Post Wedding Update

I don’t have a whole lot of time today since it’s the first day back in the office after the wedding and honeymoon. I did want to say everything was great! We had A LOT of liquid sunshine (rain) day of the wedding, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. Our guests were troopers and sat outside (under a pavilion) for our ceremony and trudged through our puddle filled parking lot for the reception.

Jim and I had a great time, and wish it was a longer night. Our honeymoon, in sunny Aruba, was perfect! The weather was gorgeous the whole time and island is very friendly. I would definitely recommend it.

Now we are back to reality!

Here’s a few pics from the big day.

love of the ocean

yet my ability to enjoy it is so sad! You are now asking yourself, what do you mean? I had the opportunity to be by the water twice in the last week. First my view was this:

And a little bit of this:

But do you think I could really just sit and enjoy? You would think yes…sadly the answer is no. I can sit still for all of about 5 minutes than I need something to entertain me. Luckily these 2 pictures allowed me to enjoy the view and a friend was with me so we chatted, I read, and played with my phone so I sat out enjoying the beauty for a while. So this one wasn’t a total bust.
Next up was my work trip to Pensacola, FL. I got the opportunity to head to the beach in the late afternoon as I finished up my work. So there I was in a bathing suit, with sunscreen, towel, and myself…and nothing else. I sat down to this amazing white sandy beach!

Can you believe how beautiful this is? Look at that emerald ocean and white sand…and the water was warm. So i sat for about 15 minutes before I couldn’t do it any more. Then I walked the beach for a while…finally I decided I couldn’t take the quiet any more and left. Yes you read that right…I left after about 30-45 minutes because I don’t know how to just enjoy the view, the quiet, and the beauty of the ocean alone. I am still trying to figure that out about life and how to just do nothing. Even when I am home I can’t be focused on just one thing. As I sit here and type I also have the TV on.

But of course I couldn’t let me inability to relax and enjoy ruin my evening so I headed to dinner at the Fish House in downtown Pensacola. I had a crab stuff mahi mahi for dinner and WOW it was awesome!

The view was pretty good too, although most of the dinner I had my back to it. It was still nice to still be bear the water.

Perhaps one of these days I will learn how to relax, enjoy and just be ok with the silence…if you have any suggestions I am open to them. So now I just have to be ok with short spurts to enjoy my love of the ocean!

 

Summer Lovin!

Summer Lovin’ had me a blast – Summer Lovin’, happened so fast…Ahh how I love summer! It has been an amazing few days and I feel so lucky to live the life I have. Let’s do a quick recap then feel free to share your summer fun.

Thursday night I headed to the Green Turtle to listen to one of my favorite local cover bands The Project. You should check them out, the next show is Thursday at Clyde’s in Columbia. They are an acoustic group of guys (Bob, Eric & Jason) that play all the hits you love to sing along too…just what I love about live music. They even ask for audience participation.

Friday…well I worked, which wasn’t bad, but after that the fun began. Visited with a dear friend and her adorable baby…I cannot get enough of this kid! She has to be one of the best babies I have ever met…and I really don’t like babies. Yes I know, weird, but they aren’t too interactive. Except for this one. She is super active, smiles, laughs is already trying to stand up (and she’s only 5 months old) and she is just generally AWESOME! Here’s a quick look at the cutie!

Saturday’s plans were some what delayed by bad weather…it rained almost all day. We had grand plans to head into DC early, enjoy the sites and walk around but that didn’t happen. But a friend and I braved the elements (maybe I melt in the rain, ok no I don’t but my hair frizzes) and headed down to DC to get our culture groove on. We went to the Capital Fringe Festivalto see Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s Roadside Revue presenting The Brontes. It was a great show, it made me laugh, it made me want to sing, they had me clapping along…totally recommend it (although there is only one show left). We topped the evening off with my favorite fro yo Yogi Castle!

And finally we had Sunday Funday! I did a living social deal for the day of fun. It was crabs, hamburgers, salads, beer, wine, and more for 4 hours….and live music by Millennium at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club just over the Bay Bridge. It was a fun day…despite the lack of sun.

Here was our view (yes that’s the Bay Bridge):

Sadly I don’t swim in the bay…and it had lots of jelly fish, but I did touch sand…so success and closer to my goal of 5 times this year!  I know I can get at least 4 so I need to figure out how to get my 5th time.

So what did your weekend hold?

 

 

 

art of relaxation . . .

or for me it’s more the art of not being able to relax very long. Sometimes I feel like my attention span is probably equal to the size of a peanut. I had this beautiful view as I ate breakfast one morning sipping on my Starbucks coffee. It’s amazing right!?!

 

Guess how long I could last just enjoying the view? If you guessed less than 15 minutes you would be right. I kept getting up, kept fighting the urge to move, checked my phone, asked my friend how much longer before we do the next thing, and then began to plan what I would do next. I spent 3 days at the pool/beach and it nearly killed me! I read 3 magazines, 2 books and checked my phone probably 50 times. I also got up usually once an hour to get a drink or use the restroom. You would think I have a problem…but I can focus on some things, relaxation is just not one of them.

In 2006 I went to Italy with one of my best friends, and we spent a week at a resort where our main focus was just to relax. After day 3 she wanted to kill me because I just couldn’t sit there. I know by the end of that vacation I finally decompressed enough to enjoy the surroundings, I mean it was southern Italy, how can you not? But honestly it took every ounce of patience I had to finally get there.

I have been contemplating why I can’t sit and do literally nothing. I wonder if part of my problem is I don’t like spending too much time in my own head. It usually leads to bad things . . . which I probably why I love that my commute has been cut in more than half because spending time in the car, alone, thinking, gets old after a while. Most days on my drive home I would spend the whole time on the phone because it kept me occupied. Luckily now with under 30 minutes (most days 15-20) I don’t have time to get into good thinking mode. Although yesterday I drove about an hour on a boring stretch of road to visit a friend and her new baby and I spent most of that time stuck in my head. Thinking of the what if’s of life and the changes (or lack of change) over the last few years.

See it’s easy to spend the day reading a book or watching tv but just doing nothing is like torture!

How do you get into relaxation mode?

Here’s another beach picture:

titles are so hard

Trying to come up with a title when the post will just be  a stream of consciousness is quite difficult. A lot has happened since I last posted…I am no longer on the doors of what felt like death! I went to NJ (near Trenton) for work and then Ft. Lauderdale for a week. Partly to enjoy the beach, partly to work…as with work we did have some time for fun in the sun. We had lunch outside each day looking at the ocean. It was quite the view. Yes I know this is where I should be posting a picture…here you go!

While in FL I had some great food at Rocco Taco’s and awesome seafood at the hotel, Marriott Harbor Beach’s 3030 restaurant. Of course we spent time walking on the beach and by the pool. Sadly it was quite windy so it limited our time on the beach.

Now that I am back and healthy (or at least I hope since I am coughing again, better be allergies) life can resume back to normal since I will be in town for a while. Which means I need to plan some new meals…I am thinking tomorrow might be crock pot lasagna. But I need a few other suggestions for the next few weeks.

What have y’all be up to?