7th Day: More Small Group Diving

Dive# 178: Three Thieves
Mina: 72', 1:16 min.
Mark: 72', 1:14 min.
-this is one of favorite dives in Fiji. We were treated to a duet of lionfish swimming out in the open, and a pair of ribbon eels
-for some reason I went into deco, which explains why I had such a long dive. I was doing a deco stop at the top of the bommie. Mark rolled his eyes and stayed behind.

Dive #179: Seven Sisters
Mina: 63', 0:56 min.
Mark: 62', 0:54 min.
Missy plays volleyball with a giant sand dollar the size of a beachball

After diving, I got a 90 minute massage at the spa by the beach which was wonderful. Later on, we experience an evening of Fijian dancing and singing. What a treat.


-- Post From My iPhone

6th Day: the Fiji I Envisioned

Today's diving encapsulated the Fiji diving I had been dreaming of. Small fish of every color imaginable danced over the reef, obscuring the reef beneath them. Wherever I looked there were soft corals and sea fans hanging off every available square inch on the bommie.

Today, there were only 5 people on the boat, which was a gift in itself. The large Russian group and the San Diegan group were leaving. We were going to have the dive sites all to ourselves. Maybe with the group being so small, the diving improved. Maybe it was the quality of the dives themselves. Maybe it was because Mark and I were beginning to feel comfortable with our gear. Or maybe it was because we were finally learning to appreciate the Fijian sea life. It was probably a combination of all four.

One of the divers we were privileged to dive with today is an 80 year old diver named, Gordon. Gordon is as smart as a tack and regaled us with stories of his youth surfing in Hawaii. He proudly tells us he will dive until he dies. I would love to dive until I die, like Gordon!

Dive #177: Fantasy
This is the must-do reef dive in Beqa Lagoon. If you ever travel to Beqa Lagoon, make sure you don't miss this dive. No other dive captures the color and sheer volume of fish that the word Fiji conjures. This reef is particularly famous for it's unusual patch of blood red anemones and large population resident anemone fish.

Mina: 66', 0:54 min.
Mark: 64', 0:49 min.

Dive #178: Gee's Rock
This is one of the top 5 dives we did in Beqa Lagoon, primarily for the cool things we saw and did:
(1) I saw my first mantid shrimp (a very colorful lobster sized shrimp).



(2) I had my teeth cleaned by a cleaner shrimp for the first time.
(3) And in a stunning scene that I couldn't have planned better, I was able to capture Mark, a Spade fish, a pair of pyramid butterfly fish, and a pair of bannerfish in one photograph.

Mina: 68', 1:01 min.
Mark: 61', 0:59 min.

-- Post From My iPhone

5th Day: Shark Dives

Holding on to the current line with one hand, I survey the deep blue water beneath me. The surface water is choppy, and the water is so deep I can barely make out the bottom. As I wait for the other divers from our boat to jump in, I feel oddly exposed. The water is teeming with sharksuckers. About 2 feet long, and sporting large suction pads on the top of their heads, these fish are bigger than the better known remoras, and they are swarming just a few feet below me. Some have had huge bites taken out of them. Some are even missing their tail fins entirely. But somehow they manage to stay alive. It is a sign of what is to come below.

We are about to do the famous shark dive in Beqa Lagoon. The Fijians from Beqa Island have an ancient belief, that no shark would ever harm them. To this day, the Fijian divemasters, who hark from this island, feed large sharks by hand. On every dive there are lemon sharks, nurse sharks and bull sharks. On almost every other dive, a Tiger shark will cruise by.

Bull sharks and Tiger sharks are two of the three most dangerous sharks in the world, in case you didn't know (the third is the incomparable Great White Shark). Although the Bull Shark is probably the single most dangerous shark in the world, based on it's number of fatal attacks on people, they are actually the smallest of the three sharks, topping out in length at about 8 to 10 foot. The Tiger shark and the Great White sharks, however, can grow to 20 feet in length. Although enthusiastic (especially male) divers like to refer to these large sharks as "big boys", they are more than likely members of the opposite sex. You can call them "big mamas".

