So we’re a few days in at this point and I’m settling nicely into my new life. I don’t wear makeup anymore. I don’t do my hair. I barely even get dressed.
By the Pool…
The Santa Teresa waves are a bit much for me, and I find the beach crowded so I’ve been spending a good amount of time poolside, which has been mostly delightful when I can have it to myself or in the company of other quiet ladies. This morning I watched an adorable little girl with curly hair blow her nose into her hand and rinse it clean in the pool. After about the third time, her mother scolded her–presumably, I don’t speak Spanish, but a mother’s disapproval is universal–but she repeated the action, regardless. Mikayla is clearly a brat; this is evident by the fact that I know her name. No parent says their child’s name with such frequency unless they are behaving badly. I find myself quietly hating this three year-old and I can’t wait for her to leave.
I’m in a losing battle with the sun–it’s a redhead’s natural enemy. Speaking of redheads, I’ve seen two others so far! I read somewhere that people with red hair have a natural affinity for one another; it sounds like nonsense to me, but why else do I keep pointing them out to Alistair like we’re playing some bizarre version of ‘Where’s Waldo’? We really do stand out like pale beacons in a sea of tanned brunettes. It’s so hot I can barely keep the sun tan lotion from gliding away, and my belly-button keeps filling up with sweat.
When not resenting children, I am fully immersed in my book — Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad. If I were to write a book, I would dream that it would turn out like hers. It’s told from multiple perspective, with interconnected stories, spanning time; this has all been done before, but here it’s done really well. The scope and detail of this book is dizzying and yet, somehow, always engaging. Each character is vivid and interesting with fully realized lives that I care about. I read that HBO has optioned it to be developed as a series–I think that would be brilliant. It won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, so it hardly needs my praise as an endorsement. You should read it. My only complaint – the Costa Rican heat is melting the book’s spine and the pages are falling out in chunks.
Mikayla now blows her nose into a towel–an improvement, certainly. She is now joined by several other children who start making howler monkey noises and belly flopping into the pool. I wonder if I can outlast them and finally have the private oasis I found first thing this morning. One of the dads ask me if I have children and I tell him that I do not. He apologizes for all the disruption and I, of course, scoff and say it’s no trouble at all. He says it’s entertainment at least. I smile and say yes…it’s something to look at.
Is This the Way the World Ends? 