New Year's Eve 2008

My new roomate's dog, Basil

Two bunnies that live on the Cay..cute, eh?

Cassandra and Toby emerging from their NYE night dive

Toby, Anka, Jerry and Renee gettin' down to Michael Jackson

Jerry, Anka, Cassandra dancing the night away

Anka, Jerry...Jer..how do ya bend like that?

Cassandra kickin' it

Doin' the Swedish Hokey Pokey?

Jerry and his Dad Jim, trying to follow Renee

Renee and boyfriend Oscar leading the Swedish hokey pokey?

17 in our motley crew on New Years

Kingfish feeding the masses...yummmm!!!!

Jim and Lighter laughing it up over homemade hootch

Anka, me and Jerry welcoming in the New Year

Chowin' down

Curtis trying to fan the flames with an air tank!

Had another great party with all my diver friends on New Year's Eve here on the Cay. We stayed and partied at the Hotel Kayla where they all stay. I gotta tell ya, it is SOOOO cheap to stay there. It's very basic, backpacker's kind of hotel. $10 a night..and if you get their dive package...only $5 a night! Wow.

Alex, who made our fish feast on Water Cay on Xmas Eve, was the chef du jour again that evening and made a big Kingfish that you can see above. That along with some veggies and papas..and LOTSA rum, we were fueled to the gills..pardon the pun. There were 17 of us, and at one point, one of the Canadians pointed out that I was the token American. I reflected on that later as I was three sheets to the wind at the time she mentioned it. It is kind of cool making friends from all over the world...most only stay for a few days and then move on. You almost feel like you're saying goodbye to old friends. Some of the divers are instructors or staying to get their dive master certs, so those are the ones I know the best..they stick around longer. Either way, ya gotta move on at some point.

The pics where you can see us all around the table, standing on chairs or on the floor was a really fun thing that I thought was going to be stupid. As we sat around after finishing our meal, and looking like stuffed pigs, our Swedish friend Renee said..c'mon, lets all stand up, I have something fun for us to do. I thought..oh no....is she going to make us do the hokey pokey or something?? Well, my worst fear was realized, but it turned out to be quite a laugh. She did do something similar, but she would hold her hands up and make funny sounds, or non sensical words and had us repeat them..we were laughing our asses off and as she got us up off of them (our asses that is) and it really energized us all...for more drinking and dancing!

I brought my iPod and speakers and you can see us all dancing, mostly to Michael Jackson songs..and I just love the pic of Toby, our friend from Germany doing his best MJ. I hear there is a pic floating around of me grabbing my crotch, a la Jackson style, but I have yet to actually see it.

At midnight, we all went out to the top deck of Captain Morgan's dock and I had one bottle of champagne for us all, poured a few sips for everyone, and we celebrated with fireworks going off all over the Cay. We could even see big ones in the sky from Utila. Toby and Cassandra went diving at midnight to share a cerveza underwater..got a cool pic of them coming out of the water above.

A great time was had by all. It reminded me of the old days when I was younger and partied like crazy on New Year's Eve...usually I have a pretty quiet one the last few years. Ah youth....nothing like hanging out with them to make ya feel young again. Who am I kidding? I don't do most things someone my age would do. Like my 26 yr old dive master friend Frederick said the other night....you don't look 54, you don't talk like you're 54 and you don't act like you're 54. I know it's a good thing not to look 54, but is the rest ok?? Or am I in arrested development? Who cares. I'm in the Caribbean, I have two weeks left before I go home and I am richer for the experience. Life is good..turned upside down the last 6 months, but good.