My new passport!!!
New and good for 10 years!!
I still have a few things to do from the last to do list, but I’m getting there. This was by far the most important one to knock off the list. Now I can update our flight reservations with my passport number. Woo hoo!
This week I made an additional payment on the campervan, so that’ll be one less thing to worry about when we get there. My goal is to have most everything paid for ahead of time so we don’t have to worry with it when we get there.
Still left to do:
- Book airfare from SYD to ADL [I think I found the flight we should take – it’s 3.5 hours after we’d land in Sydney, which should give us enough time to go through Customs and get to the domestic airport]
- Book hotel for Adelaide [pure laziness is preventing me from doing this right now]
- Find a place to stay on our last night on the road…
- Purchase tickets to the NYE party we want to go to (available for purchase in October)
- Purchase Beers & Beans’ eBook Getting Out of Auto – tips on taking better travel photos [it looks awesome!]
- Purchase trip insurance – anyone have any suggestions on places to go through? Currently looking at World Nomads.
And that’s where we are.
This trip can’t get here soon enough!
[#18 of #52]
On Friday, I received a message from an old co-worker asking if I’d be free Saturday night to babysit his 15 month old twins. I was very excited since it’s been awhile since I had the chance to babysit! I jumped at the chance, and asked Josh to come along with me – it was twins after all, wasn’t going to attempt that by myself! We love kids and we want one (or two) of own some day (just not at this exact moment).
We left early so we could make it to their place before 6 pm and because it was raining like crazy. The rain followed us the whole way there and there were rushing rivers all over the roads! I’m really glad Josh was driving, because my car would not have handled the rapids well at all. Once we found Joe’s place, we parked the car and went inside. I got to meet the twins for the first time, as I’d left the company before they were born and had missed day visits to the office. They are precious.
We took a tour of their adorable home and went upstairs to check out the nursery. The twins, J & R, were in great spirits and kept pulling out toys and books to play with. As Joe and his wife slipped out, there was a tiny bit of fuss, but they quickly forgot that their parents left them with two people they didn’t recognize. 🙂
We played, talked (well, made noises), and danced to the Pandora kid music station. J & R were happy babies. This was easy, twins aren’t scary!
Josh and the twins were fast friends
When it came time to make up the bottles, R squealed with excitement and laughter, the kind that’s infectious to the point you can’t help but laugh and smile along with. The twins took their last bottle of the day like champs. We kept them up to burp up anything that came with the bottle, and about 30-40 minutes later, we could tell they were getting sleepy, so we tried rocking them to sleep. R knocked out in my arms rather quickly, but as I went to put him in his crib he woke up and started screaming. I picked up him and tried again, while Josh tried his luck with J. She fell asleep, but as he took the blanket she was clutching to out of her hand, she woke up and started crying. We weren’t sure if we should let them cry it out, since they’re not ours, so we tried to sooth them.
J started screaming, so I switched with Josh and handed him R so I could check J’s diaper. In the process, R started screaming and then we heard a little coughing. Shortly thereafter I heard what sounded like a wet burp, and then I heard Josh say, “Amy, I need some help.” Before I could make it over to the chair, I heard the noise again. R had managed to throw up his entire bottle onto Josh’s shorts, leg, the chair and floor. I quickly put J back into her crib and ran to try and rescue Josh and clean up what I could. It took everything in me to keep from laughing, Josh didn’t (and still doesn’t) find it funny. I’m sure he will in a few days though, at least I hope!
I changed R’s pajamas and diaper and tried calming him down, he wasn’t having it, so we turned the music on hoping it’d help, and it worked, but it was clear they were fighting going to sleep. An hour after our initial attempt to get them to bed, they were slightly fussy, but obviously sleepy (and no longer screaming or crying) we put them in their cribs and quickly exited the room. There was a little bit of noise after we walked out, but they quickly fell asleep. I have to say, video monitors are the coolest thing ever.
