It Was Just a Dream

Although this post has nothing to do with travel, journeys, or adventures, it has been making me laugh since 2 a.m, so here ya go.

Adam dreamed last night that I was cheating on him. Simultaneously, I was dreaming that I had inadvertently shoved Addie (2 months old now) out of bed, past Adam who just let her roll onto the floor where she was now in pain and receiving no help from either of her parents.

Insert forces of nature here: We both wake up at the exact same time from these dreams in varying states of panic. Mine was more frantic, his was more umm...angry.

Him: WERE YOU DANCING WITH OTHER GUYS THE OTHER NIGHT WHEN YOU WENT OUT??
Me: WHERE IS ADDIE??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Him: WERE YOU??!!
Me: Oh thank God. There she is. Right where I left her.
Him: I am REALLY pissed at you right now.
Me: Well I thought Addie fell out of bed and you didn't care!
Him:
Me: And when did I go out and where DID I GO?
Him:
Me:

And that is how that those two issues got resolved. The state of emotional chaos lasted approximately two minutes and we were both back fast asleep, safe in the knowledge that both our daughter and our marriage are nicely intact.

Hey, Ho, Here I Am

If you have been and are still reading this blog (and I hope that you are) then you would have rightfully assumed that I was just a *little* busy with childbirth and now child rearing.

Miss Priss joined us on May 20 after 40 weeks, one heating pad, 3 bottles of maximum strength TUMS, one false alarm visit to the ER, and 71 Frosties from Wendy's. I have met and conquered my greatest fear in life (baby delivery), and it wasn't pretty. But I did it, she is here, and she is a keeper. I can now say that childbirth is definitely the most physically challenging task I have ever completed. Mounting Cerro Negro with a board in hand and gear in tow doesn't even begin to compare to pushing eight pounds out of your ummm....ladyparts. Enough said.

I decided that pregnancy, particularly the last 5 weeks of it, should be a form of torture inflicted upon violent criminals or enemies of the state. Pure misery could shape those criminals right up.

So you can see that I haven't had much time or energy for writing about my various tales of adventure around the world. So what has brought me out of babyland and back to the surface of blogland? A Bing commerical!

It caught my attention the other day for the delightful tune that played throughout. The narrator is going to Hawaii, needs recommendations on things to do, exchanges messages with his friends, and the whole thing is set to "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers-a group or song I had never heard of until Bing introduced us. This song took me instantly back to several beach scenes in my life-San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua,  Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Bwejuu, Zanzibar, Livingston, Guatemala, Koh Samui, Thailand, Placencia, Belize, and the list goes on. You know what kind of song I am talking about-the kind where you picture yourself relaxing on a beautiful stretch of sand and ocean blue, colorful beverage in hand, wind in your face, good friends at hand, and without a care in the world. Seriously, nothing matters at that moment.

Now the verses could be considered slightly depressing, albeit ones sung to a fairly upbeat tune. But the hook is where it's at:

-I belong with you, you belong with me my sweet heart (Hey!)
I belong with you, you belong with me  my sweet (Ho!)

Simplicity at its best.  Simple enough to sing to my new baby girl as she goes to sleep and consider my new family.

We belong together.

If you want to check it out for yourself, here it is.

Around the World in Two Hours

 A few weeks ago, I ventured out with some BFF's to the Travel and Adventure Expo in DC. I first saw the ad for it on Groupon or social living or whatever those sites are called. I rarely pay attention to them, because the good deals featured on those sites have not quite reached WV yet. But this one caught my attention for obvious reasons. A giant convention center full of travel opportunities? Yes please. And I can win travel prizes even though I never ever win anything? Yes please.

But then a cold thought hit me. What if I get super depressed after visiting the convention center full 'o destinations that I won't be journeying to anytime soon? What if I turn My Love Hate Relationship with Your Travel Blog (see column at left) into a real life psycho moment which results in me being escorted out of the expo? What if everyone looks at the clearly pregnant girl and smirks: Now where does she think she's going?!

Then another cold thought hit me..THAT is how the sedentary life begins. Letting anxiety and doubt creep in and make your decisions for you is how very bad things happen to you and your passions. So I threw off the first cold thought, and made plans to get there.

