One happy island.

I am now officially obsessed with the Caribbean. Before my trip to Aruba, I had never actually seen white sand beaches or turquoise water. And once I realized how amazing it all is, I couldn't get enough. I felt like I was living in a postcard the whole time.

Beautiful. 

I wanted to hug the palm trees, but I was afraid a lizard would jump out and eat me.

My sister, Mom and I out on the town

Enjoying a delicious dinner at Madame Janette's (so good!)

So in order to squeeze a week's worth of travel tales in one neat little (ok not so little) post, I thought I'd highlight the important parts in a segment I'd like to call "Happy Learnings from One Happy Island":• Going on vacation with my Mom and sister means lots of sun time, lots of reading time and lots of relaxing time. Exactly what I needed.

• Snorkeling is fun. And sometimes dangerous, especially when you jump off the side of a sailboat into the middle of the ocean on a cloudy day, in a sea of very, very choppy water. When you're trying to stay afloat with 30 other snorkel-happy people, you might collide with someone. Head on. And end up with a cute little cut and egg-sized lump on your forehead. Thank goodness the crew onboard thought to douse my head in vodka to clean the cut. Vodka buuuurns. (And I walked around smelling like a dirty bar the rest of the day.)

• Playing the "guess what I am singing under the water" game never gets old...no matter how old you are.

• The sound of waves crashing on the beach is so much better than an iPod.

• If I ever get a pet iguana, I'm naming it Bob because iguanas love to bob their heads. There are oodles of head-bobbing iguanas all over Aruba and they love to lounge in the sun. Hence, the "lounge lizard" phrase.

• If a 73-year-old couple suggests a fun outing, they mean you'll end up at a "street festival" in the backyard of a cultural center watching little kids jazz dance and old people getting their kicks from an off-tune organ. And if you find yourself in such a place, it's not okay to burst out laughing (whoops), but it is okay to quickly sneak out the back.

• If you tend to talk wildly with your hands and feel the need to give a passionate speech about the Aruban economy in response to someone simply saying, "Aruba is beautiful", perhaps you shouldn't be a cab driver. It could result in very swervy driving, very wrong turns and very scared passengers. 

• Thong swimsuits are never appropriate. Especially on men. (shudder)

• I adore Aruba Aribas. Almost as much as I adore Strawberry Daqoladas, a hybrid of a Strawberry Daquiri and a Piña Colada. Mmm so good.

• Happy hour is so much better when tropical drinks are involved.

• It is a little creepy to see a huge missing persons case centered in Aruba resurface all over headline news when you're actually in Aruba.

• The Aruban airport is like a funhouse. Only not a fun funhouse. And it's important to remain patient while you wait in line 2 hours to even get to the check-in counter. And then while you wait in line another 2 hours to go through Aruban customs, one security check point, another security check point, a huge room full of luggage to pick up your screened luggage, a trip through U.S. customs, and yet another room to drag your luggage to the plane. It just makes leaving vacation that much more difficult...

• Don't try to smuggle a parrot home in your suitcase. It might have the bird flu (and that's clearly the only reason why it's a bad idea). The Aruban airport feels the need to tell passengers that with brightly colored posters hanging on EVERY wall.

• It's possible to take 3 million pictures of sunsets and only about 5 of actual people. See below:

Amazing. If you haven't been to Aruba, you should definitely go. It's warm, sunny and picture perfect every single day. I can't wait to go back...

Lookin' on the bright side

Today was rough. It was like someone sucked all the life out of my office. Everyone walked around, heads hanging low, trying not to look at the 5 now empty cubicles. A few of the people who were laid off came back late last night to clean out there desks, leaving only the random highlighters and stray papers strewn about. It's so depressing. And since my two cubicle neighbors are now gone, it's like working in a graveyard.

The office is silent, somber and altogether sucky. And after our company meeting this morning in which we were told how terrible our situation (tied together with the economy) really is, no one felt like doing anything. 

