If you can believe it (and I am still having trouble believing it myself), Chris and I were ready EARLY for the trip.  We got up, finished packing, cut the lawn, I finished up on some work, and we were off!  In celebration, we had lunch at La Madelaine and I had a Medditeranean sandwich, and iPad man had a Mediterranean salad.  :-)  Because we wanted to be sure to get a Mediterranean food before we headed to the Mediterranean...

Flight was uneventful (except for a brief panic when Chris thought he had lost his passport, which is really more typical of me than him).  I must say though, KLM really is all its cracked up to be.  What a nice plane!  We paid the little extra for more reclining ability - soooo worth it.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much in Rome.  Just right off the plane and on to a bus to the ship.  We met the in-laws at the airport, but the sister-in-law was delayed and didn't arrive with her parents.  But, not too much later, she arrived and our happy family started the vacation!

What a ship it is!  The Regent Seven Seas Mariner is just beautiful.  It was the first "all balconey" cruise ship, meaning everyone gets a room with a balconey.   And the shower was bigger than ours at home! :-) We had champagne waiting for us in our room.  It only took the husband and I two tries to achieve elegant casual (we could tell from the glances that our first try wasn't quite there yet), which is the required attire after 6 pm.  Truly delicious meal, and of to bed to control the jet lag.


 

Yep, 2 more days!  I have today, and then Friday to get through.  We leave Saturday night, and I am telling people that I will not be answering the phone on Saturday. 

iPod boy (maybe I should be updating to iPad guy? Yep, that is his new name) has been sick all week.  I think he is getting better, and I am hoping against hope that I will not get sick.  It will be a looooong flight to Rome (with a stop in Amsterdam) if I am coughing and wheezing like he has been.

I don't know WHAT I am looking forward to the most.  Santorini?  Good food?  Swimming every day?  Nope, I know what it is: I am looking forward to being unable to work for 2 whole weeks!!!!  I am so super excited, its not even funny.

Well, I'll post pictures from the trip, and  maybe even make some blog posts.  So exciting, I can hardly stand it.

Hahaha.  Its been a YEAR since I last posted.  And I was getting excited to go on a cruise!  Well, that totally fell through due to that stupid volcano, BUT now I am starting to get excited about it again!  We rescheduled for this year and we leave April 17th.  We were supposed to stop in Tunisia, but I guess that is out.  I'm sure it would have been fine.

Anyhow, I decided to post today, because its Friday and my client has the day off.  My client has every other Friday off, which they call a 9/80.  You work 80 hours in 9 days, instead of 10 days.  This is completely hilarious because I think I often work 80 hours in 5 days, and I rarely get away with not working all weekend.  I have NEVER only worked 40 hours per week.  Anyhow, the reason I felt compelled to write today is because I have 2 co-workers that also work for this client.  And they take every other Friday off too.  It does make sense  - if the client isn't in, then why are we coming in?  But I can't do it.  My company doesn't give me every other Friday off.  I would feel too guilty.  AND, I know how my boss talks about them when they aren't here. 

That's probably the biggest thing for me.  My boss makes fun of them for coming in late and for leaving early.  My boss has had me stay late on a couple of Fridays (not really late, but until 6 or 6:30pm). I don't really mind, and he definitely notices that I stay late and they don't even show up. Today, he wanted to talk with one of them and asked me to call him and say "Your boss is working today, and if you could make yourself available to come in or at least call in by phone, he would really appreciate it." I think that is hilarious!  Could you imagine getting a phone call like that?  I would be soooooo embarassed if my boss was looking for me on a regular work day and I wasn't there

In one week I leave the Slope. In one week plus one day, I get to Houston. In one week plus 2 days, I leave for Italy, and in one week plus THREE days, I will be cruising! I'm starting to get excited!  It hasn't really seemed real, but as it gets closer, it seems more and more real!

The thing about a cruise is that there is no planning.  Its all set up.  So I really have no idea of what I am getting myselft into.  I mean, the no planning is great.  But I'm entirely sure of all the places we are going, and I haven't read up on the history yet :-)

So, I have been up here for nearly 2 weeks and I haven't gone to the gym even ONCE! But, I have had some doughnuts and other crap (I just can't resist those rice krispy squares!). I NEED something to motivate me. In Anchorage, I had Jill, my Summer/Winter Championship Series friends, and a marathon to train for. I think I've told a few people that Chris and I got P90X, but I forgot the DVDs at home this hitch, and I'm so inclined to be lazy.

My Best Maid (or Maid of Honour, but I like calling her a maid), showed me http://chicrunner.com/, mostly to make fun of our shared love of iPhones. Its a pretty fun blog written by a girl who likes to run. Anyhow, she mentions in her blog that there is something called Marathon Maniacs. And you can get a T-shirt from the club if you can do some crazy marathon things. The bronze level requires either 2 marathons in consecutive weekends, 2 marathons in 3 weeks, or 3 marathons in 3 months. Wowza.

That's a pretty lofty goal. But I always LOVE being in marathon shape. And then I lose motivation. Could you imagine doing 3 marathons in 3 months? Chris would get SICK of hearing how great my legs are! :-) I'll have to work up to it. I think its an idea...

