Some Words End in "G"

This is a bit personal, but I think I'm finally getting over the whole "I'm too shy to sing in front of others" thing. I have no reputation to uphold and know I'm not a diva- just a chick who possesses mediocre guitar skills and likes to sing dorky songs she wrote. With that said., this song was written when I was still dating around and had yet to meet Fernando.

The thought of dating anybody in my county made me throw up a little. There's a lot of "country" folk around here and after making my first and last appearance at a local hang-out, I wrote this little ditty of a song. No offense to all you country boys out there. Anyhow, I found this and thought I'd finally share it if anybody's interested. If not- no worries, you smell like cottage cheese. I sound like a vampire at the end- don't ask me.

Life's a Beach!

......or at least I like to think so. Every now and then, I get the opportunity to stay in my broker's beach house on Alligator Point. It's one of our most popular beach rentals, so it's very rare that it's available on weekends. I always look forward to infrequent stays there- mostly secluded and bordering the State Park, it's as if no one else exists. Well, except for the idiots who get stuck in the driveway but I'll explain later.

My husband was unable to join me the first night, but my dear friend Cathi and her children Olivia and Thomas were able to. Fall weather has come a bit early for us this year and while I'm not complaining in the least, the water has definitely cooled off and is a bit too chilly for me to enjoy. That's when lounging on the deck with a cup of coffee and the latest celebrity trash mag comes in handy. Ahhhh...... r-e-l-a-x-a-t-i-o-n. The kids occupied themselves by building sand castles and hunting shells while we observed them from the deck and reminisced about our childhood together and our many trips to this very beach.

It's amazing what washes up on the beach. Coral in nearly every color of the rainbow, an occasional starfish, shell up on shell upon shell and one of my personal faves- horseshoe crabs. They look like aliens but they're fun to play with and during mating season you'll find hundreds along the shoreline getting past third base with their date. As kids, Cathi and I would go with our families to collect coquina clams.

They're tiny- teeny tiny. Itsby bitsy. They're small if you haven't picked up on that by now. (These clams were atually a vital part in the building of St. Augustine- the oldest city in the nation. Should you get a chance to visit, check out the Castillo de San Marcos.) When digging for coquina, we would plow into the wet sand with old, hole-filled pickle buckets my father made, and scoop up mounds of sand, water and clams. While holding the bucket, you submerge it halfway into the water and give it a few twists and turns and voila... you have hundreds (hopefully) of clams. We used to collect coolers full of these muddy mollusks and take them home to cook and clean. That's NOT the fun part. After getting them home, you give them a freshwater bath and in small batches, boil them until the shells burst open and the pinky-nail sized meat is exposed. Really??? Really. Can you see how this would quickly become burdensome? Getting back to our fabulous weekend...

We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather- nice and cool in the mornings, warm during the day and cool once again in the evening. We also witnessed thousands of monarch butterflies on their annual migration to Mexico. It was as if they came out of nowhere and blanketed every available flower bloom in view. What a sight to see! Cathi took some great photos of the event! If you think these are awesome, you should see my bumper.

Fernando was able to join us late Saturday and brought our kiddies- Chewy and Lola. It has been a couple years since Chewy's been to the beach, and it was the first time for Lola. Sunday morning, it was so funny to watch each time a wave would lap onto the shore, they'd run from it. It didn't take Chewy very long before he remembered that he loves to swim and much to my amaze, jumped right in and did a few doggie paddles for us. It must have been too cold even for him because his session didn't last very long. and off he went chasing birds and exploring with Lola on his trail. Tuckered out, we all returned to the house for a little R & R. The dogs enjoyed the screened in porch while we enjoyed our ice cream goodies.


I can't think of anything quite as relaxing as the sound of water whether it be waves washing upon the shore, the trickling of a stream or a thunderstorm in the distance. I dozed off on the couch that afternoon with none of the above in my ear. I can't blame anyone- there were 5 of us and only 1 of us was trying to get a nap. That's when it happened. I don't remember the entire event, only that I heard the shuffling of feet, snickering and hushed laughs just as I got "antiqued." Since we're 5 again, it was hilarious having a handful of all-purpose flour thrown in my face as I slept. I went to bed a lamb and awoke a lion. I'm still planning my counter-attack on Fernando and have come up with a PERFECT prank and promise to blog all about it once I carry it out. I promise it will be worth reading. But until then, here are some embarrassing photos of him- enjoy!

