A Sneak Peek of Where I Have Been Hiding

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few thousand words of my life the past week and half minus the amazing amount of laundry, planning, and farming out the aforementioned children because they were not invited. My dear husband only invited me.

Go ahead. Feel the awe. Be inspired. Be jealous. My own life was far more fun and different than its scheduled programming that I could not disengage. I barely read the latest People magazine but only because Elizabeth Smart married on Oahu.

My own life looked a lot like this only better:

Yes, it has been a rough week plus, having to live in paradise, have hours pass before I look at my husband and muse, "We have children, right?" because I forgot. No counting heads. No checking backpacks. No laundry. That felt so good I will say it again. No laundry. Swimming suits and snorkel gear, looking for sea turtles and listening to the humpback whale songs under the water. Luau with the most amazing fire dancer right on the beach.

Every day was a new adventure and I could not tear myself from NOW to even consider what I might have written on my endless lists I keep when I am at home. I had no lists. Our only set agendas included a Molikini and Turtle Town snorkel tour which set sail on a three hour tour. Not really. It was 5 hours. We also got a great, screaming deal on our snorkel gear for the week which included the snorkel tour in exchange for meeting with Neal for a mere two hour sales pitch for Wyndham time share - THE OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A PIECE OF MAUI REAL ESTATE! Wahoo. He was nice enough and not slick like Mark at Boss Frog's Snorkel Shop. He even apologized before he passed us on to the "Developer." In layman's terms, the Closer who couldn't give a straight answer to save his life but dropped the pitch when we said no thanks. Neal returned to give us one more apology and a woman came to check us out. Our second closer to entice us with another juicy morsel of Wyndham Time Share.

I know it's completely strange but the whole process fascinated me in a sociological manner. I know how much our current timeshare cost with a different company. I know what the maintenance costs are. I also know their overhead and mark-up was outrageous. Scott was getting antsy. I kept trying to disaggregate the incoming data and interpret the part each of the actors played. I finally gave into Scott's need to leave after I got the bottom line. Just so you know, it is well over three times what our Hawaii time share cost when my parents bought it. They sold it at a loss. Timeshares are losing ground. Maintenance fees were well over five times our current maintenance fees.

To me, it was worth it. Snorkel gear, tour to Molikini with two stops, Island breakfast and deli lunch on a crowded boat rated to hold 87 but Boss Frog's only crams 67 on the catamaran. Because there are not 87 places to sit, that's why.Tight quarters but we met some lovely ladies from Alaska who work for DCFS as social workers and one was introduced as a lawyer that represents children. This made me laugh and tell them it's okay to call her a Guardian Ad Lidem. Meet my husband, the social worker. We got to know each other very well, smashed together so tightly. But the snorkeling was truly fabulous.

I think I am in love with Maui my wonderful husband of 20 years. Great anniversary present.