And get there I did. Navigating DC traffic is slightly more difficult these days when one has a semi-permanent bowling ball attached to one's midsection. However,  it was a Sunday afternoon, and therefore I did not have to employ as many of my usual "evasive maneuvering" traffic strategies. 

So I threw open those convention center doors,  stared the Land of 1,000 Travel Options in the face and vowed to conquer all of them. Bulgaria. Fiji. Kenya. Dayton, Ohio.

This is not really how things happened. I calmly walked in with the BFF's and equally as calmly perused each aisle, not vowing to do much of anything, except to win a trip somewhere (not to Dayton, Ohio, though, which wasn't actually present at the show. However, there were some other random places I had never considered on my travel list). Winning hasn't happened yet. But I did enjoy myself. It was a kaleidoscope of countries, many I have been to already, many I have not. I didn't find a single country I didn't want to go to though, so when Mini-Me arrives, we have to get started ASAP on her passport and tiny luggage. Only complaint of the day was that many of the destinations were being presented as group or luxury tours. Which are two things I don't do when it comes to travel. (Except for those  5 days in Istanbul, which only solidified why massive group travel is not on my list of things that make me happy. Despite the fact that those 5 days were pretty darn fun with MOST of the people involved. Those people know who they are.)

At the end of it all, Samantha Brown from the Travel Channel was there with her perky smile and although I didn't join the line to meet her, I snuck a few pictures with my new camera, which I am still trying to figure out how to use. So they aren't the best, but here she is.

PS-Upon Googling Samantha Brown, I discovered there are some very definite opinions on her. While she's not my favorite travel show host ever, I don't hate her guts. My Google search led me to a blog post written by a guy named John Zhu, which cracked me up just a little.

Do you have thoughts on SB? Or are you thinking, I could seriously not care less?

Samantha Brown, looking neither perky, nor smiley

On Big Bellies and Beautiful Beaches

As in, in the case of this Prego Pregger, they don't match. The combo in the title did not work well for me or me self-esteem this past weekend-especially when the beautiful beach in question is also full of non-prego beautiful spring breakers.

First, Florida was great, protruding uterus aside. Well worth the effort and overpayment for plane tickets.

But if you want to feel great about yourself during your 7th, almost 8th month of pregnancy, don't head to the beach smack-dab in the middle of spring break. Siiiiigh.

A little over a decade ago, on my first *woohoo* college spring break, a few friends and I headed to Florida. We ended up in St. Pete's beach on the Gulf coast, which, if you have ever been there, you know that this is NOT the hub for parties, good times, and *woohoo* spring break fun. We ended up venturing to Siesta Key, (also rated the #1 beach in the USA by none other than "Dr.Beach") where one of the girls had been before and it promised to be a bit more lively. While a step up from St. Pete, it wasn't wild, and it suited us just perfectly. Good times.

So just this past weekend, we headed back to the scene of freshmen fun, and found the scene to be a bit....different. Still beautiful, but packed with people. Mostly spring breakers in teeny-tiny-eeny-meeny-itsby-bitsy pieces of what appeared to be  colorful Kleenex that apparently doubled as swimsuits. Holding their beverage of choice as they strutted their bronzed Kleenex-clad bodies down the beach.

Now mind you, there is no way in heaven or on earth that I was going to endure the trauma of finding a maternity bathing suit. In my humble, not so experienced opinion, nobody wants to see that. (I don't even really want to see it). But this decision was made as much for my sanity as it was for my wallet. I am due in May, I won't be frequenting any swimming pools, hotel swim-up bars, or water theme parks  until then, so therefore, no need to shell out the cash for something I would wear once. Throw in the fact that I am pale and pasty from a West Virginia winter, and you have a recipe for No Way Jose. But I won't let that stop me from actually going to the beach. Because I love the beach, and there is already plenty of stuff I'm not doing right now, and I wasn't going to let this be one of them. So I strolled down the beach with the rest of them, looking decidedly more clothed, more pale, less festive, and slightly less confident in my waddle strut. (Side story: two unfortunate individuals have dared to suggest that I waddle. One was a male student who knew as soon as he said it that he should just go ahead and end his life right then and there. He turned 17 shades of red and tried to hide behind a garbage can. The other was a female co-worker, who I in turn asked, "Do you WANT me to punch you in the face?" I do not condone violence, and especially not at work. But she was very close to getting handled in the hallway).

