This unemployment thing is really hard

So unlike Tracy, I decided to go and get myself a real job, so my early retirement is soon to come to an end. But they've granted me 2 more weeks, so until June 2nd I continue to be a gypsy. Drink up!

Last week, on a slight scholarship from my sister (I bartered for partial sponsorship in exchange for some babysitting), I went to St Maarten in the Caribbean with her (Teresa), her husband Craig and their adorable 15-month baby Zoe.

So St Maarten, if you can imagine, is friggin GORGEOUS:





We spent most of our week being entertained by Zoe, whose favorite pasttimes were eating sand, discovering new noises she could make, and staying really, really, really pale:




I lucked out, and again got to compete in the Best Birthday Ever contest, and celebrated my 27th on May 7th. The night before, Craig took over babysitting to let Teresa and I out on a sunset Booze Cruise (which didn't provide near the alcohol of the Booze Cruise Tracy and I took in Thailand, so Teresa and I went straight from the boat to the bar on the water to find ourselves some fruity frozen beverages):



The day of my birthday, we chose to relax on the beach enjoying our new best friend, Cruzan Black Cherry rum (if anyone can find where this exists in Richmond, please tell me...it honestly mixes well with everything), eating a seafood feast (Tracy, I know how jealous that makes you- I had seafood stuffed with seafood, Craig had seafood with a side of seafood, and Teresa had a seafood sandwich...yummy), drinking more black cherry rum, eating pancakes and ribs for dinner, playing cards and, inevitably, this results in making tiger faces for the camera:




One of our favorite activities in St. Maarten, however, is not something you typically do for fun, especially not with a whole crowd of people. We watched planes land. Now, these pictures will almost seem doctored, because it seems SO unsafe, but somehow it fits within the legal guidelines of a landing strip. And while putting a public beach at the end of this strip that is barely long enough to land a plane may be "legal", I'm not quite sure it was the wisest choice. Makes for some interesting photos, though.

(sign reads: "Danger: Jet blast of departing and arriving aircraft can cause severe physical harm resulting in extreme bodily harm and/or death" with a lovely graphic of a man falling backwards behind a plane- again, who put the public beach at the end of the runway, with restaurants on either side of the flight path?)



And if you still think they're doctored, check out the video I caught:


And just in case standing next to a flight path to watch a plane land wasn't stupid enough, Craig and I decided to get right underneath one landing, I guess, for one of those "just to say I did it" moments? Whatever, seemed like a good idea at the time, even if it means I destroyed yet another camera (oops, sorry Craig!):


So that's what the underbelly of a plane looks like- I know you were wondering.

-Posted by Katie