Travels and Trade-Ups

I'm improving my average of one blog a month with this blog!  Let's see...I left off with my departure to St. Pete to visit Michael for the Fourth of July.  That night we met up with one of his friends, Nick, and we all went to downtown St. Pete for dinner and then to see the fireworks over the water.  We were worried the weather wouldn't cooperate, as it had been thunder storming on and off all day long.  However, it stopped just long enough for the 30 minute show and then started sprinkling just as we were leaving.  It was a great show (other than the fact that I was being devoured by the state bird of Florida the whole time...aka - mosquitos). I realized that Michael and I have a history of watching great fireworks displays together.  Many years ago, while visiting their family in Virginia over the 4th of July, I really wanted to go see the D.C. fireworks.  No one was willing to take me into the city to see them except Michael.  The traffic was, as expected, terrible.  But we finally made it and ended up watching the fireworks from near the Iwo Jima memorial. It wasn't the best display I've ever seen because there was no breeze  and the smoke lingered, but it is among my best memories of watching fireworks.  

The next time I remember seeing epic fireworks with Michael was junior year of college when Casey (my college roomie) and I went down to Tallahassee for spring break.  Michael drove us down to Disney for two days.  When we were at Magic Kingdom, I wore our entire party ragged dragging them from ride to ride at a breakneck pace.  It must have been 9 p.m. as we raced toward Thunder Mountain Railroad for the second time when all of a sudden the fireworks started.  I skidded to a halt (probably for the first time that day) and we all stood still as we watched the show above our heads.  It was magical. 

I don't know where our next epic firework sighting will be, but I'm sure we'll have more to come.  But there is one running theme - I want to see fireworks, and Michael humors me.  I have the best cousin ever!

After the firework display in St. Pete, we went to a karaoke bar and I sang "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "Wagon Wheel."  Michael's friend Nick sang some patriotic song (can't remember which).  It was a really fun night!

The next day I went for a run around a big lake right near Michael's apartment.  I saw loons, egrets, turtles, cranes and all sorts of different plants.  I really wanted to see an alligator, as there were warning signs for them, but I didn't see any (and being from FL, I'm pretty good at spotting them even though they are good at hiding). I did, however, see a crane catch a water snake and then think about eating it for a good 7 minutes, then finally eat it as it wiggled all the way down.  So cool.  lol  

Dolphins at the aquarium.

By the time I returned, Michael had finished the stuff he was working on and we decided to go to the Clearwater Aquarium.  By the time we finally arrived in Clearwater (boy do I hate Florida traffic), it was down pouring.  We decided to get some lunch first at a little café, then made a break for the car to drive over to the aquarium.  When we reached it, it was raining so hard you couldn't see out the windshield.  Michael dropped me off at the front which was the ticketing area, covered by a permanent tent sort of structure.  Just running the 3 feet to get under it, I was soaked.  I made my way farther into the tent, trying to avoid the rain blowing in from the sides.  I pressed myself up against one of the ticket booths as I waited for Michael - and waited, and waited. He was trapped in his car without an umbrella.  Meanwhile, I was watching the storm and wondering if the tent was structurally sound because it certainly gave off the appearance of wanting to blow away.  I'm pretty sure we were experiencing a low-grade hurricane, because that storm was INSANE.  Finally, I suggested Michael use the towels we had in the trunk, but he pointed out that getting into the trunk would soak him.  I then suggested he use the little door that most back seats have to get into the trunk.  He didn't realize his car had this, but upon checking, realized it did, and he found a sun shield.  He used the shield to cover himself and ran to the aquarium. 

The aquarium was pretty cool, and is also the home of Winter, the tale-less dolphin.  It uses a prosthetic tail three times a day as physical therapy.  We got to watch the dolphins do many tricks and I enjoyed watching the otters.  By 5 pm, the weather had died down and we were able to see an outdoor dolphin show.  Overall, it was a lot of fun.

St. Pete Beach with Michael.

That night we met up with one of Michael's cousin and girlfriend for dinner.  Then we went to downtown St. Pete for live music and festivities. 

On Saturday we went to the St. Pete beach because it was finally sunny!  I had to take Michael to the airport that night as he had a flight to London. I drove back to his apartment and wrote a travel article and watched "Into the West" which was one of the many DVDs Michael gave me to take home with me. About 12:30 at night, I decided to check in online for my flight.  When I did so, it said I was too early to check in.  I didn't understand because the flight was in less than 10 hours.  When I went back to my confirmation email, I realized I'd accidentally booked my flight to return the following Sunday.  Well, I totally freaked out.  I was in a city I didn't know, Michael was on a plane and a taxi was scheduled to take me to the airport the next morning for a flight I wasn't on.  Mom and Dad were in the mountains with no cell service. I called Ryan who was at Myrtle Beach with his family.  He went down to the computer in the hotel to start looking up flights for me as I did the same on my end.  It was impossible to change my flight because the airline was really cheap and they don't have a number to call.  Long story short, I ended up booking a one-way on the same airline and flight I thought I'd booked.  Except the one-way cost over $200 and the roundtrip had cost me $177. 

