"All the pieces matter." - Det. Lester Freamon, ...and all the pieces matter, Five Years of Music From The Wire
Prompt 28: Five Things
Take today to jot down five memories that you would like to never forget about 2011. Try to write about five things you haven't shared yet, but if you need to repeat, that's OK!
What will be known henceforth as Our Creature Story
The walk we took in Ubud (Bali, Indonesia) in which we found the source of the constant cock-a-doodle doing in our resort (caged roosters), saw cows and monkeys (one chained to a building and several roaming free), got harassed by wild dogs, and I stepped on a dead snake. Then, we arrived back at our villa where the Today gecko squatting in our room decided to be cheeky and poop right in front of me before exiting the room to copulate with another lizard.
The Pool at The Ahimsa, Jimbaran Bay, Bali, Indonesia
[Details redacted]
The Japanese Wedding Party, Jimbaran Bay, Bali Indonesia
In which we ate a wonderful meal of grilled fish, lobster, and shrimp whilst watching a Japanese Wedding party at the adjacent beach side restaurant to ours get increasingly drunk and boisterous resulting in one of their party—probably the groom—getting pantsed in the water...and left out there to the delight of their group and our amusement. It was a clear night, sure, but we had a perfect view of his full moon and stars.
A Cell Phone Swims With The Fishes, Cibubur, Jakarta, Indonesia
In which I am enjoying feeding the fish before our dinner and Tiffany comes to join me. And, just as she drops down to the sea side step, her phone plops into the water. 10 minutes later, it is being rescued by the wait staff and, after a week in some rice, it is mostly working again. She's still using it today. See Also: The Best Meal.
It's A Small World After All, Our entire honeymoon travels
It was both comforting and somewhat depressing to be inundated with so much America whilst being completely on the other side of the world. The depressing? How much America has infected cultures around the world. From Starbucks and McDonalds to cover bands doing American hits and American tv shows syndicated everywhere, if you chose, you could go through Indonesia getting just the barest hints of what the culture is really like there. As was the case, unfortunately, for much of our time in Indonesia, we ate too often at American chains hearing American music.
The comforting part? Connecting with people over the excitement of Barack Obama visiting the country and finding others seeking to connect with us around their relationship to the States. Whether it was the bar manager at the Intercontinental who had spent many years in the states (particularly Atlanta) or our new cousin-in-law who helped translate language and culture to us on the wedding day or even our waiter at the Hard Rock who had visited California before and tried to keep us sauced in stiff drinks to insure we had a "hot Saturday night", those moments of genuine affection and connection with home helped me feel less like a stranger in a strange land and more like a small piece of a much bigger picture.
And you know what the most important moments of the year were already, right?