Junior Achievement Event

A good portion of my profession is networking, and Wednesday night we were invited to sponsor a Junior Achievement event in Fort Lauderdale at America's Backyard. My boss and I carpooled down and met up with a few colleagues, including my friend Theresa, who is currently on the market for employment. This was a really neat concept in networking. Each person wore a bracelet, the color identifying why you were attending. Employers wore blue, job seekers wore pink, and strictly networking wore yellow. This allowed the initial awkwardness of a first greeting to include something relevant, rather than the usual line that I despise, “Hi, what do you do?”

Damage Control

Today I will vent. And so, I will also post a ridiculous picture of me to lighten the mood.

Sometimes people will act as if they are your friend, and you fall for it. Sometimes that same said friend will take a trip with you, embarrass the shit out of you in more than one public place, make remarks that you would only expect from someone who isn't your friend, and have selfish behaviorisms that show their lack of interest in forming friendships with the true friends you do have. Unfortunately, you can't win them all. But what you can do is move on.

Life lesson #5,698: It is impossible to please everyone, and you really shouldn't try.

Monday April 13th

Sadly, we leave Key West today and head toward that thing called home. Although it's a short few hours away, it feels like we've been on another planet with all of the excitement and adventure we've had.
I think I'll share my top 5 favorite experiences of this trip:

1. Camille and I really bonded, and I feel like we're the closest we've ever been.
2. Trust your instinct, appreciate your true friends, and "everyt'ing's gonna be alright"
3. Who's driving? and Dinner's on me! while normal sayings back home, will forever be great jokes between us
4. Snorkeling is fun even when you can't see shit
5. Sometimes drag queens can dance better than you can

LOVE

Easter Sunday April 12th

Ahhh, Easter Sunday. Somehow Jesus and drag queens go hand in hand in Key West. Part of the hilarity was taking shots in forbidden territory where signs read, "men only beyond this point" while rubber duckies floated about the pools in the back. I can't say I blame them, Easter is way more fun parading around from bar to bar with your friends, 2 drag queens, and 14 look-alike dogs and their owners. Especially when it's for a good cause. The Xena Fund is an organization that provides emergency medical attention to pets, and the boys and girls that support the fund are far more than just a few cute puppies in costumes and rainbows, they made our Easter worth the time away from family.

Saturday April 11th

Saturday morning we woke up early and met our Captain down by the pier. We got a great deal for a day of parasailing, jetskiing, snorkeling, etc. It was a hilarious day, and although the sun was hidden behind some clouds, Liz and Julie got a pretty awful sunburn. Later in the evening, after a nap and some pool time, we went out to Irish Kevin's. Unfortunately Liz had a wicked heat stroke and blacked out in the middle of the bar, and then threw up outside. It was so scary to see someone you care about take a fall like that, knowing she wasn't intoxicated. So we all ventured back to the hotel, ordered pizza and watched a movie. It was a nice evening after all, and a reality check for the purpose of the trip which was a bonding experience with our friend-family.

Friday April 10th

Friday we woke up at 7AM to hit the road, Liz, Cam, Julie and I drove together and Kim and Valerie, as well as Lace and Justin, all met us down there. We had an awesome lunch at Bogatelle, finished off by a shot of Cafe Patron, before meeting up with the rest of the crew at Sloppy Joe's. We went back to the hotel room to nap, played in the pool for a little while, and then got ready for a brief night out, with dinner at Fogarty's. Sometimes it's difficult when you're in a group of girls but this trip has so far, proven to be quite a (semi) smooth venture.

Thursday April 9th

Getting ready for Key West, Liz and Renee came over to hang out as I packed and cleaned. Liz slept over and we stayed up half the night dishing about girly stuff. Looking forward to some relaxation with my girls, and bonding with my future sister in law Cam :)

Wednesday April 8th

Valerie invited me over last night for a pre-Easter dinner and cocktails. She is so cute with her Easter table that we had to get it in the picture. Bruzer even made it in the shot (lower left), and you can kind of see Val in the far right corner. Lace was home and packing for Key West, she's leaving a day earlier than all of us since it's her birthday on Friday (Happy Birthday Lace!)

Before you leave, let me provide you with the secret to your future Spring and Summer of happiness: Crystal Light (pink lemonade, strawberry kiwi, whatever floats your boat) and Grey Goose. Concerts, vacations, pool parties, and Easter dinner will never be the same again.

Tuesday April 7th

I got my boobie results back today, I'm just lumpy. YAY!

