SXM: Sunrise, Sunset

One of my favorite things about the place we were staying was the beautiful sunsets. If you stood on a chair on the back porch you could watch the sun dip into the ocean. The last time I visited the island, which was about six years ago, you could actually sit on the porch and watch it. But in the last six years the palm trees which were then babies have grown so tall you can barely see over them. Great for a privacy fence, not so great for the view. But even if I had to stand on chairs to see it, what a beautiful sight to behold.

The top two were from the back porch and the bottom one was from the road beneath the Fort Hill overlooking the new Yacht Club in Marigot. We were only home to catch the sun at the right time a few nights, but with every one I saw it made me happy to be alive. There is so much beauty in this world. It makes me want to travel more, experience more, feel more. Sunsets inspire me to live my life enjoying all that the world has to offer. 

SXM: Location, Location

View from front porch.

This is the place we stayed.

In the years since my grandparents passed away our family has taken to staying in random locations on the island trying to find a new place to call home on their yearly trek. My parents travel to the island every xmas holiday mainly to take care of business concerns first and to relax second. The last few years they have taken to renting from a dear family friend who has a beautiful set of condos nestled in a crook between the peaks of St. Martin's "Mountains". The view is lovely as you look over both sides of the hill and can see a majority of the west side of the island.

If you look to the right of the place we were staying you can see a monstrosity that looks like the ruins of an old castle. Well it's not actually ruins. The rumor is the man who owns that property stole a bunch of money from a casino and is now building his own castle. So that is not an original part of the island, though people try to visit the "ruins" almost daily. I wonder what it will look like if he ever finishes it. And what makes you wake up some day and say "Today, I want to build a castle."

SXM: Remembering Loved Ones

A few minutes walk from the market is the cemetary where many of our family are buried. We decided to pay our respects to our beloved Mama and Papa Daniel, Miss Liso, and the lovely Ms Arlette. They are all sorely missed.

My Dad also pointed out that his grandfather Carl was also buried here. I got to learn something new about my family.

A lovely picture of Arlette and Hayes as kids. 

SXM: To Market, To Market

One of my favorite things to do on a Saturday or Wednesday is visiting the wharf market of Marigot. There is stand after stand of delicious looking fruits and veggies, spices, fresh fish and meats. My parents like to plan our meals in advance so that they can get as many of the ingredients from the market as possible. Going to the local supermarket on the island is always an adventure and one you like to avoid as often as you can. The water front has changed a lot over the years.

When they filmed Speed 2 they built out the water front by filling it in with cement and widening it. With the area widening the market has grown much bigger and the stalls are now a permanent installment.

Mom, Dad and Mr. Mine enjoying looking through the locals wares.

Jessism of the Week: Water Snob

I am a water snob. I admit it. Whenever I go swimming in a natural body of water I always compare it to the crystal blue waters of Sint Maarten's Mullet Bay. It's an unfair comparison I know. But I can't seem to help it. I love being able to see the bottom clearly at least 100 ft out!

SXM: Grey Day

Not to waste any of our precious cousin time we decided that our third day we would go to one of our favorite beaches. And even though the weather wasn't that great we were not to be deterred. The waves were big, but we laid out on our rented chairs and just relaxed enjoying the great company.

Not the best beach day!

 

YAY Cousin Time!!

SXM: The Impromptu Hike

The morning of our second day in St. Martin arrived and we had decided that we would take advantage of what little time we had with our cousins Ms ChanJoEast and Mr Tech. Our first thing on the agenda was to go on the infamous Zip-line on the island which was supposed to be a short drive from where we were staying. Mr Tech offered to drive so we all jumped into his i10 and headed over. Now it would really have helped if the Zip-lining place had an actual sign that said "Zip-lining". But for whatever reason they didn't and we ended up driving all the way to the top of Pointe Paradise. Our road dead ended at a large iron gate. People were swarming at the top trying to turn around, several people were on bikes and they were just locking up their bikes and walking down trail paths. The curiosity got the best of us and we ended up parking and going for an impromptu hike.

We found several ruins along the trail one was an old Sugar Plantation.

Another was an old well where people used to come and wash their clothes.