The twins nodded off to sleep, so Josh and I turned on the TV and watched a bit of the Braves game in silence until Josh cheered up a little. After we started watching, the game went downhill – definitely not a fun one to watch.
Needless to say Josh and I got a small taste of what it’d be like to have kids. I found it enjoyable and definitely not boring. I also know being thrown up on by a kid is a little different when they’re your own, I just have to keep reminding Josh of that.
Overall, we had a great time and hope they’ll let us watch the kiddos again! 🙂
[#17 or #52]
There are moments in your life when you feel really blessed, and there are moments in your life when you feel down and out and nothing is going your way. Luckily, I feel the former more often than the latter.
This morning I was listening to a local morning radio show, The Bert Show, and I was moved by the story of a family in the metro-Atlanta area. The Stark Family, of Lawrenceville, GA has suffered a tremendous loss in the past couple weeks. Will and Cheryl Stark were married for 34 years. They adopted and have been raising six special needs children for the past twenty years. Sadly, Cheryl passed away suddenly from a stroke, leaving Will to care for their six children.
Will lost his job a year and a half ago, and truly needs help. Help to purchase batteries, clothes, school supplies, bed linens, tennis shoes, kitchen supplies, and so much more. To read more about their story, you can go to this page on The Bert Show’s website.
The Bert Show is helping to collect money to help the Stark family out. If you’ve got anything you can offer, even if it’s $5, please consider making a donation to help this deserving family.
If you’re looking for other options to help make a difference:
– Make a donation to help someone raise funds for Breast Cancer research
– Help raise funds to stop leukemia, lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma from taking more lives
– Consider sharing the love with an organization that helps families by providing a place to stay while their children are in the hospital battling different illnesses
– Provide funding to help end childhood hunger
If none of these strike your fancy, there are plenty of options out there, just take the time to find organizations that matter and speak to you. And if money is an issue, you can always give your time.
In the moments where I feel thankful for what I have, I’m working on sharing that with others. It feels good to help out where you can, and I think the world would be a better place if it happened more often.
[#16 of #52]
Technology really amazes me. If you think back 50-60 years ago, things have advanced tremendously. While I’m still anxiously waiting for teleportation to exist, I’m a pretty big fan of where we are in 2012.
I stumbled upon two articles this week, which really got me thinking about the future of travel and flight. The first powered, controlled airplane flight took place in 1903 by the famous Wright Brothers (that’s 108 years ago if you’re doing the math). In the years since, we’ve seen planes increase the number of passengers, the Airbus A380 having the ability to hold anywhere from 500-800 passengers, depending on the layout inside this double-decker plane. That’s insane!
But then, I saw this – Airbus’ newest concept passenger aircraft, the 2050. If you’ve got a few minutes, I highly recommend checking out this video showing different parts of the concept:
The ideas behind this concept are so interesting and futuristic. I doubt we’ll see the day that kind of air transport in our life, but it would be cool if we did. I say this as if the thought of take-off and landing doesn’t throw me into a slight anxiety attack (for as many times as I’ve flown, you’d think I’d be over this by now). I’m not sure I could handle seeing the open skies while flying through the air, but it would be nice to see the stars without the city lights blocking them out at night.
In addition to this sleek Airbus 2050 concept, EADS has put out a concept for a “Rocketplane” that would hope to fly the distance from Paris to Tokyo in 2.5 hours (which currently takes 11 hours). Of course, this one only seats 50-100 passengers, so I’m guessing it’ll be a bit more exclusive (read: expensive).
Both concepts are hopeful for 2050 – 39 years from now. By that point, I’ll be 67, ready to retire, and ready to travel the world full time. 😉 Here’s to hoping these concepts come to life, so we can see more places and spend less time flying!
If you had the ability to give your input on planes of the future, what kinds of things would you like to see?
[#15 of #52]
The list is getting somewhat shorter!
