A few videos ...

... that demonstrate my complete and total lack of cinematography skills. But they are fun anyway!

The first is a dolphin herding fish along the seawall.

The second is the beautiful roar of the ocean. That's it. Plain and simple.

Florida 2009

I'm back from Florida. It was wonderful as usual. We shopped, walked the beach, took out a boat and explored the channels, and just relaxed. It was fantastic.

I love the sandpipers. They are so cute running in and out of the waves!

Pretty shells littered the beach.

The beach view from the condo.

My parents walking in the surf at sunset. It's blurry, but they are so cute! I'm lucky to have parents who love each other so much!

The morning tide with more sandpipers.

I love sandpipers!

On our boat tour, we saw dolphins and manatees and loggerhead turtles. This pic shows a manatee just below the surface. Can you see it?

A dolphin cresting. The white thing at the bottom of the frame is First Mate Pup-Pup, the dog that the captain took on all of the tours. He was sooooooo adorable. He honestly could sense where the dolphins would emerge out of the water. He'd start barking like crazy and in a few seconds, a dolphin would appear. Pretty amazing.

Another shot of Pup-Pup with his ears blowing in the wind.

LL made good friends with Pup-Pup. They hit it off.

This last picture isn't one that I took because it happened too fast, but it is what I saw. I was sitting on the bow of the boat and looked over my shoulder and saw a stingray LEAP out of the water and hover about six feet above the waves. It was a split second, but it was amazing. No one else saw it because no one was looking in the correct direction. It was awesome. And then, when I returned home, I discovered that like five people have died from stingrays leaping into boats. Thankfully, I was okay. 

And now I'm back to reality. Boo!!!

Vacation bound

So, I've been back in the "real" world for about three weeks (after returning from The Best Trip Ever in Houston!) and I need a break already! Not really, but Laura and I are heading to Florida to visit my parents for the weekend. We had the trip planned before my Houston trip, and it's starting to become our tradition. We went last year at the same time and had a blast. So we decided to go again! I haven't seen my parents since Halloween (which, if you know anything about me, that's a wicked long time!), so it will be really great to see them. Supposedly Mom has lost 30 POUNDS(!!!) and looks amazing. I'm really excited for her and can't wait to see her! And I've missed Dad like crazy! It should be a good mini-vacation.

So, I'll be peacing-out for a bit. But I shall return with photos and debaucherous stories!!!

Things I'm missing right now

I'm homesick. Really, really, really homesick. In fact, I'm on the verge of tears. I'll be seeing Mom and Pops in Florida on Wednesday night (I'm flying down with Laura), but it's Florida and it's not home. I miss everything about home. 

I miss the view from Wagner Vineyards...

And these people ...

And the view from the backyard ...

And the lake ...

And the falls ...

And the beer ...

And the bagels ...

and Cornell ...

And everything else Ithaca. I haven't been home in over a year. It makes me sad and lonely. I know that no one likes a pity party, but sometimes you just can't help it. Or, at least, I can't help it. 

I'll get over it. It's just a sad condition of life. This stupid attachment to home and all ... it's just silly.

A beautiful day

The weather was G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S today. Or, as we say back home, GORGES. Hahaha. I make myself laugh. The sun was out and the sky was blue. All day long! I slept late (didn't roll my lazy bum outta bed until 9:30!) and took a nice long walk with The Beast. We walked for 4 miles in the sun. It felt wonderful. When we returned home, I showered and ran some errands. I returned my duplicate iPod, bought some measuring cups and spoons, some booze (gotta love the ABCs), and returned home to eat lunch and work.

I sat on my bum out on the porch, reading Hawthorne scholars and trying to figure out how to revamp my book article. After I burned my knees in the sun and Bailey was about suffering from heat stroke, I decided to go get my nails -- feet and toes -- done for my pending Florida trip. (Oh, yeah, I'll be in Florida in five days!!! It's only a long weekend trip, but I can't wait!!! Laura and I are gonna have a kick-ass time with my parents!) They are very pretty now!! 

I'm wrapping up my evening with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant movies before I head to bed. What a great day!!!

I'm totally getting old

Last night I went to bed at 9:00. I was dead asleep by 9:40. I woke up at 7:15 when the alarm went off, turned it off, and slept until 9:08. It was amazing. It felt fabulous. And then, to top things, I took an hour and half nap this afternoon. I'm not sure what is wrong with me, but I am pretty sure it is because I am getting old.

Happy Easter!

Today was wonderful! Actually, the whole weekend was wonderful. Here's why ...

The weekend -- well, at least my weekends -- begins on Thursday night. I weighed myself and had lost 7 pounds this week!!! Yeah for small triumphs. Needless to say, that kicked the weekend off well!  I attended the Maundy Thursday mass and began my Paschal Triduum with a moving and spiritual mass. 

Of course, Friday was slated as my day of work. I haven't worked on my book article in ... well, forever, so I decided to spend the day studying. As it turns out, all of campus was shut down for Good Friday (which is very nice) but that also meant that the servers happened to be down as well. I couldn't even do internet work form home. Ugh! So I just relaxed. Watched movies and t.v all afternoon until the 8pm mass for Good Friday. The mass was solemn and spiritual, but not nearly as moving and emotional as the Maundy Thursday Mass.

I awoke on Saturday to nothing but a short shift at AT in the afternoon. I took my time getting ready, and, when I returned at 6pm, The Boy had a yummy dinner for me! We sat and watched Ben-Hur while sharing a bottle of wine. 

