The Ramsey's Wild Teenaged Daughter

These are my friends Colin and Quintin Ramsey with their parents Gary and Karen. They have a very nice, mellow, comfortable life. They don't have an answering machine. A medical doctor without an answering machine? That's the kind of good life they have.

And then, Typhoon Alana arrived.

You can imagine that the intensity of the house has increased slightly since my arrival. The phone rings for me quite often. Often enough for Gary to just begin answering it by saying, "Alana's Phone". My friends keep me up quite late and I usually roll in when everyone is asleep. I don't work. The maid is doing the house work, so I don't have much to help with in that department. Luckily, I've not gotten grounded yet, so...

Karen and Colin play a quick game of ping pong after tennis lessons at PIC

Karen and I are in a "Driving Miss Daisy" scenario, in which I take her car all day while she works and then pick her up when she is done. Usually after work we come back to the house and spend some time on her lanai having a cold drink and a few chocolate truffles. Today, we went to Pacific Islands Club where we picked up Colin from his tennis lesson.

For those of you who are wondering, Pacific Islands Club or PIC is a tourist resort with a fun water park. This is what Anchorages H2Oasis was shooting for, and might be if it did not have to be enclosed. (No, I'm being overly optimistic here. I think H2Oasis would still be a germ swirl.) There are club mates everywhere to help you and play with the children. There are food and drinks.

For as long as I've known the Ramsey's they've had a membership here, not unlike a membership at a health club. She can come anytime and drop her kids and they can stay with the club mates playing all day.

She sends $5 with the kids for lunch. They take lessons for any sport, including tennis and rock climbing. She can bring her friends (like me and my family) for $10 a day. She can sit here and enjoy a cold drink and enjoy the sunset while her kids are out playing around, being fully supervised.

Look at the fantastic kiddie pool! I finally got bold enough to ask her what the going rate was for a family of four for a membership like that...

about $100 a month. Yea, I know...you don't have to even say it.

Last night I went out to dinner with my Carolinian sister, Claudine Atalig. After promising to take an entire week off of work just to hang around with me, Claud finally managed to find time for me after I called her at work and gave her a guilt trip. Oh sure, she had the wrong phone number and no clue where the Ramsey's live... but still.

PLEASE READ YESTERDAYS COMMENTS FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW I HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AS A ALBINO CAROLINIAN SISTER, A TITLE THAT I WILL HOLD DEARLY FOR LIFE.

I told her because I was a princess I could afford to take her anywhere she would like to go. She picked Coco's Steak house in Garapan. Whew! Pricey! We were sitting at a table when we found out the prices and she could not relax and chat knowing she was about to spend a bunch of money for food.

So, I lied to the waitress and we got out of there.

Then we went to Korean Barbecue on the beach and it is no longer a buffet, and Whew! it was expensive!

So, I lied to the waitress and we got out of there.

We ended up at what used to be called the Nauru Building. Someone has repaired the rooftop restaurant, and it spins completely around. I can not begin to guess how many years that restaurant sat up there not revolving. Can you guess the name?

We were able to stay and relax because we were pretty much the only ones there. (Note to future Saipan visitors, save this restaurant for the daylight. Saipan really has no skyline to enjoy while you spin in the dark. The island is not that wide and the ocean is dark at night. Just a reminder.)

When we got there I put my purse on the windowsill. I don't know why I thought that the entire top of the building spun. It looks like a spaceship sitting on top of concrete, I just figured it spun before take off. So the waitress said in her nicest Filipino accent, "Mame, your purse...the window." and me... "Yea..." "Your purse is going to be moving..." and me... "What?" and here is where I love Claud, "Move your Purse!" I love Claud for her directness. Sure enough in that short amount of time my purse had already just about made it to the next table. Thank goodness I have so many cultural ambassadors around to assist me in life!

The meal itself was remarkable only for it's "Only on Saipan" weirdness. We ordered steak with a peppercorn sauce on top. In my Homer mind I'm thinking...a peppercorn cream sauce. When it comes it has a gravy with whole green peppercorns in it. Taking a bite with 5 or six peppercorns in it made me feel like I was putting a can of bear repellent spray in my mouth and pulling the trigger. Then the desert, ice cream scooped on top of apples. Not cooked apples like pie, but chunks of raw mealy apples. What?

The memorable part of the meal will be the laughter and the depth at which I am blessed to share my friends life.

After dinner, we went by her place in Oleai so that I could hug and kiss Leodine. 16 years old now! Wow! She has finals this week and so we pinkie swore that we would spend the whole night together on Thursday.

Then Claud brought me home. We were finishing our chat in the drive and the dogs were barking like crazy. She said, "You'd better go hush the dogs." I said, "Dogs around here bark a lot, and anyway. We'll only be another minute." Sure enough Karen got out of bed to find out what was going on... "Oh, it's just you..." She said. I'm spoiled daughter.

After all these years, Claud is still willing to share her heart with me... I am so blessed.

This is a video that we made for Mel and Marc. There is a part one, but after reviewing it Claud and I felt it looked too fake. So we made this one. Love you guys!