No, we did not have guests over to dinner. We had guests in our dinner. I’m prepping food in the galley (which has rather dim light). I pour a cup of rice into boiling water and begin stirring it. That’s odd, I think. I don’t remember putting spices in yet. I look more closely at all the floating brown flecks. I then look into the container of rice and see hundreds of bugs scrambling around. Weevils. I’ve never seen them before but I’ve read about them and how they can be a problem in dry goods on boats. Bay leaves supposedly deter them but I never bothered to put any in the container. I show them to Matt. “They’re a source of protein,” I say to the man who once ate cricket tacos. He gives me a look, takes the pot and dumps it overboard. The boys take the offending container to land and dispose of the rice and its inhabitants. I open a fresh bag of rice. It’s just rice. That’s nice.
Matt is grilling up on deck. He calls us up and says he wants to share something. He felt like talking to his dad (who died in 2013) so he just started talking out loud to him, as if he were on the phone. He felt like his dad was there with him and, when he was finished a brilliant shooting star began moving across the sky. He thought it was so cool and wanted to tell us about it. But that’s not the end of the story. Earlier in the day, I went into a little shop to look for a Christmas gift for Matt. He loves sea turtles so I was looking for something in that realm but nothing looked appealing. I then saw this engraved rock and bought it. [It says “Perhaps the stars in the sky are loved ones letting us know they are near by guiding us through the night”]. 
Coincidence? I think not.
