Well I am sitting at work, eating chicken gumbo soup. Very good, except I burned my hand when it spilt on me opening the lid.
I am not sure if there is much point on blogging I am sure I lost my 2 readers.. I don't blame them since I haven't posted in 4 mos. Even JT is better than that.. Just kidding buddy.
The last blog I had was from Saskatoon. Not a good time since my dad was critical condition. But things have improved greatly. He ended up being in the hospital for about 4 weeks, mainly b/c he was waiting on Drs to figure out what kind of treatment he was going to have. He ended up getting a difibulator/pacemaker put in b/c they said a bypass was too dangerous. He has been home since feb and says he is doing fine. He can drive again, and other than getting tired easily seems to be doing good. Crossing my fingers that it stays that way..
So let me try to do an update to bring yall up to speed on my last 4 months, even though my little facebook updates may make some of this duplication, so bear with me. or not. Whatever blows your hair back.
- After getting back from Saskatoon, I was really in need of a Vacation.. I guess, all the years (since 2001) of reno'ing and not taking any real holiday, it was catching up with me. Plus my Dads heart attack and work stresses, I finally decided to jump on a jet plane. So my neurotic planning started. For almost 2 months I scoured the online travel agencies looking for something cheap and cheerful. Since this vacation was more of a sanity saver rather than a trip of a lifetime, I wasn't being too fussy. But as per usual, after looking and analyzing the pricing trends for a month, I determined that if I waited till 7- 10 days b4 I was able to get a nice place, 4+ star for under 800$ a person. So I waited till 8 days before my booked off time and booked a lovely room in Neuvo vallarta, total cost for Rochelle and I of 2100$ taxes included. Not too bad really for what we ended up getting, it was a really nice place, with good food, 4 pools and was beach front. Mind you I think I was stressing Rochelle out by waiting so close to book it, but I had my facts and data so she had nothing to worry about.
Pre- Mexico 2009, the planning , the cleaning , the biting your tongue...
So as with any sort of overnight trip the first thing to tackle for me is what to do with the dogs, as you probably know, I have really fucked up family when it comes to doing things for each other, and if it involves my dog(s) the answer is almost exclusively no, or if not No, then it will cost you XX$ for me to dog sit. MOst people can't believe that family would expect money, or would say its too much trouble, but hey thats my family.
So of course the person I asked to looke after the kids, was my coworker Sage. She being the nice person, and a dog person, said yes. Of course I wanted to make sure she wasn't just being nice, so for 4 weeks, I asked her if she was sure, that if she really didn't want to that was fine. But she kept saying, 'Sure no Problem' Well then one day I was speaking with my mom and I told her we were heading to Margaritaville. She was all like, 'What are you doing with your dogs?' So I told her that Sage had said she would., She was surprised that someone would do that , especially with 3 dogs.. go figure.. Anyways a couple days later she called and said that she would housesit/dog sit if I needed it. I said no, don't worry about it I have it covered. I am thinking she was still feeling guilty about not stepping up to the plate when my Dad was in the hospital, so Rochelle had to stay at home with the dogs, meaning I had to go by myself..
Anyway, after a week I sucked it up and accepted her offer, b/c it was way easier to have the dogs stay at our house, as I was worried about Addy escaping at Sages place. The only thing I did do was to still have Sage look after Angus, b/c 1. She and her mom love him, and 2. things would be less chaotic for my mom.
So that was fine, I had a dog sitter and my tickets, what could go wrong.
Well nothing really, except my Mom did have to get a dig in, by saying that there was one condition of her house/dog sitting.. That I clean my house..
So of course, my immediate response was to say , whatever, I will take the dogs to a kennel, but b/c I REALLLY needed a vacation I said Of course the house will be clean, but I did have one Caveat.. I told her it will be clean, but I don't think it will ever be up to her standards.
