Trash Talk

Oh, Man!

The last couple of days have been pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

Monday started out like any other day, and I was really just enjoying my morning with a slow wakeup and a nice sit outside watching people on their morning walks, or the cars that drove by on my street. I got a text from Nadine, the owner of the Airbnb I stayed at when I visited for 4 days, and she asked if I wanted to get outside and go for a walk. But it wasn’t just any walk, it was a walk where we pick up trash. We meet at noon downtown and she first had to drop off something with her ex-coworkers. After that, we saw each other, did our “air hugs” and laughed while she started gathering items out of her car. She had gloves and trashbags for us to start our community service! We decide to walk south, but we didn’t get to far because there was a wall, but by that wall was a pit where the water runoff would go to the ocean. We look down and it is just chock full of trash. What do I do? I take my little toosh and climb down to start tossing the trash up. Luckily, most of it was already in bags and all I had to do was throw it up. We found the trash cans they have around the town and dump them in there. So instead of going south we had just turned around and gone north. The area wasn’t too bad because Nadine had already gone through a few weeks prior so after a little while we decided to go ahead and turn back to go south. Along the way we talked about anything and everything. And don’t worry everyone, we had our social distancing down well. Most of the time we were on opposite sides of the street, but every now and then we would get a little closer than 6 feet, but it’s ok because we were never really looking at each other, just at the ground or off into the distance looking for trash. We ended the walk by walking back north along the beach and we found a major hotspot. This was obviously the place to be. There was even a little chair there! We gathered up as much as we could find and at some point (when the ants started attacking), we called it and threw the bags out. Funny thing is, we didn’t just have one bag each. Constantly along the way, we would empty out our trash bags so that we would have more space and time to keep picking up stuff. It was really a great thing: provided exercise and cleaned up the town. So, all in all we really had more like 3 bags each, and that felt good. It was an accomplishment.

We stopped at this little shop where Nadine knew the owner and we were able to fully wash our hands. We ended up sitting outside at the little table and talking, and at some point I was up and grooving to the music playing from inside. When Beyonce comes on, you gotta get up and move. We talked a little with the owner – she is from Dominica. DOMINICA people. NO, NOT DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. If you’re unsure about where Dominica is, please Google Maps it. It’s a completely different country. We actually laughed and talked about the fact that people get the two countries mixed up all the time. I plan to go back and eat from that establishment in the future.

Nadine still needed to get more steps in, so we decided to grab our drinks that we brought and walk down the boardwalk. We got to where there was this large pier that typically houses cruise ships, and we were going to walk along that, but due to COVID-19, they were actually closing off the pier. In the words of Nadine, “Thanks a lot, Corona virus.” Haha I really laughed at that. So, we just turned and kept walking down the road and eventually we just decided to go sit on the beach. We didn’t talk, I didn’t have my phone, and we just sat there looking out into the water and taking in the salty air and the overcast-not-too-hot day. It was peaceful and pleasant, and I appreciated her company and her need to not only get outside, but to help the community. It’s really inspiring.

We headed back and we decided to meet up tomorrow. Nadine was really kind and offered to let me do laundry at her place instead of trying to go to one of the laundromats in town. I gladly accepted her offer. It would allow us to catch up even more and plan other days to spend “socially distant” time together. I went home and instead of hanging out, I decided to finally mow my lawn.

It took me 2.5 hours.

I was drenched with sweat and I sat outside, bemused with the little cranes that appeared on the lawn as I was cutting it. They look like egrets. Everyone will tell you that they always come when you work on your lawn because they are there to get any and all bugs that happen to pop out. I liked them; they are really beautiful birds. I finish the night with taking a shower, relaxing inside, reading a little, and passing out. I was definitely getting some good sleep that night because I hit over 20,000 steps (yay me!).

The next day, I got up slow again (thanks to my reduced work schedule), but I decided to do some remote work, so at 0800 I got online to our Microsoft Teams platform to let my boss know I was working, and then I proceeded to finally finish reading the 43 page document that is known as my main grant project, and a secondary grant project that I will be helping with. I had an online meeting with COVID-19 updates with the teams from all islands at 1000 and then at noon, I got offline and headed over to Nadine’s house.

