DJ Carilicious, from St. Louis. . . the other saint!

After another long day for both Sarah and I, we decided to treat ourselves to a serious meal of sushi! And if you're gonna do it, you gotta do it right. . . so we headed off to this place (ahh i forget the name. . what kind of blog writer am i!?) and had the greatest sushi meal ever! We had everything from smoked salmon rolls, to shrimp to white fish tempura style, to a shrimp with fresh salmon roll with an orangy sauce, to raw tuna rolls. . . i'm pretty sure that there's a nicer, more pc way to say raw but i dont remember what it is. . . i think maybe its saying 'fresh' instead of 'raw' but i'm not sure. . . we were lucky enough to run into some great friends of Sarah's. . . Corby and Lisa and sweet little Ava Jane. . . hopefully we see more of them as time goes on!

After the yummy spread which came at no small price. . . definitely my most expensive meal so far . . . $135 including drinks! . . . we had to stop at another friend, Scott's place of work. . . a radio station, to use the bathroom. . . actually he manages about 5 different radio stations. . . so we went into the station and he took me on a little tour of the place. . . we HAD to get a shot for the blog

and one thing led to another and pretty soon i was sitting at a microphone talking to callers who were helping us come up with possibilities for my DJ name. . .

here were some possibilities:

DJ Carrie K

DJ Carrie Care

DJ Hee Hee (you have to say it like michael jackson. . . RIP)

DJ Carrie Kisser (one of the stations is KISS. . . maybe that was the motive for this, who knows)

BUt the winner was............................

DJ Carilicious

I was tickled to see that even the DJ himself, who is native to here, had a tough time understanding some of the locals on the phone. . . see, its not just me!!!

We'll see what the ripple effect is of being on the radio in St Thomas!

Finally a normal day :)

So today was a nothin'-much sorta day. Got up for an early morning of work (8:00 versus the normal 9) . . . found out that when the car, that i'm so grateful that i have to borrow, says E it REALLY means it. . . Sarah mentioned that it's run out of gas before and i SWEAR that when i turned it off last night it had about an eighth of a tank of gas . . . but when i woke up today and started down the hill on my way to work, it was definitely sitting right on empty. . . and of course i left with just enough time to make it straight to work, not to stop off at any gas station. . . i parked right next to the exit in the parking lot and said some prayers as i went into work, hoping that there would be enough left that i could make it to a station. . . rest assured as i chatted with Miss Monica (who's about to be holding her first born) on the phone, i made it to the gas station and got a very full tank of gas. . . whew! won't do that again!

Sarah and i took a really long snorkel/swim when I got home from work. . . we swam all the way out to 'the point' which is the edge of the island right next to us. . . I was able to use the prescription mask that Sarah picked up from Jen Jen when she was in STL . . thanks!! You know, its funny. . . sometimes i get myself so darned worked up when i'm in the water. . . its like you're swimming along and you are looking around and all of the sudden the thought of a large Carrie-eating fish pops in your head . . . so i'd have to sweep around in a circle monitoring the surface all around me. . . then as soon as I'd face forward again, Sarah would be miles, seemingly, ahead of me. . . so then i'd book it up to her til i was swimming next to her like a little baby Nemo. . . following her momma. . . anyway, we saw lots of little schools of fishes. . . and one very colorful Parrot Fish. . . wow such a beautiful creature. . . but no turtles. . .so that means i'll have to brave the underwater world again . . . seeing a huge sea turtle is one of my goals to do down here!!

Now it's 9:45 and Sarah and are multitasking, including watching the shocking news about Mikey Jackson and the way less focused on death of Farah Fawcett. . . wow, so crazy . . . and for the first time in, oh about 2 weeks ;) i'm going to bed early!! To be as fair as can be, the A/C in my bedroom is broken so that I can be in solidarity with the sweet residents of Dartmouth house :( Luckily I think they're out of the woods and I'm hoping they send a southern wind of luck down here so we figure out how to make mine work too!! I suppose it gives us true perspective of those people in places as hot as us who cant even afford to have air conditioning. . . we are blessed to have a roof over our heads for sure!!

