A Fat Chick Trying to Find Herself: Travel

Myrtle Beach - What a wonderful place to be!

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:10:51 GMT

My week in Myrtle Beach could be summed up in one word: ‘fabulous’.

I had such a great time! The weather was perfect the whole week. The only day we saw any rain was on the Saturday that we were traveling there and after we arrived to our destination there was no rain at all. It was absolutely perfect.

The number one event, of course, was hitting the beach every day. Every morning My Prince and I would start our day off with a walk on the beach. The sand, salty sea air, and sound of the waves crashing was just heaven. The ocean was surprisingly warm every day. It was even warmer than the pool most days.

We also went to Broadway at the Beach for some shopping. We also ate at the Hard Rock Café, drank Hurricanes and the Ripley’s Aquarium was amazing. We ate at places like the Giant Crab and Benjamin’s. The one night we met up with my family at Crocodile Rock and watched the dueling pianos. We had made plans to go to Myrtle Waves but My Prince got a bad sunburn and we weren’t able to go.

The Fourth of July was amazing. We went to the Apache Pier and watched as people on the beach set off a bunch of fireworks. The coolest part was looking down the coastline and seeing flashes of light where people further down the coast were setting off fireworks.

Overall it was a wonderful trip and I’m missing the beach terribly. Yesterday I started my research on facts and figures to convince My Prince that we should live there, lol.

Happy Tuesday,
~ Fat Chick

P.S. Pics coming soon!

Going to the beach

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:49:15 GMT

I'm leaving for the beach first thing tomorrow morning! I can hardly wait! It's going to be a long drive but it'll definitely be worth it. The ocean, sand, and the pool, they are all calling my name!

I hope we'll have nice weather... who knows? Maybe I won't come back! LOL Have a great weekend and holiday week next week for those of you who are celebrating.

~ Fat Chick

P.S. I still don't know what all of the excitement was about on Wednesday because nothing great happened. I actually received a little bit of bad news but it's better already so go figure.

Philly Trip

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:14:23 GMT

Last weekend was wonderful! I had such a good time hanging out with my cousins Heather and Mary and Mary’s two babies. But my trip started off on a sour note.

I arrived at the airport an hour and a half before my plane was to take off. There were storms heading towards the city and it had started to rain. Ironically, the weather had nothing to do with what happened. My flight was delayed before I even reached the terminal gate. According to the people talking around me it was delayed until 9:30pm when originally we were to leave at 6:40pm. I was not a happy camper.

Luckily we got the “ok” to go at 7:30pm. Apparently the whole east coast was having “radar problems” and that’s why we couldn’t fly out on time. The flight to Philly was fine no problems, that is until we landed. All of the airplanes that were delayed received the thumbs up at or around the same time we did so when we arrived in Philly there were 20 planes ahead of mine waiting in line to get to a gate. This resulted in my plane sitting on the runway for an hour and a half before we were finally able to pull up to our gate. Fortunately, that was the only mishap during my trip.

Since it was so late Friday night we all went back to Heather’s house and went straight to bed. We woke early Saturday morning and began preparing for a trip to the aquarium. It took us a while to get the kids ready and to drive there because it was in New Jersey. The aquarium was awesome. There were so many elaborate displays with just about every fish you could imagine (I’ll have pics up soon). After the aquarium we went to a Thai restaurant. This was my first time trying Thai food and I enjoyed it immensely. Before heading home for the day we stopped and did a little shoe shopping.

On Sunday we woke early (again) and went out to breakfast. We went on a hunt for a pair of shoes for one of the babies and came out empty handed. He needs a pair of sandals for the wedding this weekend. So, with not much time left we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at a park with a huge kids’ castle (pics of this coming soon too). This castle was built out of wood and had lots of climbing, tunnels, and slides inside or attached to it. Luckily, adults were allowed in to help the kids,hehehe! It was a lot of fun… oh and the babies enjoyed it as well, lol.

Sadly, it was then time for me to return home. But the good thing is I’ll be seeing all of them this weekend for my cousin, R.J., is getting married on Saturday (YAY!). I’m very excited about this wedding. It’s going to be great! Plus, my Pappy is arriving today in preparation of the wedding.

I have an exciting piece of news to share. I have a job interview this Thursday at 8:00am for another computer position. I’m wasn’t really looking for another computer position but this one might pay more, might have an education reimbursement plan, and good benefits, but that’s a lot of “mights” that aren’t definite yet. I’ll find out Thursday though. Wish me luck!

Talk to you all again soon,

~ Fat Chick

OH! The Places You'll SEE!

