Back From A Week Off
Where to begin?
Yes, the my site’s been screwed up. Since you are reading this, I guess I figured out what the problem was.
I’ve been on vacation for the past week. Man, vacation is nice. Though I thought about about work and school several times, this was the 1st vacation I can remember where I didn’t totally freak out at some point. I did not even check my work email.
Where did you go on vacation? What did you do?
I am afraid the Paraguay trip has fallen through for this year. I am sad about, but financially the fam just couldn’t hack it this year. Have I ever complained about how much school costs? Well, I won’t go on a rampage now. I’ll just say that it is very expensive and move on b/c I am still somewhat mellow from vacation. (Serenity now.)
For sometime, Heidi’s family had been planning to go to Hilton Head. I wasn’t planning to go, b/c I needed all my vacation days (and money) for this Paraguay trip. But when the Paraguay trip fell thru, I decided to go with Heidi to Hilton Head, especially since it was already paid for. Again concerned with my lack of vacation time yet desiring to spend some time with my family, we stopped in NC to pick up my mom and then headed to SC to spend the week with Heidi’s whole fam damily: dad; lil sis and hubby; twin sis and hubby; twin’s sis’s in-laws. The total number of in-laws and outlaws was 10. Sound cozy? Actually, it wasn’t too bad.
On the way down, we had a little car trouble. Somehow we picked up a couple of nails in one of our tires. Did it possibly have anything to do with the driver simultaneously talking on the phone, putting on chapstick, messing with the radio, and adjusting the air-conditioner? No comment. Fortunately, we had really good, bad luck. We were able to pull off the highway in a safe area. Without missing a beat or freaking out, I checked the tire, spotted a gas station, walked over to pick up a can of fix-a-flat. The nice cashier lady (we were in the South) told me there was a tire shop down the road, so we pumped up the tire and went in search of the tire shop. Come to find out, there were several tire shops there and at least 2 were open - it was Sunday in the Bible belt, mind you) Anywho, the tire was too bad to be repaired and thus had to be replaced, but it could have been much worse. The trunk was full, so pulling out the spare and figuring out a way to transport the the rim, would not have been so easy. Also, the idea of an unexpected hotel stay in the middle of nowhere was not too appealing.
Hitlon Head was great. I felt so inspired by the place where Edwin McCain got his start, I picked up a new guitar. It is just a little travel guitar that doesn’t even sound so great, but it is something that I’ve been wanting for some time and I never even did anything for myself for sticking with the job search. Of course, the purchase didn’t help the afore mentioned money situation. Damn you NYU!
Based on my Hilton Head experience, you’d think I was a tampon commercial, because I got to play tennis, go bike riding, play mini golf, go in the ocean and take a couple of boat rides. (With Tampax brand tampons, I can go….) Did I ever mention that I was on the tennis team in high school?
We also took a couple of tours. One was of this island, Daufuskie Island, which is about half the size of Manhattan. It has about 130 year-round residents and no bridge/tunnel access. Residents must take a ferry over. One another day, we took a tour of historic Savanna GA. The dolphin pict was taken after a catamaran ride. The alligator pict was taken at a wildlife refuge. I knew alligators were strong, but at the time, I didn’t know they could run at up to 35 mph. I probably wouldn’t have taken such a close-up, if I’d known that fact at the time.
Because I am scared to death of skin cancer, I lathered on the sun block and wore a t-shirt the whole time. Now I have a monster farmer’s tan.
