Cassandra

So, there are three girls in town who have ended up here on the central Pacific coast of Costa Rica after spending the last five months traveling all over the world - from Bali to Europe to Africa.  All of them are cool as shit.  Three nights ago, though, one, Cassandra, decided late night to pick up a guitar being played by a friend and sing.  And it was incredible.  Absolutely incredible.  I fell in love. 

The next day we stole her from her friends, who didn't want to come from Hermosa to Oeste two nights in a row, and brought her to the Soda Mary where Brett was serving homemade chile and live local music.  Cassie and I headed down to the Soda around 6:30.  After a bowl or two of freakin deliciousness, people started picking up instruments.  Lead largely by Cooper, who they say come from the band Blood Sweat and Tears, the town lit up.  Shannon on the acoustic guitar, Beau on the bass, Legend Mike on the harmonica, backed up Cooper, whose voice seems to penetrate walls and gives the air of a true concert hall in the open setting at the Soda.  

And then Cassie joined in.  And I can't even express how sweet, soulful, powerful, and alive her voice is.  And Cassie's sweet highs mixed with Cooper's solid lows was literally world class.  As Jeni put it, it appeared that there were little tiny pink cartoon hearts popping all around me and Lee as Cassie's lyrics penetrated our souls.  And it WAS like that.  Little pink cartoon hearts and all.  Just like in the movie "One Crazy Summer."  (By the way, Jeni hasn't seen One Crazy Summer, where John Cusack plays a cartoonist falling in love with a singer, Cassandra!, and draws a cartoon image of himself falling in love with little pink hearts bursting all around him.)

But there was so much more there than Cassie.  The town, at least that little corner, overflowed with love.  The smiles, the laughs, the music, the chile... It all added to just a superb sensation that I hadn't felt in a little while here.  A night that I will remember, for sure.  And, of course, it was a Tuesday.