A couple months of planning, but we finally made it happen. We headed out towards Tampa on Friday (Alayna's first weekend away); and settled in for a crazy weekend with Brett, Bonnie, Lauren and Susannah. We hadn't seen any of them since our wedding, with the exception of a couple hours with Lauren about a year ago. It was like a breath of fresh air.
The weekend suited us all just right. Elaborate details for simple plans. Our first day we planned to sit on the beach and just enjoy the sun and one anothers company. Well, after a little drive and parking to check out a 'private island,' we waited about an hour in line to buy tickets for a ferry. 
Once we got to the "secluded" area and tried setting up camp, the wind was so crazy that both of the packed umbrellas kept blowing over and we were once again forced to choke up some dough to rent an umbrella that was already well set up. It was a nice time after that, but it did take a few hours until we all felt the relaxation the beach was supposed to provide. (Mind you, Cannonball was fine the entire time with sand entering every crack possible) The night ended with grilling and eating dinner around 10.- kristina
one thing that never fails in a peace corps reunion of any size is the inability for all rpcvs present to complicate rather simple matters beyond all rational thought. this may be due to our old habits of facilitating and administering highly complex orginizational settings in a foriegn land, bridging cross-cultural barriers and trying not to get ourselves killed, but, without fail, we cannot make simple plans when hanging out with one another anymore.
everybody wants to run the show.
don't get me wrong here , either - i expected this kind of mess well before i even reunited with these rascals, and i think nothing less of them because of it. i truly believe that this sort of dilemma is bound to happen when you force a bunch of 'leaders' to hang out with one another. i guess that's what drew us all into the peace corps into the first place...you don't see many 'sheeple' signing up for foriegn diplomacy work.
anyway, going back to our tale, the second day saw a bunch of near-thirty'ers hung over from the previous night's white russians and martinis, but nevertheless resilient in their epic quest for beachery and jet skiing. i, myself, had no desire to jet ski, but was down for the beach... so, once again, our group set off for the coast where brett, susannah, lauren, and joe went jet skiing, while bonnie, kristina and i had what i'm considering to be the worst lunch i've ever had (in terms of service). i won't bore any of you with the details, but the food was disgusting and i got pooped on. literally.
waiting around for the others to return was boring, but having a few drinks along the pier boardwalk wasn't. i didn't mind that too much at all. alas, as evening was sitting in, people's minds and stomachs were ready for sushi and so the whole caravan of extravagant planners high-tailed it back to headquarters, where susannah's expert sushi-making prowess was put to the test. she didn't disappoint.the next morning, we all slept in and, consequently, missed church on Easter sunday. the cannonball did get to watch her parents decorate eggs and make a mess in someone else's kitchen, which was fun enough i suppose. following that thrown-together easter mess (we had forgotten her basket and everything else associated with the holiday at our place back in orlando before we had set off for tampa), we said our farewells and departed back towards central florida and normalcy.
if there is a moral to this tale, kids, it is probably this: keep it simple....that, or else don't trust susannah on a jet ski.
not gonja and damn proud of it,
- chief maliguna
sankpala, northern region
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