EXCESSIVENESS

This weekend has been rainy.  It started Friday night and will end sometime tonight.  Ray and I continuously got caught in the rain.  It poured running into Costco yesterday, but it was a clean break leaving.  It started raining on the way into the restaurant last night, but again, we lucked out leaving.  Today, it poured driving  to the grocery store, and this time it POURED on Ray (of course) when he ran to get the car. I stayed with the cart under shelter J It wanted to rain on me when I had to run back to the store a few hours later (can't have a taco salad without Mexican cheese), but I made some dry runs into and out of the store.  We have had an excessively rainy weekend. (Mind you that on Thursday, the weathermen—all of them, said it was going to be a GREAT Friday and pretty good Saturday with 30% chance of rain LATE in the day--why do we pay them again?  At least in Panama, I know it will rain from May through November).  It’s good for the 18% of Virginia that is suffering from the drought.  It’s good for Lake Anna since the lake is looking a little low around the edges.  Hurricane Isaac is making the residents of Key West miserable right now.  Isaac is upsetting the dynamics of the Republican Convention slated to start tomorrow (now Tuesday) in Tampa.  I hope this hurricane stalls out on us and stays away for Labor Day weekend at the lake.  I can hope. And I can't take too much more of it with the disturbances it has caused my body shape.

With the excessive and intrusive rain, I decided to stay in the house a lot and be excessive myself…with some food.  Go back to my previous post and there you will see why.  Ray lacks this excuse though.  First, I attacked the bag of Tostitos Artisan Chips (Chipotle flavor) with Mango Salsa while watching “Hunger Games”.  Love that movie!  I had already attacked all of the Costco ladies with the samples (bread, popcorn chips, three different kinds of chicken nuggets, ice cream, two kinds of cheeses, and some whole grain stuff) earlier in the day.  Then Ray and I chose a new-to-us restaurant to try for dinner.  I put aside my chips and salsa craving (been there, done that) and decided to go back to craving stir-fry type food.  I had just been to Kobe Japanese Steakhouse for lunch with the office the day before, and Ray had made beef stir fry the night before, so I suggested Hibachi Grill Sushi and Seafood.
  

There are three things Ray and I don’t do when eating out.   Sushi, seafood and buffets.  This place had all three!  Talk about excessive!  It had over 200 buffet items (we avoided the buffet until dessert)!  There was soup, Korean Chicken, General Tso’s Chicken, beef, beef with veggies, string beans, rice, lo mein noodles, shrimp, crab, crabcakes, lobster, salad, fruit, chicken nuggets, French fries, onion rings, and so much more!  We marched over to the grill and had stir fry made to order.  I stuck with chicken, and Ray had them make him fried rice with some beef.  I tried some veggie sushi (nah).  I was super stuffed.  But wait.  Dessert.  I tried two different cakes, cream puff of Ray’s, a cookie of Ray’s, an ice cream sandwich (half), some chocolate pudding and some of Ray’s peach frozen yogurt (had to be good somewhere)!  It’s a good thing this is the type of restaurant Ray and I never go to.  I don’t need to go back. 

 So today the clouds are weighing me down, the rain is weighing my flip flops and umbrella down and all the food weighed me down!  I told Ray the only things I hope to see excessively in Panama are arepa’s.  From what I learned through Clyde and Terry’s blog (Along the Gringo Trail), these are flat and round cornmeal or flour stuffed patties—I want mine stuffed with cheese.  Excessive amounts of cheese. (Ray just said he was starving.  Oh dear.).

FUNERAL HOME OWNER MAKES SIXTH NEW FRIEND

The names have been changed to protect the innocent in this post.  A man I will call “Joe” reached out to me through email after reading about my wanting to retire to Panama in one of the many forums Ray and I have been reading and posting on.  Joe had just made a trip to Panama in March and was hoping we could connect at some point by phone to compare our notes.  And he would fill me in on what he and his wife, “Mary”, did while in Panama for ten days.  He is a funeral home owner and was available to talk whenever I wanted to try calling. The three of us chatted like old friends a few nights ago. What an experience this whole “wanting to retire to Panama” dream has been!  Ray and I now have six new friends because of it.  For Joe and Mary, they vacationed in Panama, stopped in a realtor’s office just to see what was out there, and this summer he and Mary had bought a house!  It was a great buy for them and in the town they were hoping to retire to someday.  It was fantastic to hear that they could buy the house while in the States.  It is nice to know that real estate transactions can be completed through an attorney and realtor involving a Central America country such as Panama.  It is encouraging.