So while I sat there completely unmotivated today, I started looking ahead to the fun things I have coming up to cheer myself up.

Valentine's Day—Though not my favorite holiday (sorry, Hallmark), I do love spending time with my boyfriend. And I finally get to see him again this weekend after a very long two weeks. Not only that, it's also our 3-year anniversary. Wow. 3 years. That's a long time...

The Opera—I'm looking forward to this out of sheer amusement and curiosity. My friend and I both wanted to get tickets to the opera since neither of us had ever been before. So she looked up and saw that Tristan and Isolde was playing in Chicago and went ahead and bought tickets...without realizing how long it was. It's 5 HOURS. 5! We both agreed if we get too bored/antsy/tired, we'll sneak out and go to a bar. Sounds like a plan to me.

St. Patrick's Day—I LOVE St. Paddy's Day. Next to Christmas, it's my absolute favorite holiday. It's an entire day dedicated to all things Irish, what's not to love? You get to wear lots of green (I do every day anyway), blast Irish music and drink green beer all day. It's the best. And usually, my office closes down that day and we all head to an Irish pub with clients to drink all day. Unfortunately, with the layoffs, it looks like that might not be happening this year. Such a bummer.

Aruba—We leave March 21st and I can't even wait. The beautiful weather today reminded me of how much I love being out in the warm sunshine. It's going to be amaaaazing. I can't stop looking at pictures of all the beaches and palm trees there...

Plus, I have a bunch of friends' birthday coming up, a visit from my boyfriend's parents, a high school reunion, a book/wine club meeting and some fantastic Marquette basketball games thrown in, too. All before April. 

Despite the work situation, it looks like I'm finally crawling my way out of the winter slump and I couldn't be more excited about it. Must be all that sunshine I got today!

What's the craic?

When I say I love Ireland, it's a bit of an understatement. 

I'm kind of obsessed with it. Irish accents, Irish people, Irish music, Irish holidays (or just one), Irish pubs, Irish beer, Irish shots (Baby Guiness!), even Irish food (ok not all of it). I hear someone mention it and my ears perk up. When I pass by the travel section in a book store, I have to browse through the Ireland books. If I'm bored at work sometimes, I look at pictures of Ireland. It's a bit sick, really.

My infatuation with the glorious Emerald Isle started back in Fall of 2005, when I studied abroad in Galway. When we first got there, I'll admit I wasn't too crazy about it. Perhaps it was after the disastrous first night in which we got ridiculously drunk on Red Bull vodkas with a handful of boys from Liverpool...right. Can't tell that story. I'd probably be shot. 

But as the slight culture shock wore off, I fell in love with it. Classes didn't matter much there. My 3 "flatmates" (my high school friend A, a girl from my college I hadn't known previously, and a girl from NY) and I had a rule: If it was raining, we didn't have to go to class. And it rained a lot. We went out almost every night, met the cutest (and not so cute) Irish boys and traveled all over Europe on the weekends. And when I ended up dating a very cute Irish guy for a couple of months, it was the icing on the cake. 

Though sometimes I grew tired of the constant rain, I loved every moment. When we had to leave and I had to say goodbye to everyone, especially my Irish guy, I was heartbroken. I literally cried the whole night before I left, the whole bus ride to the airport, the whole time at the airport and then the whole 7 hour flight back. I was a hot mess. No not even hot...I was a cold, tired, ugly, sniffly, snotty mess. Sick. The poor woman sitting next to me must have thought I was crazy.

I had the time of my life in Ireland. I could literally talk about it for hours on end. And every day, I wish I could go back. One day I do want to go back there...actually I want to go back now. But I know it won't be the same. 

So luckily, I get the next best thing. Tomorrow night we're having a mini Galway reunion. Technially it's only me, A and our other roommate from the Niland House (where we lived over there), but it's the first time we've all been out together since we left Galway 3 years ago. I can't even wait. We're going on a little Irish pub crawl around Chicago. It should be a lot of fun. And hopefully it will be like having a tiny little piece of Ireland back again.