Up to this very day, there haven't been any deaths or injuries among either the dive crew, or the divers. And it is not by luck alone. The normally fun and ebullient Fijian divemasters become strict taskmasters on this dive.

Finally, everyone has entered the water and we descend to the bottom. We line up behind a rope just a few feet above the staging area. I am surprised to see divemasters Missy, and Seru wielding large metal poles the size of crutches instead of their usual pointers. They perch behind us to fend off any sharks should they get too close.

Black Jacks the size of tombstones swirl above the scene. There are 3 or 4 Bull Sharks circling for a handout. They turn on a dime to face the feeder and open their mouths like puppies for a hand held fish head. Mark is invited down to the amphitheater floor to take closer camera shots. The 7 foot Bull sharks come within an arms length of him. He pulls his camera, and his arms in closer. These sharks are surprisingly wide, and their girth makes their beady eyes look even smaller. We are told later that these are the fattest bull sharks one well travelled diver has ever seen. There are more than enough fish heads to provide for all of their eating needs. One Bull Shark burps up a cloud of fish juice.

Pretty soon, the tornado of fish grows out of control and gets ever close. The effect is like sitting being beside a high speed freeway. Mark turns around to find that the divemaster beside him, who had erstwhile been protecting him, has already jumped over to the safe side of the rope. Leaping over the wall with one hand, Mark demonstrates a fine sense of self preservation.

Dive #175: Bistro I
Mina: 82', 0:43 min.
Mark: 84', 0:43 min.

Dive #176: Bistro II
Mina: 65', 0:47 min.
Mark: 63', 0:47 min.

-- Post From My iPhone

4th Day: Jon's Tunnel

Jon's Tunnel
We were alerted in advance by Tina and Jim, a friendly San Diegan couple, that this was a favorite dive of theirs, as they dove it on their honeymoon more than a decade before. This was an awesome dive and my favorite dive in Fiji thus far.

We started out at a ship wreck in 80' of water. The ship was covered in soft coral. Buried in a hatch one story below deck was a green moray eel whose body was about as thick as a woman's waist. I had heard about eels taking off peoples' fingers, so I did not approach. But, I heard later a lady on our boat did get close, but purely by accident. She was filming the machinery inside the hatch before someone alerted her to the fact that the ginormous eel was right at her fin tips.

There was a metal grillework on the stern of the wreck heavily hung with sea fans. Perhaps one of my favorite diving moments ever was swimming upside down underneath the sea fans. With every inhale I drifted up closer to the fans. With every exhale, I drifted down. On the same dive, elsewhere, I saw a diver lying down on the sand blowing donut bubbles. Sometimes the best part about diving is just being silly underwater.

We then headed to some bommies in the distance where there was a deep tunnel swim through. Excellent buoyancy was definitely required in this 20 ft long overhead environment that was heavily inhabited by soft corals and sea fans.

At the end of the dive, we hovered over the top of the bommie. My computer was edging midway through the yellow caution zone but I kept staying behind in this gaily colored world.

Dive 172# - Jon's Tunnel
Mina: 73 ft., 1:04 min.
Mark: 71 ft., 0:54 min.
Other sights:
-Black lionfish
-Fluted Giant Clams
-Clown Triggerfish
-A pair of Pennant Bannerfish
-Greasy grouper
-Map Puffer

Mark at Turtle Head

Flurry of Life at Turtle Head

Dive #173 - Turtle Head
Mina: 62', 1:02 min
Mark: 62', 1:02 min
-Sunset wrasse
-Sharksucker (free swimming)
-2 foot long Pineapple sea cucumber the width of my calf
-A pair of Regal angelfish that evaded pictures

-Longnose hawkfish
-Dwarf hawkfish
-Moorish Idols
-Longnose Butterflyfish
-Sleeping octopus in a crack
-8 Orangespine Unicornfish

Juvenile Lion Fish on Night Dive

Dive #174 - Ridge Reef (night dive)
Mina: 65', 1:05 minutes
Mark: 62', 1:01 minutes
-Sleeping porcupine fish that kept bumping it's face into rocks
-Cornet fish?
-Baby lionfish
-Two hermit crabs that were fighting over a larger shell
-Sleeping parrot fish inside cages of antler coral- you wonder how they got there.
-Upside-down jelly that lifted off from the sand when bothered
-Crab
-Crown of thorns
-Large sea urchins the size of bowling balls


-- Post From My iPhone

3rd Day: First Dives in Fiji

It was our first day of diving in Fiji and I think I was a little bit disappointed.