This is a very exciting time for Mary and Joe.  I have never met them, but I find that I share in their happiness.  While in Panama in October, Ray and I will also be touring homes with a realtor, but I do not want to be homeowner yet.  I own one and co-own another, and it goes against all that we say we will do and should do.  The realtor also recommends renting first before buying.  I do want to come away from my trip to Panama being able to give others insight as to what I have found whether having to do with the small towns, big cities, beach and mountain properties, restaurants, stores and malls.  There won't be enough time on this trip, so I will want to travel again to see things I will have missed this vacation.  Now my biggest dream is that in a few years I will be entertaining my six new friends in a wonderful home in Panama myself!

MENOPAUSE...(THE MUSICAL)

I enjoyed the play, Menopause The Musical, this past Sunday.  We had a group of ten women getting together for the play and dinner.  We split the group up into two cars.  My group of five were fortunate.  We left the Woodbridge, VA area to drive about 20 miles to Washington, DC on I-95.  We arrived within thirty minutes being very early.  Can never tell with that highway!  It is a mess.  Since we had some time, the five of us spent time either getting to know each other or catching up with the one's that we already knew at a Starbucks near the Warner Theater.  We waited for the rest of the group to catch up.  They were less fortunate.  They left about fifteen minutes and five miles behind us (driving up from the Dumfries, VA area) and because of the pouring rain that started, they encountered a bottleneck of traffic.  They still had time before the play started, but they were a bit more stressed. The play was wonderful.  Great music and just a lot of fun (there were few men in the theater, and the women were having a good time).  I realized, thankfully, that this menopause thing is not anything I am encountering and hope not to encounter for many more years! No peri-menopause over here either.  A few women in the group are right in the middle of it.  Blech.  I am still too cold all the time to know what a hot flash or night sweat is.  I am not too emotional. I am not unusually sad or irritable. I get mad, but my reasons are understandable and not out of control.

Yet I read my post from yesterday!  Wow.  I felt depressed after reading it!  I seemed irritable and sad.  Then I realized what my mood was, and it was due to three big letters--PMS!  That I do know all about.  Nastiness, grumpiness, fatigue, and  don't care-itis.  Gets to me every month.  And I will take that over the Big M word any day of the week right now! I can't wait to see how nothing gets to me when I am retired in Panama!  As long as I bring some patience.

I DON'T CARE-ITIS

I actually googled ”I don’t careitis” tonight.  And there are websites all over this!  But what most people apparently don’t care about is their health or to exercise and take care of themselves.  I care about my health.  I don’t exercise like I should, but I do try to eat right, drink lots of water, get plenty of rest, and not stress the small stuff too much—most of the week.  One website happens to be a blog about a girl that really doesn’t care about her life right now.  It was written in February; I should check up on her latest posts :/  Another one is about empty nest syndrome, and this woman sounds a bit depressed, too.

I am not depressed.  That would actually be quite amusing for me to suffer depression.  I love life.  I just haven’t been happy with how the world has been going lately.  Economy.  Politics.  Wars.  Employers taking advantage of employees.

I certainly don’t want to be at work (I simply don’t care).  I don’t want to read about all the teachers that have to go back to work this week.  Horrors.  I realize school starts in two weeks, because all of the parents just now want their children crammed into our schedule for those most important of all dental exams and cleanings they couldn’t find any time to do last week.  (I don’t care—I am mostly annoyed by them.  And remind me why I thought dental hygiene was so fantastic thirty years ago).  I used to be enthused about dental hygiene and taught it for twelve years to stay current and driven, and now I don’t care.  Nothing has changed.  It isn’t much better even now that the economy is getting a bit better.  My office isn’t any different except that we are in a sixteen operatory building instead of one with eight.  With more operatories, it involves more stress of keeping up, keeping the doctors on time, but not gaining anything from the new stress.   Lack of enthusiasm and low morale in the office—I used to care about that, too.  I thought I could help with the changes.  I thought I would be a part of the transition.  When we employees weren’t included, I decided not to care. 

What do I care about?  My family first.  Ray and Carly, my sister and her family and my extended family and friends--this matters to me most.  Their happiness and well being.  My health and well being.  Enjoying life with others.  Sharing in Carly’s future.  The unknown of her future.  Seeing her succeed in her first semester of graduate school this summer is a big care.

Then there is always the care about catching up on my reality tv or stalking facebook and browsing pinterest.  Most days I am really caring about getting out of the rut of dental hygiene.  Just get me through one more summer of all those patients that just have to get in before school starts.   Searching Panama realty, blog reading, forum posts and messages are activities keeping me motivated. Weekends with family and friends resting, relaxing, floating, eating and drinking more than just water (!)—doing these things causes me to care about getting through the mundane day to day stuff.  There is a goal.  Besides family, there is a passion.  Getting to Panama—I care.  