I am not an insecure person by most standards, but I can't lie, my self-esteem took a bit of a hit that day.

But I survived the strut. I had a good time. We accomplished what we wanted-friends, Orioles spring training game, good food, beach time, and just laying around doing nothing.

One big belly, one giant Oriole, and one Very Happy Husband

Florida On My Mind

New camera-check. (Sony Cyber-shot).
Rental car reserved-check.
Condo key picked up-check.
Pedicure-check.
Summer maternity clothes dredged up from the depths of mountains of clothes friends have graciously given/loaned to me-check.
Snacks that I plan on consuming as soon as possible-check.
Realization that Daylight Savings Time doesn't start until tomorrow night-Check.

I might be just a *tad* bit excited about this trip. I have scaled back my grand plans for adventure though. The fact that I am 7 and a half months pregnant has apparently finally sunk in (just this past week) and with this newfound revelation, I have opted to find it perfectly acceptable to rest, relax, and do nothing.  So there will be no reports of excruciating hauls up a volcano or safariing into the wilds. Sorry folks.

Just us, some sun, a pool, a beach, some friends, some baseball, and hopefully, a beautiful sunset or two.

It's Camera Time

No not Hammer Time, Camera Time. As in, I need a new one. Thanks to The Thief, I have been without a camera for months now, seeing no urgent need to purchase one. But now there is a need, and I need some advice. We are headed off on our little mini-adventure to Florida this coming weekend, and for about 5 minutes, I contemplated going sans camera. After all, I have gone sans Blue before, and it worked out just fine (sort of, there was some cheating going on).  So I figured, why not try a trip without a camera? But then I remembered I was having a baby in the next two months, and therefore it might be a nice idea to get one anyway. Perfect excuse.

It would be nice to have some input though, from the rest of you travelers. I typically have used a simple point and shoot, usually a Canon. Nothing fancy, so that mean people like thieves who like to steal stuff won't get too much reward for their efforts. (Still harboring a shred of bitterness about this).

Let's face it. I am not going to be the next National Geographic photographer, so high-tech lenses and equipment are out of the question. I also have a mortgage to pay, and I don't want to exchange my soul for it either. But neither do I enjoy taking crappy photos of which will be my mementos. So a Vivitar is out of the question. Sorry, Vivitar lovers.

Any and all suggestions on a camera are welcome, as long as they meet the criteria above.

And if you could only take one with you, which would you take-camera or guidebook?

Money CAN Buy Happiness, After All

Yup, I just proved it yesterday with one click of the mouse on Expedia.com. After days and days and days of searching high and low across the world wide web, I essentially threw out restraint, said "cheap fares be damned" and determined that my sunny disposition was desperately needed in the Sunshine state. The closer it got to my intended travel dates and I still didn't have the blessed  confirmation of travel email in my inbox, the grumpier and more miserable I became.

Ask my husband. Ask my students. Ask anyone forced to interact with me on a daily basis when I haven't gotten a travel fix.  I nearly reposted "My Love/Hate Relationship With Your Travel Blog" as my way of shaking my fist at all you lovely travel bloggers out there whose blogs I haven't been reading because I figured it is much better when I keep the grumpiness to myself.

Do I have a problem? Mmmm. Perhaps. My happiness doesn't totally hinge on travel. After all, I have a pretty awesome husband, a job that makes me want to get up every morning, and a tiny unborn gymnast who, as of late, has been making her every move known. (On a side note, I think that she bodyslams herself against the nice cushiony walls of her little watery home sometimes. And the bodyslam is complete with a running start. Seriously, what is she doing in there?!)

But back to my happiness. While it doesn't hinge on travel, it is pretty darn important to me. As I have said a million times before, the journey doesn't mean a trip to the Congo or a safari on the Serengeti. Those activities are awesome, but the adventure is what and where you make it. Haven't I already been to Florida? Yeah. But never with Adam, never to Ft. Myers, and never to do the things we are planning on doing. So it's all brand new to me!

So with one little mouse click, the clouds parted, the sunshine shone, the smile returned,  and I overpaid by a few hundred dollars.

