Wow. For real...it's this week. So hard to believe.
I am stressing out about the trip to New Orleans. Thank goodness that I don't have gift madness to deal with too. I got Caleb's sent directly to my mom's house and am not doing anything for anyone else. So there.
1/2 day of work tomorrow morning and then it is vacation time through the weekend. That is somewhat of a relief...a couple days will get to be spent at home.
*sigh*
Really, I am going to miss being with the critters for the holiday. I hate that the dogs will be at the kennel and I hope the cats don't totally destroy the house...four days is about their max by themselves. Heh. I guess we'll see. Unfortunately, I have no vacation time when we return, so I seriously hope I don't have any major messes to clean up. It is bad enough to jump right back into work with "vacation" laundry and stuff to do too.
Yes, I am bitching. This trip is looming at me like some sort of monster out of a bad dream. Only I am not waking up and it is not going away. It will have to be dealt with when it gets here, I guess.
This weekend, I spent a very chilly windy day at one small part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It's about two hours from where I live. I was a little worried that I might get there and find acres of just grass. Not so!
We went to see the matinee of Avatar 3-D yesterday. I enjoyed it a lot. The plot was very nativist and (I thought) trite, so don't expect anything new or mind-blowing there and the corporate head-honcho character annoyed the crap out of me with his apparent wishy-washiness (I don't want to throw in any spoilers so I won't go into any more detail). The movie itself though was stunning. It is amazing how far 3-D technology has come...I remember watching some 3-D movie as a kid with the red and blue glasses...this nothing like that.
A friend on Facebook asked about getting nauseous...I could see someone feeling ill if you have a tendency toward motion sickness. Even with the advances, the 3-D sometimes has trouble keeping up with the fast action (I learned about the whys and such from Neil LOL) which sometimes makes it feel a little wonky to watch. I noticed in some of the fast action scenes people became sort of see-through...I think that was how my brain was processing the images.
And I would definitely caution against sitting too close to the screen - our seats were almost all the way at the back of the theater in the dead center of the row (which was amazing considering the theater was already packed when we got there!). And I can't imagine trying to keep up with the action while watching it on an IMAX screen. With that said, our friend who went with us was worried about that because she tends to get ill and she LOVED the movie. I believe her words were "the best movie she's ever seen".
All that aside, it was beautiful. It is long (nearly 3 hours), but I sat through the whole thing even after pounding a 32 ounce Coke at the start of it. ;-) The scope of it really draws you in, and even with the script predicatbility, you want to keep watching (well, _I_ did anyway).
My only other gripe about the movie is that they recycle the glasses...mine looked like someone had taken fine grain sandpaper to them...so check yours out in the lobby before you get into the theater (I didn't).
Bottom line is, I would recommend seeing it in the theater for the spectacular imagry. If you are worried about cost, do what we did and hit up a matinee (still not cheap, but much less than prime time). :)
We re-join our story in the Spa of the Ocean Spa Hotel, Cancun Mexico.
As part of our deal with our hotel stay, both Donna and I recieved a 55 minute massage and a $30 spa credit good for various services.
After some deliberation, we decide to go with the Swedish massage and an Aromatherapy Body Exfoliation. We make our appointments for 10am the day before we leave.
When we arrive at the spa, they bring us into the Women's Locker Room and ask us to change and take a warm shower before we head into the steam room. We oblige in our private showers.
After a refreshing steam, our two massage therapists bring us into a room. It happens to be the Couples Massage room....which is fine. In fact, its a beautiful room complete with mood lighting and a beautiful jacuzzi bathtub for two. The tub had lit candles around the side and some floating flower petals. We looked at each other and laughed...thinking, "You're my best friend and all, but there is no way, I'm taking a nude jacuzzi with you at the end of this".
The massages begin and they are fabulous. My masseuse doesn't speak to me (which I love) nor does she understand much of what I'm saying to her. Donna's person is much more fluent than mine.
My person only speaks to me when she commands me to do something, but what's a little disconcerting is that she bends down and whispers-this-close right in my ear. Its a little creepy feeling...plus it tickles. She had a voice like a very sweet child, so I start to get the giggles in my head. I don't want to start laughing and ruin Donna's massage, nor do I want my poor massuese to think I'm laughing at her. Its just one of those weird moments when you know you shouldn't laugh...so all you want to do is start chortling and guffawing all over the place.
The massages end and they begin the exfoliation. After rubbing, scrubbing and buffing our front sides, I'm told to "sit up". I sit up and look to my right and Donna is already sitting up....trying as desperately as I am to keep my sheet in its proper place. We get our backsides exfoliated and then are told to lie back down. From Donna's side, I hear a little laugh. First from Donna and then from her person. I wonder what they're talking about and worry that since someone broke the "seal" on the public laughing, I'm going to start to laugh about the whispering in my ear.
