The Good Life

Since I'm aware I've severely neglected my blog these past couple of weeks, I decided I should take advantage of my some free time to scribble something down while I'm laying on the beach. The only problem with writing on the beach, well besides my hand being too greasy from sun tan lotion to grip the pen I'm writing with, is that my mind is complete mush. I'm 100% relaxed with nothing on my mind. So forgive me if this post is lacking the comic relief it's usually laced with. Like Forest Gump's dad, my creative juices are on vacation!

So to answer your burning question of, "What in the world has Kelsey been up to these past couple of weeks?" I can respond to that with one simple word, WORKING! Thankfully for me my work is always mixed with a lot of play.

I've been very fortunate this month and have gotten to fly with really great crew members. During the past two trips I was able to fly with friends of mine that I went through initial training with. The first trip I flew with my friend Lia and we had overnights in Myrtle beach, South Carolina, San Juan, and Orlando. I love the Carolinas! My family used to vacation in Nags Head, North Carolina and that is when I first fell in love with that area. It just feels so beachy and quaint there! I literally feel like I'm living in a real life Nicolas Sparks book! My friend and I went out for a nice dinner there and the next morning I went for a run on the beach, one of my very favorite things to do!

We only had about 12 hours in San Juan, but I still made time to go lay out by the gorgeous pool at the resort where we were staying. The company I work for has contracts with different hotels in each city we layover, so we usually always stay at the same hotels. Because I obviously have a lil bit of a stalker, President Obama just so happened to be in San Juan at the exact same time I was. Coincidence, I think not! This was actually a pretty cool thing as this was the first time an acting president had visited Puerto Rico since President Kennedy in 1961. Several major roads (as well as the airport) were shut down for a couple hours while the president was in town. As a result of this, my crew and I were relocated to a hotel that was closer to the airport. The new hotel was actually a resort, and I loved it for the mere fact that we were greeted with complimentary coconut ice cream upon our arrival. All of the locals were elated that Obama was in town, and nearly all of them were wearing some form of Obama memorabilia.

After asking my cab driver his thoughts on Obama's visit he informed me that he wasn't sure why the president had decided to visit the island, but Obama had his vote! In fact, he had all three of them as he held a drivers licence in Puerto Rico, Florida, and New York. Hmmmmm

The next night I stayed in Orlando. This layover could not have come at anymore of a perfect time for my friends Lita and Sari as their air conditioner had just bit the dust. Something about it being 90+ degrees outside didn't exactly make them excited about sleeping in their upstairs apartment. I always love seeing friends on layovers, so I was more than happy for them to bunk up with me for the night. We spent our exciting night watching CNN and eating Papa John's. What can I say, we know how to party!

I returned home just long enough to do a few loads of laundry, grocery shop, bike ride to the beach, hang out with some friends, pack my suitcase, and hit the runway again! My friend Dan is actually still on reserve and didn't even know he would be on the same trip with me until the day we were leaving. The first night of our trip we layed over in Washington DC. I love having lay overs in this city as there is a ton of stuff to see and do. As soon as we got into our hotel, we hopped on the subway and headed down the Pentagon Memorial. The memorial was really neat and reminded me a lot of the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. At the memorial there is a bench for each person who lost their life on 9/11 at the Pentagon site. It was set up in chronological order so that the oldest person's bench is the first one in the memorial and the youngest person to loose their life is the last. Growing up my family and I always visited national monuments, and I always appreciated them, but usually they were for things, like World War II or the Battle of Shiloh, that I obviously had no emotional ties to. It's just very bizarre seeing tributes to 9/11, as I remember that day very clearly. After viewing the memorial, we continued our touristy activities and visited the capitol as well as the White House. I'm pretty sure Obama was at the White House the same time I was. See what I mean about him following me?


We spent the next two night of our trip in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I had a severe moment of weakness and went shopping. I'll be regretting that in about three weeks when the ol Discover Card bill roles in. Atlantic City has a really cool boardwalk right by the beach that Dan and I went strolling on one evening. Apparently I had some good Karma coming my way because as I walked into one of the many fudge shops along the boardwalk the owner informed me they were closing for the evening and was wondering if I wanted to take all the leftover samples home...FO FREE! If Heaven tastes anything like Rocky Road Fudge, then shoot me now!

I had half heartedly mentioned to Lita on the last day of my trip that I was off for the next two days if she wanted to come visit. I was very surprised when she text me back and said she's be there in the morning. Apparently you don't have to twist this girl's arm to get her to spend two days on the beach. One of my favorite parts of living in South Florida, is that when I have the time to completely relax, it really does feel like a vacation. Lita, Sari, my roommate Stephanie, and I had a great three days eating, drinking, sleeping, and catching some rays!


Have you all heard OneRepublic's new song, Good Life? It pretty much sums things up for this girl! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZhQOvvV45w

Love and miss you all mucho grande!!!

Happy One Year Anniversary To Me

This past week I celebrated my one year anniversary of living in Florida. It's crazy to think that it's been one full year since Kristen and I loaded up the Corolla, and made the long drive all the way down to Orlando. It's been an awesome and exciting year, filled with lots of changes! One year in and I have apsolutly no regrets about making my move!

