The night before was pretty fabulous as well...
And people wonder why I love the holidays so much!
I'm Baaaaaaaaack (for today anyway)
7 years ago
Monday, December 28, 2009
Jingling All the Way...
This year's festivities followed a similar story to the previous year's. And I think we look just as good!! The pictures speak for themselves...
Sunday, December 20, 2009
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
There are two things you may have learned about me by this point, 1-I LOVE Christmas and 2-I LOVE hanging out with my family. This story is a perfect illustration of why these two things are true.
After four years of spending Christmas away from my family working in Colorado, December of 2007 I was finally home again. However, things didn’t go quite as I had planned. My mom informed me that we would be spending Christmas Day in Florida with my grandparents. I was fine with that plan, and quite excited for the whole family to be together again, but I couldn’t help feeling sad that we wouldn’t have a white Christmas (I mean we went golfing on Xmas day…that’s just not right!). So my mom promised that once we got back to New Hampshire we could have another Christmas; one complete with snow, a fire in the fireplace, and a few falls on the ice from Beano.
On the morning of December 28th, my mom and stepdad (Beano) were in the kitchen having breakfast when Beano asked, “Do we have to dress up for Christmas dinner tonight?” My mom (for some unknown reason) was appalled by this, “Are you serious? In the ten years we’ve had Christmas dinner together, have we ever ONCE had to dress up?!?”
“Ahh whatevah,” Beano grumbled. Still upset by his absurdity, my mom went upstairs and burst in to my bedroom where my sister and I were sleeping.
“Guess what Beano just asked me!” she exclaimed, and proceeded to explain the whole incident. To which I replied, “You mean dress up in costumes?” Well that comment got us going back and forth about how funny it would be if we all dressed up in costumes and next thing you know we’ve come up with the most brilliant plan. The three of us decided we would go to the Good Will and look for the most ridiculous ‘dress up’ outfits we could find and they would be the required attire for Christmas dinner that year. We got my brother in on the plan as well.
When it was time to eat, the four of us said, “OK Beano, we’re going to go get dressed up now.” As we paraded up the stairs he stayed put in his chair saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He had no idea how pretty we were getting upstairs...
After four years of spending Christmas away from my family working in Colorado, December of 2007 I was finally home again. However, things didn’t go quite as I had planned. My mom informed me that we would be spending Christmas Day in Florida with my grandparents. I was fine with that plan, and quite excited for the whole family to be together again, but I couldn’t help feeling sad that we wouldn’t have a white Christmas (I mean we went golfing on Xmas day…that’s just not right!). So my mom promised that once we got back to New Hampshire we could have another Christmas; one complete with snow, a fire in the fireplace, and a few falls on the ice from Beano.
On the morning of December 28th, my mom and stepdad (Beano) were in the kitchen having breakfast when Beano asked, “Do we have to dress up for Christmas dinner tonight?” My mom (for some unknown reason) was appalled by this, “Are you serious? In the ten years we’ve had Christmas dinner together, have we ever ONCE had to dress up?!?”
“Ahh whatevah,” Beano grumbled. Still upset by his absurdity, my mom went upstairs and burst in to my bedroom where my sister and I were sleeping.
“Guess what Beano just asked me!” she exclaimed, and proceeded to explain the whole incident. To which I replied, “You mean dress up in costumes?” Well that comment got us going back and forth about how funny it would be if we all dressed up in costumes and next thing you know we’ve come up with the most brilliant plan. The three of us decided we would go to the Good Will and look for the most ridiculous ‘dress up’ outfits we could find and they would be the required attire for Christmas dinner that year. We got my brother in on the plan as well.
When it was time to eat, the four of us said, “OK Beano, we’re going to go get dressed up now.” As we paraded up the stairs he stayed put in his chair saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He had no idea how pretty we were getting upstairs...
Once we were as pretty as we could possibly get, we paraded back down to show off our threads.
"What the hell are you guys wearing?!?!" was his response.
"You said you wanted to dress up for dinner. So we got out our prettiest outfits. Don't worry, we have one for you too."
We all expected resistance from Beano, but he was surprisingly excited to wear his fancy new Christmas digs.
We actually had quite the photo shoot that night....
And I'm fairly certain we completely embarrassed the dog...
We actually wore the outfits all through dinner and then some...
Who knows what this year will bring.....