I'm told to lie still for a few minutes and then to get up and take a shower. The massage therapists leave and I peek out from under my eye cover and see Donna looking at me. We decide its time to get up, shower and get dressed.
Donna opens the door to the shower and its.....a shower built for two. One stall. Two shower heads facing each other. We start to laugh at how we've suddenly entered into a soft core porn flick. After some debate and many promises to "don't look", we figure what the hell? We're not THAT modest with each other. Donna heads in first and I follow behind (with my eyes closed). All I could think about was some 1980's women's prison movie and with that we start to laugh. We're trying to wash the grit off of ourselves while not looking at the other one and the whole time we're hysterically laughing. I can't catch my breath because of the absurdity of it all. The harder Donna laughs, the more I laugh. Finally, from the steam Donna yells "THIS IS THE GAYEST THING I'VE EVER DONE!! Oh, and did she ask you to do the "boobie" thing?" Apparently, Donna's therapist bent down, whispered in her ear "here...this is for your boobies" and she hands her a handful of exfoliator. I ask her what she did.
In all seriousness, she responds "I did my boobies".
That's it. I'm done. I can't shower anymore. I can barely stand up because I can't catch my breath. I run out of the shower cacking like a hen and wonder to myself what in the hell do the other spa customers think is going on in here?
Yesterday there was some snow...definitely a lot of ice, and apparently freezing rain during the night:
This morning was quite lovely just as the sun was coming up before it all melted (though, I am thankful it DID all melt). I snapped a few shots before retreating back inside to the warmth of my morning coffee. I guess winter is officially here even if the calendar doesn't quite say so yet.
I suppose there will be more of this to come as winter progresses...we'll just have to wait and see!
And laryngitis type stuff that comes and goes.
The voice thing is sudden and annoying my throat hurts like hell which makes me want to not talk anyway, but I CAN talk...until suddenly I can't. With two conference calls today, that is not so convenient.
Thank goodness, not much going on I need to talk to anyone about.
I have been trying to reactivate my account to play Lord of the Rings Online (yes, I am a geek)...but I am getting an error online. I've submitted a trouble ticket, but so far have heard nothing back. Their customer service department leaves a lot to be desired...
Really nothing much to report. Both dogs seem to have upset tummies, but I don't know why. Sadie pooed runnies on the kitchen floor...thank goodness it was on the hard floor for easier clean-up. *sigh*
OK off to conference call #2 and then to eat some lunch because despite not feeling well, I am starving!
It is another gorgeous, sunny yet cold winter day here. However, I noticed this morning that there is a winter storm watch for my county...apparently they are expecting snow storms to come through tomorrow. Crazy! Usually we don't get our frozen precipitation until much later in the winter. Guess I should go look for my boots just in case.
Work is still work. This week is my last real review of the year. YAY! I am doing a site inspection locally here after Christmas, but I don't have to talk to anyone to do it, so that is kind of nice.
Moo stayed with Neil this week while I was gone and was mostly a good girl! At Neil's she has to sleep in her crate because his house is not Moo-proofed...so there she usually really freaks out in the middle of the night. Our solution was to move her crate to the garage (it is a finished, insulated garage...plenty warm and protected for her). This seems to have worked. He told me she barked a little right at first, but then settled down and he didn't hear her all night. And there were no accidents in the morning. She did get into the food bag and chew up one of her zip lock bags that I pack her food in. Luckily, there was no food in it.
For whatever reason, she still gets up in the middle of the night to go outside. I've been trying to work with her on this by giving her a really long potty walk before bed and then insisting on her going to lay back down when she does wake me up/ignoring her when she is just being whiny. My concern is that the couple times that she has listened and has gone to lay back fown, she has also gotten sick. I am not sure what is up with that - maybe she has an upset tummy from her antibiotics (it has only happened after her surgery)? And I know if she REALLY has to go, she lets me know by grunting and getting up on the bed if she has to to get me up...so now I don't really know what to do. Some nights she hasn't woken me up and there have been no problems. Last night I don't know if she tried (I never heard her), but this morning there were three barf spots in the living room. *sigh* Thankfully, I haven't cleaned the carpets yet. That is on the agenda for Saturday. I guess I will just keep trying to get her to sleep through the night and will continue to clean up barf as needed.
Bonnie's new trick is to sneak out the front door when it is opened and then dash around the house to come in the back door. I am guessing she wants to go outside, but also doesn't really want to be left out. LOL However, I am learning that if you chase her then she keeps going and doesn't come back in for awhile. Bad kitty.
