Childhood Memories

I've always been fascinated with one's first childhood memory.  My daughter says she doesn't remember anything before the age of 5.  Mostly her memories are unfortunately, of daycare centers and bratty kids.  She does have one special memory of our house in Carlsbad, CA.  She remembers her and I planting seeds in our garden, seedlings sprouting into graceful cosmos along the side of our house.  I remember that day as well.  Her in her tiny jeans, plastic pink garden clogs, and ball cap worn backward. She was 4.

For myself, my first childhood memories are of Japan.  Being adopted at the age of 3, seems like that was the magic age I started to store my memories.  Of running around the statue of the Giant Buddha at Kamakura, chasing my cousin Stevie.  Of being held in my father's arms afraid of the NOH Kabuki players in a street festival.  I remember their white painted faces and their vibrant costumes, swirls of red and white and black.  I remember visiting the Temple at Nikko, peering into the glass boxes that housed fat sumo wrestlers wrapped in snakes, frighten and awed at the same time.  I remember being passed from one person's lap to another at the base theater before the movie started, my mother keeping a careful eye on me.  I recall my mother's beloved Pomeranian she had to give away because it was jealous of me. That must have been hard for her, she loved animals so much.

On the voyage home to America, I threw up on the bunk after a particularly stormy night, it was my 5th birthday, I had pumpkin pie. I remembered the ship's dining hall tables had a raised rim around the edge so the cutlery wouldn't fall off.  It was on that ship I made friends with another girl who asked to borrow my paper dolls.  My precious paper dolls.  I took great care to make sure they were perfect and place just right in the holder.  My paper dolls came back crinkled and creased, heads bend, dresses wrinkled and torn.

Those are my first memories, rich in experience and texture.  They say that you have all your memories stored and that it is just a matter of recalling them.  I hope my daughter will be able to remember more of her childhood, at least more of her memories after we adopted her.  Hopefully hers will be rich with experience as mine were. 

Thinning Hair, Beauty Tricks

So my daughter tells me the other day while in the orthodontist office as we wait to see the dentist, braces being off for the last year, pearly whites smiling at me as she inspects the top of my head, "ewww, I can see your scalp!" 
What do you mean you can see my scalp?
I can see your scalp, it's gross!
Gross?
Yeah, I can't look at it.
What! am I bald or something?
No, I can just see it through your hair, it's thin!
Thin?
Yeah!

Holy Shit I think, this age thing sucks balls!
Not only do I worry about the skin sagging off my face down to my sagging throat, down to my saggy watery pancake of a butt, but now I have to worry about anyone over 5'4" looking down on my head and seeing my scalp, gross indeed!

Over the past few years I've given into some beauty "treatments", out of necessity.  Hell, I still have to look presentable.  I work after all.  Have to keep up appearances.  Not to mention, I'm a mother and want to look like a mother and not a grandmother for heaven's sake!  Some woman at the gym asked me where my granddaughter was?  Granddaughter?  You mean daughter, I ask with obvious contempt.  Needless to say, I no longer acknowledge her presence anymore. You are dead to me! (the woman at the gym).  I don't take these things lightly.

A few things have alleviated the pain of getting old, some of which I shall share with you here.  I'm all for full disclosure and anything I have tried and tested and found to work, more power to us!

BOTOX-while I don't like the idea of injecting botulism, heck if you get botulism from something you've eaten, you could actually get sick and die, but me,  I'm happy to inject it into my crow's feet.  It works beautifully but alas, it only last 6 months.  I should try to be more like Victoria Beckman and not smile or laugh.  And to think I used to think she was such a bitch when she was just probably trying not to create more crow's feet.

LATISSE-I have Asian eyes and therefore, Asian eyelashes or in other words, short, stubby, straight and sparse.  Latisse is the answer for all 4 of the S's above.  It creates beautiful curly lashes in 16 weeks.  Of course, it needs up keep and you have to keep applying, but a small price to pay for never having to use an eyelash curler again!

