My weekend beneath the blue suburban skies...

This past weekend I had the pleasure of taking a trip to sunny Florida and hanging out with the one and only Sexy Suburbanite. SS and I had been planning on having an adventure for quite a while and were finally able to make it happen. Not only that, but I got to meet Puppy and ride in Hocus Focus.

I arrived very late on Friday night (thanks to Atlanta's hellish traffic). Since we were already pretty tired when I finally made it, we had only a short 3 hour conversation and then went to bed so we could get up early and begin the fun.


We started our day out at Animal Kingdom, which was not even built the last time I went to the Disney theme parks. I liked it a lot. But even though we barely escaped the angry Yeti at Mount Everest (whew!) and witnessed very large angry bats mating (quite aggressively), I still have to say that my favorite was our safari through the Serengeti.

Africa was so awesome that we decided to tour the rest of the world so we headed off to Epcot where we discovered the rest of the world. SS knew my love of Germany so she chose the Germany Pavillion as our lunch spot.

We ate a ton of schnitzel, sausages, and other German delicacies. (Or at least I did!) Not to mention the liter of beer we each consumed. I certainly did feel like I was back in Munich after the beer.

In Morocco I tried on this super sexy fez. It looks good on me, no? Okay, so it did look a little dorky, but at least it matched well with my shirt.

Here's SS finishing up her Margarita we got in Mexico before hitting the monorail to our next destination--Magic Kingdom!

The castle was lit up like it was draped in ice. It was so beautiful. You could almost believe that dreams really do come true at Disney. haha!

While at Magic Kingdom, we rode two of my favorite rides--Pirates of the Caribbean and (of course) the Haunted Mansion. After all these years, those hologram ghosts still rock the house!

After taking in the fireworks show and then waiting a couple of years in line for the bus to take us back to where we parked, we headed back to SS's house, where we actually didn't talk long before we fell asleep.

We needed that sleep for our last day of fun!

We went to Sea World! I still love the penguins best there. At least they are my favorite animals. My favorite activity was the beer tasting that we had partaken in! Now as I mentioned before, I have been to these parks (except Animal Kingdom) before, but those were all family trips. This was my first taste of adult fun at the theme parks. And we did do a lot of tasting...of Anheuser-Busch beers, that is!

I think that the beer beforehand made the Shamu Show much better. I seriously don't remember it being so gay in the past. Shamu would just do cool tricks with her trainers and splash the audience with her massive tail. Now Shamu is here to teach you something...You need to believe in yourself!




Thanks Shamu! Without you, I would be a total inconfident loser!
But now I believe in myself.

All of you should believe in yourselves, too. Dreams can come true.

And our dream came true when we were able to find these big ice cream cones. It was the perfect lunch--beer and ice cream!

It seems that eating and drinking is what we did best. We had more in common than I could have possibly imagined! ;)

Thank you SS for a wonderful weekend. I can't wait until we do it again!

A 2 for 1 Post

This post is a two parter.

I would like to dedicate the first half of my post to my Uncle B., whom my family lost unexpectedly this week to congestive heart failure. Needless to say, I write with a heavy heart as I look back and remember my time with him. He didn't have any children of his own and he loved his nieces and nephews very much. I know that my brother and I were his favorite. As children, my brother and I were very spoiled by him. As I grew up into the busy adult that I have become, I spent less and less time with him. He had some troubles in his life that caused him to drift away from his family. One thing that never changed, though, was the fact that I knew he loved me and he knew I loved him. For that, I am glad. I am regretful that I didn't see him as much as I would have liked within the last year or two, but I find solace in the fact he knew I cared.

Friends, I learned a valuable lesson a few years ago when my best friend died suddenly. It is important to let your loved ones know exactly how you feel about them. You never know how long you will be blessed to have them and you never know how long you will be blessed with your own life. It can end tomorrow. Please make sure you let your loved ones know how important they are. Make sure you do the things your heart tells you to.

Uncle B., God rest your weary soul. I'll miss you.

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Now, for the second part of my post...

I am very excited about this upcoming weekend for two reasons. One, I am going on a trip to Orlando, Florida for some fun. And second (and most importantly!) I will be meeting up with one of my closest blog buddies, Sexy Suburbanite! I know that we are going to have a blast and it is going to be so awesome to talk face to face rather than via our 10 page emails or 2 hour phone conversations. (We have a lot to say!) I am very excited to see what adventures may find us.

