Off to Austin

Taking off tomorrow for a quick overnight to Austin. Looking forward to a girls’ trip and a fun night out. Back on Friday!

Randomocity and Traveller’s Log Wrap Up

Lately Bridget can be found at any given time trying to shove all her fingers in her mouth. And this often causes her to gag a little bit. We figure at some point she’ll stop doing it. Today may have been that day. As we were driving to the gym, I heard her gag and then the unmistakable sound of vomiting. I looked at her in the rear view mirror and saw the projectile stream go down in her lap. Luckily it was mostly water, and we had just a few minutes before I was due to meet Trainer Dave, so I just kept driving. Is that wrong? Anyway, we got to the gym and she had only a little bit of it on her shirt, and it was all the water she had just been drinking. She didn’t smell like puke so off we went, into the toddler corral they call the child care center. An hour later, she was none the worse for it and had not hurled or anything. I know. I’m on the short list for the Mother of the Year award.

I am in the midst of a bout of PMS that might shift the earth on its axis. I saw this the other day on I Can Has Cheezburger and it’s really apropos today.

Now, back to the Mexico trip. Day #3 started out with more AC problems. Seriously? Didn’t they just “fix” this? But in the middle of the night on our second night, it started crapping out. And honestly, the problem was not the temperature but the humidity would skyrocket, which would make the sheets stick to us, and that was especially painful on a sunburn. Ouch. So we asked for and got yet another room. This is room #3 for those of you keeping score at home. Then we were off to Mercado 28. Which housed a lot of crap. And some jewelry. But mostly crap. We bought some jewelry, and our requisite travel Christmas Ornament. We call him Santos Claus. For dinner that night we took a cab off property to go to dinner. We saw a few of the other resorts that I almost chose and I wondered if anyone there was having the AC problems we were having. We ate at a lovely restaurant where the specialty was lobster, so I ordered it despite my sneaking suspicion that I don’t like lobster. And sadly I was right. That was an expensive lesson to learn. Back at the hotel, AC #3 had crapped out as well. Really??? So we had a stealthy midnight move to yet another room.

Day #4 was spent in much the same way as Day #2. On the beach, under the same exact cabana, reading books, eating and drinking. And then periodic spells of playing in the ocean. We both forgot that sunburn is much easier to get when you are so close to the equator, and we both ended up with some odd sunburn patterns, even though we were using sunscreen. Oh well. The AC was not going well, but I was too tired to complain about it anymore. The room was cool, but still very humid. At the end of the day, I was missing Bridget madly and really considering seeing if there was a flight out Thursday night instead. But decided it was too late. So our last night in Cancun was kind of a letdown - the resort restaurant I really wanted to eat at was closed that night. WTF? Oh well. We went to bed early.

Our last day was as dull as our last night. We ate a leisurely breakfast, secured ourselves a late check-out and read our books in our room until it was time to meet the shuttle to the airport. We ate the best guacamole of our lives at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville in the airport, and perused the duty-free store for a while. We got another upgrade on our return flight, which was nice. But about an hour into the flight, I was just tapping my foot and wondering if that damn plane could please GO ANY FASTER?? But we did make it home and got to see Bridget that night before she went to bed.

So all in all, the trip was great. It was exactly what we wanted - relaxation and no diapers to change. Cancun is like a blend of Las Vegas and Bourbon Street. I don’t think I’d ever go back to Cancun but maybe Playa del Carmen. It’s such a quick trip and it’s lovely. I’m still crafting my reviews for Trip Advisor and Travelocity about the resort. I can’t decide if our expectations were too high or what. But we’ll see. OH! And I forgot to mention Thong Watch 2008. I lost track of how many we spotted - I think it was maybe six or eight - but trust me that only one woman we saw in one should actually have been in one. Well, no one should be in one but she at least looked decent in it. The best though was the woman in the thong bottom, no bikini top and a pashmina wrapped around her shoulders for modesty’s sake. Mexico, man. It’s a crazy place.

Traveller’s Log Day #2

On Day #2 we slept in. Sort of. I guess when you have a toddler at home, 8:30 is sleeping in.

At breakfast, I was teary again over missing Bridget. There was another family there with a daughter who seemed about Bridget’s age and when she talked, she sounded just like Bridget. I kept turning around and looking at her, then I worried the family thought I was creepy. So on a trip to the buffet, I stopped and just explained that we have a daughter of a similar age and that I was missing her terribly. The mom turned out to be a complete over-sharer but she was nice and the girl was sweet. We talked for a while and then they were on their way.

Then it dawned on me that as much as I missed Bridget, I did not wish she was with us. We would not have had fun with her there. Plus, the point of the trip was for her to not be there.

