If you have been paying attention (and I sincerely hope you have because there will be a test at the end) you might notice the lag time between posts. Normally I don’t like to post something unless I have pictures, in order to give you something to read. Unfortunately that means it may be a while until I have an adventure that is picture/post worthy.
Well that all changed! I have been inspired.
Oh no! I got to keep a MOOVIN!
New thought-every blog title will be a song. Done. Enacting it….NOW.
So yeah, I have been a-movin. A week after I came back from Miami, I made the ol’ annual pilgrimage to DePue, IL for the national boat races and then zipped over to Manhattan to work. Slight difference there. Although, they do call DePue the Manhattan of southern IL. Coincidence?!?! Yeah, probably.
Now to get to DePue, you have to fly into Chicago and then drive 2 hours southwest. Now in being a big girl and booking her own travel, Marissa booked her flight and car way in advance in order to get a slammin deal (speaking in the third person is also part of being a big girl). However, Marissa failed to notice until a week before that she booked her flight into Midway and her car rental was at O’Hare with NO desk at Midway and an exorbitant price difference if she books anywhere else. And thus begins her great train adventure.
Arrive mid afternoon at Midway with my skin dewey fresh after having sobbed uncontrollably from loosing my phone in the bathroom-then even more so when it was returned. Imagine loosing your baby, literally, except that this baby is 100 times more useful because it stores all of your information in it and that makes you love it more. And it doesn’t cry. Just rings melodiously. Anyways, I lost it, then I cried and checked all over the bathroom and with every person at every desk in a 5 mile radius, then I stood at my gate and cried more, and then the heavens opened up and I heard a lyrical voice sing “If you have lost a Verizon phone in the bathroom, come to the downstairs baggage claim.” Doves flew by, no joke. So I run to the exit and the security demon tells me that I have to go BACK through security if I want to get on my plane. Phone? Or flight? Phone? Or flight? Duh, phone. I run down, grab it, and then somehow make it back through and am the last one on the the flight. Everyone that I told as I walked down the aisle was quite understanding. And that made a lady remember she forgot her baby somewhere.
Right, train. So I make my way out of the airport and down to to the train/subway.
I mean, people do this every day. There was a man carrying a cello! The train was actually awesome. Chicago is pretty neat and I want to spend more time there. I loved being able to just see what I could.
So finally, on my way to DePue. It was a grand time, for the first time in 15 years (yes Dad, fifteen) I got to see my father complete three laps. Each year, somehow something breaks or he’s hit or SOMETHING happens and he can’t race the whole time. I was brought to tears to see him roll out. I know he didn’t race like he wanted, but selfishly, I didn’t care one bit. My heart was happy.
Long drive back to the airport and then off to NYC. At least this time I only had to go to ONE.
So I get in around 5ish and I’m sorry, but I am a hotel GENIUS. I booked at this place, ok not really knowing, that was brand new and giving out sweet rates to new clients. Here, peruse my room.
My entry with complimentary mini bar. Hello free stuff, get in my mouth.
My bedroom area-totally controlled by a touchpad. Which was awesome in the morning when I tried to get up and turned EVERYTHING on and just stood there shouting at it.
And then…oh yes…Ladies and Gentleman…THE BATHROOM
All done in teak with stainless steel fixtures; and a shower to cry over. Standing shower with THREE water jet options (I chose rainfall), a foot-bath, and a little seat in case you got tired from all your showering. With C&O Bigelow bath products. Those went in my bag. Ok, so I might, MIGHT have eaten a bag of free potato chips, had a diet coke and sat on the seat in the foot-bath with the shower running. Might.
NYC of course was great-good work team building and some great time to reclarify some roles. I’ll be honest-I had a hard time leaving this time. Normally, I am ready for TX but this time…I could have stayed. I mean, I had drinks with Marina at an park bistro bar and you just watch people stream past.
Would I be content though after I saw all of the touristy things? Like the library for the third time?
Or would I fall into the natural rhythm that everyone else seems to have? Always having a place to go and knowing where you are going. Would I be surrounded by people or lonely in a more crowded place? I don’t know…just interesting thoughts.