I have been being better about washing my face at night and in the mornings and using lotion on it...my skin is starting to look pretty darn good again. I like it.
Now I am working on getting my geeky games reloaded onto my computer...I had to repartitiion the hard drive to make room for one of them. I am SUCH a dork.
Next week I will be headed to New Orleans. I am trying to get excited, or at least happy about going. I am really. right now I feel a nice cold settling in so that isn't helping my mood.
Moo's knee is healing really well...at least the incision is! And she seems to be feeling pretty chipper, so that makes me happy. Sadie is her usual playful, happy self too.
Now I am going to go see about some lunch...
Before I begin this post, I wanted to say hi to all of my Vox neighbors (those that are left, anyway). Sorry I haven't been around much since Jake died....but its been kind of a hard few months and I just haven't felt much like talking about stuff.
That being said, I had an experience recently that I wanted to share (and remember)...
Anyone who knows me well, knows that in the last 10 years or so, I've developed a little fear of flying. I still do it, but I really don't love it. I refuse to drink or take medication to calm my fears, so I grit my teeth and go. The part I really can't stand is take-off. That feeling of slowly climbing into the air completely freaks me out. Once we're up and the flight attendants start serving, I'm pretty much OK - assuming there isn't a ton of turbulence.
I should point out that I never had an issue with flying until a few years ago. Nothing specific happened to stress me out...perhaps just getting older or perhaps its because I tended to hyper-focus on news reports of aviation disasters. (much like I watch shows about serial killers even though I'm terrified of them). In the last few years, I've read a few books about flying and I change the channel when there is ANYTHING to do with plane crashes.
I consider myself to be a very rational black-and-white person, which is why I'm baffled by how irrational my fear is. People think they're being helpful by saying "you have a greater chance of winning the lottery than being in a plane crash". But I think to myself...I COULD win the lottery....assuming I ever bought a ticket. So in the past few years, I've read books, logged onto the FAA website to read the statistics and have regular conversations with myself about how safe flying truly is.
Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. The fear usually creeps in about a week before I have to fly. I maniacally clean my house in case I don't come home. I hope that my family will give a flattering picture of me to the folks at Dateline who are SURE to do a story on the accident. I can't stand when people tell me to "have a safe flight" because I assume they've suddenly gone psychic on me and they know something that I don't. I ask Dan if he "has any feelings about the flight"....again, I assume everyone I know is a member of the Psychic Friends Network. I make Dan look up statistics about how many takeoffs and landings there are each year from the Minneapolis airport. (450,000 in case you're curious).
When I get to the airport, I look around to see if its looks like its anyone's "time". I swear to you. Its horrible. If there is ever a famous person on my flight, I'm about ready to turn around and go home. I stare at the departures and arrivals screens to see how many flights there are, what airlines I've never heard of and how many faraway destinations there are. These things are supposed to make me feel better, but they tend to freak me out all the more.
That being said, Dan and I usually fly first class because it does seem to help me out a little. That or I'm just saying that so Dan will pony up for the good seats. I tend to feel worse if its a really crowded flight. I also feel much better if the pilot and the flight attendants are older. If the pilot is under 40, I assume he's an idiot. Why? I couldn't tell you.
SO...last week I had the opportunity to take a quick trip to Cancun with my best friend Donna. Donna and I have taken a ton of vacations together and she's a great travel partner. Mainly because she distracts me during takeoff by telling stories about her mother that make me laugh. She also knows that while I look calm on the outside, on the inside I look like a Edward Munch painting.
For some reason, my usual pre-flight thoughts weren't scary ones. In fact, I did really well the night before and didn't even think much about the flight. Same thing when we got to the airport. We get on the plane and I offer to take the middle seat and give Donna the aisle. (keep in mind that she's been taking the middle for me for about 15 years). I can't figure out why I'm feeling so calm, but I'm pleased.
The day of our flight was the day when the entire U.S. was hit with storms, blizzards and record cold and yet...I'm still not afraid.
The plane takes off and I'm just fine. A little fluttering in the stomach, but nothing I can't handle. The flight is going great. No turbulence, a gray-haired pilot AND an older flight attendant. What more could I ask for?
When food service begins, Donna and I decide to look at the menu and have a little snack. I offer a menu to the woman on the other side of me and she just stares blankly. She's an older woman, about 70 or so. The flight attendant asks her if she wants peanuts, pretzels or cookies and she just stares back at her. I ask her the question again and in a very thick Polish accent, she says "no English". (I know its Polish because Donna's best friend from home is Polish) I tell the flight attendant to give her all 3 options. I try to see if she wants something to drink by giving the universal sign for "drink". She says "Sprite".
I decide to have a cocktail since I see Pomegranate Martinis on the menu. The flight attendant shakes my drink and Donna pulls out her travel Yahtzee game (sound dorky...but a great time-waster on a plane).
