South Beach...bringin' the heat!

So, on June 5th, this handsome guy turned 29.  I had been planning his birthday weekend in Chicago for weeks a few days when he sent me an email.  Flights to Miami and San Francisco were WIDE open...did I want to go to the beach?  Um...yes!  Of course!  So, Friday night we hopped a flight to Miami!  Very last minute and very fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants.  There are two things I am not: Very last minute and very fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants.  I plan meetings for a living...key word being p-l-a-n.  I make binders for going on vacation...seriously.

At any rate, the minute we landed, Jason Pricelined us a fabulous South Beach hotel - The Raleigh. The rooms weren't anything to write home about. But the pool? The pool was fabulous.

Even better than the pool was the beach:

After learning the drinks at the hotel were ridiculously expensive, we went out to buy our own and sat on the beach the rest of the day.  We went and rode the jet-skis out in the ocean, took naps in the sun and just generally goofed around.

After all the fun in the sun, we got dressed up to go to a yummy dinner right on Lincoln St. in South Beach.  I wasn't too sure of the Argentinian cusine, but Jase picked a fabulous place (no big surprise, he has great taste). I always forget to have someone take a picture of us when we're dressed up, dangit.

(Jason kept yelling at me because I was on the phone updating Facebook every three seconds.)

Since our flight didn't leave until Monday morning, we spent the day Sunday walking down the beach and shopping around "A1A - Beachfront Avenue!" (Bonus points if you can name the song we kept singing the ENTIRE weekend.)  We stopped and got some very yummy drinks that ended up being WAY stronger than planned.  We realized this in the middle of Kenneth Cole.  Super classy:  it's how we roll.

After goofing around at the pool for a bit longer, we packed up all our stuff and headed the airport hotel.  By the time we got there, Jason had work to do and I had TV to watch.  We ended up ordering Papa Johns (which made us sick) and heading to bed because we had to wake up at the ridiculous hour of 4am to catch our flight home.

I have to say that while the weekend I had planned originally was going to be fun, this was so much better!  I'd been begging asking Jase to go to the beach and he definitely heard me.  It was great to spend time away from the City exploring somewhere new together.  Traveling with someone isn't always easy.  We definitely had our moments of snippiness (mostly on my part...shocking).  We're both learning how to communicate what we want and our expectations for each other because not everyone functions the same way. 

For instance, I forget to eat a lot of times.  Jason doesn't.  He has to speak up about when he's hungry because the poor man will never eat if he doesn't.  Also, when my family goes on vacation to the beach, we are at the beach all. day. long.  Jason gets bored sitting anywhere more than an hour and likes to go see things.  We didn't know these things until we had to hash it out on Sunday.  But now, we're aware of it and on our next trip, we know how to handle it.  It's all an adjustment, but I think it's more what you make of it and how you address differences that matters.

Overall...a fantastic weekend with a great guy! Neither of us wanted to wake up and come back to work, but I am pretty thrilled to see this little thing when I get home :)

Floods

I found this on a random blog and it hit me hard with all the flooding in Nashville.  It's such a beautiful point of view, I thought I'd share it.

"Pick A Road
[originally posted: June 30, 2008]
 You know the Robert Frost poem about two roads diverging in the woods? It's been popping into my head a lot lately and makes me wonder if it may be how God works with free will.

 I know, it's scary to think about how my brain works, isn't it?

 Bear with me. I've been watching a lot of news coverage about the horrible effects of the floods around my area. At first it was a constant state of urgency about the water levels and people needing to evacuate different neighborhoods. One news station was running solely on generators and kept apologizing for the fact they hadn't showered in three days because they were in the heart of the hardest hit area and had no running water.

 To be honest, that part of the tragedy was easier to watch.

 Now we are hearing about the long-term effects. The contamination. The waste. The ruined homes. The plans to demolish. The homeless. The jobless. The exhaustion. It breaks my heart. And somehow, so many of the people interviewed talk about the hope they feel, the resolve to rebuild and make their lives strong again. You can tell it's at the core of who they are, because it's their instinct to believe in hope even when their eyes are so very weary.

 There was recently a news piece about a church community that had lost their building, and another faith denomination had offered their church as a place of worship. The interviewer was asking different people about their situations and how their faith has pulled them through. Some people said they knew things were going to be ok and they couldn't make it without their faith. Others just simply said they didn't know how God could do this to them. And I think it's a valid question; when you talk about God having a plan for us... then wouldn't the bad stuff be in His plan as well? But that question lacks a key component: free will.

