Wednesday arrived and the universe decided both Samantha and I needed a lesson in patience. My computer lost its internet connection for three minutes at a stretch, every five minutes or so, which is exactly as maddening as it sounds. Meanwhile Samantha’s plane had a door that would not close, and a mechanic had to be called before she was cleared for takeoff. Dave, feeling a bit under the weather himself, only worked a half day before coming home, and lucky for me, because every time he heard me cursing at my laptop, he wandered over to check the network. Turns out my new laptop had an overly aggressive setting hunting for the best available signal, which sent it flip flopping between the two access points in the house like it couldn’t commit to a decision. Dave assigned it to a specific location and just like that, problem solved. Sometimes the fix really is that simple, you just need someone patient enough to find it.
After work I happily made my way to girls night, starting with a drink at The Hideaway before moving on to Colibri. When we tried to relocate to Swinging Doors for one last cocktail, we found it closed, so I brought everyone up to my house to wrap the evening properly. Norbert popped in on his way home and we all had a nice time of it.
Thursday was a much smoother day, though my plan to pack after work got derailed almost immediately by a text from Anne suggesting a meetup at Colibri. I figured an hour here or there wouldn’t change much, so I went, then headed home, stopping at the Hideaway for a quick chat with Anise along the way. I didn’t even make it there without incident. Jill fell into step with me on the walk over, and once I arrived I ran into Darren and Norbert, so there was chatting to be done before I even got to Anise. By the time I actually made it home to pack, one of Dave’s colleagues had just landed on the island and gotten invited up to the house, so packing got bumped once again, this time to the morning.
Friday made up for the previous day’s leisurely pace by being genuinely hectic. I packed in the morning, skipped lunch, and left early to make my flight to Sint Maarten for the purchase of a Starlink kit. I did manage to squeeze in a round of invitations to the group for a Saturday get together at Colibri, six o’clock, to send off Norbert properly before his departure. The flight to Sint Maarten went off without a hitch, and I took a taxi to my friend Jay’s house, where I’d be staying the night. Jay and I went out for dinner, but by nine I was fading fast and called it a night.
The next morning we set out around 10:30 with one mission: find the best possible deal on Starlink. Cost U Less delivered, with a sale on the kit good enough that I bought it on the spot. The bracket was a slightly bigger production, but Dave had pointed me toward a specific place, and I tracked one down there too.
With time still on the clock before my flight, Jay and I wandered over to Front Street for some browsing. Jay knows absolutely everyone on that stretch, and everyone knows Jay, which meant I walked away with spectacular deals on necklaces from two different shops and two genuinely unique pieces to show for it. From there it was a taxi to the airport, and once I checked in I tried to log onto the wifi to check messages, since I still exist entirely in airplane mode with wifi calling these days. No such luck. SXM’s wifi was down, which meant I was completely off grid from about 10:30 that morning.
Takeoff was delayed slightly by, of all things, a door that wouldn’t close. Sound familiar? When I landed back in Sint Maarten and stepped off the plane, my phone erupted with notifications like it had been holding its breath the whole flight.
Turns out my little get together had gone sideways in my absence. Colibri had closed, and everyone was scattered across the island trying to figure out where to regroup. Once I got home, I headed straight to The Hideaway to rally the troops, and from there we decided on Zanzibar. What started as a simple send off for a friend turned into one of those evenings, laughter, hijinks, a little mayhem, and a soundtrack that kept everyone moving. I must have been giving off some kind of energy that night, because I got not so subtly hit on by a man considerably younger than me. All told, it ranks among my favorite nights since arriving on Saba, and I’ve had a fair number of good ones since making the move to the Caribbean.
The next day, however, I paid for it. Between the late night and the sheer volume of alcohol involved, I was dragging hard. I can generally hold my liquor just fine, but my concoction of choice that evening, kahlua, vodka, and Ponche Cuba cream liquor, may have gotten the better of me, especially with one or two extra rounds that weren’t strictly necessary. I don’t usually get hangovers, but I was super tired and the exhaustion was written all over me.
