Fighting at the Grocery Store

Survived the 6 hour drive from Dabulla to Kosgoda. Our driver proved to be quite the conversationalist, and engaged us on the subject of Buddhism with all the enthusiasm of an evangelist seeking converts. Unprompted, he started telling us about the goals of meditation, and our conversation veered into truly surreal territory when he asked us if we were familiar with the work of Edgar Cayce. I am, in fact, pretty familiar with Edgar Cayce and his life's work, as I'd read a book about him many years ago detailing his astounding exploits under hypnotic trances. Our driver was most impressed. I think the feeling was mutual. The fact that our driver could hold forth authoritatively on the subject of Christian psychics from Kentucky and the nuances of various states of Dhyana was somewhat astonishing for both Becky and myself. I guess that just goes to show you that you can't tell much about someone's depth or education by their station in life. Our driver was quite a scholar in his own way...but his driving still sucked. It's hard to take someone seriously as they offer up a discourse on an enlightenment while they play chicken with tuktuks in opposing lanes. He was quite aggressive in the way he braked around big vehicles, and bypassed smaller ones. On the highway he turned off on the wrong exit, and then decided to fix his mistake by driving in reverse about 1/4 kilometer to get back to the highway. Lordy. We were thankful to get out of the car a few minutes later at the grocery store, to pick up some supplies for the beach house. The following interaction took place in line at the checkout counter:

Becky: I can't deal with this right now.
Fuad: Chill out. We'll be done in a minute.
Becky: (eyes widening into a furious glare) How DARE you tell me to CHILL OUT?!!!
Fuad: (eyes widening) Uhhhh, ok?
Becky: Don't talk to me that way! I can't BELIEVE you just told me to CHILL OUT!
Fuad: (stifling laughter)...um...relax?
Becky: (shrill) DON'T TELL ME TO RELAX!

This little exchange played out over a few minutes, as I slowly came to realize it wasn't really funny and that Becky was actually really mad at me for not taking her seriously. Humor apparently wasn't going to fix it either. Oops. I include this small little incident here on our blog as a little window into our vacation. It's a little of realism that should be included into this document of our 2-week trip. While the pictures might imply that we were blissed out the entire time, we did, in fact, have a few arguments along the way, as couples do. Nothing serious, or lasting, or important, but it would be dishonest to pretend that two people can spend every minute of two weeks together without occasionally getting on each others nerves. In this case, I was apparently insensitive to the fact that my wife was car sick and overheated. I thought she was kidding when she implied "chill out" was some kind of derogatory statement. I mean...it's not like I wouldn't say that to my own mother, or anyone else, for that matter. But at the time, it was exactly the wrong this to say.  It took the rest of our ride, and our arrival at Ranil's phenomenal beach house to fully put that little episode behind us, and before long, we were right back in bliss. Which just goes to show you...sometimes you need to have bumps in the road to really appreciate how smooth the rest of the ride is... Right Becky? Oh, and CHILL OUT! ;-p