We met a couple around the watering hole and they told us that the zip-lines were down at the bottom of the trail. Realizing that it was probably best to go back to the car before we were too tired to walk we opted to hike back up and drive down. We eventually found the place we were supposed to be, but unfortunately since it was pouring I didn't get any pictures of us on the lines! It was more of a combo between doing a high ropes course with a few zip-lines inbetween. It was a lot tougher than any of the other lines we have done. My favorite part however was on one of our last lines. I was the first one to finish the line and as I was coming down I saw a whole troop of red tailed monkeys running by. To our knowledge monkeys are not actually native to the island and our guide said he'd never seen them there before. Curious, very curious.

St. Martin a Trip in Photos

I've been seriously stalling on writing posts in my blog because I was waiting to find the time to write about all the adventures from our Christmas vacation. But I realize that time is just not going to happen at this point I have forgotten most of the silly details. So I have decided to just do a trip in photos montage. With maybe some little story snippets here and there. Hopefully this will get my blog rolling again as I have so many things to tell you about!

A different kind of workout: Lesson #3

As my third violin lesson commenced I realized that no matter how well my home practices go it always feels like a performance when I play for my teacher. I get nervous and all concentration seems to go right out the window and suddenly I am flustered and frazzled and every note I play comes out wrong. And I am once again in fourth grade with my fingers all tied in a knot and knowing nothing. Christina had a lot of suggestions to give me on things to work on. So I left with a lot of homework assignments.

So as not to feel defeated I went home and practiced for an hour and wouldn't you know that the notes and positioning and the bowing all went much more smoothly once I was there. Safe and sound.

I'm hoping that this week I will get in more than one practice. Although Mr. Mine and I will be leaving with Ms Pasadena on holiday this coming Saturday so I'll have a 2 week break from practicing. I thought about taking the violin with me, but I would worry too much about something happening to it. 

Jessism of the Week: Movie Sap

I am a complete sap. I cry during movies sure, lots of people do. But I also cry during kids shows, cartoons, and animes. In fact, I cried through the last third of The Muppets, as well as several Sailor Moon movies. I cry at happy and sad movies.

I'm also one of those people that jumps during scary movies. I mean out of my seat knocking my knee on objects in front of me kind of jumpy. My best friend Mrs Sunshine loves to watch scary movies with me because she gets a kick out of it. I tend to scare people more than the movie does.

You remember that scene in Ace Ventura Pet Detective where the shark jumps out of the water? The one that was in all the trailers so you KNEW it was going to happen? I still jumped, in fact when I jumped I flung out both my arms which hit both people sitting next to me and nearly gave both of them a heart attack. Needless to say it took me a few years to live that one down. 

Eye of the Storm

There's something about a sultry voice a pair of sassy black mary janes and slip of a dress that just really gets the blood pumping. And lately it's also been all about the eye make-up. I very rarely wear make-up. I own a ton of it but use it so infrequently that whenever I break it out it's always cause for comment.

Who knew you could hide behind eyeliner and use it   as a shield of your innermost thoughts. Or maybe it's not that I am being hidden, it's that I am finally being let out. A quirk of a smile and hooded eyes lined black as coal.

If you've seen the movie Black Swan you might be able to imagine what I mean about eye make-up letting your inner demons and seductresses out.

IT'SUGAR! Kids in a Candy Store

Imagine two grown woman skipping around a candy store exclaiming excitedly about every five feet. This was the spectacle that you would have found had you followed Ms Countrygirl and I around Universal City Walk last night when we walked into IT'SUGAR! Holycow this store is filled to brimming with not just candy, oh no, this is candy on steroids.

I felt like we had been zapped with a shrinkray as we walked through the aisles. Thinking surely that is not really a 5 LB Gummy Bear sitting on the shelf in front of me or a packet of 2 foot long Twizzlers. Not to mention Jawbreakers the size of baseballs!

But OH yes, that is exactly what I was seeing. I picked up one of those Gummy Bears and had a rather comical moment as I almost dropped it. Who expects to pick up a piece of candy and have it weigh 5 LBS!!!! Boxes of Nerds the size of cereal boxes, Hershey Syrup jugs the size of laundry detergent. They even had kingsize boxes of Pop Rocks. Good thing Mrs Country and I had both left our wallets in the car or we might not have gotten out of there alive.