If only I could have seen out of my mask, I think I would have enjoyed it more. But as it was, my mask kept fogging up, obscuring the entire dive, no matter how much I spit into them before hand. It got so bad toward the end of each dive that I was filling and clearing my mask every 10 second just to remove the fog. Mark had issues with his mask as well, except his mask kept leaking.

Corals on the Top of the Bommie

The dive sites themselves are all along a 90 mile coral ring around Beqa Island, which was shaped by an ancient volcano that collapsed into the sea. The dive sites consist mostly of coral bommies, which we have never dove before. These are rock silos whose tops are at 20 ft and whose bottoms are at 50 to 70 feet. At the top of each bommie are shallow hard corals, each of which comprises an apartment complex for tiny neon anthias and dascyllus fish. Along the sides of the bommies hang the soft corals and sea fans, where the lion fish, butterfly fish and parrot fish like to reside. Even lower still, near the sea floor, are the eels and ground hugging gobies and other sand dwelling creatures.

Sea Cucumber on the Sand Floor

To my chagrin, we found ourselves at the resort with social groups already firmly established. Beqa Lagoon Resort encourages social interaction with other guests. Guests sit together at all meals. There are set activities every day, and the dive boats are so small that you are forced to mingle with the small number of guests at the resort, unless you want to be a social pariah.

One of the main groups is a 20 person strong dive club from San Diego. With some exceptions, they are not terribly friendly. They are also very well-off, judging by the volume of expensive video cameras bristling with insectoid strobes. The other group is from Moscow. They don't mix with others at all, perhaps due to the language barrier. But they also don't seem to smile very much. At all meals, the dive groups are seated separately at their areas. Mark and I, are seated at the overflow table, where the resort managers, Mark and Sue, try to make their guests feel welcome.

Diver on the Side of the Bommie

We are put on the boat with the San Diegans as part of today's diving. Part of the reason why I didn't enjoy myself is because this group is very, very experienced in diving, and perhaps I felt self-conscious about my own comfort level in the water. These people know their cameras and fish ID inside and out and they are all mostly in their late 40s to 80s. I think we established ourselves as the dive "newbies", which is an unusual position for me since I have a divemaster certification! On the boat ride over, I expressed some nervousness about diving with our brand new BCDs, and mentioned that Mark and I hadn't dove in a year (with a couple of exceptions last month). Maybe that labelled us with the San Diegans.

Even so, I think I surprised the divemasters, and the others on board when I stripped to my bathing suit and was one of the first people to jump in the water. Everyone else wore hoods and wetsuits. The wetsuit that I had brought over was an extra large, and rather than swimming around in a garbage bag, I decided to risk it without a wetsuit. I'm a cold water diver after all!

Life on the Side of the Bommie

Immediately after my first dive was over, I was slightly cold. The water temperature was around 80 deg. F, which can get a little cold when you are in the water for greater than an hour. Also, I came out with stings and itches all over my body. I was later told that this was from the "sea lice" that was floating in the water column (thimble jellyfish). They are so small, I don't recall seeing them at all.

This day was definitely intended to shake out all of our equipment issues, including our underwater camera. Some of the underwater photos in this blog definitely reflect our inexperienced camerawork.

Dive #169 - Soft Coral Plateau
Mina: 80 ft, 1:01 min (weight worn: 4 lbs)
Mark: 80 ft, 0:59 min
Dive highlights:
Black tip reef shark
White tip reef sharks
Jacks
Moorish Idols

Dive #170 - Three Thieves
Mina: 62 ft, 1:08 min.
Mark: 61ft, 1:05 min.
Dive highlights:
Barred Unicorn fish
Ribbon Eel
Indian Lion fish
Black-Blotched Porcupine fish in a cave
Pipe fish
Clown Triggerfish
Barred Snake Moray
Moorish idol
Long fin Banner fish
Leaf Scorpion fish

Dive #171 - Shark Reef
Mina: 54 ft, 1:00 min.
Mark: 54 ft, 1:00 min.
Dive highlights:

Leaf fish
Cleaner shrimp
Blue moray eel
Clown fish in anemone
Chromodoris sp. nudibranch

-- Post From My iPhone

2nd Day: Settling in

After what seemed like forever (2.5 hours by car and 45 minutes by boat) we have finally reached Beqa Lagoon Resort.

