Emily’s Musings

My parents are coming to visit us on Saba! Yes, I am still picking my jaw off the ground, and am trying to recover from shock. It is true, the day has finally arrived! They are coming to see “their baby” which of course is not me. They have been suckered in by Hannah’s good looks and personality. They are addicted to her and need another dose! Hey, whatever the reason they have finally decided to come (maybe they realize that I don’t live in Hell, just Hells Gate), I am not complaining!

My dad made a funny comment about Saba that I can’t get out of my head. He said, “I feel like I am going to miniature land. Everything there is small, the cars, your house, the island, everything!” He brought up a good point. We do live in “miniature land”! I did love those Micro Machine Cars as a kid. Maybe this is my adult dream come true to live in the land of miniature!

This island might only be five square miles, but it will take you at least 20 minutes to drive from one side of the island to the other. How is that possible you ask? Well, there are nine miles of road and the average speed you travel is 20 miles per hour. I actually have no idea how fast I usually travel in my car because my speedometer doesn’t work. Speed is whatever you deem “reasonable and prudent”. That of course is subjective to everyone. The island itself enforces it own speed limit by its curvy and crazy road.

My house is 540 square feet. Spacious right? Our patio is as big as our house. In our miniature house we have four rooms. Two bedrooms are both too small to accommodate a queen size bed. Both bedrooms have full size beds and they are pushed against the wall. The third room is the kitchen/dining/family room. The fourth room is the bathroom. We have named it the “bathroom of convenience”. You can go to the bathroom, wash your hands, and shower all at the same time. It is a lovely blue….all of it is blue. Blue sink, tile, and toilet. Yikes! The best part though is the fact that you can see the blue ocean from the bathroom. The benefit you ask? While you practice personal hygiene, you can enjoy the beauty of nature. Kind of like camping, I still sometimes feel like I am camping here.

Our car is a gutsy little thing. All cars are small here. Unlike Texas where “bigger is better”, on Saba the philosophy is the “smaller the better”. No one wants a big car, what a nightmare! It would be scratched and destroyed every day by the rock wall and other passing cars on the narrow one and a half lane road. Here we talk about our narrow and short cars with pride! This must be hard for my fellow Texans to understand. There are no real Texas trucks here!

There are a few other things that put Saba on the miniature map: restaurants on average can hold a maximum of 40 people. Grocery stores are the size of American gas stations. The hospital has one Doctor, and one registered nurse. The bank lobby can hold about 6 people, no more! Saba has the shortest commercial runway in the world. The airplane can hold a maximum of 17 passengers. There is one gas station here, two ferries traveling back and forth from Sint Maarten, three banks, four villages, and five flights a day in and out of Saba.

I have really come to enjoy this miniature land and lifestyle. I think I will go make dinner on my miniature stove, and eat it on my miniature patio and enjoy the view of six islands looking back at me. For such a small place, I can see five different countries. Does that sound miniature to you?

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“Is that what I think it is?” My husband asked as my lightning fingers graced over the keys of my laptop. With a coy smile I said, “yes . . .” Then came a response I wasn’t prepared for, “She’s up? I just heard her, she just went to sleep an hour ago!” The sad thing was that he wasn’t teasing me. I really thought he was impressed I was actually writing in my journal! This brings me to another thought . . . The other day, David re-installed some programs on my computer. The program I use to chronicle my thoughts and feelings was one of the programs re-installed. I noticed the program noted it was used “occasionally”. That kind of bugged me my computer was keeping tabs on me and the frequency in which I use programs. I also realized I have a lot of thoughts, feeling, and downright notable experiences I should be writing about.

Lately, David and I started watching the TV show “Scrubs”. It makes us laugh and secretly boosts our confidence because we know our lives are not that goofy or messed up. I do find myself relating with the star of the show, J.D. He talks to himself in his head all the time. I was glad to see someone else do that besides me! One episode, he decided to share all his thoughts out loud. Let’s just say he made a few people mad and got a few dirty looks. This made me think I should share more of my thoughts out loud. Please, no dirty looks and no mean comments!

This past weekend, we had an SOS welcome lunch at Cove Bay. SOS is the Significant Others of Saba Club in which I am the President. This organization has 130 members. Unfortunately, only 25 to 30 people participate in SOS activities on a regular basis. In an effort to increase the number of people participating in the activities, I decided to do things differently. I once heard an interesting definition of insanity that has stuck with me, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results”. Knowing we wanted to increase the participation in the SOS events, we knew some serious changes had to be made.

SOS has recently been under construction . . . we had a President, Secretary and Treasurer step down from their positions. A new President stepped up, only to step down two weeks later, and then the SOS was . . . just hanging. No one wanted to be president, too much work when you are on vacation for 20 months! Nominations were submitted to fill the positions, and that is how I became President. The good news is if I am doing a crappy job, I can protest and cry like a kid and say, “It’s not my fault . . . I didn’t sign up for this!” Okay, I’m kidding . . .

SOS has been working under “New Management”. It always seems funny to hear this phrase. You’ve seen the signs at hotels and restaurants that tout, “Under New Management”, and it secretly confirms in your mind “yes, that place did stink” even if you have never been there! This change in Indians and Chiefs within SOS was our opportunity to host events that would be appealing to more SOS families. Once word hit there were going to be some changes to the Welcome dinner, the emails and phone calls started. The loud minority expressed their feelings about the change. I had to remember the change was to include the silent majority.

Many people expressed how much they liked the Welcome Lunch and how fun it was. We had over 80 people attend. It was the largest turn out SOS has ever had. It was a success…or was it? I guess it depends on how you define success. The purpose of this lunch was to welcome new SOS families to the island and let everyone meet and mingle. Almost every new family was in attendance, and there was a fantastic turn out with all families. However, I noticed a few couples (those without kids that opposed the family style lunch) left early. Why didn’t they stay? Weren’t they having fun? Why did I care what they thought? Why did I care if they liked the event and approved of the change? I did care, and wanted their approval. Do we always want the approval from the wrong people? This event was changed to increase activity and help new families meet other families. Mission accomplished, but not everyone is satisfied. In the end, we always seem to want what we can’t have. We are looking for approval from the wrong people. It was a success and I know it. Now I just have to convince my head . . .

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