For most of the year, the humidity on the Rock is very high (it hit 98% in the summer). For my skin and hair, this is fabulous. My hair has never grown faster and I hardly ever need to use moisturizer. But it's not all good news. With houses made out of coral and rock, that means that dealing with dampness in the home is just a regular part of life here - a fact which we have recently become acutely aware of.

Our previous apartment, which was in a 400 year-old building, was framed and drywalled, much like a house in Canada. There are probably 3 houses like that on the whole island...it is VERY rare. I'm guessing this is because moisture + drywall = eventual disaster. But, our apartment was dry as a bone, all year round. It was fabulous. Besides the lovely floors, it was pretty much the best thing about the place.

Our new apartment is less than a year old. However, it is a regular-style house, made out of coral, cinder blocks and cement. No moisture barrier. No drywall. Not dry.

I noticed it shortly after we moved in...a bit of a coldness in the sheets tipped me off one night and then the fact that it took 3 days for a pair of jeans to dry on a hanger sealed it for me. We are now officially living in a regular house and now we have to deal with what everyone else is dealing with: the War on Mould.

Mould...is gross. I'm not a fan. Up until now, my experiences with mould have been confined to the food variety - leaving an open juice box in my locker for weeks on end would normally sprout something pretty, and there has been more than one container of forgotten leftovers in my fridge that was "discovered" to be a greener shade than necessary. I'm not messy...it happens.

But when mould sprouts on my SHOES...everything changes.

This evening, Kurt and I were having a casual conversation in the closet (our closet is huge - larger than our bathroom) and I randomly pulled my beloved Frye sandals out of the shoe organizer to discover this:


Oh, hell no.

Yes, that is a crop of mould on my lovely sandal. A tiny green forest of gross.

Disgusted, I pulled out all of my shoes and discovered that The Mould had invaded another favorite pair, my Born sandals (you will probably note how similar they are to the Fryes...at least the Mould has good taste):


I said some words that I don't feel comfortable repeating on my blog, gathered up my beloved sandals and every bottle of shoe product that has ever been hawked (successfully, apparently) to me by shoe sales people, and got to work in the kitchen.


30 minutes later, my pulse had gone back to a regular pace and my sandals were looking as good as new. Some shampoo and conditioner were all it took to bring them back to life. However, I'm now freaking out about everything else in my closet. Like...my clothes. My luggage. My PURSES. My pashmina collection. What else is quietly becoming a home to The Mould? I don't really care to find out.

We got some closet heaters from a co-worker of mine and installed them immediately. They don't heat up much - just enough to zap the moisture from the air. Hopefully that's enough to prevent future invasions. Until then...daily inspections.

Ahh...life in the tropics. Always a pleasure.

Frozen organic raspberries with a bit of dark chocolate. Pretty much the greatest dessert ever.

My first order from anthropologie.com arrived today and not only did everything fit perfectly, but I am totally in love with the newest additions to my wardrobe, including a very classic denim jacket that I have been wanting, like, forever. So in love that I logged right back on to populate my wish list.

Victoria in two sleeps. Including tonight's sleep, which should have started an hour ago, so it's pretty much a write off, meaning that it's really only one sleep.

The most amazing sashimi ever approximately 45 minutes after we land. YUM.

I had confirmation today that my paperwork for my new position has been sent on to Payroll. Cha-ching.

Night!

Remember how the Rock has a four-day long weekend at the end of July? To celebrate...cricket? Yes, well, it does. And it starts today, when the work day ends at 5:00.

I'm not into cricket at all, and I certainly am not into snow cones (which seem to play a major role in the celebrations), but I am into a four-day weekend with hot, hot weather and maybe a tiny bit of boating thrown in for fun. That's pretty much all we have planned for the four days but I'm looking forward a lot of down time. I'm hoping to start taking photos of all of the stuff we're going to sell before we move...time to get rid of a lot of random furniture we never sit on/eat off of/look at. I'm also looking forward to sleeping in and eating some chips. Because that's what holidays are for.

I'm going to try to take some photos this weekend, because I haven't been doing a lot of that lately and think I should be trying to capture some summer shots. The weather has been great lately (hot though...our apartment is over 30 degrees when we get home after work) and not too humid yet, so that will probably set in while we're away and we'll come back to the greenhouse I remember the Rock being this time last year. Awesome.