TRADING ROLLER COASTERS FOR ZIP LINES

In all the vast research that I did (Google), I discovered that there are 1305 currently operating amusement parks in the world with at least 1 roller coaster (this is 3 year old information).  In the United States, there are 267.  I have visited 9 of them.  And I have loved every minute riding every coaster.

But while waiting for some mechanical difficulties to be resolved on the brand new  "Verbolten" roller coaster at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg (or as the nice lady on the recording in her Oktoberfest accent said over and over, "we seem to have hit a speed bump in the road"), it was then that I thought about Panama most likely not having amusement parks. My daughter and I waited in line for what would turn out to be an hour (we were two rides away from being seated when it broke down, so we couldn't bail). I had a lot of spare time to think and also a lot of time to have small talk.

Verbolten at Busch Gardens (no, I am not pictured here)

Griffon at Busch Gardens (another favorite)
https://www.google.com/search?q=griffon

Once home I discovered that Central American countries Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Peru and Columbia all have amusement parks.  I started thinking of  why Panama does not have amusement parks.  Okay, maybe because it is very hot, humid, rainy (on and off for six plus months) and buggy.  I do know weather is an important factor because the creators of LegoLand shot my area down ten plus years ago--we get snow, it couldn't be a year round park, no one knows where Dumfries is which is ten miles north of my house, and many more excuses to move the idea elsewhere).  And there are spatial issues (Panama isn't very big and a lot of it is forest and mountainous).

So on the one hand, I start to think that and on the other hand I think "but look at the Panama Canal".  That is a tremendous feat and accomplishment.  Then I remember that the US built the canal.  Workers from the US, Panama, many from the West Indies (mostly Barbados), Europe and Asia to be more specific braved the heat, the rain and mud, the illnesses from mosquitoes and poor living conditions to build the canal.  But they are adding a third lane and undergoing a huge expansion.  The vast majority of the laborers are Panamanian this time.    And the Panamanian government passed a law in May, 2012 that foreigners from many specific countries will be able to apply for jobs now in Panama. They want to keep up with the growth of Panama's booming infrastructure by hiring qualified laborers and talent to help move things along and get projects done.

 I get a bit hopeful for amusement parks! There are now a bunch of people from all different countries including Panama that can build me a roller coaster! For now, the zip lines will have to do. That will have to be my source of amusement park entertainment.  Or quite possibly the best thrill ride for me is getting behind the wheel of a car and driving in Panama City---I think I will stick with zip lines!

STRESS.

July was a long month.  I am not even sure why.  I cannot even figure out what was so wrong about the month.  It just seemed off.  There was a holiday smack in the middle of the week, and no one could really enjoy it because of its placement, and it was just so hot.  Ray’s birthday came and went, and we are both a year older (but this happens every year).  But without putting a finger on the exact cause, July was stressful.

 In the New York Times Science/Environment section on July 19^th of this year (Ray’s birthday), it was reported that fifty-five percent of the Continental US is under moderate to extreme drought.  One third of the US counties have been declared federal disaster areas, however this past Friday, it was also reported by the NY Times that the farm bill and emergency aid bill were not advanced due to more bipartisan bickering (so now Congress will go on vacation for five weeks, and the farmers and their families stay in jeopardy).  Not getting into politics here, but things aren’t making any sense, and it must be due to the heat and lack of rain.

July was a stressful month for Ray.  Work was stressful.  Traffic has been more stressful.  Summer months show a significant increase in the number of cars on I-95.  Traffic has actually been a nightmare for Ray most nights.  My job saw changes in staffing in July.  The changes have added undue stress because matters are not really being taken care of; they are just being pushed around a bit.

At home, things were normal/calm in July.  Ray and I remain excited about our future endeavor.  Our daughter was doing great in graduate school, and she seemed settled in her apartment.  But this has been a major life change for us.  This is of course an underlying stress factor.  That life is changing a bit.  Thoughts are different.  We want things to happen now but not necessarily now.  We have expectations but while there is a lot of support, there is also a bit of negativity and pessimism. 

Stress can cause a number of things such as obesity (no), anxiety (not really), pain (none), depression (nope—just hot), tiredness (well, Ray wakes by three am five days a week!), skin conditions (I still get pimples!) and being internally hot!  Hot flashes!  So not only has it been a very hot summer, which makes it too hot to walk after work (always a good excuse for not exercising—but no release of stress there!), but the lake water is hot. Floating is hot, and treading water is still hot.  I think I am done with the summer.  Time for the fall.  Change in season.  Change in temperatures in our bodies and the air-- I can only hope.  Hopefully, with these stress factors removed (work, traffic, negativity, pessimism), Panama heat will be a breeze!