Just as we begin to play, the plane starts to shake a little. And then a little more. I'm doing OK. The pilot comes on and says to buckle up because they are expecting a little rough weather. I'm still OK. In fact, I'm doing better because I LOVE when the pilot tells me what's going on. (can you say "control freak"?)
All of a sudden from the left side of the plane comes a big BOOM. Donna says "I think that was thunder". I turn around to the guy behind me and say "was that thunder?" when all of a sudden it felt like we were rear-ended by a semi. The plane pitches forward, shakes from side to side and drops to the point where I'm straining against my selt belt.
As all of this happens, I see my Pomegranate Martini levitate off my tray and catch it in mid-air without a drop spilled. I mean, if I'm going to pay $7.00 for a Rande Gerber cocktail, I'm not letting it spill all over some elderly Polish lady.
People start SCREAMING...and I mean, horror movie screaming and things are flying all over. It seems to last for 5 minutes when all of a sudden everything is still. Throughout all of this, I'm calm. I didn't utter a peep, a yelp, a howl, nothing. I look down and I see my martini in my left hand and my red Yahtzee pencil in my right. The entire Yahtzee game was gone. Not in my lap, not in Donna's, not in the aisle...just gone.
I look to my right and the little Polish lady is fiddling with her scarf and just absolutely terrified. I rub her arm and say "its OK, its OK". She smiles. I turn to Donna to start to laugh about the insanity of it all and there she is...my big brave travel partner with tears just streaming down her face. I put my arm around her and say "we're OK. we're OK". She starts to cry and says "my whole life just flashed in front of my eyes. OK...not my whole life, just the part where I think I'm a mean person". I start to laugh and laugh hard. Then she stops crying and yells "that fucking pilot better tell us what just happened". I can't help it...I start to laugh even harder. She tells me to look at the aisle and when I do, there are cameras, books, empty cups, ice, magazines strewn everywhere. There is tomato juice, coffee and diet coke dripping down from where it hit the ceiling. And still no Yahtzee game. Donna is covered in some beverage and I kind of feel guilty that I made such a great catch of my own beverage.
The flight attendants come by with napkins to help with the clean up when the pilot comes on and in the most chipper voices say "sorry for the bumps there. We were trying to divert around the bad weather over Jackson, Mississippi". Now everyone on the plane is laughing....that kind of embarrassed, nervous laughter. I can't stop laughing, but I really want to know where the Yahtzee game went. We find it in the aisle under some seats....that is all but one dice.
I turn around to ask the guy behind me if they've seen any dice. He starts to laugh and says "yeah, its in my son's pocket". Apparently, the dice went flying over the seat into the kid's lap and he pocketed it. The kid hands it back and we're all still laughing.
When the flight attendant stops at our seats, I ask her "so...do pilots feel what we feel back here?" (yes, I'm that goon who feels the need to ask those kind of questions). Irritated, she yells "NO and really irritates me. They have no idea". Then she tells me that in Row 18 where we were was nothing compared with Row 28 who REALLY felt it.
What struck me is how not scared she was...just annoyed because once we arrive in Cancun she only has 90 minutes to get the plane ready for the return flight.
Throughout all of this, I couldn't believe that I was so calm. As I've said many times before, I am great in a crisis. The house could be on fire, my arm could be hanging from its socket and I'd be calm as a cucumber....but God forbid the grocery store only has curly parsley instead of flat-leaf because NOW I'm going to burn the house down. Weird how things work out that way.
Donna kept saying "You're so brave, I'm so proud of you. Unlike me on the other hand, who looked like the petrified cat in this week's episode of "Hoarders" I lost it again. She has a way of making references that she just knows I'm going to get. Its great to have a best friend like that. Then she said something that I think will help me with future flights. She said that whenever I get scared on another flight, to remember what happened on THIS one and compare the two. I think its great advice.
When we arrived in Cancun, all of the goons on the plane started to applaud. I jumped out of my seat and was waiting to exit the plane when I hear this little voice saying "help me...help me". I look over at my Polish seatmate and her seat belt is completely twisted around her and she can't get out. I reach over, unbuckle her and give her a goodbye arm rub. She smiles gratefully and we leave.
I can't say this cured my fear of flying because on the way home, I had the usual take-off flutters. But I have to admit, that I am proud of how I handled a potentially bad situation. If this would have happened some other day, the flight attendants would have had to hog-tie me to the seat and there would have been federal marshalls meeting me at the gate.
Stay tuned for the next installment of "Nancy and Donna Go To Cancun"....entitled "That's The Gayest Thing I've Ever Done".
Well, Today marks the day that I begin