Friday, December 11, 2009
A Shot in the Dark
Unfortunately for Patrice, I was still pretty useless during her watch. Still heavily medicated, I really didn’t do much other than nap and watch TV; which only last for about two hours before I’d nap again. We attempted a trip to the mall once, but after only fifteen minutes in the first store I had to leave because I was too exhausted.
One night (when I finally made it past 8:00pm) we decided to watch Bad Boys II. About halfway through the movie we heard a gunshot outside. (If you recall from earlier posts, my parent’s house is surrounded by acres and acres of woods; which are often times full of hunters). The sound of a gunshot is pretty unmistakable, and not usually a good sign.
“What was that?” Patrice asked.
“I’m sure it was just a hunter. We get a lot of those around here,” I calmly answered as if the hunters had ever been close enough to the house for us to hear their shots. We both seemed content with my answer and went back to watching the movie.
(what I assume the hunters in our yard look like)
About thirty seconds later there was a second shot. By this time logic had set in.
“Wait a second. It’s nine o’clock at night. It’s been dark for hours. That CAN’T be a hunter!” I exclaimed. Clearly the next logical explanation was a crazy serial killer (are there any that aren’t crazy?)
There are all sorts of windows in my parents living room, one of them being about the size of the wall. I kept getting flashes in my head of stray bullets from the serial killer’s gun flying through and shattering the massive window, landing somewhere in me or Patrice…or worse yet…Pippen. We had to act fast!
(Large window, vulnerable to stray bullets)
I grabbed Pippen while shouting, “We have to get to an inner wall where the bullets can’t reach us! I’ll grab the dog, you grab the phone! The safest place for us is the hallway, out of sightline from the windows!”
Instead of calling 9-1-1, I first called my mom (if I had known Darren at the time, I probably would’ve called him too). She said I needed to first calm down, if there was no imminent danger then we should call the non-emergency police number. I didn’t know that number by heart. We needed a phone book. Patrice bravely volunteered to risk her life by walking in front of multiple windows to get the phone book out of the office.
I can’t recall why, but we decided Patrice would make the call. Probably because she wasn’t the one crouched down in the inner hallway clutching the dog screaming about a serial killer outside. She told the woman on the phone our location and that we heard gun shots and think there may be a situation.
It turned out a car had hit a deer right in front of our house. The deer was pretty badly injured so when the cops arrived they shot it to put it out of its misery. (Apparently the cop wasn’t that great of a shot though if it took two bullets to kill the already hanging by a thread Bambi!)
We requested that if this happen again they call and at least let us know the reasoning behind the shots. The lady on the phone apologized, saying she didn’t realize it would alarm any residents. How foolish of us to react to the sound of a deadly weapon!
Between all the giggling that proceeded and the excitement of ‘cheating death’, I was too tired to watch the rest of the movie and went to bed. I’m sure Patrice stayed up contemplating why it was she agreed to spend a whole week with me!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
A Smashing Good Trick
On weekdays during my senior year of high school, bedtime was usually around 10:00pm. One particular evening as the clock approached the 22nd hour, I found myself alone in my bedroom nowhere near ready to fall asleep. Some people in this situation would read a book or watch TV to wind down. Not me. I used this extra energy to create an amazingly awesome trick.
For those of you that have never been to my childhood bedroom, it was very small. I had a twin bed that was flush against the wall, bookshelves and a desk lining the other walls, and that’s about all that fit.
The trick went as follows…
The bed was made. I turned down the corner of the sheets that was closest to the wall. I stepped back to the other side of the room (which was only about 6 feet). Then I took a few quick steps. Once I got right next to the bed I launched myself in to the air. As I hovered above the bed I grabbed the turned down sheet corner and with cat-like speed I did a 180 turn; landing on my back, tucked in between the sheets. Awesome.
I was so proud of myself for not only thinking up such a great trick but for also making it a reality. And I was shockingly successful at sticking the landing.
After about 30 minutes of doing my trick over and over, my mom stopped by to say goodnight.
“Oh good!! I was hoping you were coming up. I have an awesome new trick to show you. I’ve been practicing for like ever. I’m really good at it now.”
Her mouth said, “A trick??” but her face said, “Oh great! What now?!?!”
Now that I had an audience my awesomeness was under a lot more pressure. So when I ran, I ran a little harder. When I launched myself in to the air, I launched a little harder. And when I went to grab the sheets…BAM!!!
It took me a second to realize why I was lying on top of the sheets and not proudly tucked between them; that instead of doing a 180 I had just body slammed myself in to the wall.