 Free will means that stuff is going to happen. We make choices every day that affect the outcome of our lives. We choose where to live. We choose who to marry. We make decisions about our education or having children or where to have dinner. People with more power in society decided where to build towns and levies and infrastructure.

 And then it rains.

 I don't think God looked around this Earth and decided one day to mess with the people of Iowa. I think all of our decisions and our ancestors' decisions came together with a natural rain and it created an opportunity for a flood. Free will. Stuff happens. Could God stop it all? You bet. But He promised us He wouldn't. He gave us free will and the opportunity to make ourselves strong again.

 That's where the poem comes into play. (I told you my brain would take you there eventually.)

 I think in front of every person who is hurt, God lays out paths in front of them... roads, if you will. I don't think one is necessarily better than the other, but they are choices for us to make. You can rebuild your home, you can move away, you can relocate to higher ground. And whichever road you choose to walk down, I think God is on it making sure you see the potholes you could fall in, the pebbles you could trip over and the sunshine that could warm your face through the trees. In every instance, I truly believe He is putting the possibility of blessings on your path if you're willing to reach out and take them.

 I'm not so crazy as to believe any one of the roads will be easy. You might choose a road of self-pity and despair for awhile, but eventually you'll stumble on a blessing that will make your path smoother. It's not about God making sure bad stuff never happens. It's about the fact that He holds us when it does. That's what dad's do best. They don't stop you from trying new things. They don't tell you not to take any chances. They cheer you on when you choose to try. They tell you that anything is possible. And when you mess up, when you fail, when you fall... a dad picks you up, brushes you off and wipes your tears away. Then he tells you to try again.

 The flood victims are in the stage where they need to be brushed off and their tears wiped away, but I believe with my whole heart that there will be roads diverging in front of them, and God will be there cheering them on as they try again. Because that's what fathers do."

Through the Looking Glass

Some days, it's really easy to look back at the past and wish you had done things differently or that things had gone the other way.  Today is not one of those days. 

While working goofing around at work when I should have been working, I was on Facebook.  I got the stupid idea to look up Jerk.  So I did.  I've done this before (almost a year ago) and it just absolutely sent me into a depression of "what ifs."  What if he and I had been able to work things out?  What if I'd stayed with him despite how crappy he was?  What would my life be like?  And worse than the "what ifs", is that part of me still wanted to be with him...despite the crappiness.  Stupid, right?

But today, I looked at the picture of him and honestly thought "What in the hell did I see in him!?"  I thought about how awful I felt when I was with him and how truly selfish he was.  I even looked at his picture and said "huh...he's not even that cute!"  Needless to say, this is a huge improvement.  Because that time in my life was awful, it makes me appreciate just how good I've got it now and how far I've come. 

For example, I've always known I have a great family.  But living in Tennessee, it was hard to see them because they were all at least 5 hours away.  But, because I'm in Chicago, I got to love on all of my cousins and play in the water at my favorite place on earth.  We jumped and swam and ran and played charades and just enjoyed each other's company.  It's so much fun to see the world through the kids eyes and scary how fast they're becoming little adults.

Secondly, had I not gone through everything a few years ago, I wouldn't have some of my best friends: Jen, Matt, Stacia & Charlie.  They all came into my life at the exact right time and I really wouldn't trade the memories made with them for anything.  God definitely knew what he was doing with that situation.  I could go on and on about these people and how much I miss them, but I won't.

Lastly, being in such a crappy relationship has made me excited to find a good and right one.  Not trying to jump any guns here, but I'll just say that for now, I'm really happy.  Someone is here for me to bounce ideas off of, to challenge me in my thinking and most importantly, to make me laugh.  I'm not sure I've laughed so much in a long time.  Even when I'm being an insane girl and claiming he chose an apartment over me and my dog (seriously...stupid), he just hugs me and lets me know that he actually cares about me and he would never chose anything over Lex & I.  What's more, is I actually trust him.  I didn't trust Jerk - and for good reason.  Now, it's not even a thought in my head because I know Jase wouldn't do a thing to intentionally hurt me.  It's refreshing to be able to say that.  I'm still proceeding with caution because I always do, but it's fair to say that I'm happy with where I am.

In all, it's such a relief to see how far I've come and to know that I've learned from my mistakes and also been blessed from my mistakes.  I may not always know what I'm doing, but I'm so glad that God does.