In other news, I'm now a week and a half away from a plane ride!

Today we had a bit of a late start. I kept waking up last night...at 2:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m., and then at 7:00 a.m. because some CRAZY rain was beating down on the roof so hard that it actually woke me up. I took a peek outside and couldn't even see across the street. And then when we headed out this morning, at around 10:00, there was not a cloud in the sky and everything was dry, dry, dry. I love weather like that. Things get watered...but I don't have to get wet. Plus, I love the sound of rain when I'm all cozy in bed. The best.

We saw another apartment this morning and I, for one, fell in love. Head over heels. It had absolutely everything on our "wishlist", minus a pool, but it had so many extras and bonuses that we never thought we'd be able to find in our price range, that I think we're going to go for it. I'm more of an impulse shopper, while Kurt likes to mull things over, so in fairness to him...I'm waiting out the mulling. I hope he's done mulling soon though, because I can't wait to call and say YES. I WOULD like the apartment with the gorgeous views, private backyard, granite and stainless kitchen and biggest closet ever. I would like that. And I would even like the pet it comes with - a 30 year old tortoise named George who lives behind the house in a little igloo. He reminded me a bit of Harley...about the same activity level. Anyways, it was amazing.

After we drooled all over the apartment, we headed to Melrose Place for an afternoon swim and BBQ. Melrose Place is what we call the complex that Sarah lives in, where we looked at the apartment last week. We spent the day floating around, evening out tan lines (where appropriate), and sipping on cold drinks. Not a terrible way to spend a Sunday, I have to say.

Tomorrow kicks off a three day work week for us, which is awesome. So, tonight is more like a Tuesday night than a Sunday night. I love that.

I hope everyone had an awesome weekend. Hopefully I'll have some big news this week...job or house related...or both!

The interview went well. Really well. Like, I'd be surprised if I didn't get a second interview well. It is a huge leap from what I'm doing now, in every sense of the word, but it sounds perfect for me and something that I know I could do well. It would also mean a very hefty raise...which would be amazing. My fingers and toes are all appropriately crossed, but now I'm going to have a hard time keeping myself from obsessing about it all weekend. The good news is that I know that they're going to make a decision quickly, so I shouldn't have to deal with my nerves for long. One way or the other, I expect to be put out of my misery by Tuesday or Wednesday.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG.

Kurt went out tonight with work, but I stayed home and watched a Lindsay Lohan movie on my own. Saddest story you've ever heard, right? Well, it gets worse. The movie was the worst. movie. ever. Shocking, I know. At least she could have surprised me with a decent flick but no...the Lohan hit a new low with her latest. Ouch.

I have an interview at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. With my boss. For something fairly big. And I am freaking out.

Details will be forthcoming.

We went to see the first apartment of our apartment search yesterday evening. Our lease is up at the end of October, so we're looking for something for either October or November 1st...which means that there's not actually a lot for us to look at just yet.

The apartment we went to see was in the same complex that a good friend of ours lives in, and has a pool and little outdoor area that is not only really cute, but really private and hardly used by the tenants, which is kind of nice. So, it would be kind of like having our OWN POOL. Kind of. The apartment itself was smaller than what we have now, but it's much closer to town and would force us to get rid of some of the excess furniture we have accumulated over the past two years...like the mini bar fridge that we've never even opened, much less used. It came free with our bed.

If it were up to me, and only me, we would have signed a lease last night and been done with our search. But Kurt is more methodical than I am and wants to "look around" to see other places before making a decision. We don't have a lot of time to think about this one, since I know she's eager to rent it.

I hate moving.

I love that website, by the way.

Today was the perfect Sunday. A late start, a bit of brekkie, beach time with lots of swimming, a beverage or two...maybe some ice cream. Perhaps.

We headed out to the beach at around noon. Kurt was showing us (us being myself and our friend Amy, of last night's date) a "secret" beach that he had only just discovered via another friend who has only been on the Rock for 6 months and yet seems to know about absolutely everything cool that we have never heard of. Like this beach. It is gorgeous. Secluded. Deserted. Clean. And not ghetto, like the other beach we tend to spend time at, mostly because it's the island default. It's also the beach that all of the cruise ships send their passengers to en masse, meaning that it is a sea of pasty-skinned tourists, yelling at their sulky teenagers and letting it all hang out. Literally. It's not gorgeous.