With the exact same look on her face my mom simply said, “Neat trick Katie” and walked away.
She eventually did come back to see if the noise she was hearing was sobbing or uncontrollable giggling. It was the latter of the two. I suspect she spent that night lying in bed thinking about how proud she was of her brilliant baby girl…either that or wondering where she went wrong!
For those of you that have never been to my childhood bedroom, it was very small. I had a twin bed that was flush against the wall, bookshelves and a desk lining the other walls, and that’s about all that fit.
(This is not my actual bedroom. I couldn’t find a good picture to use but felt an image was necessary. I actually have no idea whose bedroom this is.)
The trick went as follows…
The bed was made. I turned down the corner of the sheets that was closest to the wall. I stepped back to the other side of the room (which was only about 6 feet). Then I took a few quick steps. Once I got right next to the bed I launched myself in to the air. As I hovered above the bed I grabbed the turned down sheet corner and with cat-like speed I did a 180 turn; landing on my back, tucked in between the sheets. Awesome.
I was so proud of myself for not only thinking up such a great trick but for also making it a reality. And I was shockingly successful at sticking the landing.
After about 30 minutes of doing my trick over and over, my mom stopped by to say goodnight.
“Oh good!! I was hoping you were coming up. I have an awesome new trick to show you. I’ve been practicing for like ever. I’m really good at it now.”
Her mouth said, “A trick??” but her face said, “Oh great! What now?!?!”
Now that I had an audience my awesomeness was under a lot more pressure. So when I ran, I ran a little harder. When I launched myself in to the air, I launched a little harder. And when I went to grab the sheets…BAM!!!
It took me a second to realize why I was lying on top of the sheets and not proudly tucked between them; that instead of doing a 180 I had just body slammed myself in to the wall.
With the exact same look on her face my mom simply said, “Neat trick Katie” and walked away.
She eventually did come back to see if the noise she was hearing was sobbing or uncontrollable giggling. It was the latter of the two. I suspect she spent that night lying in bed thinking about how proud she was of her brilliant baby girl…either that or wondering where she went wrong!
Friday, November 27, 2009
One Fatal Flush
While living in Aspen I worked at the Mexican restaurant La Cantina. That job will most likely go down as one of my best jobs ever. Not only were the money and the atmosphere phenomenal, but the friendships I made with my coworkers are the kind that will last a lifetime. Over my almost four years on the payroll I saw a lot of people come and go; but throughout there was a core group of us that remained as close as family. To this day I still consider them as such, even though we are currently spread out across the country. Darren was (and is) the fearless leader of this family, the Mama Pata if you will. He was the kind of boss/friend that I told EVERYTHING to and often turned to for advice.
So now that I’ve given a brief background, on with the story…
My usual shift started at 3:30pm. Often times I would be doing something around town during the day then just head in to work a little early and get ready there. The restrooms at Cantina are located downstairs, but there is one single handicapped bathroom upstairs located near the entrance to the kitchen. At some point it was determined that this was the “employee bathroom”. It was here that I always changed and got ready for my shift, this day was no different.
Before changing my shirt, I took the sunglasses that are always resting on top of my head and hooked them in to my pocket so they wouldn’t fall. My memory doesn’t allow me to recall exactly what led up to this, but somewhere during my “getting ready” those sunglasses somehow flew out of my pocket and landed with a splash right in to the toilet.
I had not used the toilet while in there so the glasses were just sitting in plain old toilet water. Any normal human being would have just reached in, grabbed them out, rinsed them off and gone on with their lives as if nothing happened. If I were normal, and if that’s how this story went, then it probably wouldn’t be on this blog now would it?
I went for option B. I bolted out of the bathroom in search of Darren. The restaurant was fairly empty at that time of day so I expected to find him just standing there wiping menus, ready to save the day. Instead I found him talking to some customers about who knows what. The customers’ backs were to me so I tried my best to get in Darren’s line of sight and get his attention. I kept giving him my “It’s important, I need you” look. I’m pretty sure he interpreted it as my “I have something really funny to tell you and I can’t wait” look and ignored me.
After what seemed like forever, Darren ended his conversation and walked over towards me.
“D! I need your help! I know this is going to sound REALLY weird, but I need you to come to the bathroom with me and see what I did,” I explained. Surprisingly, he didn’t question me and the two of us went to investigate.
