Coming home to Beli

September 18, 2006- BELI (on Cres island), CROATIA - - When I saw my mom talking to Father Bendara in the language of her parents, I knew the trip was worth all the trouble. The 92-year-old priest in Beli knew my grandparents' family and spoke the dialect that is special to this tiny town.

Beli is a beautiful, primitive village - - make that kingdom -- on the edge of a mountain on the island of Cres. The 'roads' are not cute and cobblestone, but the roughest stone-and-moss hilly paths. The houses just a jumble of stone and cement in no discernable pattern.

Fr. Bendara called a local man who was visiting from Arizona (!) of all places...probably so I'd have someone to talk to since Father didn't speak any English. The two men showed us the town church (St. Mary's) where my mom got emotional thinking of her parents' history. After all, it was in this place that approximately 100 years ago, my grandparents were baptized. In fact, today would have been my grandmother's 99th birthday!

We took photos in front of the house #103 where my grandfather was born in 1903. According to Fr. Bendara, Beli has written history going back 2000 years! It was originally settled by the Romans and got its current moniker from a Hungarian king who came here to escape the Mongols. The whole country of Croatia was Communist until about 10 years ago, so it's got some pretty cool tales to tell.

In the summer, the population of Beli swells to about 30 people, but the rest of year - - like now - - only about 10 or 15 residents live in this remote setting. Of the handful of people we met, one lady spoke to my mom and told her that she used to live near Midway Airport in Chicago!

Before departing from Beli, we stopped for lunch in a cute outdoor restaurant that acts as the unofficial entrance to the village. Our young waiter spoke just enough English that we could order gnocchi made three ways (mushroom, procuitto and with meat), salad, bread, water and wine. Good lunch!!!

As we finished our lunch, the waiter brought a special drink for us - - a gift from the restaurant to the visitors. Two tiny shot glasses filled with clear liquid. At the bottom of each glass, we found a tiny chunk of fruit stabbed with a toothpick. Hmm??

I don't know about your family, but my family used to make prospective brothers-in-laws drink shots of a Croatian liquor called Slivovice (sp?). Kind of a trial of manhood. Think of a cross between lighter fluid and battery acid.

This was worse.

To kill the taste of the 'gift,' my mom and I decided to chase it with ice cream. Okay, that was an excuse. We were planning on having dessert anyhow. In another example of how tiny our planet really is, I walked throught the almost-empty restaurant on the edge of nowhere to the freezer chest and pulled out two Nestle ice cream bars.

Just arrived in Croatia

Sept. 17, 2006 -CRES (island), CROATIA - After about a billion flights, we arrived in (and on) Cres on Sunday and it's as peaceful and simple and as perfect an antidote for travel insanity as anyone could want.

My 78-year-old mom, God love her, is resting after probably just two or three hours' sleep since Friday night.

I'm sitting along the promenade enjoying the sun that was threatening not to come out and marvelling at the crystal-clear water - - not a cigarette butt in sight (amazing considering all the 'euros' that smoke!)

The "beaches" that line the promenade are actually minute pieces of real estate made entirely of pebbles. This same stone (limestone?) has been made into numerous walls in this area. The Croatians should challenge the Irish to a wall-building contest, no concrete allowed!

Think I'll dip my toes into the Adriatic...

Okay, now that I've said it, I've found it - -cigarette butts. But it's not going to bother me because I challenged my mom (and myself) to practice PMA (positive mental attitude) while we're here. So no bother to butts!

Being near the water seems to soothe my soul. I don't know why, I'm not even a Pisces!

I've been so busy planning this trip that I haven't given myself time to imagine the possibilities. I guess that's good because all I've done is worry about what could go wrong and really nothing has. And just getting here was going to be the hard part.

I'm really a city girl at heart so this remote and relatively undeveloped country has surprised me with its charm. Of course, sun and water always puts me in a good mood. I'm even voluntarily sitting near small children so you can tell I'm happily descending into vacation mode.

Stuck in a holding pattern

First off, I'd like to apologize to my loyal readers.
Both of you!
Ha!

I know I promised to have stories and photos of Croatia posted by now, but I'm having some issues with my laptop (insert joke here).

Also, a few other things have distracted me from repairing the tech issues:

I returned from Croatia just in time to get my last fix of baseball for 2006. Firecracker and I attended four Cubs games in the week I came home. As always, we'll wait til next year!

The next week featured a visit from our new CEO and also the new Head of Global Sales. I know the CEO from his history with our company, but the Global Sales guy was completely new to me. It was my job to introduce him to everyone, plan a TON of meetings, carefully repair a semantics difficulty with him, show him around the office AND prepare an outline of MY job responsibilities and accomplishments.

During that week, I ate lunch at my desk every day (when I was able to eat lunch AT ALL). Usually, I leave the office at 5, but not this week. In fact, I stayed so late one evening that the CEO, Global Sales guy and another division's boss invited me to join them for a late (9:30) dinner.

Dinner was actually fun. I made it a point to have interesting and funny stories to tell the CEO (who also attended the wedding in Spain in August). I also got the Global Sales guy to promise to bring me some of that fabulous German chocolate the next time he's in Chicago.

Oh, did I mention that the CEO also fired three of my coworkers that week?? including both of my bosses??? I'm not sure, but I think another coworker might be in the line of fire soon.

Yeah, not too stressful a week, huh?

The evening before the head honchos arrived, I got a call from The Editor. He called at 11:15 pm and I was already asleep, so I didn't call him back till after work the next day.

His news? A fellow former coworker died in a car accident that day and he thought I should know. Although I hadn't seen this guy in several years, I was struck with one thought: THIS IS WRONG! THIS IS JUST WRONG!

"Lem" was without doubt the sweetest, kindest, knight-in-shining-armor-type of guy you'd ever want to know. He was the only man I know of my generation who said things like, "Ma'am" and "Sir." And he was VERY handsome! He could stand in for Dermot Mulroney (sp?)...you know, the guy who played opposite Julia Roberts in "My Best Friend's Wedding."

And he was single. His mom told me that he was just thinking that he was ready to meet someone and settle down. He was 41.

Years ago, when we worked together, I got tickets to go see the band Squeeze. Of course, I had no one to go with me, so I asked Lem. He liked Squeeze, too, so he said yes. It was not a date, that was an absolute. Lem was more like my cousin than any possible boyfriend and it was more than fine. We had a great time at the show.

Last week, after I left Lem's wake, I stopped a few blocks away from the funeral home to get gasoline for the long ride home. It was one of those new gas stations that likes to entertain its customers while they pump gas, so they broadcast a local radio station.

The song?
"Tempted" by Squeeze.

I think it was Lem, thanking me for stopping by.