No Cathi, I will not post the video of my ruined nap time on here. It's hideous. But...... for those of you who don't know, Cathi does a wicked impression of an Ooompa Loompa call and after much coercing, she gave us an example. Since I'm such a devoted friend, I won't post that video on here either. It's killing me and I'm starting to chuckle just thinking about her reaction when she realizes I got it on camera, but I'm a damn good friend. Yes, I just had second thoughts....

<---When am I going to have someone else take a picture?!!

The house, as I mentioned earlier is very private. Unfortunately, some beach goers don't respect a private driveway and continue to journey down until they come up to our cars and decide to turn around. There's one problem though- there's about a 30' radius of safe driveway, meaning the ground is hard and you don't have to worry about soft sand. Pull off the edge of the driveway and you're going to be waiting a while which is exactly what this nosy couple did. It crossed our minds to help them, but it was more fun watching them just stand there. The gold star of the day goes to a gentleman that works for the water company. He was kind enough to pull them out with his vehicle. After he drove away feeling rewarded for doing his good deed for the day, the idiot couple got stuck once again. Yes, really.

Shortly after a long, hot, outdoor shower, it was most definitely time to make some afternoon chocolate chip cookies. Who knew 15 minutes of patience could bring so much pleasure to one's palate! Pictured right is- errrr, was our plate of freshly baked cookies. Pillsbury rocks.

Sunday evening approached much too quickly and it was time to gather our skim beach necessities and head home. We said our goodbyes and drove off in the sunset. Not really, but it sounded like the right thing to say. Until our next beach adventure....

Our First Year Anniversary

The glory of having been married in May is that when we take our yearly anniversary getaway, we can travel north to cool off or south to warm up. This being the case, we were looking forward to a long weekend in the cool (FREEZING) mountain weather of Blue Ridge, Georgia. I browsed online for waterfront cabins and discovered the cutest, most quaint cabin of all.. "Watersound." It's perched in the deep woods of Cashes Valley just yards from Fightingtown Creek. It sounded perfect and so our journey began....

Blue Ridge is about 85 miles north of Atlanta and roughly 400 miles from our quiet, little Crawfordville. For those of you who have had the pleasure of experiencing "Atlanta traffic," high five- you made it out alive. Holy hell... literally. Nervous before our trip, I asked my father to give us a blessing. If you're not LDS, this might sound odd, but in the blessing, we were clearly warned to "obey the laws of the land" not once, but twice. That worried me a bit, so immediately after the blessing I looked at Fernando and warned him to stay in the speed limit and we were to wear out seatbelts at all times. After goodbye hugs and kisses to my parents, we were out the door and on our way to celebrate one year of marriage.

I began driving and rarely having been through much of south Georgia, it was amazing to see plantation homes still standing and the grounds kept so beautifully. You could look out the window at most moments and see groves of pecan trees on either side of the road. It was the perfect setting for a game of hide and seek- if we were 7. I happily traded the driving seat for the passenger seat once we entered Macon, just south of Atlanta. "Obey the laws of the land" stayed in the back of my mind. It wasn't 10 minutes after entering Macon that a construction ladder fell off a work truck a few cars ahead and flew across the freeway just inches from hitting our windshield. I thought I was going to die and realized that had Fernando been going just a mile per hour faster, I'd be headless. Whew... food for thought. After recovering from a near anxiety attack of losing my life, we fought Atlanta traffic until finally finding ourselves outside the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We stopped for a breather and took in the view at a roadside rest stop with an amazing view of the valley below. Once again, we played photographer with this end result:

When I was a child, we took our annual vacations, just like any other family. I remember always feeling giddy the minute I would see sky scrapers and city skylines. I would press my face against the window and take in everything knowing that within a week I'd be back in a town with only 1 traffic light. My how things have changed. The only skyline that made me giddy on this trip was the sight of mountains in the distance. Keep in mind, these are NOT the Rockies... completely different but majestic and grand nonetheless! We followed the directions to our check-in destination in the adorable little, historic town of Blue Ridge. I fell in love instantly and couldn't wait to return the next day to shop and visit the art galleries.