This past week was super fun, but left me very sleep deprived! I am loving knowing my work schedule in advance, it's so much easier to make plans when I at least know in general what I am doing from day to day. Saturday morning I flew from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and ended up in Orlando. I spent my afternoon napping by the pool, and then my friend Kane picked me up for dinner that evening. After dinner, we ended up going to a country line dancing bar called Aligator Ally. Aligator Ally turned out to be a plywood palace that makes the Hunter's Horn (a Greene County establishment) look like a classy joint. The inside of Aligator Ally was complete with a mechanical bull as well as a DJ booth set up in the back of a Ford pick up truck. All of the patrons definitely seemed to be frequent flyers at Alligator Ally as they seriously had a line dance to every song that was played! There was even a cowboys only dance, which involved an interesting game where the men would throw their cowboy hats on the ground and try to get the hat back on their head while doing a handstand. This must be some type of a mating call ritual that they do in the south??? Although we were the only three sober people in the place, and that my friends Kane and Khadz were the only non white guys in the building, the night is still a success in my book!


The next day I had an easy one leg flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I had never had a layover there before, so I was super excited to explore Old San Juan. Thankfully one of the other flight attendants I was on the trip with was from Puerto Rico and was kind enough to serve as my tour guide. We first went to a local coffee shop and had a great latte made from beans grown locally. Then we met up with one of her friends, Franklin, who just so happens to be a salsa instructor, and went dancing at a club called Latin Roots. Now I may be able to tap dance with the best of em, but salsa dancing is not exactly this midwesterners forte. Franklin was very talented in the dancing department, so talented in fact he was able to make me look like a not half bad salsa dancer. One of the live band members even commented that I wasn't bad for a gringo!



The next day I flew back to Fort Lauderdale and then on to New York. My friend Lita was already in New York visiting family and friends, and my friend Christina, who I met while working at Disney, was awesome enough to take off of work and meet us for an afternoon in the city. This was actually my first time ever in New York City, and I had a flipping blast! First of all it was wonderful for the three of us to all be back together again. To me, I consider someone a good friend when we can go months without seeing one another, but then pick up right where we left off. I feel beyond blessed to have many of those close friends in my life, and Lita and Christina are definitely two of them! The girls were already downtown, so I had to take the subway all by myself. After traveling all over the U.S., I am 100% sure that midwesterners are the friendliest people in the country. Even in Chicago, the people are just friendly. New Yorkers, however, not so friendly! It was like pulling teethe just to get someone to answer me when I asked if I was on the train that went to Times Square. Anywho, I finally figured it out and met up with the girls. We spent the day exploring the Time's Square area. We window shopped in the Diamond Distract, I, of course, would have bought something, but I just didn't really see anything I liked.... We then ended the day the way every day should end, with Sushi!




The next morning I flew back to Fort Lauderdale, and Lita actually flew with me. She was warned (threatened) to be on her best behavior. Thankfully she did as she was told and I had no outbreaks of laughter while doing the safety demo. I then continued on my travels for the day and flew to Cancun and then finally back to Fort Lauderdale where I ended my four day trip. I was home for a grand total of 12 hours before I headed back to the airport for a two day trip.

During my two day trip I flew from Fort Lauderdale, to New York, Myrtle Beach, and then ended my day in Chicago. My friend Eric picked me up at the airport and after scarfing down a delicious Chile's salad, we biked on Lake Shore Drive and spent the afternoon at North Avenue Beach. For the record, Chicago was WAY hotter than Ft. Lauderdale. Holy crike, being outside Wednesday was like sticking my head in an oven! After biking back to Eric's apartment, I headed over to by best good friend Allison's new apartment. I was pretty worn out from my crazy week, so it was so nice just to get to hangout with her and have life chats. Our relationship has definitely evolved from our good ol college days as it was a Wednesday night and both of us were yawning uncontrollably by 9:00 P.M.




I made it home yesterday morning, and was elated to spend the day in my bed! I seriously have been running on four hours of sleep or less each night and it has taken it's toll on my body! I slept for six hours during the day, and then was able to sleep nine hours last night. This is one tired girl!!!!

To celebrate one year of Florida living, I decided to treat myself to a little you-did-it gift to myself in the form of a new bike! I just got it this afternoon so I haven't even taken it out for a test drive yet, but I'm stoked about it! I love bike riding and besides my keyboard, it is the second object I have most missed since living in Florida. She's a blue and white Schwinn, and after doing a little research it seemed like the best bang for my buck. I'm so excited to for my many bike riding adventures!

And now for the low light portion of my week. All of my girlfriends from home are currently on vacation in Lake of The Ozarks, most likely laying on noodles in the lake as I type :( Thankfully they haven't completely forgotten about me, as I've been receiving some entertaining phone calls. My brother, Brock, has also been really sick this past week, and ended up having his appendix removed. He is still in a lot of pain and was readmited into the hospital again today. My parent's used a natural conseques approach while raising us four kids. I respect them so much for that and think it has taught me so much more about life than I would have learned from simply being spanked or punished. I love living in Florida! However, a natural consequence of living 20+ hours from home is that I do miss out on things, and sometimes it's a little rough. Now I'm playing the world's smallest violin for the world's saddest story. Ok, ok in all reality life is good, I have no complaints :)

"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back." Arthur Rubinstein