I pulled the door handle only to discover it was locked. NOOO!! I immediately realized that the woman who had been sitting at table 4 just 30 seconds ago had somehow snuck by me and was in the bathroom.
“Smiles, what is going on?” Darren asked. I led him around the corner and explained what had happened.
“Why didn’t you just take them out?”
“Because I came looking for you instead!” DUH!
As soon as Table 4 lady exited, we both rushed in to assess the damage. We were greeted with an empty toilet bowl. It seemed as though the glasses were flushed with ease. Since there didn’t appear to be any clogging, we assumed all was right with the world again; I giggled, Darren shook his head saying, “oooh Smiley, Smiley, Smiley. You crazy.” And we moved on with our lives.
The next day I had off so I went down valley to do some shopping. Early afternoon I received a phone call from the manager on duty at Cantina. He was calling to inform me that because of my sunglass flushing incident the toilet in the employee bathroom was overflowing and flooding the area. Apparently one of the other employees on duty hadn’t heard about the incident and used the facilities to go #2. The combination of her actions with my sunglasses caused a blockage in the pipes and thus the overflowing. The manager said it was severe enough a problem that a plumber was called; he just thought I should be aware since I was partly to blame. It didn’t sound too serious and a plumber was on his way, so again, I figured all was right with the world and I went on with my day.
A few hours later I got a call from Darren, “You need to get in here.” He didn’t sound his normal chipper self, and he didn’t call me by my nickname…this can’t be good.
Upon arriving back at Cantina I was greeted by a straight-faced Darren, “Come with me. I want you to see what you’ve caused.” Apparently the clog from earlier in the day required the plumber to snake the drain. When the snake met the sunglasses in the drain it caused the device to jerk back. The backlash of the jerk did this…
Thankfully this incident wasn’t what ended my Cantina career. I don’t know what it was that made Darren show mercy on me for this very expensive mistake. Perhaps it was because a family’s love is unconditional, you stick together through thick and thin. Or perhaps it was because he figured keeping me around was the best way to get repaid. Whatever it was, I’m grateful for it. It would have been quite the shame if I had lost that job to one fatal flush!
So now that I’ve given a brief background, on with the story…
My usual shift started at 3:30pm. Often times I would be doing something around town during the day then just head in to work a little early and get ready there. The restrooms at Cantina are located downstairs, but there is one single handicapped bathroom upstairs located near the entrance to the kitchen. At some point it was determined that this was the “employee bathroom”. It was here that I always changed and got ready for my shift, this day was no different.
Before changing my shirt, I took the sunglasses that are always resting on top of my head and hooked them in to my pocket so they wouldn’t fall. My memory doesn’t allow me to recall exactly what led up to this, but somewhere during my “getting ready” those sunglasses somehow flew out of my pocket and landed with a splash right in to the toilet.
I had not used the toilet while in there so the glasses were just sitting in plain old toilet water. Any normal human being would have just reached in, grabbed them out, rinsed them off and gone on with their lives as if nothing happened. If I were normal, and if that’s how this story went, then it probably wouldn’t be on this blog now would it?
I went for option B. I bolted out of the bathroom in search of Darren. The restaurant was fairly empty at that time of day so I expected to find him just standing there wiping menus, ready to save the day. Instead I found him talking to some customers about who knows what. The customers’ backs were to me so I tried my best to get in Darren’s line of sight and get his attention. I kept giving him my “It’s important, I need you” look. I’m pretty sure he interpreted it as my “I have something really funny to tell you and I can’t wait” look and ignored me.
After what seemed like forever, Darren ended his conversation and walked over towards me.
“D! I need your help! I know this is going to sound REALLY weird, but I need you to come to the bathroom with me and see what I did,” I explained. Surprisingly, he didn’t question me and the two of us went to investigate.
I pulled the door handle only to discover it was locked. NOOO!! I immediately realized that the woman who had been sitting at table 4 just 30 seconds ago had somehow snuck by me and was in the bathroom.
“Smiles, what is going on?” Darren asked. I led him around the corner and explained what had happened.
“Why didn’t you just take them out?”
“Because I came looking for you instead!” DUH!
As soon as Table 4 lady exited, we both rushed in to assess the damage. We were greeted with an empty toilet bowl. It seemed as though the glasses were flushed with ease. Since there didn’t appear to be any clogging, we assumed all was right with the world again; I giggled, Darren shook his head saying, “oooh Smiley, Smiley, Smiley. You crazy.” And we moved on with our lives.