As we were walking around and down through the Grand Central Station area, we noticed that side of the street was roped off and people were yelling at us to move. Well, me being on the phone and learning to be a New Yorker, said some ladylike words back and kept walking. My arm is then shook by Sorcha and she is trying to point out some figure in a top hat running past me-whatever…BANK OF AMERICA HERE PEOPLE!! Turns out, that was Russell Brandt who was filming the remake of Arthur. Long story short, I’m probably in the movie and I will be discovered. They didn’t want a close up though when I asked. Jerks.
Of course we had to see a fire station, and of course I coudln’t remember where the one was that I went to last time. Oh! We’ll ask cops! No, they didn’t know. But they were awesome guys. We had a great talk with them.
Oh no, I really got arrested. Apparently playing like you are grabbing for their gun is a “crime”. Whatever.
We finally did find it…and they were wonderful. Met a very sweet guy that let us wander around take pictures. Even gave me his helmet to wear!
I obviously could not have been more geekily excited.
Wonderful guy. I have a marriage proposal waiting for me when I am back next.
Now where?
What’s that Gloria Estafan? You want me to come party in Miami with you? Come on baby something, something Conga! Done! Will Smith is coming too.
FOOLED! I went to Miami for work. I got the opportunity to go manage the project of a few of the most brilliant minds in our company writing the second edition of the book “Meaning, Inc” (first edition written by our CEO and company several years ago) and the offisite was held in…Miami. They, of course, were fabulous; and it was a pleasure to be around such distinguished intellect.
Miami, however…was not a pleasure. There were only four redeeming qualities: the Palms Hotel, the beach, dinner at The Forge, and the VIP area at a club called Liv. I will now discuss those adventures in said order.
1. The Palms Hotel
In case you don’t know this, I am a hotel junkie. I LOVE hotels. It is so much fun to stay somewhere that isn’t yours. You turn on the TV to the cable that you don’t get to have and leave it on, and make sure the room is never more then 68 degrees. Put that robe on and you are SET. The Palms did not disappoint. It was beautiful. Despite a sketchy looking vehicle reception area-the rest was grand.
The view from the room
The grounds
Of course, they HAD to have a wedding there and as a typical girl-I wanted to see all the stuff. It looked beautiful. What was creepy was the girl’s name was Marissa. I thought it would be some pre-wedding humor if I ran up and said “I’m ready! Here I am!” But I was outvoted.
They had these beautiful parrots that tried to bite or accost you any time you came within 3 feet of their enclosure and squawked all day long. The first picture is Dusten (a friend that went with me on the trip. Yes, FRIEND. We thought about getting married but decided against it.) punishing the pigeons that tried to pass themselves off as the parrots. Didn’t work pigeons!!
We had a fun dinner one night in their restaurant that I deemed “Prom Night” only because we were by FAR the youngest people in there and it felt just like when you were pretending to be adults when you went to Prom dinner. As friends.
2. The Beach
Ok yes, the beach was amazing. As is my sunburn. I look like Michael Jackson right now with the different colors of my face. But skin cancer, whatever, it was still glorious.
Down the beach, they have a road called…Ocean Blvd (original, right?) but it’s where all of the restaurants are. We found a place called Wet Willies where they serve frozen margarita’s-but like 70 kinds. Think I’m kidding?
It quickly went from “I don’t think these are very strong…” to “WE SHOULD SWIM IN THE OCEAN RIGHT NOW!! I don’t care if it’s 9pm!” I had this banana chocolate concoction and another one. Gloriousness. Until I got my ass kicked by the sugar. Hello 3am sweating nightmare, welcome to my room.
3. Dinner at Forge
Thursday night we went to a celebratory dinner at a place called Forge. Now, sight unseen, I chose this place and hoped it was awesome. Esquire noted it as one of their top 5 places to go. It did not disappoint at all.
I love getting dressed up to go!
(Yes, still just friends.)
I loved how at the head of each table they had a “Mad Hatter” looking chair. Even though my instinct was to dive into the chair, adjust my tiara, and never leave…I figured if my CEO didn’t go for the chair, it wasn’t appropriate that I assume the head of the table. I sat next to it and looked at it longingly all night.
I saw a drink called “Smoke and Fire” and I had to have it. True to it’s name-it had a real smoky flavor. Something with Tequila and egg whites. Yup. And then had some fish called Wahu? I don’t know, it was awesome of course.
