It's because backpacks and umbrellas should always have whistles.

Dear Patrick,

Today is day 2 in Honduras and bedtime can not come soon enough. We took a red-eye in the night before and spent yesterday driving to the beach. Which, as it turns out, makes my heart very sad. I love the beach. I love love love the beach. I love to sit on the beach and stare. I love the sand. I love the smell. I love the sandwiches that come with us every time we visit the beach and I love that that's really the only time I like sandwiches. I love that flat horizon line a million miles out. I love making fun of all the ridiculous bathing suit choices people make. But, the beach in Honduras is much much different. The beach I'm looking at is only a gateway to the open sewage that flows into it. Your heart is sad now, too, I just know it. Let me fix that.

We arrived, ate our dinner and then we promptly went to bed. Or, at least tried. I went to my room and discovered that there was a nice little band playing outside my window by the pool. Two guys singing, with at least one playing the accordion, playing and playing to (hopefully) someone. This really great playing and yelping-- not unlike Alvin and the Chipmunks in "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi I Like You Very Much" from the Chipmunk Adventure-- lasted until at least 1 am, which is when I finally fell asleep. 1 am on a Wednesday night. I think I would be upset if it wasn't so ridiculously hilarious. Accordions all night? Really? That's fantastic. The other funny thing is that I was the only one in the group that heard them. So, naturally, no one believed me. Don't they understand that I am not clever enough to come up with that good of a story? No, everything that weird can only be real life. They're playing again tonight... probably just so I could prove it.

Today was the backpack extravaganza. 4Life distributed 1000 backpacks FULL of school supplies to 1000 needy babies. And some of those 1000 got brand new uniforms and brand new shoes. I want to be 4Life when I grow up. They're good at everything. It was an exhausting million degree day, but I'm always happy to be doing this work. Dream job, dream company.

Lines that long can make anyone this sad.

New favorite twins. That hair! Sorry, Connie and Connie, you've been one upped.

Favorite 4Lifers.

New backpack. So beautiful.

Now it's time for bed and since I have finally convinced myself that tile floors in a hotel room don't necessarily mean rats, I think I will be sleeping peacefully tonight. Last night, that's all I could think about. I don't know why my brain went from that point A to that point B but it did and I blame North Carolina. I now suspect rodents to be the product of any new situation I am put in.

Please bless my hard drive doesn't crash this time,
Adrienne