A day in the life

Ahhhhhh..........
That is the sound of my brain, my soul and my body relaxing into the winter break. I have to admit it did not start off this way. I was over 20 minutes late to my extremely overdue haircut appointment today due to massive Atlanta traffic at 10:30 in the morning. I continued to stress myself out by picking up my blackberry to read emails from idiot clients while I spent 12 minutes on an exit ramp. I walked into the salon where I had then significantly stressed my poor stylist out by arriving so late. Luckily, I came bearing Cabernet and chocolates for her.
I spent the remainder of my day listening to Christmas music while I sat by our twinkly tree with two wonderfully warm kitties on my lap. I'm off to see the Santaland Diaries shortly.
What does tomorrow have in store for me? Maybe some recycling and more of the same. Sounds absolutely perfect.
How about you?

The Holidays Are Upon Us

It was a shock to come back to Atlanta after the cruise. Where were the drives to work in the morning that allowed me to take in all of the fall colors and crisp air? They were gone along with the leaves. It was officially winter and I was not happy about it. Luckily, I had a trip to Helen up my sleeve with the hostel (or hostile) gals AND Greg finally caved into getting a REAL Christmas tree from a tree farm.

The past few weeks have been filled with wintry goodness. Helen is cheesy but if you surround yourself with people who can really appreciate it for what it's worth; it's not so bad. I promise. We made sure our cabin had all the essentials: a hot tub and a fireplace. All you need to complete the equation is a few bottles of red wine and some friends. We managed to hit up a local winery on Saturday to procure some surprisingly good Georgia wine.

The Christmas tree farm was awesome. We drove out to Georgia farmland to The Old Barn Christmas Tree Farm. We chose this farm because I had to have a Virginia Pine. It felt so good to walk the rows of trees looking for "the one". We managed to score some spectacular service and a tree all for less then $30.

Now all I need to do is find gifts to go under it....

Wedding Bells and Tan Lines

Why hello there!

It's been a month since my last post. I'll try and make up for it with good news and a travel report. I just got back for Neil and Lindsey's wedding cruise. The wedding festivities started off in a lovely beach house my parents rented on Folly Beach. This also marks the first time Greg and I have shared a bedroom on a family outing. Very exciting!

As Neil, Mary and I browsed the wine selections for the rehearsal dinner, Neil came up to me and said, "So, We're getting married on Sunday". Thoughts raced through my mind: Why would they do this considering all the people who have traveled to see them off on Saturday? Are they insane?

As it turned out, the cruise line had just called saying the ship was delayed a day due to a medical emergency. The wedding would be on Sunday and our cruise would be cut short a day redirecting our initial port destinations. What did we do? We called family and carried on. We still had the rehearsal dinner that night and the post-wedding reception became an open house for guests on Saturday.

Now, Neil and Lindsey share the same anniversary as my grandparents.

The wedding was short and sweet but certainly not lacking in love.

After a quick reception, we bid our farewells to the rest of the family and Greg. I set sail with my shipmate, Mary, for Nassau. Nassau provided us with a unique opportunity. A rare glimpse inside of Atlantis. It all started with some gambling in the casino where Mary stumbled upon a room key. That room key was the golden ticket into the pools and more importantly the water slides. We laughed like hyenas and cursed like sailors as we were launched down slide after slide. Thank you, Suzette.

The following day we were dropped off on Great Stirrup Cay for beach, sun and drinks.

My favorite port, by far, was Key West. I spent my Thanksgiving Day walking its streets and enjoying every moment of it. We did a tour of Hemingway's home and pet as many poly dactyl cats as we could! We enjoyed a lunch of peel-and-eat shrimp at Sloppy Joe's with some of our fellow mateys. We then found our way to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park for sunset. There, we enjoyed the generosity of a couple celebrating their 5 year wedding anniversary. Nothing says Key West like a sunset champagne celebration with strangers!

Our last day on the ship was cold and windy. Mary and I spent our time catching up on reading and sipping on red wine in our cabin. Our final dinner with the wedding party was savored in the same room Neil and Lindsey were married.

I wish I could say that the cruise ended on a high note such as this. Unfortunately, I spent the entire last night and early morning hours seasick. I was so happy to get to Charleston and back to my life on land!

Click on the title for pictures.