But who cares about that? Umm…DESSERTS.
S’more cake something, caramel apple sunday, and a little carrot cake with…wait for it…carrot caviar!! It was devine.
Oh, and the bathrooms. I do love a fancy bathroom. I tried to move in there.
4. Club Liv
Holy clubbing Batman! This place is crazy. In the hotel FountainBleu, this club is pure insanity. Dusten contacted a club promoter down in South Beach who was able to get us in for free each time we went.
There is nothing more awesome then being walked past the line and escorted in to the club.
That’s what we would have had to wait in! Ok, have you ever gone to a marina or aquarium and they have that place where for a quarter, you can buy little fish food pellets? And all the fish just wait around that place in a teeming, frenzied mass that are fighting to get to the top in hopes of the next pellet? That’s what the line looked like. Sorry fish!
Inside was a whole other world. Supposadly this club is rated #2 in the world (who rates these things??) and it was a pretty awesome site. They cater mostly to bottle service, which perhaps why my round of two drinks in plastic cups cost THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS!!
So, story time. Thursday night, we are there. I am feeling tired and kind of “un-happy camper-ish” so I go and sit down on the outside of the dancing and VIP area to fix my shoe and be grumpy. I sit down on a riser that backs the VIP area and begin to fuss. A guy slumps across from me and I see myself enter his line of vision. Like a shiny object for a drunk guy. Uh oh. He proceeds to crawl across to get to me, sits ON me versus next to me, finally situates himself, looks at me and says “Qlkfoklsfjksdfkdf aloajhkdkljakljd alkalklpowiuoeri gpojaojadpoihdpa.” Well, that’s how it sounded because I have NO clue what language it was! Then he wraps his arms around me and I am his.
His girlfriend or whatever comes over and apologizes, and then, says those magic little words “Would you like to join us at our table?” Umm…YES. Yes I would!
Enter the VIP area. I see Dusten walk by and grab his arm. Nothing will beat the slow realization of who was grabbing him and from where. It was awesome.
This was my ticket in. All he could say in English was “I LOVE YOU!!” Awesome. Actually might have been an ok relationship!
Yup, dancers. They had dancers. And that’s pretty much how our vision got after a while being there.
So yeah, that was the best parts of Miami. I wouldn’t go back, but…it was good to have seen it. And I better end up with a rockin tan you jerk sun.
I had a little buddy on my ride to work today! Hey little grasshopper-come along for the ride!
Adventure day!
Day off work? Yup. Ever seen the Alamo? Nope. Wanna go? Sure!
Holy long drive. But totally worth it! After trying to find parking all over…we finally end up in a parking lot and dive into the first spot. We look around to see what landmarks we can use to remember where we parked and we see…
and 
Right. Got it! Houston and cow heads.
On to the Alamo! Oh, there it is. Right in the middle of downtown? Convenient. Nothing says “remembrance of a historic icon” then snow cones and the proximity to Macy’s.
Guess who didn’t go in? Yup. That line was AROUND the block. And just to see the inside of a church that wasn’t kept in original condition. When the battle happened, there was no roof! How can they not respect the Alamo and understand that people want to see the true artifacts where history happened?! Give me my snow cone and let’s go.
On to the Riverwalk. Man’s greatest creation next to a river. Tons of little shops and eateries all in the serene setting of a natural river. You can wander, then find a place to eat, then wander, then get a beverage, then wander, get another beverage, then wander WITH your beverage.
I want to live there.
So we did just that. We wandered until something made us stop and double back. Actually, it was like the cartoons when the person’s head stops but the body keeps on going.
68 oz of Margarita’s is what caught our eye. And our mouths.
You know what goes great with Margarita’s? MORE Margarita’s. Yes. Wandered until we found my favorite place; perfect little hideaway next to a waterfall that was perfect to people watch, sip, and talk to the locals (DUCKS!!).
Finally, after a responsible amount of drinks, it was time to trek home.
But not without going through the awesome Texas themed bar by the car!
I thought these things were hilarious after those drinks.
Hee hee…horny.
Are they trying to get…a HEAD?
And then I found…ZOLTAR. I was about to engage in a full on BIG re-enactment.
Until I saw it was out of order! Boo!
Then I was an awesome road trip partner and stayed awake the whole time in the car on the ride back.