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 12:34:17 GMT

I know I’ve been neglecting my blog but you’ll have to excuse me a bit because work is running me ragged. It’s been unbelievable! Plus, this weekend I’ll be flying out to Philadelphia to see my cousin Heather, Mary, and Mary’s two boys!!! (I bet you can tell by all of the exclamation points how excited I am, lol)

I’ll be leaving Friday evening and spending the weekend there returning Sunday evening. Heather and I have been text messaging and e-mailing each other like crazy since I’ve e-mailed her my flight itinerary, lol. This is a much-needed break from the stress and tension of work.

So, of course, once I return I’ll have loads to talk about. I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and an even better weekend. I’ll post again when I get back.

~ Fat Chick

Louisiana Trip

Wed, 30 May 2007 14:24:29 GMT

On Thursday, May 17^th I ran out of my office building smiling as my co-workers ate my dust. The fact that I had a long weekend planned plus a trip fueled my desire to leave the office even more.

Thursday night I stayed up incredibly late packing four days worth of stuff into an over night bag equipped for two nights. But I’ve heard so many horror stories about people and missing luggage (not to mention My Prince’s Aunt had her luggage lost the last time she came here for a visit) I was not about to drop my luggage off at the baggage claim. This is the brilliant reason for shoving so much stuff into a tiny space.

Finally, Friday morning arrived and I woke, showered, and hit the road only to return back to my house twice for one major item that I forgot (my wallet) and one minor item that I forgot (the graduation card for My Prince’s cousin who we were going to see in LA). After that the rest of the trip to LA seemed to go off without a hitch.

By 3:30pm I was breathing LA air and was all the better for it, IMO. After retrieving the rental car at the airport and a small bit of miscommunications My Prince and I joined his parents for dinner. We went to a casino for dinner specifically for their seafood buffet.

Since I do not like seafood I had a piece of prime rib, a cup of chicken and sausage gumbo, and finished off my tasty meal with bread pudding and whiskey sauce. It was a great first meal! We did not gamble while we were at the casino, which was just fine with me for I’ve gotten my fill of gambling three years ago when I went to Vegas.

But I digress, after the casino we hit a lot of spots that were historical to My Prince and his first few years of life. It was very interesting to see the hospital he was born at and his parents’ first apartment as well as My Prince’s first home. We also took a stroll at a park that we were told his Mom took him to every day when they lived there. Unfortunately it was getting dark by this time so it was hard to see everything. We finally turned in for the night so that we could get an early start to the following day.

Saturday morning we hit all of the spots from the night before to get some pictures in the daylight (the hospital, park, and apartment building), and then we were off to Slidell, Louisiana. This was the first house My Prince and his parents ever lived in. It was interesting to talk to the neighbors and hear how Hurricane Katrina affected them. For lunch we stopped at Crawfish Town USA and I had a spicy hamburger with an appetizer of alligator (I didn’t like the alligator, it tasted like chewy chicken).

Finally we were off to New Orleans (this is what I was waiting for). New Orleans was everything and nothing like I expected it to be. I was so excited to be there. We immediately hit Bourbon Street and I don’t feel I can put it into words so take a look at my photo album for a peek of what I saw.

I had a blast! We went into Pat O’Brien’s and drank Hurricanes, sang and danced at the Piano Bar, went into all of the tourist shops, and took pictures of everything! By the time we drove back to our hotel (2 ½ drive back) we were all exhausted and practically fell into bed.

The following morning we woke early and went to Avery Island where we saw quite a few alligators.

After Avery Island we went to My Prince’s cousin’s graduation party and ate way too much food. At the party I tried boudin and crawfish etouffee and didn’t like either one of them, lol. But at least I tried it. I always say I’ll try anything at least once. Right after the party we returned to our hotel and finished the night in the hotel’s Jacuzzi. It was great! I was sad to be leaving the next day but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

My Prince and I are planning a return trip in the near future. Possibly even for Mardi gras next year!

~ Fat Chick

P.S. Keep your eyes open for a change in the "Fat Chick" blog. I'll be reconstructing a lot!

OH! The Madness!

Tue, 15 May 2007 16:52:36 GMT

I can't get over all of the things that I'm trying to accomplish in this oh-so-short week. As you all know I'm going to Louisiana this Friday (really, this Friday? already?!). For some strange reason I decided to allow My Prince to handle most of the details of this trip. I have no idea what I was thinking.

I just found out at noon today what time our flight leaves on Friday. Then I forcefully (meaning that I threatened bodily harm) requested that I receive the rest of the itinerary which I did 10 minutes later.

