Q: How did you get those calves????

A: This is the first question ANYONE should ask me when they see me. Not, "Wow what a great shade of not so pale!" Thanks to Puerto Rico, I have a little calf definition to my legs but this has come with a price--for the last two days I hesitate to start walking because it is like reving the motor on an old woman. You know she can walk, it just takes her a bit to get going. I've also had to brace a bit in order to sit down. Let's hope tomorrow is a different day. Downward facing dog has not helped.

Tonight is Christmas Eve and one might think that I'd miss the cold or a christmas tree, but as you can see, PR is just as adept at Christmas decorations as we are. It rained today, but Stacey and I got some beach time in this morning and we have rented a golf cart. Jim, Stacey and I drove around in the afternoon to do some exploring of the Gated Gated community. There are a lot of gates andsome houses that were not gated. My observation....if you've got money, you gate the driveway. You want peopel to see the house...just not get to close.

Tonight after dinner, Mom made some pina coladas (we are experimenting with recipes) and off we went to look at Christmas lights. It was still drizzling a little bit, but we headed out anyway. We were not on the cart path more than 10 minutes and the sky opened up and let out all the water. A guard let us rest under a shelter until the heavy rain passed. We continued on. Jim has better pictures, my camera battery was starting to die. The picture with the village is dedicated to Bruce Anderson, Planning Board Chairman of the Town of Huntersville who does something similar in his house. We found this Christmas treasure this afternoon when I saw all the lights on the house. The village "appeared" this evening.

Dear John

Dear John,

Get to the financial planner and tell him that you have changed your retirement goals and need a small apartment in Puerto Rico. Our home in Charlotte with the east and west wings may end up being a nice four-square in West End (club your car and make nice with the prostitutes--for now at least) I'm thinking somewhere near to San Juan so we can gawk at tourists like we did at C of C. Tell our unadopted children who I'm sure will be in therapy for the arrangement we will put them in that they are going to need to do well in life because they will be visitin' us in this wonderful US protectorate (so says the guidebooks). Brush up on your Spanish (maybe Santa will put some CD's in your stocking) because that is the only way we'll be able to say " Hey Boy" to those that qualify. To my unofficial neices and nephews...seriously, GaGa and Uncle John will have the most fun place to go for spring break.

Yours in common law,

Senorita (or Senora...I'm no spring chicken) Whitney Neal

El Yunque

So today we went to the only rain forest in the United States (but obviously not on the contiguous 48 and not in an actual state). The views were amazing and here are a few pictures. I love the way the palm tree curves. When we were at Mt. Britton, we watched clouds come in and out. We did not go all the way to the top of El Yunque (we needed more time and I personally need better thigh muscles before that kind of climb). Now, this excusion did not meet any of my goals for this trip of reading on the beach, drinking fruity cocktails or being lazy, BUT I am glad I didn't miss it.

Stacey tried empandas today and we had dinner at (shh...don't tell anyone) Chili's. To be quiet honest we were dressed in the clothes above and many things were closed...the options were slim, but the marguaritas were tasty and definitely worth it after a long day of hiking (seriously...it was only 3 miles, but labeled "challenging" climbs). Jim practically ran up the mountain and Mom kept us at a good pace. We met a girl in school at NC State...small world. She and her boyfriend had split up in order to look for their car. We drove her around until we found him. There have been over 200 people never found in El Yunque (granted that total is from the amount of time the National Forest has been in place), but we were not about to make her and her boyfriend a statistic.

My new spanish of the day is jueves and viernes. I'll be fluent at babbling like a baby by Christmas!

The Chaos on the Way to the Gated Gates

One can not imagine the hysteia of the Charlotte Airport unless you were there at 6:30 am on Sunday morning. The passengers that were there overnight waiting to get back onto new flights after the weather canceled their flights combined with new travelors such as ourselves made for a quamire of passengers - some angry, some pushy, some just trying to go with the flow. USAir did not do themselves any favors by not signing ANY of the lines. One employee tried to restore some type of order, but to limited avail to the travelors who needed to make changes and perhaps had been in the airport for 16 hours. I totally sympahized with their situation, but I was headed to the tropics and was not about to miss it. Which is why it is great to have an innocently-looking, pushing sister who "bullied" her way into a recently opened line. We made our flight thanks to her persistence, but did not have time for breakfast. I slept through "snacks" on the plane (I swear I'm going some where with this food thing).