As previously mentioned, I was battling my anxiety the entire trip and was hoping to be put at ease as soon as we arrived but once we began our final journey that would take us to our cabin, panic and hysteria soon followed. I'm a huge advocate of guard rails. Call me crazy. I find them to be a huge source of comfort when driving next to ravines and cliffs in unknown territories. These mountain folk were insane but I'm sure they had a few good laughs at my expense. The trek to our cabin took us through cork screw turns and roads (hog trails as I like to call them) further and deeper up the mountain. There were "blind" curves as they liked to call them, meaning you couldn't see ANYTHING or anyone coming around the same curve in the opposite direction. In a last attempt to save my sanity, I sank to the floorboard and instructed Fernando to keep driving and not let me look until we got to the cabin. "We're here" finally came and as I rose to peer through the window, there was our driveway to the cabin. It was more like a 300' slide of death but what do I know. Back to the floorboard I went until we were parked, safe and sound. When did I become such a baby??

After gathering myself and our belongings from our modest sport utility vehicle, I announced to Fernando that I was perfectly fine staying at the cabin for the next 3 days as we had adequate groceries and reading materials and should we need to leave, I was sure there was a helicopter rescue team nearby to assist us. Yeah, that didn't fly with him and after much debate, I agreed to head into town the next morning. I'm a champ. We enjoyed that evening with a bottle of wine we received at our wedding and grilled steaks, compliments of my amazing husband. After dinner, we relaxed in the hot tub and later in front of the outdoor chiminea, swaddled in blankets. Morning came much too soon...

Needless to say, we survived the journey back down the mountain and as soon as we reached somewhat flat ground, I was a happy camper. The weather was cool and crisp, but never too cold for flip flops- hallelujah! We walked along the cracked sidewalks, checking out antique shops and specialty stores along the way. While I was debating on making a purchase, Fernando rushed in and begged me to follow him to the neighboring gallery.

"Turning Leaf Wood Art" it was called and it was there that we had the privilege of meeting Master Wood Turner, Gary Gardner. What a pleasant and intriguing gentleman he was! Fernando was taken by his work and I began to feel as though we were on a field trip and Fernando was that one kid in the class that kept asking our guide question after question. All good though, it was definitely interesting to learn about the process and see his and the work of many others. If you're interested: http://www.turningleafwoodart.com/GaryGardner.htm. We both had our eye on one of his pieces. Fernando was intrigued because Mr. Gardner said that he nor his colleagues had been able to identify the wood he used- I was intrigued because of the price. It's a disease. I can't help it. We purchased our very first piece of art that morning and Mr. Gardner was kind enough to include a personal note of gratitude to us.

With our first and newest addition to our hopeful art collection, we decided to have lunch at this picture perfect eatery- The Serenity Garden Cafe. We sat outside under the shade of an umbrella and sipped on fresh squeezed lemonade and filled our stomachs with hot sandwiches. We ended the day after hours of strolling through town and retired to the cabin to relax in the hot tub and sip coffee in front of the chiminea. It seemed like heaven.....


May 20th- our actual anniversary arrived and we decided to spend the day collecting river stones and enjoying the rushing sound of nearby Fightingtown Creek. Collecting river stones promptly ended when I could no longer feel my feet and I sat on the creek bank and watched Fernando soldier on. That evening we dined at a nearby steakhouse though I must admit, Fernando's steaks put their $20.00 steaks to shame. After dinner we explored a bit more and ended up at the Blue Ridge Dam. It was beautiful and of course we had to take a photo of ourselves once again! Maybe I should be in charge of holding the camera from now on!

We decided to get back to the cabin before nightfall so we could see well enough to get through the mountain maze. We were just minutes from the cabin and Fernando was telling me how people on the mountain here knew how to drive- it was in their blood since they grew up driving these back roads and OH MY GOSH WE ALMOST DIED! An SUV came barreling around a "blind curve" and even if there had been a comforting guard rail, we would have gone straight down the ravine. I have no idea how she stopped in time, but the warning from our blessing rang through my ears and I knew had Fernando not been doing the speed limit (of 10mph might I add), we probably would have needed that helicopter rescue after all. I was so ready to go home!!!

