Dreaming of the Caribbean

My plans for the evening changed abruptly. A guy from Plenty of Fish cancelled our date because, he says, he had a last minute meeting at work. He begged me not to hate him.

I won't hate him. If he calls to reschedule, we'll take it from there. He won't be at a loss if he does. Not only am I a self-supporting attorney who won't dig his pockets for gold like other women but I'm also a pretty good cook.

I took advantage of this sudden change of plans to finally stop procrastinating and write a new blog entry and to begin making the marinade for a salmon recipe I found in Women's Health Magazine that I have been dying to make. I'm having it Friday because as a practicing Catholic I can't eat meat then as it's now Lent.

Last Friday we got a snow day at work. I was planning to make the recipe then, but my apartment is out of the way from where I wanted to buy the fish. I'd planned to go right after work, but it just wasn't meant to be. I ended up eating Chilean sea bass at a local restaurant in Garden City.

And today there were a few flurries. It's already March. There shouldn't be snow. I was so frustrated. The past few days I was dreaming about my next Caribbean vacation. This year I spent Valentine's Day weekend in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic at an all-inclusive resort by a beach with clear water. I had such a great time even though I went by myself that I want to go to the Caribbean again next winter.

This recent trip was so last minute. I just said to myself, "Let me just go. I need to get away." I had wanted to book a Caribbean vacation for months. Initially, I'd planned to go to the Bahamas with my singles group, but I missed the time to submit a deposit back in November. So, that was out. I'm glad I didn't end up going there. Someone I know who just got back said there were chilly days. I think it's because it's just off the coast of Florida where they got some unusually cold weather.

I foresaw Valentine's Day as a single woman in the dead of winter on the horizon. And at the same time, several of my girl friends were newly engaged. I dreaded the thought of being at home alone in the cold. I could have gone out for a fancy dinner. If a guy wasn't going to do the honors, I was going to treat myself like a special lady. The down side of that is that I could easily run into an ex-boyfriend proposing to his girlfriend on bended knee. And then I would look at the empty seat across from me at my table and lose my appetite.

No, my mind switched gears. I'd be positive like Woodstock in a Peanuts cartoon I watched as a child. He didn't have a dance partner, so he just danced alone and was happy. I decided that it would be okay to be alone on Valentine's Day. But if I was going to spend that romantic holiday all by myself it was going to be in beautiful weather with me going swimming every day, sipping the Pina Coladas I would thoroughly enjoy and walking on clean white sand across from clear turquoise water that is characteristic of the ocean in that region.

I booked the trip a mere two weeks in advance. The airfare killed me because it's a penalty for procrastination. Still, I didn't care. It was worth it to get away. I asked the travel agent what would be the best place in the Caribbean for a single woman traveling alone that would be both fun and safe. She suggested Aruba or Punta Cana.

I don't know about Aruba being a great place for a woman to travel alone after all that coverage on the disappearance of Natalee Holloway who was with friends when she met up with locals. But on that note, I thought that if I kept to myself and only spoke to other tourists I would be fine on any Caribbean island.

The resort in Punta Cana where I stayed was very family friendly - a lot of married couples and their young kids, but I didn't mind. I certainly wasn't there to pick up a guy. Some of the people insisted on speaking Spanish to me, so I used whatever I remembered from taking the language in school. I'm not as good at it as I once was, but I got by.

One day by the pool I saw this Spanish speaking man in his 50s or 60s laying out with his wife. He had on a hot pink women's T-shirt that read, "This shirt would look good on your bedroom floor." I wondered at that moment if he just didn't know what it meant and someone ripped him off and sold it to him as an unsuspecting consumer. He acted too stern to realize how he ridiculous it looked. He appeared to take himself so seriously. I was trying not to laugh.

There were some people who wanted to have fun with the fact that English was my first language. A couple of busboys at a resort restaurant who looked no older than eighteen or nineteen or so stood by my table speaking Spanish. I was able to pick up a few words from their conversation and translate them in my mind. They said something about me being an American woman by herself, and then they looked at each other with devious sneers and said in Spanish, "Let's go talk to her."

These wise guys quickly switched to the English they must have been learning in school. Still sneering, they asked me where I was from. They wanted to know if I liked the beautiful weather and the clear blue water. They moved closer as their smiles grew. Finished with my meal, I walked off without looking back. I'm no cougar.

Those precocious kids must have noticed I was the only one without a husband - or children. I met one single mother at the resort with her little boys. She said it was brave and admirable of me to travel alone to the Caribbean for a weekend as a single woman.

As I reported on Facebook before the excursion, I spent Valentine's Day swimming with the dolphins at the animal park. My friend commented that I was safe with them. At least they weren't going to break my heart, she said. I laughed.

When I took another look at my Caribbean brochure, I suddenly wished I was in a relationship again. They have these cool couples only resorts I'm dying to try. Coupled or not, I want to hit the Caribbean again next year. Maybe Barbados or Jamaica.