Our rental car is a Kia Rio with manual windows and a USB port (this combination makes no sense to me). We are staying in a place called outside of Palmas del Mar Humacao on the east side of Puerto Rico. As best as I can determine, it is pronounced "oo-ma-cow" or "oo-ma-ki-o" (my Spanish needs work). This is a Gated Gated community - you go through one gate at the front and to another gate to each little community. This does not keep out the wild dogs. It takes a litle while and at least one attempt of Stacey speaking Spanish to get our condo's keys Which We get around 3pm. I have eaten two granola bars and half a coke by this time. I'm fading and fast fading. (This always reminds me of the time that Maggie and I were in Italy and did not speak for 6 hours because we went to find a building she wanted to see in our Italian guide book, written in French, Which turns out to be a hospital . We skipped lunch that day and walk for about 3 hours ... I went BA-LIS-TIC. I am surprised she ever spoke to me again). We find this restaurant in a cute place in the compound (not Jack I have not gotten pictures yet). Vanessa our waitress recommended against the quesadillas and to the nachos supreme. The recommendation was well worth it and color finally returned to my face. I had a huge carnitas burrito and was finally amoung the living again. Because of the lack of blood sugar for so long, I had to nap while the rest of the family went to the beach.

In the evening we went to Ralph's Food Warehouse! And they were not kidding about the food. I had a blast but most are aware of my obsession with food stores. Thus far, Puerto Rico is like extreme conservatives think what will happen to the U.S. if were an official Spanish language and thus far, I do not see what all the hype is about. I mean for the love of shoe sales, there is a Wal-Mart, Sally's Beauty Supply and Rave in the next town over!

Today was utter bliss! We spent the morning at the beach. Napped, Lunch, Read a whole book and Jim entertained as best we could without exerting ourselves. Mom loves the Boogie board and Stacey has painted two good watercolors.

More ahead and Love to all

La Carribe--a first

Tomorrow I leave for Puerto Rico. This will be my first time to the Carribean. The journey there has been full of some excitement. Mom, Stacey and Jim were snowed in and without power. Mom and Jim had to shovel Pappy's truck out of the driveway in order to meet Stacey in Asheville where we hope the truck will stay in the driveway. All this drama in the mountains and all the weather we had in Charlotte was freezing rain (of which I would say I am a little tired of the gloomy weather). I am hopeful that our plane will be on time and without weather incident. Pictures and stories to follow.

And then there was America's Got Talent

I have been looking for a book club book for the meeting I will be hosting at my house in October. Somewhat selfishly, I want a book that is about either modern day (ok....I'll extend the modern definition to the 50's if I must) Egypt or Lebanon. The ladies of book club have wanted to see pictures of my trip and I thought this would be a great way to incorporate it. Well, let's just say that this is easier said than done because a requirement is that it needs to be in the library and the book I think I really want to read (recommended by at least two FB friends) is not found in our underfunded library system (I say that completely based on the size of our city because the anyone who visited the Gray Branch Library in Washington Couty TN can appreciate anything that is not in trailer).

I am impressed by the things that you can find in your library. After years of academia and rows and rows of books that no one in their right mind would read for pleasure, finding the joys of the local library is like Christmas. Aside from the one obsure video store in town, it is the only place to find foreign films. Tonight was pork roast and foreign film night in the Hodges household. Needless to say, Liddy slept through much of the movie as she cannot read.

As it is Tuesday night and until the fall TV season starts, there is really nothing on. I could not take another week of "America's Got Talent". So I put in my new video find and watched Under The Bombs. (I found this in my search for book club books) It was in Arabic with english subtitles and it was about a mother who returns to Southern Lebanon during the war of 2006 when she cannot locate her sister and her son. According to the jacket, only two actors were hired and the other members played themselves and it was filmed on locatoin....this is the part that made it more real for me.

Now, maybe it was the translation, but I couldn't understand why she would leave her child with her sister while she was in Dubai (especially after finding out she had two miscarriages) or why her cab driver (the other main character) fell in love with her and I would even say I didn't understand the understory of his character at all. For instance, he has says he has children in the movie, but we have no idea where they are or what happened to them. Knowing a little more about him would have added a depth to the movie that it just didn't have.

