Ashley Gets Lost

It’s true. After four long months, I was finally able to get a crab rangoon past my teeth on Sunday! They weren’t exceptional. They were fine. They lightly scratched the itch, but now I’m wanting to tear that itch right open with the powerful claws of a crab. I think I’m going to have to go on a hunt for crab and try my hand at making my own again. I’ve done it in America, where the ingredients were easy to find at one store. I think this effort is going to require trips to multiple stores, but I will do what it takes to keep my leadership role in the squad.

I have just had my wildest adventure weekend yet, starting Friday with my walk down to Almyrida, where I took myself on a hot date out for pasta and wine before watching my friend Chris’s band, The Vibes, play for a while at Nikita’s cocktail bar. Joshua and Felix joined me there, and we celebrated our house closing with gin and tonics. I had so much fun that I was doing improv burlesque to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” for Joshua at our table. I kept it PG-13 and my clothes stayed on, unfortunately.

On Saturday my new friend and Cong’s second mother (I believe his first one was an actual cat), Olya, rode the bus over from Chania. She brought us some snacks and bevs to try from the Slavic grocery store. This one was a tarragon lemonade? So weird! We also tried some kind of bread soda that is like an alcohol free beer and molasses had a baby. And she brought fun marshmallows with a crusty outside that look like a titty as well as some jelly fruit slices. It was fun trying some new flavors!

After cultural snack time we went and sat in the pool and were lazy and talked and talked and talked, and then we got ready to go on a most mysterious and illusive mission- drive to a random tiny village in hopes of coming across a panigiri, which is a festival, usually celebrating a saint. There is feasting, singing, and dancing, according to my friends and the internet. I do not know from firsthand experience because it turns out it was on Sunday, not Saturday.

Womp womp. Oh well. We knew it was a possibility, and Olya made us reservations at a gorgeous taverna in Platanias as a consolation prize. It was absolutely beautiful. They had real giant pillar candles on the table. The menus had painted wooden covers. Mine even had a burn mark on it! I ordered a pizza because I was tired and hungry and couldn’t put in any mental effort towards picking something off the menu. Both Felix and Cyn got traditional Cretan meals though, and they looked amazing. Fancier than usual. Felix said it was delicious!

We didn’t even leave the restaurant until close to midnight, and then I needed to get up and go for a stroll to refill my body with energy as I was the driver for the night. I am not necessarily psyched to be driving while I’m tired, so I told everyone that I was sorry they hired a grandma for a chauffeur, but that if they wanted to make it home alive, I probably needed to start heading that way. I’m so glad Felix came with us so I had someone to entertain me for that last half hour or so! I didn’t get to bed until 2am, which is very late for me!

No regrets though. It was such a fun time, and it was so nice to see Felix enjoying a social group situation. It did us good to spend time with creative people with big plans and big ideas. I’m looking forward to the next get together this Thursday!

Yesterday morning I woke up dead at the crack of 9:30am, and a monster crawled into my throat and told Joshua that we should go over to Akrotiri, the peninsula across the bay, to try out a new beach and then go to the Chinese restaurant over there (see first paragraph regarding goons). The monster inside of me was desperate for crab rangoons. I immediately thought I was crazy due to my extreme low levels of energy, but I’m so glad Joshua was into it and that I got my ass up to go.

We had some tzatziki, sausages, and shared a half liter of rose with these cats and four to six of their friends. There were so many cats, and I pet ALL OF THEM. Then we grabbed some to go beers and parked ourselves on the beach for several hours!

My most insincere apologies if you feel victimized by my side boob, but this is MY SHOW, folks.

This beach was our favorite beach so far! The water was warm but still refreshing. I did no yelps when it first touched my butt. It was shallow for a long long ways, and I spent a lot of time floating on my back in a few feet of water, showing our bright overlord Κύριος Ήλιος (Mr. Sun) my boobs. I was also a judge for a sandcastle making contest. It really felt like the perfect day, getting my buns wet with my best fella.

After eating the to go entrees we picked up from the Chinese restaurant, Felix and I spent twilight out at the pool. That lit up land across the bay is Akrotiri, and the extra bright spot is the airport.

It was such a busy, fun weekend that I have declared today a day of not doing shit. Except I’ll probably go grab some stuff for dinner groceries because we unfortunately need to eat like EVERY DAY, and we did it out all weekend. I’m looking forward to reading my book, taking a nap, buying fresh produce, and spending the night at home. I hope everyone had a good weekend!