So, I guess my point is that the beach we went to today was a diamond in the rough. It WAS gorgeous and we are so going back, like every Sunday.

I did the obligatory application of SPF prior to getting on the bike this morning, thinking that I'd had so much sun already this year that if I missed a little spot here or there, or didn't re-apply directly after coming out of the water, I'd probably still do OK. My skin tends to get pretty dark and once it's past a certain point, I know I'm not going to burn anymore. I still like to cover up, but I don't fret about it too much because honestly, we don't get to the beach as often as we'd like to, and I don't spend hours and hours baking in the sun. Anyways, we got to the beach, I took a quick dip in the beautiful blue waves, stretched out on the towel and fell asleep.

Mistake #1.

I woke up feeling pretty hot and bothered, so I got back into the water to cool down. I spent about half an hour bobbing around in the waves, dodging fish and trying to keep my bathing suit bottoms on, before getting back out and spending another hour or so reading on the towel.

Mistake #2.

Both mistakes being, of course, the absence of even a half-assed attempt at re-applying sunscreen.

Now, shortly before bedtime, I am facing the distinct prospect of waking up tomorrow looking like someone who had a terrible facial done by someone who hated me. Burned. Nose, cheeks, forehead. Awesome. Oh, and the backs of my legs, my lower back, my stomach and my chest. FML. I know it's no one's fault but my own and can't for the life of me imagine what would make me so irresponsible as to believe that my skin is invincible to harmful UV rays.

The worst part? I commute to work every day with my dermatologist, a women who takes such care to avoid any iota of a UV ray that she has the complexion of a corpse. She is a lovely person, and (as you can imagine) a fantastic dermatologist, but I know there will be disapproval in her eyes tomorrow morning when she surveys the UV damage I have sustained this weekend. Awkward.

I love checking off the work days. Wednesday is up next and it's almost my favorite (Thursday is my absolute top favorite work day). Though, for a Tuesday, today was pretty OK.

I am LOVING the post-work swim. Tonight we decided to wait out a thunderstorm (to avoid possible electrocution). So, we had some dinner - my famous "clean out the fridge" salads, topped with whatever vegetables I could find, some of my favorite capers, leftover teriyaki ginger chicken sausage and broiled asparagus, watched another gory episode of True Blood (is anyone else watching this awesome show?), and then went for our swim just after the sun had gone down. I did some "laps" out to some boats and back and K spent his time in the shallower water, checking out the many, many fish who are very interested in these new intruders. I swear, no one swims there. Ever. The fish are not amused, but they are trying to act casual and disinterested. It's not working. We also saw a gigantic sea slug that I could have done without...it wasn't your standard colorful coral reef creature. Nemo would have puked if he had seen this thing.

Just over three weeks until we're on the plane, heading to Victoria. I can't believe that it's already half-way through July. We didn't have much planned for this trip (well, we DID, but obviously the schedule eased up significantly when we postponed the wedding), but now in the last week the days have started to fill up with dates, dinners, a junior high school reunion (more on that later), and a jewelry-making class that I'm pretty excited about. I think it's going to be an awesome trip. And then, a month later, we're heading to Ottawa for another week, though that will be more of a working trip, I think. We've decided to go through the tiny mountain of belongings we left behind, pare it down, and bring back quite a bit of it to the Rock. It's time to move here, I think. And by that, I mean that it's time to bring all of the GOOD kitchen stuff that we left behind thinking that it might get ruined by the INSANE HUMIDITY AND MOULD that everyone was talking about before we got here and which we have yet to experience. Kitchen items, a few of my favorite hats, my journals, and I'm sure we'll find other odds and ends to pack up and bring back with us...I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what we crammed into those bins in our mad rush to leave in '07.

...and kind of worried that we might have accidentally thrown in something that perhaps wasn't supposed to spend two years in a bin in a basement...it might not be pretty.

We also have to purchase a gas insert for the fireplace in our house, since our lovely tenants had to deal with a broken one last year. I have never purchased a gas insert before and have absolutely no idea of what is involved, but hopefully it's as simple as buying a couch or a lightbulb, because that's about the amount of effort I feel like putting into it.