When I got to the airport the next day, I asked about cancelling the second half of my original flight.  They ended up giving me a $38 credit after taking out all the fees and whatnot.  So, it ended up being a very expensive trip, but I'm glad I went - I had a great time. 

First Friday Night Dinner at my house.

The next week was a good time in Charlotte.  Ryan and I had dinner with his parents on Monday night as they were in town from Canada.  Ryan and his mom made a delicious dinner and they were really delightful to talk with.  

That Friday night I hosted First Friday Night Dinner at my house (even though it was the second Friday).  We probably had about 20 people and it went off very successfully.  Ryan and the other guys cooked on the charcoal grill Mom and Dad gave me making sausages and steaks.  Alissa made sloppy joes and I made my famous sopapilla cheesecake.  Everyone else brought random items and it was really great.  At the end of the night we busted out the Just Dance for the Wii and Ryan was the only guy brave enough to do it.  He actually enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.  Everyone said, "Yup, that's why Lauren's dating a Canadian - because he's the only one man enough to dance in front of a whole room of people to a Brittany Spears song." hahahaha

Adam, Lindsay and me - all CBCC employees and my friends :)

On Sunday Ryan and I picked up a washer and dryer from a couple off Craig's List.  They are only 5 years old and were $300.  I think I got a pretty good deal!  However, once Ryan and Dad helped get them in my house the dryer wouldn't work.  We thought it was the house, not the dryer, but we weren't sure and Uncle Bob was on vacation so we didn't want to call and bother him.  Ryan also hadn't gotten washing machines for his new house, so both of us went over to Mom and Dad's to do our laundry and eat dinner and use the internet. We also watched So You Think You Can Dance with mom.

This past Monday, I made dinner at my house for Ryan.  I made caprese salad (tomatoes, basil and mozzarella).  I had fresh basil and tomatoes from Mom's garden, and the cheese was from Whole Foods.  It was very yummy!  I also made pasta with Prego sauce, but I added lots of yummy veggies to the sauce so it was kind of like homemade.

On Wednesday we went to Coyote Joes for line dancing lessons, so we now have six dances in our repertoire! 

The guys at First Friday Night Dinner.

Today at work was great!  I was offered a promotion at work - a real one this time - and will be the new "Communications Coordinator" as of Monday with a significant raise (which I also bargained for! Go me!) and my own office.  I'll be doing marketing work more full-time and the C.E.O. even agreed to pay for me to take classes in computer design programs like "InDesign," "Photoshop" and "Illustrator."  That way, in future, I can start bringing design work for CBCC in house.  My boss promised that this is only the beginning of great things for me at CBCC, so I really hope to move up even further in future.  

I also negotiated with AT&T for my internet service today.  They were going to charge me $40 a month plus a $150 for equipment/insall fee.  Then my roommate found out that she could switch her Time Warner to our place for $38 a month for slightly faster service without any fees.  So I called AT&T to cancel, and they said they'd give me even faster internet for $28 a month with one $50 fee.  I said "SOLD!"  Yay!  Way to pit them against each other!!

I am now typing this from Knoxville where I drove with three other friends after work for my friends' Lesley and Ben's wedding.  I've never been here before, so I'm looking forward to seeing the city tomorrow. 

June

June was a very busy month for me (as though that's a change!).  For starters, my friend Alissa and I moved into our new home (the one Uncle Bob bought to fix up and eventually flip).  He said if we found two more roommates, we could rent it out from him through at least next July.  So, we spent June moving in, cleaning and painting and fixing and hanging, and searching for roomies.  I finally found two girls who will move in mid-July: Kenya and Atecia. They are both writers (though Kenya writes books and Atecia does web editing and writes for NPR).  Kenya is very outgoing and laughs a lot.  I met her a few years ago before I went on my cross-country road trip.  She'd originally planned to come along, but got a job just before the trip was about to start, and couldn't take the time off.

Alissa and me.

Lauren, Danny and Lieselotte at River Jam.