To add to my stress My Prince has been unable to answer most of my questions about this trip including, "What kind of dress attire do I need for your cousin's grad party?" I've come to the conclusion that I will be in charge of the details on all future trips. His response to this was:

"I'm usually really good at this, you know that! It's just that I'm really busy."

"See the difference between you and me is that no matter how busy I am I would know all of these details!"

Geez, I'm realizing this post is rather chaotic as well... ok lets change to bullets... they're safer... sort of

Yesterday, instead of beginning the prep process of this trip I decided to call My Prince and have dinner with him in the park (it was great though)
Today, after I've finished with work (which has been insane), I'm going to my Mom's house (on the other side of town 45 minutes away) for dinner and to fix her computer. This I should have put off until next week but no, I like to torture myself.
Tomorrow I will finally begin the packing process which I'm sure will end with me forgetting 500 million different things by Friday. I'll also be attempting this while talking to my Dad on the phone because for some strange reason I've agreed to talk to him every Wednesday at 6:30pm and have been for the past month.
As if that didn't make me crazy enough I also volunteered to drive My Prince's parents to the airport Thursday morning and will finish the day out attempting to pull myself together.

Someone shoot me...

This will probably be my last post until I return. But not to worry, I'll have a load of good stuff to report when I get back.

~ Fat Chick

Bridal Shower

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:35:19 GMT

This Saturday is my cousin's fiance's bridal shower. I'm not too thrilled with the party aspect of the event but am happy that I will be reunited with my family once again. We do not get together nearly enough but with time and distance it makes it a little harder for all of us to come together. Can I take a moment to rant about the whole traditional bridal shower party? Thanks...

I don't like bridal showers and I don't like to pretend that I like bridal showers. When I get married and have a bridal shower it's going to be a non-traditional type. The ladies will not be forced to play stupid games only to win stupid prizes and will actually leave thinking "wow that was a great time." I haven't come up with the exact details of what I want to do but it will not be one of these gatherings of women doing stupid and boring things. But that's just my opinion... shall we move on?

To make things a little harder on the guest (a/k/a me) this bridal party is a "basket themed" party meaning your gift should be a gift basket of some sort. I went through three different ideas and finally settled on margaritas, lol. I don't know much about my cousin's fiance but I know they both enjoy the occassional margarita so I'm giving them a little kit with glasses in a basket. Initially I was going to put together a Steeler basket but waited too long to do that because it's not football season so the stores are limited (go figure) this time of year.

The event I'm looking forward to is going out after the bridal shower with all of my cousins. That promises to be a good time. I'm bummed out at the same time though. This Saturday the group I hike with is finally going to the trail near my house and I'm going to miss it because of the party. Plus, the Pittsburgh Penguins have their second playoff game that day too. The things we do for our families, lol.

Have a good day everyone!

~ Fat Chick

P.S. My last post was more or less me pouting... which I do to make myself feel better. I pout, let go of the emotions, and move on. Thank you to those of you who can understand where I was coming from. Every now and then people should act like two year olds... just not all the time, lol.

Another Bike Trip

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:38:19 GMT

Carrie Quote of the Day:

Carrie: People go to casinos for the same reason they go on blind dates: hoping to hit the jackpot. But mostly, you just wind up broke or alone in a bar.

Two weekends ago My Prince and I went for another bike ride at Ohiopyle. It was great! We had THE perfect weather for it. We successfully went 25 miles round trip. This time we rode all of the way to the next town over which is where the trail used to end but has since then been extended to Washington D.C.

By the time My Prince and I got to our turn around spot we were both dying of thirst. Oddly enough this little town decided to pull a joke on us and leave us with no working vending machines. First we found a bed and breakfast called the “River Side Inn”. We were hoping we could purchase something to drink there but with no luck. Even though it was a charming little place we decided to stop at for lunch on our next trip we continued our search.

Then when we finally found a working vending machine in front of a shop it took our money but didn’t give us anything to drink. The owner ended up refunding our money from his cash register and told us to stop by the “Lucky Dog Café”.

This place was too cute! We both fell in love with it immediately. On the outside there was a deck with tables and umbrellas where you could sit and eat and your dog was welcome to eat there with you as well. Then on the inside they had a little common area where you could eat and watch TV, they also had a counter to sit at, and a dining room. Unfortunately, dogs were not allowed inside of the “Lucky Dog Café”. This place was so cute! We’re definitely going back there to eat some time.

I’ll be adding the pictures from this trip to my photo album.

Until next time,
~ Fat Chick

Future posting: County fair and bidding on a goat!

P.S. Lilly is in surgery today and I'm scared...