After work, we walked home from the ferry stop in some VERY intense heat. The Rock has gone from being tolerable to being ridiculously hot in a very short period of time and by the time we got to our door, we were pretty much gasping for a breath of air-conditioned air. Sad. So, we threw on our bathing suits and headed back out for a quick dip in the tiny bay behind our house. We've lived in our apartment for a year and a half and tonight was the first time that we've ever actually swam in our backyard, though we have swam nearby. It was awesome. The water is still cool and refreshing for another month or so and we were back to normal body temperature in no time. I think this might become a new evening ritual...I really can't think of a better way to end the day.

Seriously...after an awesome weekend last weekend, I had high hopes for this one. These were taken care of today when we both woke up snippy, grouchy and just generally feeling blah. Despite a gorgeous day and a decent night of sleep. I suppose that happens sometimes.

We went to one of our favorite restaurants for a light lunch and for a little drive and really accomplished very little besides that. Oh well. There's always Sunday.

Some friends back home have mentioned that their employers, in an attempt to cut costs, have offered staff 4 day work weeks at a pro-rated salary. Interesting. On one hand I'd say no effin' way am I giving up a day's salary. ON THE OTHER HAND...I would love a standard Wednesday off. Who wouldn't? I could handle two day work weeks. Especially if I had kiddos running around, since it's unlikely that I will be able to be home with them otherwise, especially if we happen to live here, in the land of the $8.99 cereal.

In other news...I am devouring a fantastic book by a fantastic (and Canadian!) naturopath, Dr. Natasha Turner. She is brilliant. I ordered her book, The Hormone Diet, to see if it would give any tips on how to reduce cortisol levels, since I suspect that both Kurt and I are suffering from some fairly extreme stress, just with everything that has been going on, etc. Anyways, it's a really interesting book, VERY well researched and well endorsed by medical professionals from all over, and it's already given me some very good insight on other things I've dealt with, health-wise, throughout my life. Fascinating stuff, and a really easy read. It has a slight slant to the weight-loss side of balancing hormones, but is generally about achieving total wellness...and who doesn't need a little of that? Highly recommended.

So, normally my mailbox gets a weekly dumping of bills and junk mail and that's about it. Yesterday, however, I came home to a happier mailbox than normal. Not only did I get a lovely card from one of my aunts, but I also got TWO parcel notifications, neither of which were expected. When I shop online, I have a U.S. address that I use to send the goods to, and from where they are shipped to me on the Rock. Many stores won't ship international and with a U.S. address, I can normally get free shipping deals as well, which is aweseome. The shipping between the U.S. and the Rock is not free, but it's not terrible and they take care of all of the duty charges, etc. so that all I have to do is pick it up and pay my Visa bill. All in all, a pretty decent deal and has helped enormously when I've tried to get my hands on a book or something that I can't track down here.

Anyways...I wasn't expecting anything to be delivered to my apartment, so the notices are a bit mysterious. What could they be? The only idea I have is that one of them is a shipment of gifts I'd purchased for my bridesmaids that I couldn't cancel in time (well, maybe I could have, but I didn't want to) and that they shipped it directly to my billing address instead of my shipping address in the States. I'm leaving early today to hopefully get to the post office before making my 8:20 ferry. I can't wait. I really LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE to get mail that isn't bills!

For the past three weekends, we've been lucky enough to finangle our way onto one boat or another to spend a day, or at least a long afternoon, out on the water. We swim. We drink. We dance (so long as someone remembers the iPod). We eat chips. Sometimes hummus. It's fairly blissful. We all get off the boat hours later with a bit of a sunburn, a bit of a buzz, and a bit of dehydration. It's awesome.

Today, K took his mountain bike and our adorable Puerto Rican friend and the two of them went off for a guys afternoon on the Rock. It is HOT today, so I'm sure there was a beer stop along the way, but I think they rode all the way from our house into town, which is fairly impressive. And about half the length of a marathon (though they would have taken the long way, along windy biking paths). The Rock is the length of a marathon. As in, running a marathon is the equivalent to running from one end of this country to the other. Maybe I should rethink my tentative goal.

I had the afternoon to myself and what did I do with it? A beautiful, HOT, sunny day? I spent it indoors, cleaning our apartment, tackling laundry, making (and eating) guacamole with the avocado that looked like it was about to take a turn for the worse, and watching the L Word in between. I just adore those crazy lesbians. If I could pick just one of them for a best friend, I think I'd have a hard time choosing but it would probably come down to either Shane or Alice. I loathe Jenny.