When I got there, the first thing she had me do was wash my hands. Let me tell you – if anyone is prepared for this virus, it’s Nadine and her husband Tim. I may have been in their home, but she consistently wipes down everything, has everyone wash their hands multiple times, and we all keep our distance. I was just extremely grateful for being able to do my laundry because after my first week on the island, my clothes were pretty ripe from the humidity and sweat. While I was waiting for my laundry, she showed me her cookbook, boiled me 18 eggs so I can make all the avocado toast I wanted, showed me the bread and the seasoning for the avo-toast that she had bought for me at Cost-u-less (bless her), and then she said it was time for a walk.

Y’all. All I had were flip-flops. I was not prepared for another trash walk.

Thankfully, she and I wear the same size shoes so I borrowed some of her sandals (better than flippy floppies), and with our gloves and trashbags, we headed down the road. We made it halfway down the road, and our bags were full. Let me just add that during this time, I had seen a young girls’ backpack and went over to investigate. During the investigation, I felt a pinch on my foot. I look down and some ants are on me. Ok, now it’s starting to hurt. Ouch! EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I’m now flinging my foot around trying to get the damn ants off me. I think I’m clear when I still feel like something is on me. I took off the sandal and sure enough there was one ant stuck between my big toe and my second toe. I kill that stupid ant and look at my foot. It’s red and it feels kind of hot but I think nothing of it. I get my full bag, and we leave both bags on the side of the road while we make our way to the pharmacy. We had learned that Tylenol was really the only thing helping bring down fevers and reduce symptoms in people with COVID-19, so we figured we should go get some just in case. We walk to the pharmacy, because – steps – and when we get there, it’s kind of like a drive through. You tell them what you want, they get it, you pay for it, and then you’re on your way. We see a service member in line and thank her for her service, and Nadine goes one step more and buys her a snicker bar (per her request after Nadine basically badgers her into letting her buy her something lol). After the service member left, this older lady comes up behind us. She is definitely not observing the 6 ft rule and Nadine says something about it but the older lady doesn’t really move. I can see Nadine getting visibly irritated. I motioned for her to move to the other side and I step further away from the older lady. Then basically we get our things and head back to the house. Once back, we go ahead and wash our hands, then Clorox wipe our credit cards, the Tylenol boxes, and our phones. Then we sit down and chat, Nadine makes some food, I eat a little, and I wait until my laundry is done. I do run to the store really quick for some more avocados, some pepperjack cheese, and cabbage. I wiped everything down with Clorox wipes before I put them in my bags in my car.

At some point, the guy who built my barrel compost bin responds to my message about the broken door and states that he would be coming by the house in 20 minutes. I basically have to skidaddle, so I grab my laundry, my “road drink” (it’s a thing here), my food stuffs, thank Nadine and Tim, and rush out the door. Y’all, I really need the door fixed to my compost bin. I rush home, throw everything where it’s supposed to be, and wait for Tim to get here. He arrives and goes to the bin, checks it out, attempts to fix it and then tells me that because of all the rain, the wood has warped and so he is actually going to have to come back another day with a saw to cut the wood so that it would actually close. I was sad about it, but I knew that it had to be done. He left, I went inside, I finally relax from the day. He messages me about an hour later and tells me that his neighbor’s compost barrel did the exact same thing. We can blame the rain for all the trouble.

I end my night on a good note talking to my boyfriend. I talk about the day and share the moments with him. This is what we do almost every night because we are long distance. One thing that really stuck out is that he said, “I really enjoy talking about our days together because it allows me to really reflect on what I did. It shows that I really did spend my time well and it allows me to appreciate the day more.” I loved that he said that because it is so true. Most of the time, I write my blog posts after I have talked to him because it allows me to revisit what has happened. I’m thankful for my eventful days, my productive days, my lazy days, and the time I get to talk to him about it. God really has given me a beautiful life and I wouldn’t be where I am today with Him looking out for me.

So, I’ll leave you with this. Reflect on your day with a loved one, or even with yourself in a blog, or a journal, or in some sort of way. Appreciate the good and recognize areas of growth in the bad. Sometimes we need a little reminder to stop for a moment and breathe.

Here’s your reminder.

Breathe.

-Curby