We rose bright and early the next morning. Fernando and I were both looking forward to our trip home. I planned a quick stop at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta since Fernando is such a marine fiend! He drove, of course, through the wicked streets of downtown and we arrived in time to beat the long lines. I'm the type that can walk through and exhibit and take in everything in record time. Fernando would rather stop and look for 20 minutes at every miniscule detail. That's not a fault, infact, I think it's a great character trait of his. It just so happens that I don't share that character trait and can't force myself to stare at a jellyfish for more than 60 seconds. Our favorite exhibit was the "Ocean Voyager" which housed 3 whale shark and my personal favorite- sea turtles! We managed to get the most adorable picture of someone's sweet, little girl standing in front of the massive aquarium wall.

What a refreshing end to a near-perfect anniversary weekend. We made it back home in one piece and were so grateful to have avoided two near catastrophic incidents. Perhaps we'll return to Blue Ridge for anniversary #3- if my nerves can handle it.

The Best Two Years...

No, I'm not referring to the movie ( which is awesome by the way.) Fernando and I were able to sneak away the night of our 2nd Anniversary. I surprised him with a fantastic room at the Bayfront Marin House in St. Augustine.

We stayed in "The Coquina Suite" that still had some of the original coquina shell walls from 1790! Our favorite amenity was the spa tub, which Fernando promptly began to prepare two minutes into our arrival. I love that man. I had room service provide chilled champagne and chocolate covered strawberries that were to die for. The room decor was definitely romantic and everything was perfect.

Just down the street from our B&B was O.C. White's- amazing atmosphere and food! That quickly became our restaurant of choice with the best Mojitos I've ever had. It was late May which, to any Floridian immediately translates to "hot and humid." You would never have guessed it as we sat outside in the courtyard surrounded by blooming jasmine arbors. With every breeze, a fresh snowfall of jasmine blooms would scatter across our table- it was heavenly! Should you ever venture to O.C. White's, I strongly suggest trying the Kauai Mahi. You can thank me later.

We took a walk along the bay wall after dinner and watched the sun set on the water. There's no such thing as an ugly sunset no matter the location. We attempted to take a photo of ourselves- as usual, but I'm afraid it's the best we could do after those mojitos! Fernando and I have a fascination with the paranormal. I LOVE watching Paranormal State and TAPS only because we both have had first-hand experiences ourselves. This being said, I had purchased tickets for the Haunted Trolley Tour that evening. Wow... we probably should have saved our money but it was an experience to say the least. We were packed onto a rickety, Halloween-decor trolley and swooshed around the city at various stops where students from Flagler dressed in period costumes and donning appropriate accents would tell us the tales of ghosts and hauntings at each stop. After the hour and a half long show, we decided to retire for the evening and I'll fast forward to the next day for all intents and purposes.

We awoke the next morning to find a beautiful breakfast provided under the shade of the gazebo with a perfect view of the water and early sail boaters. We finished our coffee and decided it was time to walk off our meal. We strolled along the sidewalks which lead downtown to the art galleries and various novelty shops. I am a complete sucker for novelty shops! I love to browse and if I find something I can't live without, it quickly becomes mine. This trip was only Fernando's second time in historical downtown, but I've been there countless times and cease to be amused and entertained. I absolutely love the history of this city and the rows and rows of endless shops and attractions. As we were walking past several amazing art galleries, we came up to Potter's Wax Museum. We decided to pay our $16 and have a look. While it was no Madam Tussauds, we were still entertained, I probably more so because of the fantastic photo opps of Fernando with the figurines... for example:

During our trip to the mountains for our 1st anniversary, we decided to begin the tradition of purchasing a piece of art each year. (I'll be sure to blog about our trip to the mountains later!) This year we came across this exquisite shop called the Silver Feather. We fell in love with the pottery, but to be kind to our bank account, we ended up purchasing a smaller example of Navajo Etched Pottery. Our pot looks very similar to this one:

Sadly, due to work schedules, our short getaway had to come to an end but not before sipping down another glorious mojito while sitting under the jasmine arbor at O.C. White's.

Photo Shmoto!

I rediscovered some old pictures of me at 25, thinking I was simply amazing in front of the camera. Oh my gosh... thank goodness things have changed. Although, I wouldn't mind looking like this again. Check out those "Diddy" sunglasses! 2002 was a fun year indeed!

Reminiscing on Romance

Recently a dear friend of mine found himself on the verge of a new love connection. He asked me for an appropriate song for his situation to which I quickly responded with several suitable tunes. While browsing through thousands of titles, a couple of songs from my past caught my eye and took me back to previous relationships and the nostalgia of "new love." I don't miss these past relationships- obviously there's a reason why I'm no longer in them, but I can still appreciate the emotions I experienced and the feelings I still get when I hear certain songs.

I was a late bloomer and didn't give my first kiss until I was 24. No, that's not a typo. I was picky and determined not to make out with any ol' Joe Shmoe. Reminiscing about it, I still get butterflies. I remember how giddy I felt after a phone call or chance encounter in the beginning. The awkwardness of that first date and praying I don't do anything to embarrass myself- that was torture. Then there were the heartaches and the one time I said "I love you" only to get nothing in return. Oh the pain!!! It came 2 weeks later but by then I had moved on- too afraid to get hurt and hating myself for putting everything out on the line. Ahhhhh... I wouldn't trade that for anything though at the time I just wanted to die. I set myself up for disaster after that, avoiding the kind of men that I knew I should date and went for the "bad boys." (Why do we do this to ourselves, girls??) Luckily, I wised up pretty quickly and this nice kid named Fernando suddenly popped into the picture.

I was 25 and skeptical- surely there had to be something wrong with him. He said all the right things and made all the right moves. He was a gentleman- an actual gentleman. For the first time, I felt like a queen. The poetry and sweet letters he would write for me set me soaring and in return I wrote song after song for and about him while sitting on that old porch where we shared our first dance. After nearly a month, he confessed what I had been waiting to hear all my life... he was in love with me. Sweet music to my ears! There's no way in the world I was ever going to say that to anyone without them saying it first and he took the pressure off. Oddly enough, I still couldn't say it in return. I felt it, but the words just wouldn't come out. He completely understood and asked that instead, whenever I wanted to tell him, just say "How bout them Yankees" and he would know.

I exclaimed my approval for the Yankees daily after that and a month to follow until voila... those three little words slipped from my lips suddenly and a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. I said "I love you" and I knew it was safe. Safe was what I was looking for- someone I could trust entirely and know they would go out of their way not to hurt me. He makes me want to be a better person and for that, I'll never question what we have. We still dance to our song and recall the early days and events that lead up to our uniting. I'm absolutely convinced that everything happens for a reason- I tell myself that constantly. We both made sacrifices to be together and here we are, an amazing 6 years later which I find so hard to believe. We've had our ups and downs but our bond remains and the ability to fall more and more in love with each other continues.

Presto!!

PRESTO!

As a child, one thing that my brother and I had in common was eagle-eye vision. Such exceptional vision came in handy when out on the water and most definitely when coming back through the channel at night trying to find the next buoy in order to avoid a possible catastrophe. I don't think I ever mentioned to my father how much I hated being under that sort of pressure. ( I hated it, Dad.)

I've always been proud of my near perfect vision until I noticed about a year ago that my eyes were getting tired by noon each day. Driving through town, I couldn't read the street names until I was just feet away- though I gained a new respect for chronic U-turners. I dealt with it, no big deal. No big deal until I casually tried on Cathi's glasses and could see! I ran outside and saw leaves and branches and individual blades of grass. Seriously??? I gave this up for how long? So I had an eye exam several days later and am now sporting a new pair of glasses. It's taking some time to get use to them, but there's most definitely a difference. I think I look more intelligent.... is that even possible? So here I am, 31 and finally sporting the glasses I so desperately wanted as a child. No idea why I longed to wear glasses back then. Now that I think about it, I had always wanted braces too. No worries, I don't get it either. High five to spectacles!