JUVEDERM-Hyaluronic acid injectable for frown lines of which mine were pronounce and deep.  I looked like a ventriloquist's  puppet.  I've had it done twice and each time, the amount of time lengthens in between injections.  I asked my dermo how long can it last and she said in one of her patients it lasted over five years. It's been over two years and counting for me!  Oh happy day, turning my frown upside down.

And now for my latest at home beauty treatment, drum roll please.....

DERMO ROLLING-What is it you ask. It's a roller that has between 240 to 560 needles anywhere from .25 cm to 2.0 cm.  Rolling it on your skin traumatizes the skin to create more collagen.
More collagen, where do I sign up?  I bought mine online for around $29.00 and I got the 560 needles 1.0 in length.  Of course, I carefully researched the Bible of instructions, YouTube.  Most of the reviews are favorable.  I was excited to try it.  Ok, one word, OUCH, YIKES, OOOOHHH, PAINFUL.  Ok, that's four words, is ooohhh a word?  Well, you get my drift, it's painful, it hurts, your face feels like it's on fire, and it turns red.   Does it work?  Well the jury is still out. I'll keep you posted.  Just remember those famed words, no pain, no gain, right?


As for my thinning hair, I'm on a quest to find the product that works at thickening it.  It's that or wear a hat for the rest of my life!








 

Belize Central America

Come vacation time, I’m always excited to plan a trip.  It's like throw a dart on a map and that is where we'll go!   This year we decide on Belize. Exotic enough and out of the mainstream Central America. Not quite the tourist destination like Cancun or Punta Cana or Costa Rica.  But promising enough to deliver on beaches and jungle adventures.  We flew from Las Vegas to Houston, Houston to Belize.  Not sure if I wanted to stay on the mainland of Belize (Belize City) or stay on the island. We opted for Ambergris Caye, the largest of its Caye's which turned out to be the best decision.  From what I could tell, Belize City was not all that impressive and the beaches didn’t look that great. And hey, if there is an island nearby why not opt for island life? Visions of Castaway.

 

We took a small plane from Belize International Airport.  It's amazing what they call International these days.  Set up a couple of counters and two customs officials and two island airlines and that's international.  The whole customs thing takes about 15 minutes to go through and once on the other side while waiting for your island hopper visit Ray's makeshift bar.  A table with a couple of bottles of beer and boxes of candy bars and one friendly mutt.  Oh yeah drinks, 4 dollars Belize. So if you are wondering how much time to give yourself when you land in Belize to catch your puddle jumper, I’d say about one hour tops.  We bought round trip tickets on Maya Airlines to Ambergris Caye, opting to fly rather than take a taxi from the airport to Belize City and then catch a hour and half ride to the island via water taxi.  Believe me you’ll have plenty of chances to ride the water taxis. 

 

On Ambergris Caye, the only place to stay on the island is RAMON VILLAGE RESORT!  It has the best beach, the best individual cabana rooms and the best location and they have their own small "blue" hole snorkeling right off their dock.  We walked numerous times up the beach into town and saw all the other resorts and none could hold a candle to RAMON’S.  While Ramon’s is definitely the place to stay, their excursions can be expensive.  Before going to Belize, I researched jungle adventures in Belize and decided that we wanted to do the zip lining and the cave tubing.  I managed to find a gem of a company that charged for the two adventures a paltry 75.00 per person (all other companies including Ramon’s were charging close to 200.00 pp).  You can make reservations online with Cavetubing online.com.  Catch their slogan, BUTTS UP!  They offer cave tubing, zip lining and ATV riding through the jungle.  I made the reservation online and got an email confirmation with directions on where to meet.  We took the water taxi to Belize City and was met by our guide who personally drove us to the jungle where we met up with another group.  First stop was to their pit stop, an open air bar like structure, where they gave us cold drinks.  Beware however, the toilets are primitive, hold your nose, and extremely dirty.  Guess they don't have janitors out here.  Best bet, hold the pee until you reach the cave tubing drop off.  There you will find modern amenities.  From there a guide leads you through the jungle all the while delivering funny antidotes on jungle facts.