Sunday - Today - was Easter. We went to mass early to avoid the CAPErs, but the church was still packed at 8:30am. It was a very nice mass, but it was a little too crowded to allow me to block everything out and focus on prayer and reflection. When we got home, we had a little bit of breakfast and began making our Easter feast.

It was SUPER yummy. The Boy made a ham with raspberry sauce and I made some pretty amazing mashed sweet potatoes with chives and neuchatel cheese. I also made some roasted asparagus. At the risk of sounded too proud, our dinner kicked ass. We shared two bottles of wine and had freshly baked cookies and coconut milk ice-cream. Yummies! It was a great Easter feast. Of course it was punctuated with chocolates of different varieties because, well, after 40 days of Lent and no chocolate, I was having a wicked jones!

While I am trying to lose some weight, I figured to take a day off for Easter. Of course, tomorrow morning, I'm back in the saddle, exercising and eating sensible. BORING!! But effective.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!! And, if you don't celebrate Easter, I hope you had a great long weekend!!

First rule of relationships: Live to make your partner happy.

Live to make your partner happy.
My mom told me this when I was young. She said, "If you and your partner live every moment to make the other completely happy, all of your needs will be met and you'll have no reason to distress." Of course, my high school ears shut her off. But after multiple relationships and a divorce, I realize that she was right. I've tried her strategy in my current relationship, and I see that she knows what she is talking about. Of course, it's a two way street. My guy lives to make me happy, and I live to make him happy. It only works if both people are committed to each other.

It may seem silly or unconventionally selfless, but it makes sense. If both people strive to make the other person fulfilled and happy, then both people end up fulfilled and happy.

Most terrifying moment of my life

I was driving home from work today on the highway. Traffic is heavier than usual, and I'm minding my own business in the center center lane. Just before the highway split, a man in a gold Honda starts to drift over into my lane (coming in from the left) with absolutely no room. I honked my horn to alert him that I was there. He sped up a bit and made his lane change. There was still too little room for him to make it, so I beeped my horn again. At this point, Honda Man literally slams on his brakes immediately in front of me. The traffic is cruising along at 75 miles per hour and he SLAMMED on his brakes. Of course, to avoid a rear-end collision, I switched to right lane quickly and sped up on my way. I'm not about to get into a fight using 2-ton objects speeding along at 70+ miles per hour. Granted, I was at this point pist, but not stupid. I ignored his idiocy and kept going on my way. He speeds up so that his car is aligned with mine, and I'm pretty sure he was having some kind of screaming fit and trying to get my attention. Of course I don't even look in his direction, and I speed up to get around a vehicle in front of me. (I will freely admit to making a certain hand gesture to convey my annoyance.) I let it go, but then Honda Man comes speeding up beside me, this time on my right side. Again he cruised along side of me, perfectly aligned with my front windows. Again I'm confident that he was trying to get my attention and yell at me, and, again, I kept my eyes straight ahead and ignored him. He sped up again, moved in front of me, and slammed on his breaks again. Keep in mind, traffic is HEAVY. I have just enough room to cut around him again, and I speed up to lose myself in the traffic ahead of us. I just want to get away from crazy honda Man at this point. I can still see him behind me, jabbering away on his cell phone, but the distance between us is growing. 

Here is when it gets mighty scary. I make my exit off of the highway and look behind me to make sure that he is continuing along on his way. He gets off at the exit as well. To make the turn to my house, I need to cut across three lanes of traffic quickly because it's a very quick left. I do so, and I see him in the rear view sharply veer across all of the lanes to get behind me. At this point I'm sitting in a designated left-turn only lane (at a red light) while the traffic going straight has a green light. I quickly decide to switch lanes and take a different route home, cutting over to the straight lane and going through the green light. Honda Man quickly does the exact same thing. Now I'm shaking. I'm thinking, "Oh shit. This guy is crazy. He's going to kill me." I decide to head to a police station, but I actually don't know where the physical police station is located here. I decided that campus police will suffice. Meanwhile, I'm approaching a light that just turned yellow. I floor it and squeak under it just as it turns red. Honda Man blatantly blows through the red light to stay with me. I take the exit to get off the road, and he follows me there as well. I decide to turn left into traffic because I know that he won't be able to pull out immediately after me because he will have to wait for an opening. I looked back in my rearview and he was gone. Nowhere to be seen. The dude must have done a u-turn on the off ramp to get back on the main road.

I still continued on my way to the police station. I called The Boy and he told me to report it. I had no plate number or anything, but he wanted me to let someone know about it. I sat in the police parking lot for a few minutes, looking around and making sure the Honda was gone. I didn't see it, so I went inside and spoke to the cops. They told me that, without more information, they couldn't do anything. But they gave me the city cops direct line so if there is a problem or I see anything suspicious I could call. The whole way home from the cops I was looking around and checking to see if the Honda was anywhere near.

My stomach is still in knots. People are literally crazy. I mean, seriously. I beeped my horn at you for cutting me off and I flipped you off when you were freaking out. That warrants following someone in hopes that you could have a confrontation? What would he have done had he caught me? Yelled at me? Slapped me? Punched me? Knifed me? All because I beeped at him. I know that I can be a crazy, NY, aggressive driver, today I actually wasn't!! I was being a good girl!!! And dude went crazy!!! Today definitely counts as one of the most terrifying moments I have ever experienced.