So of course this conversation led us to do a spring cleaning like none have seen before. I mean my house is not dirty, at most I would say its get occasionally dusty if I don't do the whole dust thing on weekends. But everything important, kitchen, bathrooms vacuum etc is done weekly.. but still the deep cleaning really hadnt been done since the fall so we set out to scrub baseboards, wash window, blinds , you name it we cleaned it.. Of course I am sure my Mom still cleaned it while we were gone, but whatever, atleast we came home to a clean house..
Mexico 2009 Sun, Surf, and Burn.
The flight was mainly uneventful on the way down with the exception of being absolutely packed. So b/c of this we/I thought would should upgrade to 'Star' class.. Don't mistake this for first class, b/c it aint .. So after we paid the 80$ each to get bumped up to the good life, with supposedly bigger seats, away from all the riff raff and with free drinks, we find out as we are waiting to board that the flight was overbooked.. (sidenote. Why the hell /how the hell do you over book. You know you are full but yet you still keep taking money.. I don't get it.) And at the gate all these lucky (meaning asshole riffraff) were being 'bumped' up to star class. Well this pissed me off to no end.. I mean really. So I went up to talk to the bitches at the desk, and asked whats the best way to avoid getting ripped off for the 80 bucks, I mean do you just check in late an hope they over booked and bump you? She really didn't appreciate the questions and basically blew me off.. So of course, I stewed the first 2 hours of the flight whilst the riff and the raff drank their free drinks and annoyed me. I couldn't even enjoy the open bar and only had 1 drink the whole way down.
So after that whole thang we arrived in Pto Vallarta around 11pm. We luckily made it through the time share folks that pose as your travel company.. I almost got sucked into the vortex, but luckily Rochelle had a cool head on her and steered me out to the bus unscathed.
So we check in, The room is nice, clean blah blah, but it had 2 double beds, and we had asked for a king, so we mention this and the guy said check in the mornign and he would move us to a new room. Its a good thing b/c once we went out on the balcony, we realized we were at the back corner of the hotel, with a lovely view of the parking lot, air conditioning and garbage bins.. Plus the noise of the Air conditioning was not relaxing. In the morning we went down to speak about changing rooms and they wrangled up a nice (although not King) room overlooking the pool. Much better. We were happy. :)
The resort was really nice, it had 4 ala carte restaurants, 2 buffets and a pizza/snackbar. Never got bored with the food. The pools were nice, we pretty much stuck to the 2 pools furthest away from the main activity pool. Way too many kids, and the noise from all the activties was too much, so we stuck with the quiet (adult only pool) and the other pool with the swim up bar. That bar was what was to cause me the most pleasure and pain of the trip. The first full day there, we pretty much hung out in the pool all day. Even though we had 50 spf on, it wasn't enough to protect my lily white body parts that haven't seen the sun since last august. I also was stupid not to tan before hand, so I ended up with the worst burn in memory, my shoulders were scorched, but worse off were my forearms and the tops of my hands. My hands were so swollen it looked like I had sparring gloves on.. Freakin crazy..
So the next couple days were on the sore side, still didn't stop us from chilling out and relaxing. We only went on one excursion that was to an island place where there was snorkelling and lunch etc.. it was fun.
We also went into Pto Vallarta for one day, that was a bit of an adventure. Because we didn't want to pay the 20 US for a cab, we decided to take a local bus which only cost 1.50$ each.. Why I am ok taking a bus in another country and can't take a local transit bus to work I will never know. After waiting for ever the first bus showed up. We were told to get on the walmart bus.. We were like Ok.. Well sure as shit, this bus had Walmart on it.. lol I guess most tourists know walmart so its works I guess. As you can probably guess, this bus dropped you off at walmart, on the side of a main busy 6 lane road. We were told that after the walmart bus, we were to get on a blue or grey bus which would take us downtown, so here we are on this busy ass road wandering looking for a bus stop.. well there were any, it appears, that buses just randomly stop and fortunately for us one eventually stopped and we got on. it was not as nice as the first bus, but whatever, we were living the Mexican life. Then a couple stops up this little mexican boy and his dad got on with their guitars, and the next thing there is this impromptu concert going on. We were like WTF? Lol It was kinda funny, b/c neither could sing but when they were done we through them some peso's when he came around with his hat..