The next day I had off so I went down valley to do some shopping. Early afternoon I received a phone call from the manager on duty at Cantina. He was calling to inform me that because of my sunglass flushing incident the toilet in the employee bathroom was overflowing and flooding the area. Apparently one of the other employees on duty hadn’t heard about the incident and used the facilities to go #2. The combination of her actions with my sunglasses caused a blockage in the pipes and thus the overflowing. The manager said it was severe enough a problem that a plumber was called; he just thought I should be aware since I was partly to blame. It didn’t sound too serious and a plumber was on his way, so again, I figured all was right with the world and I went on with my day.
A few hours later I got a call from Darren, “You need to get in here.” He didn’t sound his normal chipper self, and he didn’t call me by my nickname…this can’t be good.
Upon arriving back at Cantina I was greeted by a straight-faced Darren, “Come with me. I want you to see what you’ve caused.” Apparently the clog from earlier in the day required the plumber to snake the drain. When the snake met the sunglasses in the drain it caused the device to jerk back. The backlash of the jerk did this…
Oops!!
Thankfully this incident wasn’t what ended my Cantina career. I don’t know what it was that made Darren show mercy on me for this very expensive mistake. Perhaps it was because a family’s love is unconditional, you stick together through thick and thin. Or perhaps it was because he figured keeping me around was the best way to get repaid. Whatever it was, I’m grateful for it. It would have been quite the shame if I had lost that job to one fatal flush!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
A Girl's Best Friend
One year ago today was one of the worst days of my life. I had to say goodbye to the love of my life, Pippen. So today's post is a picture tribute to her. Thanks for 16 great years!!
Me and my baby
Wearing her winter coat in the snow
Her 3rd birthday and her 15th birthday
My little football player
My little patient
Seriously, how cute is she!??!?!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Copenhagen Keys
During my time in Europe, I took advantage of my location and seized every opportunity I could to travel. Accompanying me on every one of my trips, except two, was my very good friend Esmeralda (who from here on will be referred to as E). We made great travel buddies and got very used to each other’s quirks.
Our spring break that year happened to fall on the week of St.Patty’s Day. So our plan for this extended break from school was as follows: a group of us flew out to Ireland for a few days to tour the countryside and celebrate the holiday. From there E and I went on to Scandinavia. We spent two days in Denmark visiting friends, two days in Sweden, two days in Norway, then back to Denmark for two days, and rounded out the trip with two days in London. (Although due to a currency conversion mishap in Sweden we ran out of money to get us downtown London and ended up spending the two days at Stansted airport. But that’s a whole different story.)
And while we’re on the subject of Scandinavia, I’d like to note that this part of the world is where all the pretty people come from. Denmark is full of the world’s MOST beautiful people. I’m telling you, they are ALL gorgeous. E and I spent a lot of time people watching and saying “Seriously, how can this many people be this good looking?!?” So if you ever have the chance to go to Scandinavia, take it. You won’t be sorry!
Anyway, this story occurred while E and I were visiting Denmark for the second time. We were very good at stretching our money while traveling and being that Scandinavia is so expensive, we took overnight trains and buses between countries to save on paying for a hostel. Once we arrived in our destination country we usually found our hostel, dropped off all our stuff, took quick showers, and then began our adventures. This instance was no different.
As I mentioned before, this was our second time through Copenhagen on this trip. The first time we stayed in a hostel that was more towards the outskirts of the city; this time around we found a very nice one right downtown. Like most hostels, there weren’t individual bathroom facilities but a communal bathroom shared by all those on the floor. So E and I got to our room and gathered our stuff for the shower. The showers were not too far away and there didn’t seem to be many people on the floor so it was much easier for us to undress in our room and walk to the bathrooms in just our towels. E was ready first and as she left the room she said, “I’ve got the shampoo and conditioner, make sure you bring the key with you when you leave.” I told her I wouldn’t forget and I’d see her there. As I said, E was used to traveling with me and knew there were moments (VERY rarely) that I could be a little spacey, so she said again, “Seriously, make sure you bring the key.” I held up the key card to prove I had it, “I’m only in charge of this and my towel, I think I can handle it.”
Feeling refreshed after showering, we walked back to the room together in our towels. We got to the door and every attempt of the key was met with a flashing red light. CRAP!! I could feel the look E was giving me.