So Friday, we have a torrential downpour. I mean considering building an arc bad. I actually started to gather two of each animal until people started to get mad at me.
Texas has this really cool phenomenon; it can look like the rain is coming UP from the ground. As in, in rains so hard that the little residual droplets are enough to look like rain itself. So yeah, that hard.
I found that these little snail guys panicked and took refuge on top of a post at the station. You know its bad when even the snails are moving to higher ground!
Blog, blog, blog…. on the go! I am so busy and important that I must blog while I am mobile. Many critical financial and social decisions are based on my technical chatterings.
Mostly I’m just trying this out. I promise there will be more interesting things to come. But for now, I leave you to ruminate onmy new motto, as listed above.
Holy crap I’m so British! Here’s a fun fact…my work company is based out of London and we have connected with a group over here called the British American Business Council. They are in charge of helping British based companies that come to Houston to get started over here. So naturally-it was the perfect connection for us to network with.
About a week ago, they hosted their annual “Toast to the Queen” (my mom thought this was for her-don’t worry, I raised my glass for you mom!) and Ascot Day. So we bought a table and donned our best hats to go watch the horses vie for our attention and money. Jokes on them! I still revert back to my way of choosing based on the best name. Hasn’t won me a race yet! Streak is still going strong.
So now, me being a proper American (‘MERICA!) I of course had NO CLUE what this event was about or what we do. So again, I did what any Generation Y American would do-I Googled it. Wait! Don’t Google it yet!! Now, when you think of a British event, normally held for Royalty and the upper crust of England’s society-you think FANCY PANTS, right? I sure did. Now, I’m not saying that it’s not fancy-but these are the actual hats that I found when I searched!
Well, while I would love to wear a dessert on my head, I wanted to feel cute and classy. So I made mine! I came up with…
My goal was for Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman-minus the prostitute part but hopefully plus the Richard Gere. When I told my mom that, she gave me this advice “Be careful with that idea…there aren’t a lot of Richard’s in the world but there can be a lot of Dick’s!” Advice I will forever hold true to my heart.
Ok, sorry. I made you read through enough crap without seeing it all put together. Because I know that’s people tune in for.
It was fun for everyone in the office to get all dressed up. The guys wore kilts! Ha ha ha-feel our pain! Now if we could only get them to experience heels…
Have you been wondering where I have been? Well HAVE YOU?? It’s been like a YEAR! My poor little blog was sick, but now is healthy thanks to some outside help of TJ Pitre and I can start my bloggery again. Update soon!
Do you know what a totally under appreciated fruit is? No, you don’t. Because you don’t appreciate it. Bananas. Not only is it super fun to spell, but they are a handy and delicious snack. It comes with its own carrying pouch! Just like a baby kangaroo (make no mistake, I am not suggesting you peel and consume a little jo jo kangaroo-just making the comparison). Quick-think of your favorite bread. Is it Banana Bread? Yeah, not Peach Bread or Strawberry Bread I’m sure. Wait, those sound delicious. Mom, make me some strawberry bread for my scientific comparison. But anyways, either way, Banana Bread is the king of all breads. It wears its glorious fruity (and sometimes nutty) yeast crown and rules over all the other breads. Banana pie, banana shakes…the list goes on. Banana’s also help you see in the dark-like a superhero. Yeah, my mom told me that when I was a kid. And I KNOW that’s true! There was nothing she made up when I was little in order to get me to do something or eat something (by the way I also know that if you don’t eat your carrots puppies die).
But just in case that ISN’T true, these entrhalling and fascinating facts are!
-The banana tree is a giant herb. Banana’s are the fruit of this herb.
-In 2001, Brittan recorded 300 injuries involving banana’s. Most of these were related to people slipping on the peels. He he he.
-A cluster of bananas is called a hand, while just an individual from that cluster is called a finger. I encourage you to give someone the finger today.
-The banana is botanically classified as a berry. But only nerds would care about that. Are you a nerd? Didn’t think so.
-Banana’s do not contain sodium, fat or cholesterol!
-Iceland grows bananas by heating the ground with geysers. Huh, another nerd fact.
Banana’s are just basically good for you. They lower the risk of stroke and have the good kinds of sugars that you need. So make today a banana appreciation day. Do it! All the cool kids are.
