Hard Rock Life Party!

Last night we celebrated Melissa's birthday with a party at Hard Rock Hotel. The Hard Rock Hotel is absolutely gorgeous! We had 2 deluxe rooms that were beautiful and HUGE! We were waiting for everyone to get there and get organized so a few of us played a couple rounds of Nerts. Tidwell and I make an awesome Nerts team (although on our few rounds we played this morning, we were easily beaten by the Leonard Sister Duo). After we got all organized we headed down to the pool to play on the slide and watch the Dive-In movie. Unfortunately, they shut down the slide because of the movie :( So we hung out in the jacuzzi for a while but then decided to head over to Portofino to use their pool and slide. Way awesome!! We had the lifeguards timing us racing down the slide. I also decided, for safety purposes, that it was necessary for me to wear a lifejacket down the slide. I did not want to drown in the 3 foot deep water. ;) When I took the lifejacket off for my next round down the slide, the lifeguards were impressed with my quick ability in learning how to swim and told me that maybe I could learn to be a lifeguard next. Oh if they only knew how I spent my summers in high school. I could show them a thing or two ;)

We finally made it back to our room and in bed around 1:00 a.m. (after Tidwell and I enjoyed the iPod dock they had in the room and played some great tunes for our room for a while. We'd make good DJs. It's true.) and then got up bright and early this morning for Birthday Breakfast at The Kitchen at Hard Rock. Soooo good. Unfortunately, there was no Woody the Woodpecker there though :( Buttt, after breakfast we headed over to Islands of Adventure with our swimsuits on ready to conquer the water rides. Annnd, guess who we saw! Woody the Woodpecker in his Safari gear! So, of course, we took a picture. Then we spent the morning using our ExpressPasses (heck yes!) to hit up Popeye's, Ripsaw Falls, and Jurassic Park. I think Ripsaw Falls and Popeye's were my favorite. On our last round on Popeye's we were standing in line and the family behind us started asking me if we were all wet from going on the ride over and over again. I explained to the family that we had in fact been on the ride multiple times, but that we got soaked the very first time. In her southern accent she responded "oh well, I'll dry off" I think she was trying to grin and bear it because she and her husband had their teenage son and his friend with them and they wanted them to have fun. They get on the ride with us (It holds like 12 people at a time), and we go down the first hill and they get SOAKED. We were laughing so hard, but they were good sports about it. I could tell they were from the south, they were so laid back about it (wow, that was definitely a stereotype, but a good one, I swear!! They were cool people, I would have hung out with them for the day).

Anyhow, now I'm just lounging a bit before I head out with some friends to the Boardwalk and Animal Kingdom Lodge for night vision animal watching. It should be fun! I love eventful weekends.

Andddd....Monday night is OneRepublic and Dave Barnes!!! So stoked. :)

Short Version Concert Recap-Augustana

I'll fill in more later, but the Augustana concert last night was amazing!!! Their live performance is so incredibly good. They closed with a Bob Dylan cover that was crazy awesome--somewhat strange at points, but awesome. Five Times August was the opener and they were really good too. Definitely worth the money!!

Happy Friday!!! (I love weekends!) :)

Master of Goodbyes

I'm becoming a master at goodbyes. Since moving here a year and a half ago, I've had to say goodbye more times than I can count. I know that I'm not the only person that has to say goodbyes, but it just seems that I'm getting more than my fair share of goodbyes. I suppose that's what happens when you move 4 states away from home.

I'm very much looking forward to going Home (let's be honest...Ohio will always be home) in just 36 days, but I'm already fearing having to say goodbye and return to Florida. Five days may be a good chunk of time, but already it doesn't seem like enough. As I sit here writing this, I'm holding back tears thinking of how hard it'll be to say goodbye to my closest friends at the end of the 5 days. I'm sure that God brought me here for a reason, but I can't deny saying that it hurts to be so far away from the city that I love and the people that I love.

In any case, I can't wait for those 5 glorious days.

What's the moral of this story?

So my friend Ryan sent me this story today at work from Fox News:

One unlucky British teen suffered a painful shark attack without ever going near the water. In fact, he was bitten in the face by one of the sharp-fanged animals in his own bedroom, Metro.co.uk reported.

The “attack” happened at 14-year-old Sam Hawthorne’s home in Dudley, England.

Hawthorne was sleepwalking when the teeth of a dead souvenir shark from a family vacation, that hangs on the wall of his nautical-themed bedroom, became embedded in his face.

The teeth left blood pouring from the teen’s face, his mother, Susan, told Metro.co.uk.

“It was like something out of a horror film,” she said. “The shark must have been embedded in Sam's cheek for about 15 minutes and he was in a lot of pain.”

In the end, Hawthorne came away with only a small scar. “It was the most frightening experience of my life,” he told Metro.co.uk.

So what's the moral of this story? To not sleepwalk? Or to not hang dead animals on your wall? Either way, I'd say this kid's got a leg up on the competition when playing 2 truths and a lie. Nobody's ever gonna believe he's telling the truth.

Tomorrow's gonna come too soon

My hand's raised. Why? Because when asked the question "Who doesn't want to go to work tomorrow?" I'd definitely be the first to respond. Tiny little cubicle for 8 hours a day. No thanks. I'd much rather have open air, sunshine, the outdoors....you get my point. Ah well, I suppose we all must make a living, eh? At least it's a 4 day work week.

And only 37 days until Ohio.

One foot, two foot, RED foot...

We went sailing today. It was absolutely beautiful outside. Gorgeous sunshine, beautiful water, a nice breeze. We were out for about 3 hours along the coast of Lido Beach and Siesta Key in the Gulf. I had taken proper precautions and put on sunscreen before we went out. With only about 15 minutes left of the trip, I noticed that the top of my left foot kinda hurt. Apparently, my left foot failed to receive sunscreen as it is now as red as a tomato while my right foot is tan like the rest of me. Very strange.

Anyway, I now officially love sailing. I took a nice nap on the front of the boat as the waves gently tossed the boat back and forth. I saw a couple of dolphins and a jumping fish. It was certainly idyllic.

It certainly will be rough going back to work on Tuesday...

Music update

Here are my new recommendations. They're good...mostly because I said so :)

Samson-Regina Spektor
Fidelity-Regina Spektor
Prodigal-OneRepublic
Disappear-The Gabe Dixon Band
The Hat-Ingrid Michaelson

Just a short list this time. But I'm really liking Regina Spektor lately. So good.

And small sidenote...someone is super siked for the beach...