We spent the rest of the day on the beach under one of those thatch-roofed cabanas that look like this:

We read books, we drank pina coladas, we ate food brought to us by a cabana boy (I know that term sounds insulting but I’ve always wanted to say I had a cabana boy) and we played in the ocean. Mostly we remembered why we like each other so much.

AC in room #2 broke again. A maintenance man came to fix it and we were all set. For a while.

We had our couple’s massage on the beach that night. It was lovely but I think the spa should have taken more pains to make it more private. As I was lying face down on the table, I got to hear some jackasses walking by talking about how cool it was that Jake was being massaged by a woman and I was being massaged by a man. He was drunk and obnoxious (not the masseuse, the jackass passer-by) and it sort of ruined the moment for me. If they moved the massage cabana or scheduled it later (I did not choose the time, they assigned it to us) we might have had a little less jack-assery. But it was nice and I did leave with all my knots undone, which was the goal.

Back in the room, we ordered room service in our cushy robes. We ate a lovely concoction called Lime Soup, which was a lot like a tortilla soup but better. As you can tell, it’s almost a week later and I’m still thinking about it. I might have to try to find a recipe for that. To make when it’s not 107 degrees outside. I’m not even exaggerating about that temperature. I wish I was.

Traveller’s Log Day #1

Trip started off on an emotional note. We put Bridget to bed Sunday night and knew we would not be seeing her the next morning. She cried for me when I left the room and it about killed me. When we were going to bed, I turned into a giant sobbing puddle. I was convinced that we were the most selfish parents on the planet.

But we got upgraded on our flight, which cheered me up immensely. I still had a meltdown on the plane but it was over quickly and once I got over it, I was able to relax on the flight and read a bit.

The resort was…. I don’t know exactly. The lobby and grounds were lovely. Something was lacking and I can’t tell our expectations were too high or if the issues were real. But the beach was beautiful, and the water was so breathtakingly gorgeous - with so many shades of blue and green that it was almost impossible to look away from it.

We got upgraded to the private part of the resort, with its own section of beach and a private pool, but our first room had two double beds rather than a king. They told us they had no king rooms to move us to that day, but that maybe the next day there would be one available. But when we noticed the sliding door had no lock, lo and behold they found a new room for us and it had a king bed.

We went to a nice dinner in the resort that night. Except that I found a large piece of plastic wrap in my dinner. Of course, just like the room situation, it was dealt with quickly and courteously. And I had the yummiest fruity cocktail I’ve ever had, and while we were chatting over dessert, I looked over and saw a big old crab making his way sideways (of course) across the patio. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was a stockpot escapee or simply an intrepid crustacean explorer.

Off to the Beach

We are off tomorrow to Cancun. I’ll be writing my blog entries on paper and will post when I get home.

Wish me luck - I don’t believe that anyone has ever actually died from missing their toddler, but you never know.

Sunday Show and Tell #7

It’s time for Show and Tell again. And I’m heading back to my travel theme.

Back in February of 2005, I had the amazing opportunity to go with Jake to Paris. We used miles for my flight, work paid for Jake’s, and we had enough Hilton points to make the one night of hotel we had to pay (an extra night over what Jake had to stay for work) free. We stayed at the Hilton Paris.

We arrived on a Thursday morning, having flown all night. We ate at a lovely cafe near our hotel and were able to check in to our hotel. And then we made the horrible mistake of taking a nap. NEVER EVER do that. Stupid amateur mistake. So we fought jet lag the rest of the trip, which was awful. But Friday morning/afternoon, we were up and about and on our way to Notre Dame. This is me sitting in front of our hotel waiting for Jake to go back up to the room to get something.

We were really that close to the Eiffel Tower. But here’s a secret  - the Eiffel Tower is not really such a great place to be in Paris. It’s not really all that close to anything else. But it sure is pretty. Did you know the Eiffel Tower sparkles at night? Here’s a picture from our hotel window.

Paris is beautiful and I loved the Louvre and Notre Dame, but it didn’t capture my heart they way it does with some people. I much preferred our last day spent in Normandy, where we lucked into a fantastic tour of the beaches and WWII sites.

This is Omaha Beach from the American cemetery there.

I’d love to go back to France and spend more time in the rest of the country. One day perhaps.

Travel Angst

Y’all, it’s hard to plan a vacation. And I do it with more than a little bitching and moaning about why am I always the one who has to spend hours, days and weeks on this, with little input from Jake except the few things I can’t possible accommodate like a shuttle launch in Florida when those get scrapped the very morning they are set to happen. I go on to whine about how I need a vacation just as much as he does, I work just as hard as he does, why do I have to shoulder this burden when he gets to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor. Really, it’s an awesome temper tantrum. You’d all be impressed if you got to witness it.

Then I realize I’m a control freak and if he tried to take it on all by himself, I would not be happy about that.