We are currently settling into our deluxe Garden bure (a bure is a Fijian thatched roof house). The bure is quite nice and is exotic in flavor. There are elaborate wood carvings on the doors and on the walls. There is a separate living area apart from the king sized bed, and a generous porch its own seating. There are fresh flowers strewn on the beds, the tables even on the floor. We even got fragrant flowers leis placed around our necks as soon as we waded to shore.

Mark has settled into the day bed with an issue of Scuba Diving Magazine. I am in our separate living area on the sofa writing this post. It is so quiet here, all we can hear are the rain drops falling. It rains heee on and off all day. And yes, there is no TV (which explains why I have the time to write this post at all).

We managed to get some fun in in addition to all the boating and driving to get here. We had a morning to kill before our ride to Beqa Lagoon Resort, so we hired a driver to take us on a 3 hour tour of the Nadi area. Our first stop was a fruit and vegetable market where we saw vegetables we had never seen before. I was quite interested in the display of kava root for sale. A group of Fijian men were lined up to buy this popular product. Kava in case you haven't heard of it is a mild sedative that the South Pacific Islanders like to drink daily. If you drink a lot (10 bowls or so) you can get quite drunk. Mark must have been feeling flush with cash because he bought a mango from a small Indo-Fijian lady for 2 Fijian dollars (that is around 1$). We later learned from the driver that we paid around 4X more what we should have. Ah well, at least it's a funny story to tell.

Our next stops were the giant Hindu temple that the ciry of Nadi is famous for, and the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. The former I wasn't overly impressed with since I've seen a grander Hindu temple in Singapore. The latter was nice as there were hundreds of orchid species to take pictures of (see iPhone photo above).

We were also taken to see the "First Landing" which is a point on Vitu Levu where the first Fijians arrived by boat. It was sad to see that a mediocre resort marked this site rather than a nice memorial or museum.

Finally we were taken past various Fijian villages (where only Fijian people were allowed to live), and also through Lautoka town, which is the second largest town in Fiji, and whose main commerce is in processing sugar. It was here that I grabbed a bite to eat at the corner grocery store, a bland meal of fish and chips. (That's Mark below warning me we have to go soon.) I was particularly to eat with the locals - several large and well tattooed Fijian men.

As a side note, I have already decided in the brief period I have been here that Fiji is quite a nice place to live. Were I to decide between living in Mexico, the Bahamas or Fiji, I think I might decide on Fiji so far. Fiji is clean, and everyone is well housed, at least by Silicon Valley standards, which aren't very high. As the managers here at BLR told us, "you never see an unhappy Fijian, nor do you ever see a hungry one." Unemployed Fijians, which I suspect number quite a few, can subsist off the land. There is plenty of unfarmed land, plenty of fish and fruit off of wild trees.

The tour over, we embarked on a long trip along the coast to the BLR. It was pretty, and uneventful. What was unusual were the Fijians who kept waving us hello as we drove past them in the car. (See top picture.) That is how friendly they are.

Once at Beqa lagoon we were treated to the voices of a local choir. There was some talent in that group in spite of the fact that they came from the two small villages that sit on either side of the resort. I am glad I attended when I could have slept instead. The voices were angelic. One lady sang with tears running down her face, so moved was she by the song she was singing. Dinner (all meals come with the dive package) was New Zealand lamb with a French style reduced brown sauce. This was the best lamb I've ever tasted. We had wonderful tablemates- the manager, whose name is Mark, and his wife. These were truly interesting folks who had previously managed resorts in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Tomorrow will be our first day of diving. I'm already getting jitters just thinking about it. Well, it is off to bed for me. More tomorrow...

