I am overwhelmed at the sheer number of people who have remembered my birthday and written to me. It makes me very sorry that I forgot all of your birthdays. I suppose Facebook helps and many of the messages came through my Wall or private messages.

Anyway, thanks. I am 35 now, and living like an irresponsible 19 year old. I am loving every minute of it and wonder who I’ll ever get back to real work again.

Right now I am sitting in the backyard of a nearby hotel/resort, Costa Paraiso, mooching their internet connect. There are tropical birds chirping in the background and giant waves of Playa Dominicalito crashing against the rocks below. There are giant ants crawling up my legs deftly avoiding the little hills of mosquito bites on their way up my shorts, presumably because I recently switched to an all-natural coconut soap and they think I am a fucking palm tree.

I swear to god I just heard a little kid, maybe 2 years old, who is here with his family, fall on the sidewalk and cry out, “Oouuch, my BONES!”

My 150cc Chinese knock-off scooter (the Formula 150) finally arrived, so now I am tooling around town in a sweet, sweet, purple, gay machine with soft street-only suspension and vibrating both the cheap plastic sidepanels and my balls into complete disarray. I haven’t crashed the scooter yet, but somebody did knock it over in the parking lot of the local grocery store.

I rented a Suzuki Grand Vitara to drive drive to San Jose and pick up both my sisters at the airport tomorrow. They are visiting for a few days, in time for my birthday, a local national surf competition, Club Night at Roca Verde, and amazing weather. We are having some rain lately, but nothing to really ruin a day. Mostly just dead-red and hot, hot, hot.

Spanish classes took a backseat to some other activities including recent snorkeling, surf lessons, and SCUBA certification. I start SCUBA classes yesterday and spent literally 3 1/2 hours in a 5 foot deep pool learning all the ins-and outs of the gear. All of my main fears about SCUBA have been sorted out, including how to clear the regulator (and my mouth) of water if some were to seep in underwater, and how to clear water out of the mask. Both things had me relatively terrified beforehand. Next week will be my first open water dive and a few days later, full open water PADI certification. I am psyched.

Other than that, a whole lot of nothing is going on. 35 is not so bad. Right now I am headed to town for some food. I’ll write again soon.