Then I realize too that if I just asked him for input he’d give it to me.

So really I’m just a shrew.

Anyway…. we knew we wanted to go to the beach and just sit, read, drink, eat and sleep. And that other thing couples sometimes do on vacation that we must not speak of here. We also knew that taking Bridget along was not conducive that sort of vacation. We had originally thought of flying to California where Jake’s parents live and dropping her off with them for a few days while we got away, then swinging back through to get her. Not as easy as it sounds. So we had to scrap that plan. Then Jake’s mom  oh-so kindly agreed to come here to watch Bridget for us. Game on again.

So where to go? Hawaii sounds fun, but I’m not all that interested in being an eight-hour plane ride away from my child. Plus it’s expensive, and while we have enough frequent flier miles to go there, we have not planned far enough in advance to go when we want to go with our miles. So if we have to pay for a flight, I’m not all that eager to spend $400 per night for a hotel.

OK, scrap Hawaii. One day, we will get there. Just not this year.

What’s next? Mexico. I mean, we live in Texas so it’s close, it’s fairly cheap to get there and our hotel dollar goes much farther there than in Hawaii. But where in Mexico?  I’ve always wanted to go to Cabo San Lucas. Until I did my research for this trip and discovered that the beaches there are not for wading or swimming, the surf is too rough. And I don’t go to a beach if I can’t get in the water. That’s why California holds no appeal to me. Sure you have an entire coastline. Of water that’s too cold to get in. No thank you. I prefer the east coast where the water is warm. So scratch Cabo. That leaves Cancun, Puerta Vallarta and the Riviera Maya. So many options. I bought a guide book and I still am not 100% sure of my decision.

We want a nice hotel. Some people don’t care about their hotels when the travel. “Oh we’ll never be in the room except to sleep. Who cares what it’s like?” Well, you’ll also be there to wake up, brush your teeth, poop and shower. (And those other things we don’t mention)  I care about where I do those things. Also we aren’t go-go vacationers. We are lazy vacationers. We do spend a lot of time in our room. So it matters to me. We always try to stay at the nicest place we can afford reasonably.

We also don’t want crazy hustle and bustle. But we’ll have to pass on that requirement because that’s all Mexico is. We really just want a nice calm beach where we can lay around, get a drink or two brought to us, and play in the waves. I’m not sure we’d even venture off the property. Based on these requirements, and the shorter flight time, I decided on Cancun.

A friend gave us a great recommendation on an adults-only spa type hotel in Cancun that sounds and looks amazing. But it’s all inclusive, which is a rip-off for us. We simply don’t drink or eat enough to come close to making it worth the money. At the same time, the convenience factor is great. You don’t have to ever worry about spending another dime on food once you arrive. So that was a big contender and Jake really liked the idea of that place. But pricing it out, for our four-day trip, it would be $1,500 more than staying at the Ritz-Carlton. I just can’t wrap my mind around that added cost for four days. There is no way that we could spend that much money on food for four days. We don’t even plan to be up in time to eat breakfast so that knocks off eight meals right there.

Add to this the consideration that Shelly and the Overlook clan are currently considering a fall trip to Disney with Casa del Spud, and it seems foolish to spend that $1500 when I can bank that for September to help celebrate Parker’s birthday (and maybe Bridget’s just a little early!) at the Magic Kingdom.

To make a long story short (too late!) I think I have finally made my choice. It was available for the price I want to pay a few days ago when I last looked. Now I am waiting on final confirmation from Jake’s mom on the dates, which I hope to have today, and I’m booking that bitch. It better still be available when I go back to book. Or there will be hell to pay, I tell you.

Now I have a month to unwind from the stresses of vacation planning so that I can enjoy my vacation.

Oh, and please don’t tell me anything more about traveling to Mexico unless it’s that I will absolutely love Cancun. I can’t handle anything else to think about.