-- Post From My iPhone

1st Day: Enroute to Fiji

I write this as we fly over the middle of the Pacific Ocean on our way to Fiji. The plane interior is dark. The outside is jet black, all except for the brightest stars I've ever seen in my life. In between those stars are countless more tiny stars, all of which tell me, we are not in Kansas anymore.

By the time we land in Fiji, we will have spent 13 hours on a plane, and four hours in various airports. I spent the first couple of hours at San Francisco International Airport decompressing from work from the previous week. While at the gate waiting for our plane to depart, I sprang off last minute e-mails and text messages to members at work. It is difficult to leave the pace of the Silicon Valley behind.

Right now, I am feeling rumpled and not very glamorous given that we're supposed to be on our exotic honeymoon. It is hard to shake off the adrenaline from the past week at work, and perhaps that explains the anxiety that I feel.

There were many highs and lows going into our trip, especially when Mark discovered his passport was missing the night before we were supposed to leave. We managed to postpone the trip while we spent those extra days acquiring a new passport. Those extra days I spent at work were some of my more heroic moments. I swept in, made some last minute discoveries, and was generally such a big help that management admitted to being glad to have benefited from my passport demise. At least Mark has his passport this time, expedited over this past week at great expense.

At this same moment I have been wondering: why am I here and at such great expense? When will I be happy? Scuba diving vacations cost a lot more than regular vacations. For the same amount of money that I have spent on our resort stay alone, I could have bought an entire package to Egypt, including airfare. These moments of questioning, however, are interspersed with moments of pure glee as, I look over at Mark and we grin conspiratorially. Mark and I are finally going on our much needed tropical vacation.

-- Post From My iPhone

How I Spent My Birthday and Other Tales

Writing about what you did for your birthday in February when it is already April is quite belated. But, as I am waiting at the post office with nothing better to do, here goes.

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to organize more outings for friends. In my old age I had been getting quite dusty and boring.

It had also been a long time since I had gone skiing. The last time I went skiing, actually, was when I had been young and carefree. So, I thought what better excuse than to go skiing for my birthday to make believe that I was still young? It made perfect sense to me.

There are some benefits to being older, and mainly that is having more money. The cabin I rented was the bomb. Sitting along the lake with all of the other multiple-million dollar houses, the chalet we rented was meant for living the good life. Upon arrival, we quickly made ourselves comfortable in front of the fire and poured ourselves a couple of glasses of wine in our lofted living room.

The following morning, we went snowboarding. We hooked up with some friends of mine from Abbott, my friend, Valerie, and her boyfriend, Murph. Together, with Mark, Marcio and Sharon, we tore it up on the slopes. There were some pretty skilled skiiers and snowboarders in our midst, so the pace was really pushed. It was continual skiing from the top of the chair lift to the bottom without stopping to catch our breath. I love it that my friends push me to my limit. I am also proud to be in the company of such strong women snowboarders. We aren't in our limber 20s anymore either. To summarize, it was really fun.

In other news related to my birthday and getting older in general, I wanted to remark how many of my friends our now having babies. Accompanying the increasing brood comes buying the obligatory larger and better house in the perfect school district.

And then there is me.

I would rather play violent first person shooter video games than attend another baby shower. I am more interested in my fantasy world full of haute couture fashion and thinking about my next travel excursion than entertaining the thought of growing a family. I would rather practice shooting at the gun range with my coworkers than share notes about child rearing. Perhaps I will never grow old, at least not in my heart.


-- Post From My iPhone

From a Deep Pit...

Mark and I must love each other very much. Sometime this afternoon, I asked Mark for his passport number, so that I could check-in online for the plane, and lo and behold, we could not find his passport, anywhere.

Our flight departure for Fiji was supposed to be tomorrow morning.

For a few hours, we turned the house upside down. While Mark searched and searched. I considered all sorts of crazy ideas, from bribing the Fijian immigration official to let Mark in, to flying to Honolulu, the first leg of our flight and handling all the passport replacement from there. My heart was in my throat, just trying to come to terms with the many thousands of dollars that might be wasted.