Energy Field

Dancing to Knock 123 was actually pretty fantastic. It's a song you can sink into and play with and it brings out all sorts of energy in the people around you. Energy that I am just learning to acknowledge and react to. A new part of my EC journey that is evolving and I am enjoying it thoroughly.

When you are dancing in a room with other people do you let yourself react to the energy that other people are putting off? Whether it's timid or aggressive, happy, sad, enthusiastic etc? Do you notice how that energy is making you feel? Do you shy away from it, embrace it, go after it? I think this is where we get the phrase "swept up in the moment".

Do you notice what kind of energy that you are putting out there? 

Haunted by Imelda May

I first heard this song two weeks ago when I was searching for new music for my dance class. Her voice and this song in particular has been haunting me. I love it, therefore it's constantly stuck in my head. The slow sultriness speaks to my curves. I'm hoping to break this out in class tonight, we'll see how it goes!

My Great Aunt's Violin

There just happens to be this lovely tan colored wall across the street from my music academy and since my lessons are only a half hour long I end around 4pm. Which is just about the time the sun starts going down here in LA at this time of year. So I took a few moments to breakout my violin and take some pics while I still had the warmth of the light. 

This is my violin, it was found a long time ago in my Great Aunt Dot's attic. It had some water damage at the time but we were able to have it repaired. I love this old violin it's a pleasure and a privilege to play it. At the time it was found I was using a rented violin which sounded, well, it sounded a little like I was trying to play inside the Tin Man. I'm hoping that once I get bold enough I will actually post a few videos of me playing. We shall see :)

You can see that my poor case has been used as a cats' scratching post. The little stinkers. 

Percussion Head: Lesson #2

I truly had forgotten just how much you have to keep track of while playing music, especially a stringed instrument. There are the normal things that I remembered, such as the placing of my fingers and how to use the bow(rusty but still working skills) and then there were the other things. Such as counting the timing in the song while reading each note and paying attention to whether there was an extra flat♭ or sharp♯ just waiting around to trip you up.




Today for my second lesson we moved on from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star into something slightly more complicated Bach's Minuet 1, and finally onto the classical piece that I had brought with me to work towards Bach's Concerto for Two Violins: 1st Movement.


Just to give you an idea of what madness I am working towards:

BACH'S MINUET 1

BACH'S CONCERTO FOR TWO VIOLIN

Attempting to do all of the above creates quite a lot of confusion in my brain these days. I marvel at how when I was in high school doing all of that seemed like a piece of cake. Now it just feels like someone is playing percussion with my brain. Due to all this pounding in my head today I sounded a bit like a stampeding elephant. Hopefully after another week of practicing I will be a bit more graceful with my playing. 

Jessism of the Week: Leftover Lover

Ok I will admit it, I LOVE leftovers. And I would say that 9.5 out of 10 times I eat them cold. No re-warming them for me. Nope. Although I have noticed that ratio has gotten a lot greater since we no longer have a microwave. Although if I am not being lazy, the convection oven works just as well. And hey, sometimes they're just a dish best served cold!

A Girl After My Own Heart

Dancing AND playing the violin?? Who knew such a talent existed. While I was searching for musical inspiration for my violin lessons I stumble across this crazy wonder. Meet Ms Lindsey Stirling, she's amazingly spirited and brimming with talent. Hope you enjoy her as much as I did.

Easy on the Senses

Even though I know that I will only get to enjoy them for a week or two I love cut flowers. I always feel guilty about buying them though because I know they are a frivolous expense. But they make the atmosphere in the apartment immediately more cheerful and so I indulge.

I also love flower arranging and get a kick out of playing around with new flora. These beauties are straight from the Santa Monica Farmers' Market. I adore the flowering cabbages.

The eucalyptus and pine branches make this one a delight for the olfactory senses as well. Looking forward to coming into our bedroom at the end of the night :)

Our Newest Addition

Since moving into our current apartment I have been very slowing building our nest into what I someday want our future house to be like. After much debate, some finessing, some (I'm ashamed to admit) pouting, and finally victory Mr. Mine and I purchased a new rug for our bedroom and have therefore solidified the colors of our bedroom for many(many, many, many) years to come.

Here is our new love child:

Because I am a bit of a nerd here is the approximate color scheme we chose: