Alphabet Soup Meme

Alphabet Soup Meme


A. Attached or Single?Married. We just had our one year anniverary. Loving it!!



B. Best Friend? In addition to my sisters, who are also best friends, I have three: Becky, Anne, and Audrey. No matter how much time goes by, those three will always be kindred spirits.



C. Cake or pie? Cake. Carrot cake is my current favorite, but I love even the most generic of cakes. It's cake, for gosh sakes. Who doesn't like it?



D. Day of choice? That's tough. It used to be Friday for sure because the week was over and the whole weekend was stretching out in front of me. But now that we drive to Palm Springs every Friday, it might be Saturday. I love my new kitchen!! And the pool of course.



E. Essential item? Coffee. Must have.



F. Favorite color? Probably either blue or red. I love them both.



G. Gummy bears or worms? Between the two, worms. I would rather have cake though.



H. Home town? I claim Warrenton, VA as my hometown. I was born in Richmond though.



I. Favorite indulgence? Booze. Wine usually -- really good wine. Sometimes Vodka tonics on the weekends. Occasionally Corona with lime wedges in the pool. I know it's not good for me or my metabolism. I guess that is why it is an "indulgence"



J. January or July? July for sure. Height of summer is my second favorite time of the year. Christmas holiday is my ultimate fav. January is my LEAST favorite time of year. It's so "get back into work mode."



K. Kids? Not yet. Hopefully in the next five years.



L. Life isn’t complete without? David. I feel... lonely and sad when we are apart. Everything is more fun, more interesting, and more engaging when he is with me.



M. Marriage date?5/27/2007



N. Number of brothers and sisters? From my original family, four sisters and three brothers. Now, there are is an additional stepsister, two stepbrothers, and a half sister.



O. Oranges or Apples? Unless it's in a pie, I would probably pick Oranges. Kind of a mood thing though.



P. Phobias? Car accidents. this is LA after all, and fatal accidents clog our freeways daily. Airplane accidents too. I hate to fly. Fear of the dark. Everything bad happens either at night or when you can't see anything. I have a lot of these, but I will abbreviate the list and end with those.



Q. Quotes? Eleanor Roosevelt. "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission."



R. Reasons to smile? Sunny afternoons. A big, loving family. Having finally gotten to an age where I am less plagued by self-doubt that ever before (which doesn't mean not at all -- just less than before). Friends, both old and new. And of course the antics of my incredibly funny husband.



S. Season of choice. Fall. Birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas prep. Crisp air outside and bakery-scented air inside.



T. Tag 5 people. I think everyone has already done this.



U. Unknown fact about me? I'm kind of an open book, actually. Or at least I feel like I am. But surely I can come up with something, right? How about this: while I have never ever had the guts to get up and sing karoke, when I imagine it in my head (usually while driving) I am a ROCKSTAR.

V. Vegetable? Squash. All kinds. Yellow, Zuchini, Butternut. Mmmm.

W. Worst habit? I use my forefinger to pick at the skin of my thumb when I am deep in thought, agitated, or anxious. I have a perpetual sore there and my cuticle is permenantly ruined. I get chastized at manicures. I have tried to stop and can't seem to.

X. Xray or Ultrasound? I had my neck xrayed once. Apparently I don't have enough reverse curvature, which I guess is pretty common. It led to me having ultrasound therapy on my back to supposedly relieve the tension. So the answer is both? I'm not sure I understood the question. Can you use it in a sentence please?


Y. Your favorite food? Are we really going to open this pandora's box? Food is my favorite. But if forced to narrow it down, I will make a small list: Spaghetti, Pizza, French Fries, Cheese Enchiladas, Tacos, Burritos, Fajitas, Hot Wings, Cheese sticks, Bacon, Chips and Salsa, Guacamole, all kinds of Cheese, loaded up salads with everything, Brownies & Cheetoes. Many of those things I never eat anymore, but this heart is not a fickle one and love is love, despite absence.

Z. Zodiac sign? Vigro. Yes, I'm a demanding perfectionist and completely anal about the way everything is supposed to be and go all the time. I try to be mellow, but it's very difficult.

Part Two

There are few things that equal the joy of waking up in Maui.

Since the time change works in our favor, I was opening my eyes to the gray predawn light around 5am, fully rested and ready to start my day. I love mornings - adore mornings - so this is a special kind of treat for me and I savor it during our Hawaiian vacations in particular. And the best kind of mornings, without a doubt, are the kind that greet you with a whole day of nothing stretching out in front of you. Which is exactly what we had our first morning in Maui.

Having determined on our honeymoon that the breakfast buffet at the hotel is not only substandard but also outrageously expensive, we showed foresight on this trip by stocking up on enough Zone bars to get us through the duration of breakfasts. After spending almost an hour laying on the bed and watching the ocean wake up, we roused ourselves enough to make in-room coffee. Carrying that and our Zone bars out to the beach, we made our footprints in the sand from the Westin up to Blackrock and back. The walk woke us up enough to spark some residual "we should be doing something" energy left over from work-mode, so when we got back to the hotel, we threw on our workout gear and hit the gym for 40 minutes. Prior to starting the vacation, we had visions of exercising together and eating light meals of perfectly grilled fish, coming back lean and refreshed. While the reality had some degree of variation from this theme (macadamia nut ice cream, thou art the devil), the idea buoyed us through a decent workout that first morning.

Of course, a long walk and a three mile treadmill run on only a Zone bar and mediocre coffee would make even Calista Flockhart hungry. We were ravenous.

While David showered, I called down to the pool deck to get a price quote on the "reserved" cabanas that edged the pool deck facing the ocean. Another "we should have" left over from our honeymoon experience. They were reasonably priced and available, so I snagged us one for the day. Incidentally, I love charging things to the room. I wish real life was more like that, and I could just say "put it on my tab" everywhere I went. But I digress. Having both showered and lathered in the requisite sunscreen bath required for tropical sun exposure, we trekked down to claim our cabana. By this time ravenous had turned to light headed and woozy, so David, unable to find a cabana boy or girl lingering about, ventured out to the pool bar to see what he could find.

Keep in mind we had started our morning at 5am, so it was only just barely approaching 10:30am at this point. Have I said already how much I love the time change in our favor? Except at this particular moment, when my wonderful, resourceful husband came back with news that the kitchen wouldn't open for another hour or so. Ack. He didn't, however, come empty-handed. Clutched in each hand was a brimming cold cup of beer, complete with lime wedge.

Not exactly power food. Fuel for a lean body. Starting out as you mean to go on and all that. But it was the only thing the bar had readily available. And we drank it with all the hunger we felt.

It was refreshing beyond belief. And it eased the slow slide into a day of blissful relaxation. We did eventually get a turkey sandwich, and once the kitchen was open the cabana people were incredibly attentive. We even got "complimentary" water and pineapple wedges delievered to us at regular intervals throughout the day. Complimentary in that they were included in the price of our cabana, but again - worth it. We read. We napped. We rolled the shade back to get sun. We pulled the shade closed to cool off.

The only fly in the ointment that day came from the adjacent cabana. The "cabanas" consisted of two lounge chairs linked together with a rolling shade. Obviously meant for two people. Unfortunately, a family of five decided to rent the one to our left. The grandparents, the parents, and a toddler who couldn't have been more than a year old.

I know my vacation tales make it sound as though I hate children, or I have no tolerance for the noises and general rucus they make. That's not true at all. I adore children and find them perpetually cute. It's the parents I hate. Parents who have no... manners for lack of a better word. As is usually the case, in this instance the child was not at fault. The poor kid was hot -- it was very hot and sunny in the middle of the day -- and clearly tired. I don't know where the mother had gone off to, but the father was unfit in my mind. While the child screamed and cried, he ordered Mai Tais and kept talking over her, as though she didn't exist. Or he'd say (and he had one of those booming can-be-heard-for-miles voices) "ooohh... you're so tired! Yes, you're so tired! -- hey order me another Mai Tai, will you?" and just let her keep screaming. He set her down and she ran for the concrete and was barefoot, so of course she burned the crap out of her little feet and screamed all the more. He kept sitting on his stupid towel, drinking his stupid mai tai, saying "don't go on that - you'll burn yourself! See! I told you you'd burn yourself!" and go get her, set her down again, and start in again "don't walk on that! I told you you'd burn yourself!" and the kid would immediately run for the concrete again and burn her feet again.

I wanted to shake him. Tell him Dude. Forget Mai Tais. Take her upstairs in the cool air conditioning, rinse her face with cold water, turn on something quiet on tv, and let her lay down! Don't try to reason with her. Don't drink yourself stupider than you already are. If you decide to bring your toddler on vacation to Maui, expect that you're going to sacrifice a mai tai or two for the sake of being a good parent! It's like parenting 101. Or the pre-requisite for that.

When the mother finally came back, she was no better. They stayed all afternoon and never took the kid out of the sun. She eventually passed out from exhaustion. Or sun poisioning. Those parents should be shot.

It doesn't sound like it from my little tirade here, but I honestly tried to just tune it out. Other than a few particular incidents like the burned feet, I mostly submerged myself in a cheesy romance novel and chatted about inconsequential things with David.

Maximum sun capacity hit at about 4pm, when we returned to our room to open a bottle of champagne we'd cleverly throught to put on ice earlier in the day. Over our makeshift happy hour - nothing like champagne from a water glass - we slowly dressed for dinner and watched Food Network.

Dinner was, of course, destined to be Tropica. Though we'd passed through the night before, we hadn't gotten to really eat there yet. I have already said it and will most likely say it again, but dude. The food is ridiculous good. That first night we had more champagne and ordered just about every appetizer on the menu instead of full dinners, choosing to dine "tapas style." As we split dessert over after-dinner drinks, I fell in love with Maui all over again, ice cream style.

And so concluded our second night of bliss. The sun and the champagne and the good food hit us all at once, rendering us incapable of anything but bed. But a blessedly peaceful sleep it was.

Pound of Flesh - Part One

The trip, first of all, was fantastic.

We left Los Angeles at about 10am on Thursday morning on a direct flight to Maui. The seats, while pretty cheap due to good planning, were less than ideal (as the understatement of the year). We were three rows up from the bathrooms in the back of the plane and across the aisle from each other. This in itself would have been a trial, as that area of the plane is notoriously congested with people going back and forth to the bathrooms. But oh there's more. All three seats on both sides of the plane in both rows behind us were filled with one large polyneasan family. The rest of the family, apparently thwarted from sitting directly adjacent to the others, were two rows in front of us taking up three seats on one side and the aisle across. So there were sixteen of them total -- all related from what I could tell. Two were toddlers. Plane ettiquite seemed to elude them, as immediately following the inital takeoff and seatbelt signs, they proceeded to yell back and forth, carry on loudly, and run the toddlers up and down the plane aisle between David and I.

Also, one of the genius mothers decided to put the diaper bag with both baby bottles up in the overhead bin directly above David's head. Anyone who has ever had a baby -- or who has half a brain -- knows that you're gonna need that one on a pretty regular basis. Diapers, pacifiers, toys, food. Yep, all in there. So she had to get up and lean over David, thrusting her protruding belly which was hanging out of her t-shirt into his face, to reach up and get it no less than a dozen times during our 5.5 hour flight. Honestly, about the fifth time she put the diaper bag BACK over his head and whacked him with her belly, I'm REALLY surprised she didn't get a piece of his mind. Thankfully, he held his tongue.

Impossible to drown out or ignore. If it was just the loud kids or the inconsiderate parents it would have been bad enough, but the men in the family (grown men) were being loud and obnoxious as well. I tried to tune it out with the in-flight movie, which was 27 Dresses. It's a really cute movie, and I had already seen it twice. I settled down to watch it a third time and pray for a time warp, but there was a problem with the video. About every fifth word cut out and the picture waved (like an old VHS tape). After about 20 grueling minutes, they restarted it again. And then ten minutes in, they restarted it AGAIN. Once it was finally up and running, I had completely and utterly lost interest. And a little of my sanity.

When we finally - finally - got to Maui, I was delighted to get off the plane. As was David. Our relief was shortlived, however. We had to wait over 40 minutes for our bags to come off the plane in the airport. They unloaded the first half of the bags and then there was some sort of "oil spillage" on the luggage dock that prevented the second set of bags from getting to the conveyor belt. We had to wait for it to be cleaned before they could unload ours. Then we were off to wait for the rental car shuttle.

By the time we got on the road from Kahuli to Lahina in our rented PT Cruiser, it was starting to rain. Not an unpleasant rain, really. Just consistent, soft, summery rain that drenches everything equally and thoroughly. We just had to laugh and embrace it. Rain or no rain, we were starving and really ready to let go of the work and travel stresses and start VACATIONING. I put a "local hawaiian" station on the radio, and we made our way into Lahina town instead of to the resort farther up in Ka'anapali. Food was priority in case - as seemed likely at this point - there was an ordeal of any sort during out check in process. We needed to refuel and recharge before facing that possibility.

We dodged raindrops from the parking area up the main street of town and ducked into an upstairs bar called "Front Street Grill." It was open air on two sides overlooking the street and ocean below and beyond, respectively. There was a Jimmy Buffet-esque guitar player/singer set up in one corner, charming the early happy hour crowd. We joined them at a table by the railing, settling in to rest for a few minutes and enjoy the music and the view of the rain bouncing off plumeria trees and hitting the ocean. There, I am pleased to report, vacation officially started in the form of the best "burger" I've ever eaten. I don't know - and we've debated it - how much hunger and desperation played a part in it, but David and I both swooned with our first bites of the Mahi Mahi Burger. Two succulent Mahi Mahi fillets with tarter sauce on a kaiser bun. It doesn't sound like anything special, but oh my dear friends it was. So good. Everything else but the rain, my wonderful husband beside me, and each magical bite fell away and stayed away for the rest of the trip.

The rest of the day held a charmed quality, and we were rosey in the glow of good food and the prospect of each other's uninterrupted company in paradise for the next six days to come. Running back to the car, we were drenched with rain and laughed in abandon. As we continued up the coast to the resort, the rain broke away and they sky brightened into a less soggy sunset. Our checkin was smooth, and we were given the second best room in the resort -- front and center ocean front room on the second to the top floor. Top floor of that same view is the only thing I can think of that would have been better. Looking straight down, we saw the spanning acres of pools and waterfalls and tropical gardens that spilled onto the boardwalk. Beyond that, the sand touched an ocean dotted with distant islands and boats.

Since we had already eaten, we freshened and headed down to the bar at Tropica for the last of happy hour. Tropica is the nicest of the three restaurants at the Westin, and far and away the superior venue. The oceanfront tables are covered by thatched umbrellas during the day and lit with tiki torches at night. On this trip, we definitely benefited from the fact that we'd already flushed out all the gems in the immediate vicinity to our hotel on our honeymoon. Tropica is definitely one of those gems. After happy hour ended there, it was just starting up at the pool bar (where happy hour runs from 8pm to 10pm). We walked over and settled in on stools, listening to the various travelers, bartenders, and island-themed music.

We eventually called it a night and crashed in our "heavenly bed" which was indeed heavenly. We left the patio door open as we fell asleep, lulled by the distant ocean and the warm breeze. (Sadly, sometime in the night David had to get up and close the door to block out the sound of what I can only assume was a really drunk woman cackling loudly from the bar or another balcony, but it was enjoyable for a while anyway.)

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Well, I feel as though I've typed forever and only made it to the end of our first day. I guess that's a sign I should, like life, take it one day at a time. I will continue the story tomorrow,