Also, I just realized that Chris got me an iPhone for our wedding. So, I get an iPod for the first date, and an iPhone for the marriage - I wonder what I'll for our 1st anniversary? Or 20th! I hope its not an iCoil. That would be more expensive and less useful.

So, I work with a guy named James who is from some where in the south. To quote JT: "James is as country as chicken-fried steak." I think he's as country as chicken-fried squirrel, no joke. So, James was shot in the leg as some point in his life. I think he was fairly young - maybe 17-21. The story is that he was sleeping with his friend's wife, and then his friend came home. James jumped out of the window and ran, but his friend shot him. Then the friend said "Sorry James, I didn't know that was you! You should have said something!" Its a different world, working in the field.

Today is Thanksgiving in the US. I am thankful for my new husband, all my friends and family that came to celebrate our wedding with us, and all the ones that wanted to be there and couldn't make it. There are times in my life when I realize how blessed I am, and when people make so much effort to attend or send their love to us for our wedding is definitely one of those times!

So, I may finally get an answer to the looming question "When are you moving to Houston?"  Things are starting to happen, people are starting to talk to me, ideas are being thrown around.  This is such a funny company.  Well, funny in the sense that it sometimes makes me cry.

One of the options is to take "Line Management" job in Bryan, Texas.  What is Line Management?  It's what the LM stands for on the KSQR!!!  Silly.  I'm not sure exactly what that is, but since my only goal is to be with iPod boy and have a job that doesn't totally suck, I'm not sure that job would be a good fit. Bryan is TWO HOURS from Houston.  "Well, maybe you could commute."  "Ummm, no.  That sounds like it is too far."  "Well, maybe you wouldn't have to commute.  Maybe your husband would commute."  "Ummm, that sounds like a TERRIBLE way to start a marriage."  But maybe iPod guy could only work two days a week in the office, and the rest of the time at our new, rented home in Bryan, and we would have a nice house in Katy...  This option really doesn't sound so good, but Bryan is closer than Alaska.

Option 2 is that I take a job on the slope and rotate to Houston.  This sounds like a GREAT option.  The job might be a bit of a step backwards, but I'm more marriage oriented than career oriented for the next year or so.  I would get some management experience, and Alaska would get to keep all of my brain, and for half of the year I could be a trophy wife!  I would take my jazzercise class in the morning, run some errands around lunch time, watch my soaps in the afternoon, and have dinner ready when he gets home.  Ahhh.

But, maybe an option is for me to continue doing what I'm doing, and hubby-to-be could come back here.  I don't think that is realistic, but maybe it could work. 

Or, maybe I could get a great job in Houston and we could just have a normal life.  But jobs are scare in our Houston offices right now, so maybe I'll just take what I can get.  Unless, my old buddy Gunnar steps in to save the day and he takes me under his wing.  Yay!  Sigh.  So many decisions.  And, I don't know how much of a say I get in it at all.

But there is where we are at people.  Really, all I want is to spend lots of time with my new husband.  Is that so much to a ask?

When iPod guy came to Canada with me in April, I paid for the tickets and when he offered to pay me back for his, I said, "Don't worry about it, it's all our money anyhow."  And he told that seemed like kind of a big deal to him.  You know, like it was an Oh-wow-We-are-going-to-be-married moment. My moment came this weekend with his family.  I love his family.  But it suddenly occurred to me that this will be my family for the rest of my life.  That was my moment. Just kind of like "Oh." 

Alabama was GREAT.  I don't know about the rest of Alabama, but Mobile is sooo not what you would stereotype it to be.  I only saw like, 3, confederate flags.  ;-)  And just outside of Mobile are beautiful beaches.

Maureen Herrera.  How does that sound?  Sounds weird to me.  Looks weird.  It looks like my kindergarten teacher's name!!!  I always thought that I would keep my name.  I like being a "Torrie girl."  And, I like writing my last name in my signature.  I especially like the looping from the end of the "e" to dot the "i".  BUT, since making my address list for invitations and trying to find someway to do a mail merge of an excel sheet with the envelopes in Word, I think I might change my name.  It would just make this mail merge so much easier :-)  So, basically, if I had better computer programming skills, I might keep my last name.  Or, if Microsoft had a better way to handle spouses with a different last name in the mail merge, then I would be more inclined to keep my last name.

What if you chose your husband based on how well your name sounded? 

Ennis (who will know be known as Tasha, even though she thinks she should be Deanna) wanted to do a camping/rafting trip.  And I would rather be fishing.  I thought her idea sounded just horrible.  What happened to me?

Hmmm, I'm not sure if I said that I did ridiculously good in the Gold Nugget Triathlon.  189/1400, and I beat Tasha in 2 of the 3 events (or 2  of 4, since she beat me in transitions).  So, I was really cocky, thinking "I'm still in GREAT shape.  I'm awesome." Then I played a couple of full length soccer games and a week later I tried to run a half marathon and I felt terrible.  I need to get in shape again.  I have a wedding to look good for!!! Oh, and a fiance.  I need to look good for him ;-)

CB-dawg is in town so we hung out on Thursday.  I have to remember that I am too old to drink like we did in university.  Blah.  BUT, to make up for it, we will hike up Flat Top on Wednesday.  I haven't done it yet this year!

Peace Out