Bugs, sunburns and one chill island

It's been almost two weeks now and I am in love with this place. The people who have lived here for many years are so lucky. Even when things aren't going as planned, when I look out onto the waves of the sea, I remember to make every moment count and everything is well again. So overall, this is one pretty chill island. It's almost therapeutic, especially for people who are very type A and are always on the go and putting out fires. St. Croix slows you down, especially in the supermarkets where the lines can last far longer than seems necessary. But unlike a big city where an impatient customer will make a scene and ask for a manager, here everyone is very calm and even tempered because St. Croix moves slower than a big city and most people here appreciate that. And when the alternative is to move back to the expedient lifestyle that many people who live here have chosen to leave, waiting a few extra minutes isn't really a big deal.

I went to a going away party yesterday for two individuals who have worked in St. Croix for a while and have made a very large impact on this island and are now leaving to pursue other career aspirations in the states. The party itself was at a resort with the most beautiful sea and palm tree backdrop, it was exactly what you see on postcards but here it is the backdrop of every place you go. I have never seen these two individuals before but today I saw them twice in different places on the island and that is exactly what this place is about. Yesterday, the atmosphere was very relaxed and extremely friendly. The residents of St. Croix spoke out with heartfelt emotion for these people who made a difference in their lives and it really does say something about not only the island itself but also about the people who live here. 

Now, there are a lot of bugs on this island. I was actually a little concerned because when I came here back in March for a pre-move visit as they call it, I stayed in a first floor apartment and I had some unplanned meetings with a few small lively small moving critters. When I saw a spider in the shower, I remember thinking that if I wanted to live on an island, I would just have to deal with it so I picked up some toilet paper and took care of the situation. However, this time around I live very high up on a hill on a high floor of a condo building and there are virtually no bugs that are able to climb this high apparently. My apartment has screens covering all the windows including a magnetic screen at the entrance. I have heard people who have salamanders end up in their bathtub but I haven't seen as much as a fly (although now that I wrote that, I am sure there will be a giant lizard in the bathtub to greet me tomorrow morning, but that's all a part of this adventure :)). There, are, however, lots of mosquitoes at night and some during the day. I have a ritual now of putting on sun screen and mosquito repellant every morning and when going out at night. I think if someone invents a sunscreen with mosquito repellent in it, that would be genius.

Speaking of sunscreen, the sun is really strong here and you can now see it in my face as I forgot to put sunscreen on my face when going to the beach this last Sunday. The sun is not as much of an issue on a daily basis but it's ruthless at the beach. But apparently aloe works miracles because my face has stayed intact for the most part with minimal peeling. I will wear lots of sunscreen from now on. Surprisingly, while it does get very hot here, most people don't use air conditioning very much. I turn it on for an hour or so each day at night, but otherwise, I think my body has become used to the heat and now I actually sleep with a comforter and I do get chilly sometimes with the ceiling fan. The only time it gets very hot is when I am trying to clean or do something and then my Chicago roots hit me and I become a mess and the air conditioning goes full blast, but otherwise, it's not really highly utilized.

I love breathing the air here. I rarely had my windows open back in Chicago because it was either too cold or too hot. Here, the windows don't actually close. Most people have paneled windows of thing rectangular glass panels that are able to be repositioned if it rains. So even when the air conditioning is on, the windows are never fully closed. The fresh air is amazing and refreshing. It also makes me less hungry for some reason even though I am walking around a lot more and climbing a lot more stairs than I am used to.

Overall, the last two weeks have been great and I am hoping it continues. I am now looking for a job even though I would love to have some more time off before I actually get one. It's hard to think about but I need a job if I want to stay here and make this my forever home but I also want to enjoy my extended vacation in what really does seem like the land of perfect.

Week 1... in St. Croix!

It has almost been a week and I am finally somewhat settled in St. Croix. I found all the stores and have gone to all of them multiple times.  I am slowly figuring out how to get around and trying to remember to wear sunscreen every day. Today was the first time I went to the beach since I arrived and I did burn so I need to do a better job with the sunscreen but hopefully the burn will turn into a tan.

