I've almost been off work a month, and it has been probably the most interesting month in my life. At first I regretted scheduling two vacations in a 30 day span, but in hindsight, I'm glad I did. Traveling is not only good for you in more ways than one, but it's completely tiring. Now that I have the travel bug out of my system for the time being, I can start to focus on what I promised myself I would a month ago.
 |
| Melissa, Me and Colleen in Key Largo |
Vacation was a blast. I went to visit Colleen in St. Petersburg Florida. It was so great to spend much-needed time with a best friend. Life in Florida is so chill. We did a lot of cool stuff including the Dali museum, Ft. Desoto, Treasure Island and a booze cruise on the Bay in Gulfport. Interestingly enough, I was able to extend my trip to a week with not only no charge, but I received credit from the airline company (because I chose to fly out of a different airport). Seizing the opportunity, the day after the Fourth of July, Colleen, Ryland and I packed up and headed for the Florida Keys to visit my sister. What I saw there was unreal. It's definitely the island life down there. We spent a lot of time with Melissa as she acted as our tour guide for our mostly impromptu, last minute trip. We went snorkeling in the coral reefs on a tour boat. Lucky for us, Melissa is a marine biologist, so not only were the sights beautiful, but we actually knew that we were looking at a school of baby barracuda and knew that we were experiencing a rare sight - an almost completely intact brain coral. It was amazing. The fun didn't stop there. We traveled down to Key West the next day. Melissa joked that she gave us the Keys experience on crack. We managed to fit in a shitload of stuff in two days. It's hard to imagine, being in Key Largo, that you can actually travel another 100 miles south, but you can. A beautiful drive down a two lane highway flanked by the Gulf and the Atlantic later, we arrived at the southernmost point of the continental U.S. Mostly a vacation destination for cruise liners, Key West is the tropical version of Las Vegas. Drinking on the streets is permitted and encouraged, and there are enough tourist traps to keep you busy for at least a week. We did some shopping, went to the spectacle of the Sunset Celebration, did a little drinking, and headed back to Key Largo. Overall, the trip was very nice. I want to thank Colleen and Ryland for their hospitality and great company, and also for agreeing that an expensive five hour drive south was worth its weight. I was very sad to leave Florida, my two best friends, and Ryland's hilarious demeanor. I cried for a while on the way home, contemplating my sister and my best friend, and all the great memories we had made together.
I took a short intermission of vacations when I got home. I was mostly caught up in the whirlwind of getting ready to send my family off to Cancun. Getting a family of 6 into a foreign country ain't easy. They finally departed, leaving me with a couple days to myself. Mostly relaxing, I spent this time doing last minute preparations for my Las Vegas trip. I got to spend time with Rachel, another best friend from NYC. We went downtown to Navy Pier, rode the Seadog, and shopped on Michigan Avenue. Nothing could have topped off the night better than a meal at The Cheesecake Factory, a tradition I like to maintain every year.
 |
| Vegas girls at Fat Tuesday's with our 1/2 yard drinks |
Vacation in Las Vegas was another story entirely. It was an incredible experience, but left me exhausted...and for good reason, because I had so much effing fun! I've never been on vacation with a group of girlfriends before, especially in a city where sin is the mainstay...so needless to say, we brought that city to its knees. Thanks to Mello for coordinating almost the entire trip, we stayed in a really nice upgraded room at Caesar's Palace. And thanks to our 8 vags, we were begged left and right to come to x y and z club. We explored the strip, ate our hearts out the buffets, fit in the piano bar at Paris, got loaded at the amazing Garden of the Gods pool area, Katie C won $100 for nothing, we spent our last pennies at the cheapest, funnest dirty casino on the strip, stumbled home to watch sunrise, went to the Beatles Revolution Lounge, partied atop the 55th floor of the Palms and more. Words can't describe how much this experience meant to me. It was great that all of us best friends could go somewhere and experience all these fun times together. Happiness is only real when shared, and me and my best girlfriends shared some of the finest moments of my life. So thank you ladies for a hopefully not once-in-a-lifetime trip. I hope we can go every year! Let's start planning ASAP!
So now I'm home and I think I have had a significant amount of time to debrief (a week) before starting up work again. I know these chances in life are few and far between, and all my hard work has definitely paid off. There have been moments, plenty of them actually, when I have felt guilty for taking this month off to blow some of my hard-earned money, but then I realized that now is the time to do it. I shouldn't feel guilty to treating myself to some good times after skipping out of vacations for almost 5 years. It was my time, and I took it and I spent it wisely.
That being said, however, downtime has seemed to get the best of me. It's hard for me not to be on a work schedule, and harder still to prevent myself from cringing while withdrawing money from my savings account to pay bills. Luckily, I start back to work on Sunday.I can't say I'm thrilled to waitress again, but I think it's good for me to do in the meantime until I develop a solid plan of action.