While Boyfriend was busy packing for Vegas and New Orleans, my cousin Johnny called and announced that Beth is pregnant! I think this is the age where I'll start to hear that a lot. Already 3 of my friends announced they were pregnant this year, and last year, 3 others had babies. And although I'm looking forward to the diapers in my (distant) future, I'm really happy with the way my life has played out so far. It's insane to think that my sister has two children, ages 10 and 5, and is only a short 2 months older than me. The funny thing is that both of us, although total opposites, are completely happy and content in our place in life.

Monday April 6th

Cam and I took a grueling class at LAF and then cancelled it out with stuffed eggplant after. Being home from vacation for 3 nights before heading out on vacation (again) with the girls, almost feels as though work isn't really happening in between. Yet it is, and I'm exhausted. It may have been that I'm delerious or just that I'm so excited to go to Key West that I mistakenly purchased a pair of sunglasses online and realized afterward that they would take 10 days to ship.
Note: First pair fell over balcony in St. Pete, into the bushes, after the snake incident, so naturally I didn't go after them. And for the record, neither did Boyfriend

Sunday April 5th

And now it's time to say goodbye to St. Pete. We stayed on Sunday just long enough to have lunch at Philthy Phil's, where we enjoyed another great meal, and saw dolphins jumping in the Intracoastal. We love it on the West Coast of Florida and can't wait to come back.

Saturday April 4th

Saturday we spent most of the morning recovering from a long night on Friday. We hardly slept in our crappy hotel room, and rolled out of bed around 11 to grab some food (and pina coladas). We ended up at the Undertow and then the Don Cesar (which is probably the only classy hotel in St. Pete) where I miraculously found the only VERY LARGE snake on the property, stepped on it, screamed, stepped on it again as I danced away, and then finally screamed so loud that both pools full of people stopped to stare at me. I didn't know whether to panic, freak out, throw up, feel sorry for the snake, or die from embarrassment. I chose the latter two and we kept drinking.

We stopped just long enough to take a nap before dinner at Ceviche. Oh. My. God. Ceviche. Is. AMAZING. I cannot think of anything better in the world then Tapas and Sangria in a quaint cottage-style restaurant with dim lighting and uneven cobblestone floors.

Friday April 3rd

Friday! We drove to St. Pete Beach today to meet up with some of Boyfriend's friends. Some of the fun and ironic highlights of the night were a) you arrive in St. Pete only to find out that your crappy hotel choice #1 does not take AMEX, so you move on to seek out alternate crappy hotel choice #2 which DOES take AMEX, yet does not provide soap in the bathrooms. b) chicas you are with coin the term, "Big Girl" in reference to your protective nature and willingness to confront those that bang on their bathroom doors (note: Strongbow beer in hand) yet when "Big Girl" shots come around, you no longer claim this as your name c) T, boy-genius (literally) drinks far too much and projectile-barfs outside of Liz's condo...yet he's able to contain himself for the entire 35 minute cab ride home...oh, and did you catch the mention that he is a genius? yep.

Thursday April 2nd

This week I keep forgetting to take pictures, whoops! So, I found this one of Lizzie and me for the purpose of today's post.

I’m still tired from the kickboxing class that Cam and I took after work; there were two instructors and one of them was absolutely clueless. She was having us do strange things like “make an X on the floor with your body” and some squat/twist/jump thing that made us all wish we had noticed her freakish body and left before the class started.

After that hellish class, I went home and Lizzie met me there. She’s having a hard time with life right now, juggling far too many serious issues, and I needed to give her a good laugh or two to hopefully shake some of her worry away for the night. If only her bakery would get the attention it deserved, all of those sweet treats would distract her from the nuances that can happen when everything starts to fall down.

P.S. I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately. My favorite recent find is I am style-ish. I am an every day reader, and am wishing I would have found this a few years ago when Tiffany started it. Oh, how my fashion choices may have survived so many blunders…

Wednesday April 1st

Dinner at Yokohama with the in-laws (which is a bogus term for them because they actually rock to have as borrowed family) was a nice long glance down the recession rabbit hole. When your favorite sushi spot is watering down soy sauce, cheaping out on chopsticks and padding on the rice to save on the sushi, you know things are bad. I almost stood up and yelled "April Fool's" when the waitress asked to pour water in Bobby's soda glass, but she was dead serious. we stopped at Cold Stone Creamery afterwards, and once we found out that the scooper's sing for tips, we emptied the last few bucks we had into their jar.

Mud Pie Mojo never tasted so good.