On a good note, I did buy locally farmed produce at one of the Saturday morning farmer markets and I did find a car so I have fulfilled most of my week one goals here. The view from my window is amazing and any time something doesn't go as planned, the view makes up for it.

People here in St. Croix are very nice and personable. They will look you in the eye and they will have full conversations with you on the street. It is very much a small town feeling but at the same time there is a lot of area here to wonder and discover. Everything is a little slower here and things do take longer to do because you have to go to many different locations to get everything you need at a given time, but for now it's a good trade off to some of the nuisances of a big city such as a traffic and congestion.  A traffic jam here is when there are 20 cars waiting at one of the four traffic lights on the island.

So far this is exactly as I imagined it and I am meeting some really great people on this little island that many people don't even know exists.

Day 1 in .... Puerto Rico!

So I did land on an island today, just not the one that I was actually aiming for.  I am now in San Juan, Puerto Rico at the hotel airport waiting for a flight to St. Croix tomorrow morning. I missed my flight due to a really tight connection time so I was half expecting it, I just wasn't expecting the substitute flight to be the next morning.

It kind of feels like Amazing Race but much more relaxed, complete with luggage porters and meal vouchers.  If this had happened a year ago in my life, it would be extremely inconvenient because it would either cut short a vacation or delay my ability to work and I would be extremely stressed out at this point. But today I had the opportunity to just walk around the airport and discover what it feels like to relax. And I realized that really relaxing and not having a plan is an extremely amazing feeling. It also made me feel like I was in that movie where the guy can't leave the airport for a year, it's kind of funny to walk around all relaxed and vacation-like while everyone else is running to their flight. It also helps that at this airport, most of the food places are outside the terminals.

I think working is very important and people who find jobs they love are very lucky. I actually saw something today that said that a person who puts in a lot of hours doing something they don't particularly love creates stress, and doing something you love creates a passion. But relaxing and taking in the moment of the day is important as well, and I hope that when I do find my next employment calling in life, that it is something that is a passion.

One more day to go...

The day is almost here, I'll be leaving for St. Croix in less than 48 hours. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm nervous and honestly, I'm not, I'm ready to go although I will really miss everyone. I have been planning this little adventure for five months now and I can't wait to get there. Yesterday was my official last day of work and I am relieved. This is the first time in a very long time that I don't have to check email or worry about things months down the road. When I was really young, we didn't have computers or smartphones or even regular cell phones and I am ready to relive some of those times.

My goal right now is to have short-term goals. I have lived my whole life with long-term goals at work and personally, and I have achieved a lot of those goals, but now it's time to focus on short-term goals. Here are some that I would like to achieve soon:

1. See the stars
2. Spend a whole day not looking at my phone screen
3. Eat local organically grown fruit and veggies

My more practical short-term goals are:

1. Make my 25 minute connection in San Juan
2. Be able to lift my carry on bag into the overhead compartment
3. Find a car to buy before I have to give back my rental

Perhaps one of these goals should be to stop planning so much and to let life happen and to experience it while it does. I will work on this as well.

My next blog entry will be from St. Croix and until then, Go Hawks!!!

Why St. Croix?

A lot of people have asked me "Why St. Croix?" The easy answer is "Why not?" But in reality, I really needed a change. I went to college and straight to law school and straight to work. For the last 8 years, I have been sitting behind a desk, living in both the city and the suburbs, but without much of a change other than a few trips out of the country here and there. When this year started, I really felt a pull to do something different and something really pulled me to the US Virgin Islands. I didn't even know this island exited until a few months ago and now I can't think of at least trying to live there.

When I visited St. Croix a few weeks ago, I noticed that the people there are somewhat different in how they look at life. Life is slower in St. Croix and the values are different. There are only about 50,000 people so when you meet someone, you are likely to see them again soon so most everyone is very cordial and friendly. I was invited to dinner several times by people who didn't know me at all.  There isn't a huge rush to do anything but everything does get done.