My Trip to Tulsa in Bullet Points

• Not being able to pick up Bridget has its own distinct pros and cons list. Pros include the fact that I haven’t changed a diaper since Wednesday morning, nor have I given her a bath or put her to bed.  Cons include the fact that I haven’t put her to bed or given her a bath. I have also forgotten a few times and gotten unholy hell for it. But I’m not apologizing for picking up my child when she cries and holds her arms up for me. I don’t overdo it and I try to be good, but I never actually thought I’d not pick her up for two whole weeks.
• I took my wound dressing off Friday morning and the pain set in. I guess the dressing was providing a lot more support than I realized. In fact, in the car on the drive to Tulsa, it was painful to be in the passenger seat to have the seatbelt come across my right boob, so I made Jake switch with me so I could drive. The other advantage to that is that the driver gets to hook up their iPod and listen to their music. Ha!
• I also now have a friend on my back. We call him Jimmy. I can’t begin to tell you what Jimmy is. I started to feel some irritation on Friday morning, but I assumed I just had a spot that was being rubbed constantly from the bra I have to wear all the time. But Saturday morning it was horribly painful so I had Jake and his mom look at it. It looks a bit like a pimple but it’s not red. I have to go by what Jake’s mom tells me since it’s on my back. She says it’s like there is something under the skin and a hot compress draws it up. So I have to call the doctor tomorrow to see what the hell this is. I hope no one left any medical waste in me during my surgery.
• Bridget is so freaking adorable. And smart! I don’t know why I am so amazed at the speed at which her language skills develop. I mean, new words don’t really get me because that can be chalked up to mimicry. But when she answers questions and makes associations in her head, it astounds me! Wednesday, my mom asked her if she wanted to let the dog in and she said, “Yeah!” Friday night she was walking around in her new surroundings after a long car ride and Jake asked her what she was looking for, to which she replied “my baby.” We gave her the baby doll she loves and she was happy. She has also really gotten into her grandparents. She would get up in the morning and knock on the bedroom door to be let out to see MeeMee (Grammy) and PaPa (Grampa). In fact, at bedtime, having been home for 3 hours and away from Grammy and Grampa for 7 hours, she was still asking for them.
• I had the best cake I’ve ever eaten in my entire life today for Jake’s grandmother’s birthday. It had lemon curd between the layers. I’m drooling now just thinking about it. Mmmm…. I’m hungry. Are their any Swiss Rolls left from my cache of post-op comfort food?

Much to Do

Still much to do before I get my butt on a plane to NYC tonight.  But when I come back the floor in the guest bathroom will be all done! Well, it’s mostly done now, just needs a few things like the toilet being set back in.

So sorry that this is my post for today. I hope to have a good post from New York tomorrow.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this. Did I tell you all that when I went to Sacramento last month for work, on the cab ride to the airport from the hotel, the taxi driver got lost? Hello? A taxi driver couldn’t find the airport??? Isn’t that the ONE destination they MUST know? Has this ever happened to you? What’s your weirdest travel story?

Running and Girls’ Weekend 2007

First, I’ll get the running bit out of the way. Friday’s running plan had us running for 20 minutes straight with no walking. I thought it would kill me but it didn’t. It was fine. Well, I cheated a bit and took two 30-second walking breaks, so I guess technically I only ran for 19 minutes. But I was willing and able to tack on an additional minute at the end but decided not to. I was supposed to resume running with Karin today but Jake had an unexpected trip out of town so I had to start the week in the hotel yesterday morning. It was the first time I’ve ever jogged on a treadmill and I have to say, I really liked it. It was very easy to keep up my pace, I wasn’t dealing with piles of goose poop and uneven pavement and all that. And it was air conditioned which is nice.

Why, you may ask, was I in a hotel yesterday morning? Well, I’m glad you asked! I went with Sarah and Lorna to San Antonio for Girls’ Weekend ‘07! Friday around noon, I left for Austin to stay with Sarah and hang out a bit. We ate Veggie Rolls at Double Dave’s (whole wheat crust with cheese, onions and mushrooms rather than pepperoni - pure heaven!) and drank some beer. We stayed up late talking as usual. Saturday morning we grabbed a smoothie and hopped in the car to head to San Antonio. Lorna had flown in from her city and was already at the hotel when we arrived. Lunch, talking, sight-seeing abounded. I actually got to see the Alamo for the first time in my life. I know it’s odd, considering how long I’ve lived in Texas that I had never been to San Antonio but I hadn’t. We ate, we talked, we drank, we talked more…. It’s always good to get some girl time. We hope to make Girls’ Weekend a regular, at least yearly, event.

Jake stayed home with Bridget and it was really weird to be the one who was away with them at home. I have only ever spent one night away from Bridget was when my parents watched her so Jake and I could go out for his birthday. It was hard but not as hard as I thought it would be. But in order to keep from crying, I had to minimize my phone calls home and try to time them when I knew Bridget would be asleep  so I wouldn’t have to hear her in the background. Jake is much stronger than I am about such things - he loves to talk to her on the phone. But I just couldn’t do it. My strategy worked because I didn’t end up crying once all weekend, even though the River Walk was overrun with babies, babies and more babies. It was nice to get home and be able to do Bath/Bottle/Book/Bed with Bridget. I sniffed her head way more than was really necessary as she was drinking her bottle and snuggled her a bit longer than normal before laying her down for bed.  It was wonderful and I plan to do it again tonight.

Now, regarding San  Antonio - tell me how it is that people don’t constantly fall into that river? The River Walk is teeeeeeny. And with a crowd of people trying to get past each other, may of them drunk, I don’t see how everyone manages to stay on the sidewalk. I’d be curious to see the stats on this.