“I thought you said you had the key”
“I do!! This has to be our key! See, it says Copenhagen on it”
That’s when I realized my mistake. The key was in fact from our hostel in Copenhagen, but not the one we were currently standing in…in nothing but small towels. The key I brought to the shower with me was the key from our first hostel, and no matter how hard I tried, it wasn’t going to open the door to our current room.
E was no stranger to these rare moments of mine so she didn’t get mad (but she wasn’t giggling like I was) instead she just stood there giving me her “Esmeralda look” and said, “Well why are you just standing there? Go down to the lobby and get us a new key. You did it, you fix it.”
I of course did NOT want to walk down to the lobby in my shower sandals and towel to get a key…at least I didn't want to go alone. After a few minutes of pleading, E finally agreed to ride the elevator down with me. But she was not leaving the elevator and she was not doing the talking. That was fine with me, I just didn’t want to fly solo.
So we both got on the elevator, me giggling all the way. The doors opened to the lobby and, of course, it was packed with people waiting to check in. I knew there was no changing E’s mind about accompanying me to the desk, so I hesitantly stepped out and tried to find the most discreet way to get a key without waiting in line. Luckily one of the front desk guys noticed me (I’m pretty sure everyone noticed the half naked girl with dripping wet hair) and walked over to the end of the desk.
“You need a new key don’t you?”
“How’d you guess??”
With my replacement key in hand, I scurried back to the elevator where E was patiently waiting, along with a few new additions to the car who also happened to be staying on our floor. After just a couple more awkward moments we finally made it back in to the room (and to all our clothing) where we got ready for the next chapter in the adventures of E&C (also known as the adventures of A&C ;) )
p.s. I apologize for the lack of posts last week...life was a little hectic...I will try to not let it happen again!!
Our spring break that year happened to fall on the week of St.Patty’s Day. So our plan for this extended break from school was as follows: a group of us flew out to Ireland for a few days to tour the countryside and celebrate the holiday. From there E and I went on to Scandinavia. We spent two days in Denmark visiting friends, two days in Sweden, two days in Norway, then back to Denmark for two days, and rounded out the trip with two days in London. (Although due to a currency conversion mishap in Sweden we ran out of money to get us downtown London and ended up spending the two days at Stansted airport. But that’s a whole different story.)
And while we’re on the subject of Scandinavia, I’d like to note that this part of the world is where all the pretty people come from. Denmark is full of the world’s MOST beautiful people. I’m telling you, they are ALL gorgeous. E and I spent a lot of time people watching and saying “Seriously, how can this many people be this good looking?!?” So if you ever have the chance to go to Scandinavia, take it. You won’t be sorry!
Anyway, this story occurred while E and I were visiting Denmark for the second time. We were very good at stretching our money while traveling and being that Scandinavia is so expensive, we took overnight trains and buses between countries to save on paying for a hostel. Once we arrived in our destination country we usually found our hostel, dropped off all our stuff, took quick showers, and then began our adventures. This instance was no different.
(Copenhagen, Denmark...aka Land of the Pretty People)
Feeling refreshed after showering, we walked back to the room together in our towels. We got to the door and every attempt of the key was met with a flashing red light. CRAP!! I could feel the look E was giving me.
“I thought you said you had the key”
“I do!! This has to be our key! See, it says Copenhagen on it”
That’s when I realized my mistake. The key was in fact from our hostel in Copenhagen, but not the one we were currently standing in…in nothing but small towels. The key I brought to the shower with me was the key from our first hostel, and no matter how hard I tried, it wasn’t going to open the door to our current room.
E was no stranger to these rare moments of mine so she didn’t get mad (but she wasn’t giggling like I was) instead she just stood there giving me her “Esmeralda look” and said, “Well why are you just standing there? Go down to the lobby and get us a new key. You did it, you fix it.”
I of course did NOT want to walk down to the lobby in my shower sandals and towel to get a key…at least I didn't want to go alone. After a few minutes of pleading, E finally agreed to ride the elevator down with me. But she was not leaving the elevator and she was not doing the talking. That was fine with me, I just didn’t want to fly solo.
So we both got on the elevator, me giggling all the way. The doors opened to the lobby and, of course, it was packed with people waiting to check in. I knew there was no changing E’s mind about accompanying me to the desk, so I hesitantly stepped out and tried to find the most discreet way to get a key without waiting in line. Luckily one of the front desk guys noticed me (I’m pretty sure everyone noticed the half naked girl with dripping wet hair) and walked over to the end of the desk.