Most of all, people don't seem to value material possessions very much. In Chicago, where the temperature dictates much of what we can and cannot do, we need a lot of material possessions to either help us survive through the tundra temperatures or to keep us entertained. Many people use shopping therapy. I am convinced that in St. Croix, people go shopping because they actually need something and not for fun. It's a simpler way of life but at the same time, I am sure it has its own challenges from bugs to hurricanes to tsunamis. I am looking forward to something a little slower where I am not tied down to email and the phone 24/7, which unfortunately is where the legal profession has gone due to our ability to always be connected.

And as far as weather,  in Chicago, half the year the temperature reflects a frozen tundra and the other half is similar to a death heat. When it's not one of these two, it's most likely raining and the other 10 days are beautiful. In St. Croix, I imagine it gets hot in the summer but the rest of the year is suppose to be beautiful and comfortable. If I can get through the hot season and hurricane season, I think it'll be okay.

I haven't really lived anywhere but in the Chicago and Western Indiana area for most of my life so this will probably be challenging and fun at the same time,but most of all, I hope that I learn something and maybe I'll get to make a difference for someone else as well.

Packing uggghhhhhh

Packing is bad enough when you're trying to figure out what of the 31 years of stuff accumulation goes into three checked bags and a carry on, but it's even worse when you're trying to declutter at the same time. A few weeks ago, before I officially decided to move to St Croix, I began to declutter my apartment. This is when I realized that I am a slight hoarder in denial. I had empty fruit jars that I had collected for a mysterious arts and crafts project because obviously there would be an empty fruit jar shortage in the future. I didn't have just a few of these, I had about 15. I also had empty boxes, lots of empty boxes and boxes from things that I had purchased years ago because I needed the box just in case I had to return the item a few years later??? And the skirt that can only be described as a prairie skirt that maybe would be appropriate for a fifth grader but probably not for a 20 something year old which is when I believe it was purchased. Even Laura from Little House on the Prairie would shrug at that one. So many questionable items...

The great thing about decluttering is that once you start throwing away and donating a few things, it gets easier. Then you start throwing away things you actually need and you don't really think about it until the trash has been picked up and you can never find that item again! But for the most part, decluttering is great and makes you feel like a lot of weight is lifted. The hard part is when you're moving far away, you can't bring everything with you and figuring out what to take and what to leave and what to donate is extremely difficult. I would rather donate and get rid of everything that I don't take because leaving it means that I want to keep it and have it with me, but if I can't take it with me, I will always think about it and that's not what I want. So right now the idea is to leave behind only the things that make practical sense to leave such as high school yearbooks and winter clothing. The challenge is to donate everything else. However, no matter how many droves of bags I take out of this one bedroom apartment that I have called home for almost three years now and the countless apartments before it for the last 13 years, there is still more stuff on the shelves and in the closets.

I want a simpler life, I don't want to spend hours and hours going through extra shoelaces and lanyards and other things that for the most part don't have a lot of meaning. I want to experience memories, not remember the countless hours that I am spending going through and organizing my sushi eraser collection (I actually have one...and if you want it, please let me know!). When I go to stores now, I only buy food because I know if I buy any more stuff, one day I will have to spend more time trying to get rid of it. I am sure I will forget and start accumulating more stuff soon, but for right now, I am still trying to figure out how to not have just my shoes fill up a whole checked bag, leaving no room for the important stuff that I will actually need for where I'm going, like my snorkel and fins :)

Moving to St. Croix, USVI

I started this blog back in 2009 when I moved from downtown Chicago to the suburbs. It was suppose to be a new beginning with a new job in a law firm and it was. I only wrote one post back then but now I am moving again, this time to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. It's a much bigger change and hopefully followed by a career change. So follow me on my journey from retiring from the law and becoming a St. Croix beach bum on the shores of paradise.

The official move date is June 1, 2015, and there are a million things to get done before then so stay tuned!