 

Once at the cave tubing starting point, Jason said we should go in the water to cool off.  Believe me, it's quite a trek through the jungle which is hot and mosquito infested.  Make sure you spray plenty of 100% Deet and bring the bottle.  The mosquitoes are ferocious!  Cooling off in the pool of water was glorious and refreshing.  Here they tie all the tubes together while the three guides actually swim and steer the tubes in the water through the caves.  It was amazing and I was incredulous that they could actually do this job day in and day out.  It was hard work guiding the tubes all the while giving their tour lecture.  Next we walked to the zip lining site where the guides hooked us up to the zip lining gear.  One thing about the whole tour, they were very thorough and careful with the entire tour concentrating safety.  The zip lining consisted of 7 platforms that increased in height and duration.  All together I believe they said it was about 600 ft of zip line.  They are building 2 more platforms which will cross over the river where we cave tubed.  Having never done zip lining, one word AWESOME!! I would do it over and over again!  That was so much fun! Again, spray yourself down with insect repellent!Afterward the tour gave us a lunch of chicken and beans and rice and drove us back down to the dock to catch our water taxi back.  Total experience, amazing!

A word about the ATV's, we didn't do them, but it looked like you get really muddy, dirty, and sweaty.  Then again you have the river to cool off in.

Back on Ambergris, don't miss the Chicken drop on Thursdays, where the chicken or rooster may or may not shit on your winning number.  Jackpot $100.00. One dollar buy in.

One of my favorite places for breakfast, Caroline's.  Get the Mayan Breakfast, scrambled eggs with spicy sauce, beans and fry jacks, an island staple of fried dough.  Fried dough, I knew I liked this island. 

Next it was snorkeling at Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley.  About a mile off the island where the boats drop you off near the barrier reef.  While I wanted to see the barrier reef, I would have been happy just to stay at the boat drop off area.  It was shallow enough to feel safe and there were plenty of fish there.  Swimming to the barrier reef is definitely not for the faint of heart or weak swimmer, even if they give you life vest and take care to carefully guide you through the channel.  My 15 year old got a panic attack half way there as the ocean gets really deep as you watch the scuba divers below and one realizes holy shit, this is deep!  Next it was a short ride to shark ray alley, where the boat guides throw chum over the boat to attract manta rays and pilot sharks and turtles.  That location is shallow enough where you can swim comfortably and enjoy the wonders of the ocean.

While we stayed on Ambergris for 10 days, my recommendation is that 5 days is plenty.  Then one should stay on Caye Caulker, a smaller island about a half hour from Ambergris and more lay back or as we were told, this is what Ambergris was like before all the tourist.  On Caye Caulker you can get a villager to cook you lobster right on the beach for $10.00 Belize (5 US).  The island has an inlet where one can swim and see lots of fish, starfish and shells.  A great snorkeling area for the beginner.  About 3 days on the island is plenty.

What to take? Plenty of bathing suits, rubber flip flops, snorkels and snorkel vest (order those from Amazon for around 34.00 for two), umbrella and lots of Deet and sunscreen.  Remember it's tropical so you want to take stuff that will dry quickly as once it rains nothing dries.  Buying the island souvenirs, Guatemala textiles, homemade necklaces and bracelets, haggle, something I'm not good at.  Necklace 50.00?  Sure, NOT!  Make sure you buy tamales from the tamale man on the beach, so good for $2.00!  And drink plenty of Belikin beer!  Cheap!

Would I go back, probably not.  There are too many other islands, other beaches and other oceans to see.  Oh one more thing, don't expect beautiful sunsets, as most of the resorts face east on the island, much to my chagrin, I expect island sunsets, but it's all about which way you are facing, duh!