“You need a new key don’t you?”
“How’d you guess??”
With my replacement key in hand, I scurried back to the elevator where E was patiently waiting, along with a few new additions to the car who also happened to be staying on our floor. After just a couple more awkward moments we finally made it back in to the room (and to all our clothing) where we got ready for the next chapter in the adventures of E&C (also known as the adventures of A&C ;) )
p.s. I apologize for the lack of posts last week...life was a little hectic...I will try to not let it happen again!!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Hula Oops!
During my Junior year of high school, my mom had to go to Hawaii for work. That year I didn’t really have much of a spring break, so she invited me to tag along with her. She would have to work during the days but our hotel was right on the beach so I shouldn’t have any problem keeping myself occupied. I don’t have much patience when it comes to just laying in the sun, so after some exploring I found a whole book of activities offered daily by the hotel. JACKPOT!
One of the activities that looked interesting to me was Hula Aerobics. It was to be held the next morning 9:00-10:00am outside in the courtyard. It sounded so fun, I couldn’t wait. My mom didn’t have to leave for her appointment until 9:30 so she said she would come with me and watch for at least a few minutes, maybe take a picture or two.
So the next morning I got up nice and early and got ready for my aerobics class. I was a little nervous because I didn’t pack any “work out” clothes or shoes; if it got too intense I may be in trouble. It took us a little longer than anticipated to get down to the courtyard. I started freaking out because I HATE being late for things.
We finally made it to the courtyard. I saw the class warming up and stopped dead in my tracks; my mom burst out in laughter.
“That’s the class you wanted to do?”
Standing in the middle of the courtyard was a woman who was easily 70 years old. She was surrounded by 10 or 12 kids, the oldest not a day over 9. I wanted to turn around and go back to the room. Between giggles my mom said, “Katie you can’t just quit. You said you wanted to do the class. Just go join them, it could be fun.”
Reluctantly I walked over and stood at the back of the class. All the other parents tried their best not to stare. I’m sure they just assumed I was a special child. My mom didn’t help matters much. She just took pictures the WHOLE time, clapping and saying how proud she was.
10 mins later the class was over. I got out of there as fast as I could. My mom got a better workout than I did from all her laughing. The only thing I learned from the class is to make sure and research before
signing up for anything!
FOOTNOTE
An additional interesting fact: we had to check out of our hotel room a day early because the cast of Baywatch Hawaii was coming to town and they needed the room. Who needed our room you ask?? Well none other than THE David Hasselhoff!! Clearly they didn’t realize ‘he’ was already staying there! Oh the irony!!
(Our hotel)
One of the activities that looked interesting to me was Hula Aerobics. It was to be held the next morning 9:00-10:00am outside in the courtyard. It sounded so fun, I couldn’t wait. My mom didn’t have to leave for her appointment until 9:30 so she said she would come with me and watch for at least a few minutes, maybe take a picture or two.
So the next morning I got up nice and early and got ready for my aerobics class. I was a little nervous because I didn’t pack any “work out” clothes or shoes; if it got too intense I may be in trouble. It took us a little longer than anticipated to get down to the courtyard. I started freaking out because I HATE being late for things.
We finally made it to the courtyard. I saw the class warming up and stopped dead in my tracks; my mom burst out in laughter.
“That’s the class you wanted to do?”
Standing in the middle of the courtyard was a woman who was easily 70 years old. She was surrounded by 10 or 12 kids, the oldest not a day over 9. I wanted to turn around and go back to the room. Between giggles my mom said, “Katie you can’t just quit. You said you wanted to do the class. Just go join them, it could be fun.”
Reluctantly I walked over and stood at the back of the class. All the other parents tried their best not to stare. I’m sure they just assumed I was a special child. My mom didn’t help matters much. She just took pictures the WHOLE time, clapping and saying how proud she was.
(I'm the old one to the right)
10 mins later the class was over. I got out of there as fast as I could. My mom got a better workout than I did from all her laughing. The only thing I learned from the class is to make sure and research before
signing up for anything!
FOOTNOTE
An additional interesting fact: we had to check out of our hotel room a day early because the cast of Baywatch Hawaii was coming to town and they needed the room. Who needed our room you ask?? Well none other than THE David Hasselhoff!! Clearly they didn’t realize ‘he’ was already staying there! Oh the irony!!
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