6!

I can't believe that it's the sixth day I've worked in row. It's not something I want to do every week, but I'm surviving this one and I'll eke through when I have to work every day from the 17th until the 27th with only 1 day off sort of in the middle. All I have to say is March better go back to me working 3 days a week or there'll be some strong words floating around here, I'll tell you.

February 5--Kadmat, India. It looked like everyone's vision of Paradise, a small thatched cottage nestled in a grove of palms at the edge of a shite sand beach a stone's throw from the blue Indian Ocean. Picture perfect, right? Far from it. When Elaine got the letter from the lawyers that she had inherited an island home from her long-estranged father she thought it was a joke or a scam. But she had done her research and finally after a visit from the junior Mr. Adams of Woodes, Adams & Blanchard, she had believed that it was true. According to Mr. Adams, Dad had lived on a small stipend left to him by a pair of maiden aunts, building a home on a tiny island off the coast on India, and when he died late last winter all of his estate had passed to her. Elaine's first instinct was to have the lawyer sell the property and be done with it but when she saw the photos she knew she'd have to go. It was the perfect time for a trip. She had accumulated nearly eight weeks' vacation and the company was pressing her to take it. the economy was down and business was slow so the timing was right. Jeremy, her boyfriend of the past fourteen years, ever since junior year in college, had left her for his yoga instructor who was almost ten years younger than Elaine. And her dog had died. She had come home two Fridays ago to find him stretched out in his little dog bed cold and stiff. That was the last straw. She had gone online and booked a flight to Goa, India, the coastal city closest to Kadmat, called Mr. Adams for copes of her ownership documents, stopped at the clinic for a tetanus shot and some anti-malaria and anti-diarrhea pills. Her wardrobe was more suited to a boardroom than a beach house so she bought some khaki cotton pants and shorts, a handful of cotton tees in neutrals, and some sturdy sandals all of which she packed into a carry-on with wheels and backpack straps that she bought at a dive shop.

Okay, I'm definitely keeping going on this one. I didn't even get to the part of the story that zipped through my head first when I saw the picture. Yup, this one's a keeper. Maybe I'll work on it next weekend when I go visit my friend, Roi, down in Madison. I. Can. Not. Wait. This has been a long hard winter so far, for me anyway, and we're supposed to get 4-6 inches of snow starting Monday night. For a minute there I was glad I don't live on the East Coast since they're getting slammed with a blizzard right now, but it seems we're getting our own mini-blizzard in a couple of days to compensate for getting missed this weekend. Yay.
--Barbara