I used to feel guilty about spending nice days indoors. But this was when I lived in a place that didn't have sunny days back to back for months on end. Now, I actually relish a day at home - the apartment that we spend a fortune on each month and feel like we rarely have a chance to enjoy it.

I have been a bit book crazy on Amazon lately. It happens once or twice a year and it can get a bit out of control, like now. I'm waiting for my third order of books, which should arrive next week. Summer always seems to demand light, easy reads but I've been going for 100% non-fiction - books on writing, photography, cooking, health, fitness...just trying to get inspired, I guess. And there's pretty much nothing better than a big stack of books waiting to be read, so I think I'll start chipping away at them tonight. The question is which book to dive into first...

Anyways, K just texted me from the ferry, on his way home. Maybe we'll go find dinner somewhere, if he's still able to walk after a whole day on his bike.

I was reading some Interpretive Stance today and saw my blog listed in her blogroll with an embarassing "5 weeks ago" under the title of my last post. Five weeks? Pardon?

Well, in my defense, I have had some "stuff" going on.

The biggest news from the Rock is that two weeks ago, K and I called off our wedding. Hands-down, the most difficult and agonizing decision either of us have ever had to make, making the year and a half of planning and anticipation a bit redundant, to put it mildly. The decision itself was made at the end of two of the worst days of my life so far but, and this might sound crazy, came with the biggest (internal) sigh of relief imaginable, so it was obviously the right decision, as hard as it was. Anyways, that's that. No wedding. No white (ivory, actually) dress. No party. No speeches. No walking down the aisle on my Dad's arm. Well, not in August, anyways. Right now, the important thing for us both is to concentrate on getting back into the great place we've been in since the beginning - to find whatever seems to have been lost over the past little while and put it back into its rightful place. We know we'll get there. But moving ahead with the wedding when we're going through a rough patch? Not ideal.

So...yeah. That's where we're at. The love and support sent our way in response to our sad news has been overwhelming. Both of us feel so lucky to have the family and friends that we have, even though our news has been inconvenient to many of them and we're all working out how to make this as easy as possible for everyone involved.

It's amazing, but calling off our wedding has made me feel brave. Both of us, actually. It would have been far, far easier just to suck it up and deal with it but in the end, we're both hoping to come out ahead, better as a couple, better as individuals...just better. The best, even. I don't think we're on the same page yet, at least not completely, but we're at least in the same chapter, when I'm not even sure that we were in the same book before.

Life on the Rock is hard. It seems like a paradise, and it is in a lot of ways, but it comes with some challenges that we didn't expect. Intense loneliness. A strong sense of isolation. A depressingly high level of racism and race-based issues that are ongoing and completely exhausting. Stress levels beyond anything we'd ever faced back home, related to all of these issues, our jobs, managing finances, managing the house we left behind...just everything. Not knowing when our next move will be, or where we'll end up. Spending all of our vacation time cramming in visits with family, because we miss them so much. A constant stream of incoming and outgoing friends, moving to the Rock for a new job or leaving because their permits are up or they've been made redundant. It is not as idyllic as the photos make it out to be. Are we lucky to have had this opportunity? Of course. Do we regret coming here? Not even a little bit. But we are not on vacation.

On the other hand, after a year and a half here now, things are slowly getting better. We have a number of friends now who plan to remain here for as long as possible, so our group is a bit less transient than before. We're planning to move in the fall into a bigger place (with a spare room for the houseguests that we are trying to lure our way...), which will probably help to make us feel a bit more stable here. We've both gotten through the learning curves of our jobs, which makes a big difference. And, most importantly, we're starting to take time for ourselves - we realized that we were spending so much time together that none of it was quality time anymore.

This is all good news. Considering that just over two weeks ago I was finishing the design of our invitations and planning what to do with my hair, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm not going to be a bride this year, but that's OK. It will happen one day. And when it does, it will be perfect.

Oh, hi again. This was such a momentous occasion that I thought it deserved it's own post.

I went for a run on Sunday, for the first time in months. MONTHS. Like, 6 months.

