Details

Often it is the details in life, the extra $5 bill you find in an old pair of jeans, the feeling of soil on your hands, that perfect cup of coffee that someone left in the coffee pot that makes a difference. Of this, I am certain. 

While the cruise I recently went on wasn't all I thought it should be, the details that carried me and my two gal pals through those fabulous five days was what made the difference. 

When I was in Nassau, my fall lead to a bloody knee, which lead to a vendor who soaked a cloth for me to wipe the blood away, and who also gave me a free bandage. 

The plane ride to Ft. Lauderdale found me sitting next to a guy who was kind and who coincidentally enough, had some background in The Biz. We sat chatting, and at a time, much like any other, where I find myself growing ever more anxious of my future in terms of writing and work, he had the nicest words for me. 

"Figure out what you want to do, plug away at it, and you'll make your way." 

All things countless people have told me, but listening to his life story and how he got involved from being a risk assessor in Missouri for an insurance company, to owning his own entertainment insurance division really stoked my fire. Here, sitting next to me was a man who's life turned out quite nicely, all from strange and humble beginnings. 

Had I been sitting next to someone else, I wouldn't have heard those words with the same conviction, the same belief that stretched across the armrest located between us, to enter my brain where I would take it to heart. 

Back in Ft. Lauderdale, unbeknownst to us, the restaurants near our hotel sponsored music nights, which meant I got to hear some great bluesy guitar and groove with my friends. The music filled the air, making the night that much better. Did I mention there was a delicious ice cream place just down the road from our hotel? Didn't plan that one. Nor did I plan that a very nice gentleman at the hotel would cut down coconuts for both Anne and I. I didn't plan drinking from coconuts, but there I was, sun bathing after swimming, doing a completely tropical thing.

It's the details that made it so cool.