Roaches ravage refrig

March 3, 2013

Happy Birthday Annamarie!

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The Blonde Bash (93 Germans, their spouses and me) was a big hit given it was the coolest place in town with the air-conditioning blasting to accompany the elevator music. Loaded with bowl-cut light-haired women in oversized floral print dresses wearing sensible shoes, gift bags in hand that surely masked the cotton, high buttoned nightgowns, hand embroidered dish towels, croqueted mute-colored slippers, bars of scented soaps and hand lotions, quaint toilet paper covers and other purposeful presents. The men varied from tall and slender with George Hamilton tans and professional attire to short and stocky, casually dressed in cotton t-shirts blaring beer insignias with cancer-stick voices who hovered around the bar. Smorgasbord presented far more vegetables than I imagined as well as tender cuts of beef, smoldering chicken pieces and creamed toppings of some sort. The cakes were extra yummy. Who doesn’t love a good piece of cake?

The 76 year-old birthday girl insisted no beer would be served at the tables yet the waiters eventually relinquished their rule and the lagers stacked up. Cameras flashed throughout the event while I caught rumors of car crashes, shotgun weddings, mastectomy surgery recovery stories, why Barbara looks as though her cat died with eyes all puffy and red, who was stabbing whom behind their back, what happened when Bob dropped out of college for the third time, Stacey is taking care of her granddaughter since her son is a deadbeat, when dad left mom with ten children under the age of 13…it was a novella-come-to-life! I was under the impression it would be a lost afternoon but little did I know just how exciting life is in this small town.

The hip women wore jean shorts rolled up at the bottom, loose flowing wild print tops, gobs of gold jewelry, larger-than-her-head hoop earrings and break-your-neck high heels. It was wonderful.

Two kisses (one on each cheek hello) and a big hug hello and “Nice to meet you.” Two identical kisses and a waft of beer with a hug goodbye and “It was a pleasure.”  

One week remaining in Florianopolis and I am already feeling wiped-out after a restless night of snapping towels at cockroaches invading the kitchen while I slept in the next room.