Last fall, we were going to the gym all the time. Every day, for 3 or 4 months, we'd get on the early ferry and head straight for the treadmill. We were doing so well for so long and then, as the weather started getting worse and it started getting super dark outside, we stopped getting up when the alarm went off, voting to slam the snooze and cuddle up instead. To stay warm, of course.

So, now that it's like...25 degrees out there AND in our house and the sun rises before the roosters (they are on island time), we really have no excuses. Kurt has been back in the gym for about a month now, but me? Not so much. I've been more focused on getting better, sleeping better, eating better (another FAIL lately) and, unfortunately, have let the feeling better part of the equation slide. On Sunday, on a whim, I dragged my running shoes and intervals watch out of where they had been hiding and took them for a run. And you know what? It wasn't so bad. Considering that I have done basically no physical exercise since late November, I was surprised at being able to run at all. I made it through about half an hour of running/walking and felt OK by the time I got back to the apartment and even felt pretty OK that night.

And then today I wanted to kick the yesterday Me's ass, because my legs are KILLING ME. It was even painful to sit in a beach chair and tan, because even when they aren't moving, my legs are hurting. I'm being punished for months of slothy behavior and I know it.

Ow.

It's almost time for bed...the long weekend is officially over. Bummer. Luckily, we only have about three weeks or so until the next one. They "cancelled" the June long weekend last year because the Powers That Be decided that the Queen's birthday is no longer something to celebrate. Instead, they offered a long weekend in October to recognize national "heroes". And then a few weeks ago they realized that Tall Ships is coming for the long weekend in June, and so they reinstated the national public holiday and took away the one in October. And then they made it very clear that the national public holiday in June formerly known as the Queen's Birthday is now going to be known as National Heroes Day. Of course. Effin' retarded, but whatever...I'm all about extra days to tan and frolic on boats, so I'm not complaining.

We had a great weekend. On Saturday, we were invited out on a new friend's boat, which was a great way to kick off summer. With two 150's on the back, we were flying around, wind in our hair, sun on our skin, various rum drinks in our hands. It was awesome. I came back a tiny bit sunburned on my shoulders but all in all, a perfect summer day. It also made me want a boat...until I remembered how much work they are and how much it would suck to own a boat during a hurricane or tropical storm. It was a short-lived dream.

Sunday was gorgeous...the whole weekend was, actually. Sunny, hot, calm waters, and the occasional breeze. Just enough for you not to realize that your skin is burning. I went for a run in the morning (more about that painful mission later) and then we went for lunch on a sunny patio, and for a walk around the local 18th century fort, which was teeming with tourists who had spilled off the largest cruise ship that I have ever seen. It was ridiculous. Straight from New Jersey to our shores, they piled off the thing, mostly inappropriately dressed and mostly wearing fanny packs. I am 100% sure that you will never, ever see me on a cruise until I'm old and rich enough for one of those world cruise things where you see the whole world in 109 days for somewhere in the region of $50K. But to spend $800 on 4 (or, shudder, more) days on a floating amusement park with the fanny pack/Hawaiian shirt crowd? This is about as likely as seeing me at Disney World. Never going to happen. I suppose you could say that it's just not how I roll.

Anyways, after the walk, we went our separate ways, as I had a "girl's night in" with some new friends and Kurt was going to a BBQ where males were more than welcome. I had fun. We watched a seriously weird movie (Happy Go Lucky), ate some junk food and had some girl talk. Pretty standard girl's night.

Today was HOT. Maybe hotter than the other two days, which made me feel very sorry for all of the half-marathoners who had to chug through the heat on their way to the finish line this morning. Suckers. We went to the local beach for a couple of hours and I sat there and wished that I had thought to bring my camera to do my own sociological study like Heather, because it would have been phenomenal. Pitbull puppies on ropes, a six-foot man with dreadlocks down to his knees, some homeboys drinking from paper bags and yelling at some other homeboys about drowning their dogs (they were kidding...I think)...local action everywhere. We didn't stay long.

And then, the icing on my long weekend, a dinner date tonight with my favorite dude. We went to one of our new favorite restaurants and had some Italian food and a bit of cheeky rum punch. The perfect way to end a Monday.

Sometimes I get so caught up in the day-to-day that I forget about the actual fact that I live here, on this little Rock. And then I'll find myself sitting at a restaurant and I'll see a GECKO run across the floor and think holy eff...I live here.