Sidenote: "Craic" is a Gaelic word for fun, good time, etc. They say it all the time over there. 

I love my "Christmas break"

Yep, I've been MIA lately. I got back last night from my weekend to Quincy, Illinois. It was 65 degrees there for awhile, then a fun little thunderstorm frenzy popped up with a few tornado warnings thrown in (kind of creepy for December) and the temperature dropped like a rock. Sigh. I love Christmas. Not winter. But the trip was a lot of fun and it was great to see my Grandma and Grandpa and my Dad's whole fam. We spent the whole day Saturday at a winery. The wine flowed and many deep (and slurred) heart-to-hearts with family members followed. Good times.

 

So now that I have this week off, I'm absolutely loving all my free time. This morning I slept in, ran up to the outlets with my Mom to exchange a couple things at J.Crew and now I've been sitting on my bum for hours watching the John and Kate + 8 marathon on TLC. I love today. And I can't wait to continue my relaxation tomorrow...

Did you have a nice Christmas? I hope so! My Christmas was wonderful. The best part (besides Christmas Eve at my Grandma's) was my family's Pajama Christmas Day. We literally stayed in our pjs and watched movies all day. It was so fun hanging out with my parents and brother and sister like that. I'm already looking forward to next year.

And I hope Santa was very good to you, too. He certainly was good to me...I got some fun stuff! I'm really excited about my new fun red crock pot and cookbooks. Now I can actually learn to cook. And I love all the clothes, pajamas, books, Philosophy stuff, dvds, etc that I got. I can't wait to play with/wear/watch/read them all.

But the most exciting thing? My cute little iPhone. I'm in love with it. It has a charming little green case and is now chock full of fun applications (I'm addicted to the App Store). I think I've run out of batteries every day since I've had it because I can't stop playing with it. And it's so nice to have a phone that finally works...though I haven't tried it in my apartment yet. Eek. 

Now I feel like I should give it a name or something. It's not just a phone—it's so much more. I'll have to think of a good one...

And I love the camera on the iPhone! Just had to throw in this pic of my dog Rufus that I took:

Love it. Too bad my other dog Nellie is camera (and apparently iPhone) shy. Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Have fun gearing up for the New Year!

Today is random

I can't think about what to write about. Hm... So how about a Love It/Hate It list about today?

Love It:

Swiss Miss Sensible Sweets No Sugar Added hot cocoa. It's SO good. I'm usually not a fan of "diet" things, but this is amazing. I'm enjoying a cup right now with a dash of cinnamon on top. Yum.

John and Kate + 8. I LOVE this show. Aaden and Alexis are my favorites. And I honestly think Mady (spelling taken from their website...seems odd) has a behavioral disorder. She comes off as such a brat! Everyone thinks Kate is too mean, but with 8 little kids I think she has to be that way. Anyway, the show is one of my favorites. It's so cute and real and funny. Aw.

I walked to the bus stop tonight lugging my extremely heavy groceries and found the bus I needed waiting there...with one empty seat right next to the "shelf" to put bags. So not only did I get to sit, I also got to make sure no one stole my whole wheat English muffins or Lean Cuisines. Very exciting moment.

Gossip Girl. What a fantastic show. But seriously, Aaron isn't cute. And I really like Serena and Dan together...

Hate It:

Grocery shopping in the city without a car. Lugging groceries on the bus is NOT fun. And since I don't live by a good grocery store, it's unavoidable. I get all grumpy even thinking about doing it. 

Having to divide my time. That's very vague, but yeah. So frustrating.

That jerk who stole my wallet. I STILL don't have a new debit card and I'm still trying to reimbursed for the one purchase that went through when they stole my card. UGH.

The pile of dirty dishes sitting in my sink. Oh how I miss my dishwasher from my old apartment...

But I guess I better start washing. Farewell.