The day in Pto Vallarta was ok, nothing too special since I had been there b4. I think Rochelle like it. All we bought were some mexican bowls for nachos and dips, and I bought a 2$ slingshot made out of a tree branch and a rubber band.. Those damn magpies at home won't know what hit them.
Oh I almost forgot I stopped in at a Farmacia to pick up some water pills.. Since my unfortunate sunburn I was sooo puffy with water retention I needed some help> So I ask the guy for water pills so he pulls out a book and is looking, then he calls a friend who apparently knew what I was asking for.. (I hope so anyways) and he gave me this prescription of like 100 pills for 10 bucks. I am sure that would have cost 50 bucks here for 20 of them. ..
So on the way back we decided to hell with the bus, and sucked it up and paid for a cab, we totally weren't in the mood for a hot stinky bus ride.
The rest of the trip was good, we chilled out, drank, and relaxed. I finally decided to try one of those water pills on the friday since we had no plans and I could be near the facilities. Well holy shit. I took 1 tiny little pill and 20 minutes later I was a flowing river.. Seriously. We had gone down for breakfast and I had to go to the bathroom 3 times in 20 mins.. it was crazy.. But crazy good. It felt like someone had popped me like a balloon. By 10 oclock I was pretty much back to normal as far as potty breaks, but by the evening I looked totally deflated. Rochelle was sort of freaked out by how skeletal my hands looked. I could wear my rings finally (well actually they were falling off of me). I loved it.. I haven't taken another pill since, but let me tell you if you are ever bloated and uncomfortable, these babys are the bomb.
Well Really thats pretty much the trip, the flight home was good, the house was spotless and a good time was had by all.. We are totally on a trip kick though.. Already planning the next one..
Thats all I got for now.
Peace out seacrest
2 comments:
Oooooh! I've been dying to hear the details of your trip since I am such a knob and didn't go on my own trip this year...oh well, I'm a camping girl now, so it doesn't matter.
My mother is the opposite of your mother in the cleaning department. If my mom came here and sat with my dog, she wouldn't touch a thing and would probably wash and use the same cup and plate the entire time.
You girls should go on the Rosie Cruise! I've always wanted to go but Derwood says No Go. I think he'd just crap a brick if he saw all those sisters in one place!
Thank you for finally posting all of that! You needed to get all of that off your chest! I don't think I really filled Roxanne in on all of the goings-on. And I have to say, I feel horrible that I wasn't there with you when you found out Lorne died. We were off to Saskatoon for Jackson Browne, but I thought of you, and him, the entire time. If we weren't with friends, we woulda skipped the whole thing. ANYWAY. Let me say this: your brother obviously has issues. And he's never been all that loyal to your dad, even though Lorne had a thing about his son. As for your sister, she always lets you down, but there is also a part of her that is compassionate, that creeps out at the weirdest times. She can be horrible to you, but she can also see, sometimes, that she's being horrible. Randy? Not so much. He's got Alberta-itis.
And Carole? She's always been a loon. And she was in avoidance when Lorne died, and the fact that she turned on you, after she told me years ago how the "other two" just use Lorne, is reprehensible. But at the same time. she's now buried two men, she's homeless again, and she's probably not in her right mind. Take the high road with her. Lorne loved her for whatever reasons, so forgive her for her retardedness.
I really wish you were closer - I know how hard this is and how, unless you've been there, people just don't get it. Please don't let this unpleasantness be the last chapter of your PA life - come back when you are ready, and let's celebrate Lorne and my mom, and see your relatives again, and let's be thankful and glad we had the time we had with them. Don't avoid PA because he's gone. Come back to remember when the hurt subsides a bit. Even though we are so far away, you are still my best buddy, the one I can rely on and just... be. Friends like that don't fall from trees - I love you buddy - I am here when you need me. And I am proud to call you friend 26 years later.
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