(Thanks Shivya at A Shooting Star for inspiring  this post title!)

Murphy's Law Strikes Again

I have learned another valuable Murphy lesson this week, It's one that is no surprise to even a novice traveler, so clearly I should have known better. Actually, I did know better.

I waited to buy an airline ticket.

YOU NEVER WAIT WHEN THE PRICE IS DOWN!

Murphy's Law of the Obvious states that if you wait to purchase a plane ticket until 1) you have the money or 2) you have a place to stay or 3) you pay off a bill or 4) you think the price will go lower, the price will most assuredly skyrocket to epic levels never before seen for that particular route.

Hmmmpffff.

As you know from my last post, I want to take a trip pre-baby. I finally settled on Florida, but not Miami. I ruled out places like San Francisco and New Orleans because if I go there, I am going to want to explore as much as possible and fill up every moment with something. Judging by my performance traipsing around DC this past weekend, I will be lucky to still be breathing without the aid of a portable oxygen tank by that point in this pregnancy. So, a location that isn't begging to be explored is paramount. Fort Myers fits the bill nicely, due to friends with places to stay, the simulataneous ongoing baseball spring training, and the proximity to the Everglades. Perfect. All that is left to do is buy two tickets. And last week, I found two at $191 each. Amazing price. Did I buy them? No.

Yeah, I was trying to be responsible, ensuring that we had a place to stay first, ensuring that we got our security deposit back from the rental first, ensuring that our first mortgage payment was paid first. Ensuring, Ensuring, Ensuring.

See? That pesky mortgage is getting in the way already!

Anyway, you can likely see where this is going. The price is now somewhere near $400 a piece, and I refuse to purchase a domestic plane ticket for more than I have paid to fly to some Central and South American countries. I HAVE PRINCIPLES!

But I sincerely hope those principles don't find me at home twiddling my thumbs instead of enjoying the sunny warmth of Florida.

So now I am scouring every website I know, entering every combo of dates possible, desperately to see something back in the 200 range.

Oh $191 from IAD to RSW, you were but a fleeting dream. I thank you for reinforcing a valuable travel lesson.

Throw caution to the wind and just click purchase, for heaven's sake!

I'm Back and I'm Blogging

Despite the dramatic way in which 2011 ended, 2012 thus far has been relatively drama-free, if not mundane. No, not mundane. Anything but, actually. I will start with the last day of 2011 in which we found out the gender of the child within. The conversation went something like this:

Ultrasound technician (UT): It sure looks like a girl.
Me: Excuse me?
UT: I am pretty sure it's a girl.
Me: It can't be. It's a boy. I have known its a boy since a week after I found out I was pregnant.
UT: Well, I will keep looking to be sure. But I'm pretty sure it's a girl.
Me: How long have you been in this line of work?
UT: About a year.
Me: Hmmm.
UT: There's always a chance I could be wrong! But probably not.
Me:
UT: Yes, it's a girl.

Meanwhile, Adam is smirking the biggest smirk I have ever seen him smirk. And he's jubilant.
I am in shock. I mean, my maternal instinct has clearly just failed me on levels of epic proportions. So there ya have it. It's a girl. And once I got over the disbelief of being wrong, Adam pointed out that I now have a little me to raise and I will now have a sidekick on all my adventures.

In other news, I got a new laptop and am back on the internet after 6 weeks without. Thanks Thief, hope you meet up with a nasty stiletto somewhere in life. But Christmas came in January when I discovered that I had uploaded every last one of my Tanzania pictures to Snapfish! There were some China and Mexico pictures and a smattering of other countries on there as well, which was some vindication after losing EVERYTHING to the Thief. I practically started shouting and dancing in the middle of 4th period when I discovered it. My students were taking a test, so I figured I better not.

We also moved into our new house and are busy assuming the responsibilities of home ownership.

More importantly, I am in DIRE need of a trip. As in, I start to twitch when I read other blogs. So I am planning one for pre-baby. It will be stateside with the husband, and I am open to any and all suggestions. On the list so far:
Seattle (but apparently it's too rainy in March when I want to go)
San Diego
Miami and the Everglades
San Francisco
Puerto Rico (qualifies as stateside)
If you have suggestions, by all means, share them!