SS will make the third blogger I have met. I never in a million years imagined that I would actually meet anyone whose blog I have read when I first started posting. I didn't start my blog to make friends, but they have been the best part of this experience.

The first blogger I met was Yrautca , a fellow Atlantan who was living in Seattle when I met him over a year ago. (Now he's in Chicago.) He had come home to visit his family here in Atlanta and we decided to meet up. I was a little nervous about it, but it seemed so silly not to have dinner with this person who I've emailed and read so many of his thoughts through his blog. So we had dinner at my favorite quirky restaurant and had a great time. He's a lot of fun to be around.

I always had a feeling that I'd meet the second blogger I met. Well, I didn't have that feeling at first when I was only reading his blog, but after emails, IM conversations, and many, many phone conversations with him, I knew we would meet up. After all, he, the Grunt, lives in Utah and anyone that has read my blog knows that I am frequent visitor to Utah. I was nervous then, too, the first time I met the Grunt,but it only took a few minutes for the awkwardness to wear off and I felt completely comfortable and completely myself around him. The second time we hung out was even better. Now I cant wait until our third visit. The Grunt has become more than a blog buddy to me. I consider him one of my best friends now. He is always there for me when I need a pick-me-up and always there to make my good days even better.

He's quite the musician, too! I have listened to the two CDs he has sent me a million times over, but I have something to brag about!* I got to hear a live performance Saturday night over the phone. I am the first blogger to claim that priviledge. I'm so lucky! :) So Grunty, thanks for the concert and thanks for cheering up a sad girl. YOU ROCK!!!!

And SS, I am counting down the days! I can't wait to hang out!
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*In no way whatsoever was I influenced by the Grunt to brag to the whole Blogosphere community about being the first blogger to have the pleasure of his live music nor to brag about how much he rocks. Right Grunt? ;)

Only a dream

I had a dream last night that really caused me to ponder my life.

In my dream... I was sitting on my bed reading a book or magazine. I gazed over at a fully packed backpack leaned up against my bookshelf. I spoke aloud, "I'm just gonna do it. It's time." I picked up my cat (who I love dearly) kissed her and sat her down on my bed. I reached for my cell phone and hit a button on it that (my phone in real life doesn't have) that said Delete All Contacts. Without hesitation I hit the button, pulled the battery out (not sure what the point in that was) and dropped it to the floor. I grabbed my backpack and walked out of the door for the last time.

I got into my car and drove it until it ran out of gas then I ditched it. The next thing I did was push my car into a lake on the side of the road that suddenly appeared. I placed the pack upon my back and disappeared into the wooded hillside. This trail I walked along was magically beautiful. Every color was intense and every sound was so quiet. The last thing I saw before I woke up was a shimmering blue lake and the snow-capped mountains that surrounded it off in the distance. That's when my alarm went off.

I was puzzled. I often have dreams that I remember and usually I can figure out what triggered them. I wondered as I stepped into the shower and as I brushed my teeth and was still left clueless as I drove to work this morning.

I will admit that there are times when I want to vanish away to some new place and start a new life without anyone in the world knowing where I went. I also know that I couldn't do that to the people who love me. I have admitted this to only a couple of people, one of them being my mother. It's no wonder that she has a panic attack each time she finds out that I have bought a one-way ticket to somewhere. Poor woman.

Even though I would not relocate my life without letting anyone know where I was going and certainly not decide to backpack my way through life, I was still left wondering what it was in the dream that had made me want to basically erase my existance to the people I love. I am pretty sure that the reason I chose to disappear down a trail with a backpack was influenced by the research I have been doing lately on backpacking the John Muir Trail. Why I no longer wanted to talk to my friends and family anymore is very strange to me. And I guess that's why we mutter away our questions in our alert minds raised by our subconcious thoughts while we're sleeping away by shrugging our shoulders and saying, "It was only a dream."

Snap! Back to reality... In real life, I just begun my training for hiking the 200+ mile John Muir Trail in California. I am hoping that these 8 months will get me in the shape I need to be in to tackle it. I am hoping to backpack it with Best Friend in July. But unlike the dream, I am also planning on writing down a detailed itenerary for everyone and returning (alive I hope!) back home.

Go me!