So on Sunday morning, still not quite functional, I got a text from Anise following up on a lunch invite. She wanted company after learning of the sudden passing of a woman she used to work with on Saba, so I pulled myself together and met her about thirty minutes later at Saba Snack. Right next door at Zanzibar, a sizable crowd had gathered to watch the World Cup match between Curacao and Germany, it being Curacao’s first year in the competition. When Curacao scored, the whole place erupted.
After lunch I headed back up the hill, and before long I could hear the cheering and celebration drifting up from the watch parties scattered through the center of Windwardside. Normally I would have been right in the thick of it, but after burning the candle at both ends for the better part of a month, all I wanted was a quiet afternoon. I didn’t even join Dave when he went down to track down a colleague. It wasn’t the most fun choice in the moment, skipping the festivities entirely, but it paid off with a considerably more functional version of me come Monday morning.
Monday turned out better than any workday from the week before. There was still lag, but no crashes this time, and the lag itself was manageable rather than infuriating. RingCentral threw a few unexpected curveballs, but otherwise the day moved along smoothly. After work we hit the market, following Dave’s fridge cleanout, and while the trip was a bit hit or miss, I stocked up on breakfast basics, some snacks, and other essentials. Back at the house, Dave finished installing the Starlink network, which meant my latency troubles were hopefully about to become a thing of the past. It also meant we survived a joint project without any casualties, which is notable given that Dave and I are not exactly known for working well together on these things.
Tuesday required some fine tuning of the new internet setup, but by the afternoon things were humming along nicely. Dave had a meeting with colleagues from Statia around four, so once I logged off I headed down to The Hideaway. Anise happened to be off unexpectedly at six, and there was a pulled pork nachos special that was simply too good to pass up, so we stayed for dinner. Darren and Aaron joined us, and the nachos and conversation were both excellent. Once home, I caught up with Janet, my mother-in-law, and wrapped up the evening by responding to a cryptic text from our friend George. After catching up with George and Dani, I tied off a few loose ends and called it a night.
On Wednesday morning, I made a decision about this blog, and it’s a bittersweet one to share. This will be my last post, at least for the foreseeable future. I feel like I’ve told the story I set out to tell. My injury was a genuine turning point for me, one that forced a lot of self reflection and second guessing of life choices I’d made without much thought before. I’ve always tried to seize opportunities when they show up, but having such stark proof that everything can change in an instant reshaped how I see things entirely. And as I’ve said before, I had an incredible number of people show up for me in every kind of supportive way imaginable, and I want to spend my time paying that forward.
This past year has completely reordered my sense of what’s possible. Ask me in 2024 if I thought I’d be living outside the country a year later, working remotely from the Caribbean, and I’d have laughed you right out of the room. It wasn’t even a thought on my radar. But sometimes you just have to take the leap, and I have no regrets about choosing Saba. There’s a peace here I genuinely didn’t know existed for me. Life has fewer extras, and yet the community and support I’ve found more than make up for it. I catch myself most days just looking around and thinking, I get to live here. I stay in close touch with friends and family back in the States, and everyone I talk to is genuinely happy for Dave and me, eager to hear how our adventures are unfolding. Quite a few have already promised to visit, and we cannot wait to show them this incredible place.
But here, at this point in the story, I’m settled into the house we plan to call home for good, walking around unaided again, and life has eased into a comfortable new rhythm. I’m endlessly grateful to everyone who followed along on this journey. If reading about all my drama helped even a single person, it was worth every minute I put into it. But now it’s time to stop writing about my own life and turn my attention to other topics.
I wish you nothing but the best wherever life takes you next, and who knows, maybe The Sunflower Umbrella Lady will resurface again someday. But for now, thank you for reading, and stay kind.
Signing off.
