Why Does It Take Five Hours To Run Two Errands?
Because life happens when you’re not looking.
It was that time of year again in Belize. The time of year when those nasty ticks like to find a nice furry home. Their favorite spot? Mr. Dooley Bear.
Dooley Bear hates ticks.
I did my best to find and remove as many critters as I could, but it’s always best to leave the final tick inspection and removal to the experts at the San Pedro Animal Hospital. I made an appointment for 9:00 in the morning and believe it or not, showed up on time! (Miracles can happen on an island!)
How fun is this tropical-colored bathtub?
Dooley Bear was scheduled for a tick shampoo and inspection which takes two hours.
Two hours?
No problem. We can easily spend two hours in San Pedro Town.
We dropped off a few of Ronnie’s fishing shirts at the cleaners. I know what you are thinking: “Why do you have to drop off fishing shirts at the cleaners?” The answer is quite simple. We have to take his fishing shirts to the cleaners because I am the absolute worst at getting fish blood out of them. Fishing is a bloody business and his shirts were covered in so much blood they looked like they were evidence gathered from a crime scene. I have lost the laundry battle with fishing shirts too many times. I know it’s best to let the “laundry magicians” work their magic on these shirts.
Next, we hit the gym. Since it was just 9:30 in the morning, we figured it was a better choice than a bar.
At 11:00 I called the veterinarian assuming Dooley Bear would be ready soon.
“What time can we pick up Dooley Bear?”
Her answer? “1:30.”
“I’m sorry, did you say, 1:30?”
“Yes. 1:30. The water was turned off all morning so we just started his bath now” she explained.
Hmm. Two hours to kill was no problem. But now we had to fill two and a half more hours. Sounds like a perfect excuse to go out to lunch! We stopped into one of our favorite lunch spots, the Sprouts booth at Poco Locos Food Court, and ordered two giant salads.
As we were ordering, our friends Krista and Rob showed up and ordered their lunch. Krista was deciding between a salad and a burger; and of course, the burger won. Rob ended up in a Joe Chung Three-Way sandwich. What’s a Joe Chung Three-Way? You’ll have to go to Poco Loco’s to uncover this mystery. (Or just read the sign in the picture below.)
Our impromptu lunch consumed another hour. Ok, so we were finished with lunch and still had another one and a half hours to kill.
Now what?
We were still at Poco Loco’s Food Court when we saw Brittney working inside the new crepe and ice cream shop.
Her task for the day: Learn how to make crepes using this fancy contraption:
Brittney said that she and Maggie had been watching YouTube videos on how to create the perfect crepe and today was the day for them to practice.
Perfect!
We can watch the “Crepe Making Channel” for another hour.
Maggie poured the exact amount of crepe batter on the pan and then used the fancy wooden crepe spreader to flatten it.
Maggie’s crepe was delicious but not thin enough. The batter cooked faster than it could be spread.
Next, it was Brittney’s turn to try. Her technique: spread the batter as fast as possible while laughing uncontrollably.
She definitely achieved the “thin” concept but it wasn’t very “crepe-shaped”.
It was so much more difficult than anyone could have imagined to pour batter and spread it. We were all laughing at the difficulty of it all because it didn’t look that hard on YouTube. We all watched the video again and afterwards I was positive I could make the perfect crepe.
Brittney invited me inside the shop to take a shot at making the perfect crepe. I precisely measured the batter, poured it on and started to spread it.
Crepe perfection!
OK, so I was the world’s worst crepe maker. But, I put my crepe in a bowl with some bananas, strawberries and homemade whipped cream and it was delicious!
Who says you can’t serve a crepe in a bowl with the toppings next to it?
Everyone. Everyone says that.
It was now 1:30 and we could go pick up a clean and tick-free Dooley Bear!
He was thrilled as usual.
Instead of a trip to town for chores, the universe nudged us into a better day. A day filled with friends, laughter and the realization that I will never be a master crepe maker!
Living on Ambergris Caye, Belize taught me so much about not just going with the flow but embracing it.
A lesson we should all strive to live by.