Sorry for the lack of pics today. . I told you it was a nothing-much sorta day!! Sweet Dreams!!

Hiking to Magen's Bay

So my friend Ryan and I took a hike down to Magen's Bay two days ago. . . it was a good hike. . . i'd have to say rigorous though. . . i like nature, and i like excercise, and i like heat, and i like wildlife. . . and i really did like the hike. . . but im just gonna say that the combo of all that made it quite an experience!! Here are some of the things we saw along the way . . . the LARGEST hermit crab I've ever seen. . . a large bluish crab tucked in his hole in the ground, unexcited about me taking his pic. . . this worm (i forget it's name, but i heard that if it gets irritated at you it will squirt some sort of poison on you) and a beautiful mango grove . . no wait, a mangrove! that's it. . .we hiked down down down the mountain to get to the beach. . . hung out on the beach and enjoyed a beer and a pina colada (which i SOONLY came to regret) and then started the trek up the hill. . . . i never usu sweat when i'm working out and i felt like i just got out of the ocean when i got to the top! Ryan kept pushing me on though, "Oh, it feels so good to get that heart rate up!" Yeah right it feels good, maybe I know it's good for me but it did not feel good. . .. lets bee real! jk. . . it was a great hike. . . i think it's like biking forest park. . . the first time it's pretty intimidating but if you do it a few times, it becomes more comfortable!

Sarah got home last night and brought down some goodies, including my perscription scuba mask!! Thanks Jenny!!! So, i'm ready to hit the water. . . but funny enough. . this silly dream of waitressing has gotten me into a situation of having to work instead of having fun! i keep finding out that i have to work earlier and more days. . . but, beggars can't be choosers and it is my dream . . . so onward and upward!! Enjoy the pics.. .

For now, i'm off to bed so that i can get up for the early shift tomorrow! Hungry for breakfast, come to Jen's Cafe!

Waitressing on the beach?? Check!

Got a job!!! Jen's Gourmet Cafe and Deli (aren't you excited, jen!??!!?) I serve lunch !!! and breakfast :( . .. but they were gracious enough to hire someone with no experience and with a possible short time to work in the off season!! Unfortunately my FAVORITE thing is the fried shrimp basket with fries which is to die for . .. this past week i went 5 days straight with some type of french fries each day. . . but a whole summer of that. . . not sure about that!! But the food's great. . . the tips will be good once i start making them :) right now i'm on training pay which means i work a lot and my trainers get the tips :) Everyone has their turn, right!?

We serve anything from deli sandwiches and salads to fresh seafood platters with local sides. And everything comes with a smile :)

I'll be working more shifts definitely when there are cruise ships in (the big ship days are usu M-F) . . . soooo, stay tuned!

Oh and we HAVE to wear hats there even though i hate hats on me ;) oh well!

It was supposed to be my day to use the pool!

Just a short post here. . . it was supppppppposed to be MY day to just lounge by the pool and enjoy the sun, water, and my book. . . but luckily i noticed i was sharing my space. . . .

More Hull Bay wildlife right off our deck. . .

St. John Adventures

Trip one. . . . by open top jeep with some new friends! So St. John is even smaller than the +/- 30 square mile St. Thomas, but nonetheless, we took one turn and drove for 30 minutes without finding a beach!!! Never fear, we found a market to buy some beer and munchies and then turned around and went to the beautiful Hocksnest Beach!! A little snorkeling, a little swimming, lots of sunscreen (i put on 30 3x, troy, so you cant be upset at me!) :) Then lunch at Cruz Bay. I originally thought of gettin a job at Cruz Bay but that woulda been a crazy commute. . . beautiful but crazy. . . here's the ferry with the amazing scenery behind it!

One more adventure of the day. . . see if you can see what is happening in this picture. . .

No? Try a closer look. . . .

