draped in a yellow sheet of some kind. Not long after that I got ahold of my friend Nichole who told me about Amerijet. That’s about when I stopped being able to hold down food.

I spent most of Sunday seemingly incapable of doing more than watching a Gilmore Girls marathon on TV in my hotel room. Mom was a complete and total doll especially considering the fact that this was supposed to be a relaxing and rejuvenating bonding op for us, and she ended up with a stress case on her hands who couldn’t even enjoy a meal with her.

My flight was Monday at 1 pm, but I ended up flying standby with Shade on a 8 am flight to San Juan in order to beat the heat. Shade and I found a clover filled patch of green in the Miami airport and hung out until my 5:10 flight Once we got to Grenada, I went to get her through customs and got another shock. The paperwork from SGU said the customs officer could make up whatever fee they wanted as import fees, so I brought roughly US$130 with me, thinking that would be enough considering Nicholes pure breed American Bulldog had only cost her $45. The customs officer looked over her paperwork and told me it would cost $240 US to get Shade through customs, and if I didn’t have it I could leave her there. I had my cell phone and called Nichole and Sheri who were outside to pick me up. They willingly emptied out there wallets and Sheri barged her way through customs to bring me cash, but by the time she got there, the customs officer had decided to take pitty on me and gave me a “deal” by only charging me the exact amount I had in my wallet.

Sheri and Nichol literally saved my sanity that night, looking a little like sisters.. smiling pretty blond sources of reassurance I couldn’t have been welcomed by kinder more understanding friends. They whisked me back to my apartment where I met my landlady Ms. Baptiste. She had the AC on and had someone in to clean it to spotless that day. She had clean sheets on the bed and flowers in both rooms. I felt safe and welcomed.


I had a hard time, my first few days here, shaking off my fear. It didn’t help that I got a US $60 ticket at the police station when a police officer on duty noticed I had driven in to renew my license. A Sheri and Nichole who drove up right after me escaped his notice and the ticket. The other officer on duty who, with Sheri, watched me get a lecture, told Sheri that the officer who was giving me the ticket was “a small man.”
A lot of SGU students come to Grenada and can’t leave their anger at the fact it operates differently here than it does in the US. I have really tried hard to not be that resentful. All of the students here are, by the standards of this country, rich. And many students are disrespectful of our hosts. I try hard not to be resentful, but being shook down twice in two days weakened my resolve. I had to go back to the police station to pay my fine, and then return again two days later for a receipt. When the same officer who gave me the ticket came to the counter in his civilian clothes to give me the receipt, he mostly looked incredibly young, like one of my students from SFCC. I left confused.. feeling a little adrift.
As the days passed and I filled my time with errands and finishing up a writing project for SFCC, I began to feel more and more at home. Shade has several new adoring fans among my classmates and a cushy new bed under my desk. She has gone in the ocean here and enjoys her walks with my walking buddy Molly and with Sheri and Nichole and their dogs Chiquita and Athena.
The first week of class has sped by. My medical genetics course is already half over.. It meets two hours a day for two weeks and then we take the final and we are done. I though a lot these past two weeks about whether or not I had done the right thing by coming here. I thought I had put those worries to bed but my reentry fears brought them all up again. And I had a very restful and pleasant summer back in the states and back at SFCC. The life of a professional is certainly easier than this strange student peripatetic life I have signed up for. But I kept on holding on to those moments of rightness I felt last term when I got a glimpse of what my life as a physician will be like. And I recalled a conversation I had about happiness I had with my friends Deanna and Robert about happiness. The key to happiness I try to remind myself, has more to do with how passionately engaged you are with your life, than it does with ease of living or material wealth. So is this stress, the cost of living I sometimes have to pay to be happy? I don’t quite believe in that kind of karmic quid pro quo, but as I have said before, I am happier taking those kind of risks than I am when I don’t.

Listening to one of my itunes mixes, I have begun to consider the possibility that the song “Best of my Love” by the Emotions could actually be a very profound recipe for living, when seen as a set of instructions for greeting the world, instead of a specific beloved.
Every time I listen to it I have to let go of some of my cynicism and of course, it is just one of the great old funky RB tunes that never fails to make me smile
Choosing a syrupy pop-song as a personal theme seems desperately un-cool to me and it in the past it would have been the kind of thing I thought but did not express out loud. I am much less concerned these days with seeming cool.. I am embracing my inner dork in my little Caribbean apartment, rain pattering on the roof, small dog curled at my feet, getting ready to take a cold shower because they feel good after a long sticky Caribbean day. Perhaps the only thing cool about me anymore is my showers, or perhaps the true definition of cool is truly and profoundly not caring what cool is anymore.
Doesn't take much to make me happy
and make me smile with glee
Never never will I feel discouraged
Cause our love's no mystery
Demonstrating love and affection
That you give so openly yeah
I like the way ya make me about you baby
Want the whole wide world to see
[Chorus:]
Whoa whoa, you got the best of my love
Whoa whoa, you got the best of my love
Whoa whoa, you got the best of my love
Whoa whoa, you've got the best of my love
Goin' in and out of changes
The kind that come around each day
My life has a better meaning
Love has kissed me in a beautiful way
And oh yea (my love, my love)
oh yea (my love, my love)
Oh you got the best of my love
Whoa whoa, you've got the best of my love
Whoa whoa, you've got the best of my love
Whoa whoa, you've got the best of my love
Demonstrating sweet love and affection
That you give so openly yeah
The way I feel about ya baby can't explain it
Want the whole wide world to see
Ohhh but in my heart
You're all I need
You for me and me for you
ohhh, it's growin' every day ooooh
ohhh, oh oh oh oh oh
you've got the best of my love
ohhh, oh oh oh oh oh
you've got the best of my love
ohhh, givin' you the best of my love
my love ohh my love
ohhh, givin' you the best of my love
my love ohh oh yeah
ohhh, oh oh oh oh oh
you've got the best of my love

posted by Sa @ 5:01 PM