Putting these film annoyances aside, the film (movies have George Clooney, Jennifer Anniston, the Wilson Brothers, etc in them or so the McDonald's commercial says) had an amazing point about how life is during a war and showed me a side to war that I did not understand when I was visiting Lebanon. I would say the point the filmmakers were trying to express is that innocent lives that were lost because of governments that had a postition to push rather than human lives to consider. The film makers didn't seem to promote one ideology of the conflict over another. And throughout the film you hear stories about loved ones lost; mothers having to leave some of their children behind and you get a sense of what looking for someone that is a refugee (in their own country mind you) feels like. As Americans, I feel confident saying....WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT FEELS LIKE. Perhaps Katrina victims, but that is as close of a connection I would draw.

When the movie shuts off (Wags gave me a universal remote to my DVD player that I am too stubborn to set) what is still on?...America's Got Talent and my heart saddens. Seriously, what are we really trying to escape/distract/zone out from? Are our workdays that stressful? Is the economy that depressing? Is the commute that deadly? Or do we really hate socializing that much? I had just watched two hours of what I would consider a difficult situation, but no one turned on "The Real Housewifes of...(fill in blank city)". I am saddened because the culture that I know, love and am a card carrying member of (thank you again Barbara T. Wilson for granting my freedom when it was stolen from me in the tube in London in the summer of '95) is oblivious to the world around them and I see no signs of change to this established behavioral pattern. In fact, I think we even invent more ways to isolate ourselves from one another. For all the great things that come out of social networking and Al Gore's Internet nothing replaces those human connections to each other and to the others of this little planet we all live on. But hey that's enough of a view from top this lemon tree. My culture may not understand real costs of war but at least we've got talent (ok except the comedians...they all seem to be from Canada--or as I like to call it USA North).

The Local View

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So, it has been a three months since I got back from Egypt and Lebanon and writing about those experiences was easy. My views recently have been more local and in the here in the sweet Carolinas and it is a little harder to make home as fresh and mysterious as my travels. But, let's face it, I'm southern; I'm from the mountains; and I had to take storytelling classes in the 4th and 5th grade. (You don't go getting a story telling center in your county without good reason)

It is summer and the humidity is high. I would argue that it makes the air sweet and maybe it is sweet because I have frozen peaches for later use and make blackberry jam for the first time. Those of you who have tried it...I need your honest opinion for next year. This summer I have called upon the spirits of my grandmothers (and one grandfather for that matter) may they all rest in peace and canned like the furry. Santa Claus (you have to believe or the presents stop comin') brought me a pressure cooker for quart jars for Christmas. Not that anything has come out the way I thought it should look, at least it was an attempt. In June, my house smelled just like Nanny's (Mom's side) and I think Granny Lou (Dad's side) would have thought the blackberry jam acceptable. Egypt took me away from strawberry season so next year it is on with the freezin' and the canning. I do enjoy smoothies with fruit I put up in the summer. I just need to find a bigger freezer.

I've enjoyed my summer (although to be quite honest I still have wanted one solid week at either the Outterbanks or Charleston barrier islands and I keep reminding myself that I will have worked only 11 months this year). This past weekend I found myself in Myrtle Beach with six of my closest friends, although there were several that joined us in spirit. Next year people. We go down nearly every year for a weekend of kid-like fun. One, we must visit Myrtle Waves and go down the "Tidy Bowl" at least three times. Two, we must divide up into teams chosen randomly by our driver's licenses and play putt-putt. The loosing team has to buy drinks before dinner. Three, a nice dinner with lots of alcohol must take place. I have successfully been on a loosing putt-putt team for the last four years. This year's score was a DRAMATIC improvement, but mine was the one cut from the overall total. The pictures below are some action shots from putt- putt. (Note: I am not allowed to publish pictures of any of the closest friends in bathing suits...that is rule 6 of the friendship and I "passed out" too quickly before taking our beauty pictures for drinks but that is a WHOLE different story)

I haven't been far from water all summer. The other two pictures are from tubing down the Green River in Saluda and white water rafting on the Pigeon. The lesson learned from tubing is that tying rafts together is fun, but I think bungee rope is a necessity. Not everyone on the trip would agree with being tied up together. When you don't go whitewater rafting with a guide, pick the guy who has only been once as your rudder. He'll guide and chances are he won't fall out and you'll get a great workout on your arms. We almost lost mom once.

The last picture is of Bryant, Nada, Nagi and I at the White House. Bryant and I went to visit some of his friends in DC and coordinated the trip around Nagi's visit. Seeing Nagi and his family was great, but short.

More adventures to come as summer does not officially end unti September 21st. Ooh and who knows where the fall will take me or what kind of hot mess I might get into. (ps I still don't get this whole picture thing yet while blogging)