So, we stop for gas midtrip. . . actually when we first arrived on island. . . and the driver, Jason, goes to open the gas tank only to find that SOMEONE switched out his gas cap for one that locks. . . and they didn't leave a key !!!!!!!! So we had to find the most able bodied guy we could and he came out of the maintenance garage and helped us out!! Good ole fashioned jam-the-screw-driver-in trick :)

Trip two was with my dear hostess, Sarah H and her friend Brian. . . another gorgeous day. . . i cant tell you how often i ask myself, "Seriously, this is my life??"

I definitely tried snorkeling here. . but i went out by myself and scooted out off the shore and kinda got myself all worked up. . . two things . . 1. fire coral supposedly stings you if you touch it (but i had no idea what it looked like besides its the color of fire. . that's real helpful!) and 2. sea urchins like to stick their thorns in you if you try to step on them (also didnt know where those resided) . . so as i was trying to calmly swim above the coral reef, the reef started getting higher and higher (closer to the water's surface--that means closer to my belly). . . and i got more and more freaked out that some wave (which you can see from the picture is NOT a big deal) was going to sweep me right over one of those dangerous reef dwellers. . so i decided to jump ship. . or really to scurry back to shore. . . so i turned around to go back to where we were on the beach and out of the corner of my eye. . . . i notice a fish about 12 inches or so long. . . with a long snout-like thing. . . staring at me. . . not moving, just staring at me. . .right at the surface. . . and let me just tell you two more things. . . 1. i dont have a prescription mask so its not totally clear, but i'm sure this fish is either bearing his teeth at me or stickin out his tongue and 2. i'm POSITIVE its a barracuda. . . which i've been told that you shouldnt wear shiny things or hang bait from your midsection cause they will . . . well let's just say you dont wanna do that. . . so i turn around and see this stupid-head fish staring at me and i got tall coral on one side, a man-eater fish on the other side, and some waves moving me a little bit :( then i become sure that there's gotta be a shark, eel, or octopus or SOMEThing at my feet ready to go. . . well needless to say, once i hit the beach i didnt go back out for more snorkeling that day. . . unfortunate too because there was some cliff jumping just on the other side of the reef :(

back on the ferry . . . just gettin ready in case of an emergency. . . watch out here i come!!!

and finally. . . . sweet dreams St. John. . . .

Good morning St Thomas :)

just a hello to let you know i made it safely. . . got some apps for waitressing in today, more to fill out and turn in thurs (a little anxious about this because they might call ritenour for job references!!), drove for the first time (they drive on the wrong side of the road), played some bachee ball on the beach, and even made a friend that i'm gonna go explore st johns with tomorrow! something exciting is that last night when we got 'home' you could see these odd lights in the middle of the bay. . . there were people doing a night dive right out my back bedroom door! so cool. . . something scary, there was a torrential downpour and loud loud thunderstorm that made me want to crawl into bed with someone last night but i was in the master suite which is disconnected from the rest of the house and there was NO way i was going outside! i got up, turned on a light and walked over my suitcases which of course are spread on the floor, to shut the shades so no water would come in and then with the next clap of thunder, the lights went out. . . yes siree. . . and of course i didnt have any light, no glasses, and had to rerun the obstacle course to get back into my big, lonely bed!! i found my phone and glasses and clung to them reminding myself that if its my time to go, then there's nothing i can do about it! and something shocking is that i found out that there are iguanas here that are the size of a medium sized dog and they have been known to come inside this casa in search for cat food. . . yeah rah. . . holy crap! are you kidding me!? supposedly the cat that lives here with us likes to scare them away even though it is declawed, but they've snuck in a few times. . . otherwise the smaller ones come in more frequently. . . i tell you what! when sarah leaves for her trips, that cat is gonna be on a leash at my side at all times. . . we just got back from a late dinner and bumped into the owner of another restaurant that's looking for servers, so that'll be another option! anyway, here's a picture of what i saw from my bed this morning. . . love to you all and more later!




the view from my bedroom!





bachee ball on Carib beach