We recently re-connected when she invited me to her book release party for her newly published book: The Chronicles of Koa. I wanted to interview her first for an Observer article, and when she came over I mentioned we were looking for roommates.  She loved the place and eventually decided to commit to the move!  A few days after the interview, I went to her book release party.  I was happy to be there to support her, but as I walked around the party, I realized why I always rank as a slight "introvert" on personality tests - not knowing another soul in the room, I was having a mild panic attack.  My skin was clammy and I felt as though everyone was looking at me thinking "Why doesn't she have any friends to talk to?"  Of course the rational side of my brain said that no one probably even cared, but none-the-less, I felt very awkward.  Not wanting to just leave, I sat down at a long table where people were gathered on each side of me talking amongst themselves.  I waited for a good 10 minutes before I found an opening to talk to the small group to my left.

My friend Christen and me at Pops in the Park.

The guy sitting next to me was named Ryan and we started talking about various things.  My cross country road trip came up (as my connection to Kenya), and Ryan asked if I'd made it up to Canada during my trip.  I said yes, I'd been to Vancouver and also to Toronto a different time.  He asked if I'd ever made it anywhere farther north, like Price Edward Island.  I just about fell out of my chair.  "How do you know about Prince Edward Island?" I said with enthusiasm.  "I've wanted to go there since I was four years old, but no one's ever heard of it!  Do you have a mother or sister obsessed with Anne of Green Gables?"  He said, rather shyly, "Well, my mother likes it.  Yeah, we used to go camping there as kids."  I'm pretty sure my jaw was hitting the table as I tried to grasp the fact that this guy actually got to spend significant time in my dream destination.

performing silks uptown on an outside rig

Then I found out he was Canadian, and it all started to make sense. We spent the rest of the night talking about this and that.  He's an engineer for Siemens and keeps giant energy generators from blowing up (at least, that's my take of the very long explanation of what he does).  When the book party ended, we went outside the pub and played giant Jenga (which I won), before he walked me to my car. He got my number so we could hang out again.

Over the next week we hung out several times, going line dancing at Coyote Joe's, ice skating (and since he plays hockey, he really showed me up there), playing scrabble and having a cookout at his apartment pool.

Lieselotte and Danny also came to visit Thursday afternoon to Friday morning that week.  It was a short visit, but I was so happy to see them both.  I gave them a driving tour of Charlotte and Thursday night we went to River Jam at the White Water Rafting Center (which is a free concert at the center).  It was really fun and we ran into several of my friends there as well.  After that, we stopped by Saddle Up (a new line dancing/country bar), and while we had a lot of fun riding the bull and dancing on the completely empty dance floor, it wasn't nearly as authentic or cool as Coyote Joe's. Friday morning I went with them to Cracker Barrel very early in the morning, and (of course) Danny being from overseas thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. "I can't believe you can get this much food for $8!!" he kept saying. 

Ryan (blue shirt), me and 2 of his friends who helped him move.

The following week he was moving into a new house he just bought close to Ballantyne.  On Tues and Wed after work, his former roommate and I helped him load the U-Haul and move all his stuff and unload the U-Haul.  Then I drove him to the airport on Friday b/c he was flying home for Canada Day (July 1). He spent the weekend in Toronto with his two brothers and one of their French Canadian friends, then they all flew back to Charlotte on Tuesday.  Tuesday night, all four of them stayed at my new house because Ryan has almost no furniture in his new house. We all had a good time and there were many laughs to be had, though we stayed up far too late considering I had work on Wednesday.  Wednesday morning, when I left for work, Ryan and the Canadian crew all set off for Myrtle Beach where they would spend 4th of July weekend.

Wednesday after work, Mom, Alissa and I all went to Cirque du Soleil with a group from my silk aerial class.  The day before I'd gotten to take a class at our studio from the primary silk aerial performer from the show, which was so cool.  I didn't realize how amazing she really was though until I saw her in the show - WOW.  I couldn't believe her strength and speed doing silks 50 feet in the air!  Afterward, the dancers from my studio (including me) got to go back stage with Tania (the aerialist) and have a little tour.  The show (Quidam) has been running for 17 years and is truly something to behold.  The oldest person in the show is 51 and he was so strong and amazing - he was doing all sorts of strength and contortion.  The youngest person was 19, but most were 21 or older (which is hard to believe because some of them are sooo tiny).  I'm so glad I got to see the show!  Mom loved it too!

Today is the Fourth of July and I'm currently in the Greensboro Airport (where I drove this morning) to take a flight out of here to St. Petersburg, FL where I'll visit with Michael (my cousin) for the weekend. I hope it doesn't rain the whole time!  It's been raining almost nonstop on the East coast lately. 

I guess those are most of the highlights!  Pictures coming soon!