Thank goodness one of us has a sensible head on their shoulders. I found it difficult to discern the most practical solution when I am in a deep pit of despair, as I was just a few hours ago. It was Mark who asked that I consider postponing the trip. As it turns out, and contrary to my initial assumption, postponing the trip costs very little money. Beqa Lagoon Resort (which is listed by the New York Times as one of the 1000 places to visit before you die) is a class act. They stated there was no reimbursement, however they could have me postpone the trip for a mere $75. Also, since I used my free United Air miles to book my flight to Fiji, postponing the flight was completely free, provided I not change the destination, and provided I use my miles before the end of the year.

There was some sunk cost, however: I could not refund the cost of my car rental in Honolulu, and I will be charged for a single night from another resort in Fiji. But I consider that minor compared to the health of our marriage, and our own mental well being.

Rather than tearing Mark's throat out, we hugged and commiserated with each other. In general, I am more disorganized than Mark. It could have easily been me with the lost passport and not Mark. On top of it all, Mark suffered a motorcycle accident last month, so there were other things more important on his mind other than our vacation.

The important thing is that we as a couple got through this relatively unscathed, and may even be a lttile stronger for it. In fact we are already fully relaxed and contented on the sofa watching tv. A far cry from the stress we felt just a few hours ago.


-- Post From My iPhone

Stressing and jittery over Fiji

Just wanted to post that I am stressed out and jittery about our upcoming trip to Fiji. I have a ton of stuff to finish at work this weekend, which will mainly involve cranking out some data, just because I am the only one who can analyze the data (I'm stressing just anticipating boredom that awaits me). We are also picking up Mark's dive gear from the shop only now.



Here is an interesting picture of Fijian money I received for the trip. On the backside is a picture of Queen Elizabeth of England. (I guess Fiji was a former British colony.) But on the front side are smiling Fijian faces, islands, a snorkeler and some butterfly fish flitting above a reef (bottom). It's a mish-mash composition. My favorite part is the translucent vertical gold band on the left which is embossed with what I can only imagine as some ancient Fijian pattern.

Speaking of smiling Fijian faces, Fijians are purported to be the friendliest, most joyous people on earth. And I feel guilty for already having had a confrontation with said friendly people, without ever having stepped foot in the country. The confrontation was so minor as to not even be worth mentioning. Basically the hotel was charging me a full night's fee for cancelling 2 weeks in advance, even though no cancellation policy was listed anywhere. It may payoff to be vigilant in this tropical country which may not be as stringent about rules an regulations as I'm accustomed. Just an FYI.

Honeymoon, finally

In about 1 week, we will finally be going on our much discussed, much dreamt over, honeymoon. For those who aren't familiar, Mark and I got married more than a year ago, but still have not gone on our belated honeymoon. Just a few months after getting married, my company laid me off. The following year was a year in which I cowered all the time, did not enjoy my hobbies, and had no energy beyond work, let alone to travel.

Anyways, I am writing to say that after a year, and in spite of the economic recession, we will finally be going on our trip of a lifetime. We are on our way to the famous Beqa Lagoon in Fiji to enjoy some scuba diving and general relaxation on the beach.

Part of the fun of going on vacation is, of course, all the planning and preparation that goes into taking a vacation. Getting the right stack of books to dig into while swinging from a hammock on the beach was one of the things I found myself preparing this past weekend.

1. "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins is my brainy choice. A scientific case for evolution is made against advocates of "intelligent design". So far very elegantly written, but painstakingly slow and explanatory. I probably wouldn't get be able to finish this book in my daily life. Maybe I will actually get through it while sitting on a plane.

2. "My Stroke of Insight" is a personal account of a neuroscientist who suffers a stroke and subsequently achieves nirvana. This will nicely supplement my self-help and spiritual library.

3. "Three Cups of Tea" because I like travel/mountaineering accounts, and it was recommended by a friend.

4. "Julie and Julia". This is my pure read for pleasure and will probably be the first book I finish. And I haven't seen the movie yet.

Not as interesting but perhaps more useful are the travel apps that I got for my new iPhone.

1. "Tripit" was one of the first apps that I got. This travel app stores your entire itinerary in one place. Simply e-mail your reservation confirmations to Trip it and it will automatically generate your trip in chronological order, provide maps and maybe even suggest checkout times.

2. "Blogpress" is an app that helps you post blogs with pictures without ever needing the use of a computer. This blog was sent using Blogpress. I tried another app called Cellspin, but thought it was far inferior since you couldn't create blog posts with text and pictures and you couldn't save posts for editing and publishing later.

3. "Round to it" is a so-so to-do app that I got to help me pack and prepare. I don't recommend this app. It is not terribly intuitive.

More to come later...

-- Post From My iPhone

Annoying Friends and Napa Wine Tasting

A couple of days ago, I wrote about being in the company of people I liked and how happy that made me feel.

Well, being in the company of "friends" doesn't always feel good. In fact it can be downright negative. Have you ever heard of the term, "with friends like that, who needs enemies?" Sometimes you can't stand to be around a particular friend for years at a time. Sometimes a friend who is a pain in your side one week is your best friend another week.

I guess I'm beating around the bush a little bit. A couple of weekends ago, I hung out with a couple of old friends I hadn't seen in a long time. We went to Napa Valley to do some wine tasting. One of them was working in Seattle and had never gone wine tasting before. And since I had gone previously on many an occasion, I acted as guide. By the end of the 15 hours we spent together I was infuriated and couldn't wait to get out of that situation.

We started on the wrong foot away. I don't remember having ever having to stop so frequently to grab a bite to eat. Within the first 3 hours of our little excursion, we had already eaten 3 meals! The first was coffee and a pastry before we even started driving to Napa. At the gas station half an hour later, my friend's brother stopped off at the taco stand. One hour after that, it was lunch at Rutherford Grill. And we had only done a single cursory wine tasting until then. As the elected "guide", I couldn't complain. People have different ways of enjoying Napa than how Mark and I enjoy Napa. We are used to taking a less gluttonous approach. We bike from winery to winery. We grab various crudites from the local market and snack on cold meats, cheese and bread at each winery. Perhaps I am a bit set in my ways? I was ready to be open minded.

Soon afterward began an endless pedantic discourse, all from one person, for 15 hours! The conversation was almost designed to make me feel stupid. I asked the meaning of a couple of ammunition and armory terms when they were talking about guns. (I didn't grow up around guns as a city girl in liberal Chicago, so forgive my ignorance.) Soon afterwards, this person began informing me what terms meant, even when I was already familiar with the term, and never solicited an explanation. I was shocked at being treated in this chauvinist manner.

Unfortunately, I am not very good at comebacks. I did manage to inform this person in a very withering tone that I was already familiar with the ancient Angkor Wat ruins, when he turned to me, the sole girl in the group, to explain what Angkor Wat was, even though I had not asked for his explanation. And I did go so far as to explain that Angkor Wat is in Cambodia, not in Thailand, as this person had implied.

On top of the pedantry, there were several condescending remarks made towards things that I had expressed a liking for and general snobbery all around. I am saddened at this negative change in my friend since I had known him in college. I don't think that his negativity was directed at me, but stems from a personal blockage of his own. But I do think I need to work on my comeback skills. I also want to search for more tolerance and sagacity on how to deal with such people without hating myself afterward. Mark thinks that some of the problems stemmed from not hanging out with these friends on a more regular basis- that had I been hanging out with them more frequently, that I would be more used to their idiosyncracies. Could that be so?

Relaxing Day off from Work (sent fromy phone)

This is the first time I'm attempting to blog from my cell phone, so this blog entry will probably be a little terse. I'm still trying to get used to the new keyboard.

Just wanted to say that I had the day off from work and it couldn't have come any sooner. Work has been difficult his past week. None of my experiments have worked out and I had a dreaded heart-to-heart with the boss that left me in a slump for a few days.

At the last minute I met up with a couple of friends who so happens also had the day off from work. We had a good time shopping, browsing stores and chatting over coffee. Rather than being super active, ie scuba diving, iskiing, or doing something new that I was interested in doing in order to take advantage of the rare day off from work, it made me so happy to spend quality time with friends and have some interesting and intelligent conversation. In a nutshell, sometimes it is good simply to be in the company of people you like.