As I continue to plan the crap out of this trip, I realize I still have quite a few things to do before we’re done:
- Renew passport. In my maiden name, it was valid for another 2 years. I’ve been married for two years now, and still haven’t updated it. This is a must within the next two months, and by far the most important one on the list.
- Book a hotel for Adelaide. Luckily one of my good friends works at a hotel chain’s corporate headquarters, so that means Friends & Family rate!
- Book a campervan park for night 6 of our road trip – it’s turning out to be harder than expected!
- Get tickets to the New Years Eve part that we want to go to [late Fall when tickets go on sale]
- Need to book a flight from SYD to ADL on Day 1 of our trip. Going from the international to domestic terminal will be fun – hopefully there will be plenty of time between arrival and departure so there’s no stress! (Been there and done that – no fun!)
- Purchase trip insurance. After watching the Chilean volcanic ash ground flights in and out of Australia, this is a must (among other reasons). Now if the volcano wants to erupt while we’re in Australia preventing us from leaving – I’m pretty sure I’d be okay with that.
- Look into pre-purchasing tickets to the zoo, ferry, etc. for Sydney, to see if there are cost savings to do it ahead of time.
- Start learning how to use my DLSR, like really use it – manual settings and all. Will be taking a walking tour of the city later this year once I’ve spent time time trying to learn on my own.
- Practice taking photos of fireworks with our different cameras. Thankfully, the 4th of July will be here soon.
Tasks crossed of the list last week:
- Finalized 98% of our road trip via Google Maps. Will make final tweaks with all the actual addresses soon. For the record, I puffy heart that website.
- Booked campervan parks for nights 2-5 of our road trip, leaving night 1 open for some flexibility!
- Purchased tickets for the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb.
Still so much to do!
[#14 of #52]
photo credit via Creative Commons: to-do list
Normally I don’t write about a lot of super personal things on this blog, because it was primarily going to be focused on travel. To talk about the places I wanted to go and things I wanted to see, etc. Well, as you can see, I don’t write that often, and I used to like blogging for the fun of it. So now I’m just going to write about what I want, and if you like it – you like it and come back, if not, well, it was nice having you here.
Yesterday I stayed home from work for a delivery from Dick’s Sporting Goods. Josh and I bought an elliptical. I have some personal goals that I’d like to hit before we make it to Australia, and this machine was going to help me get there. We purchased my elliptical on 5/29, and it was going to take a week to arrive. No one let me know it made it there, I found out by calling the store. I tried to setup my delivery/assembly appointment days after it arrived, but I wasn’t able to do it over the phone. I received a text message on 6/7 saying that they’d have someone available on 6/13 (yesterday) between the hours of 11 am and 3 pm. I agreed by responding ‘YES’ and that was that. I was ecstatic about the arrival of our new elliptical, couldn’t wait to start using it.
Well, about 2:52 pm yesterday I hadn’t heard anything from the delivery people, so I called. They returned my call and said they’d be there at 4 pm. Okay… Well once they arrive around 4:10 pm, they came with a treadmill. I’d ordered an elliptical, they came with a treadmill. But hey, it’s cool, they were going to go back to the store and swap it out and come back, or so they said. Hours later, I still had no elliptical. After several back and forth calls with the store and their delivery management company, it was a fiasco. And I still didn’t have my elliptical.
Frustration mixed with anger, along with irritation caused by another person living here [:)] – let’s just say last night wasn’t a happy night. I went to bed only to lay there for hours before falling asleep. I woke up in a funk, realizing this was a ridiculous reason to still be mad. It’s a piece of exercise equipment.
Then I got to work and checked in on my 409’ers* as I do every morning. It was a sad day for our friend Erin. After a year of battling cancer, her mother passed and went on to live with the Lord. I lost it at my desk, thankful that no one was there yet. I’ve only had dinner with Erin, but the 409’ers are a close group and I ache for her loss. For those of you that pray, please pray for Erin and her family. It’s been a rough couple of months for them. For those of you that might want to contribute to her fund-raising cause via The American Cancer society (she’s trying to raise $2,000). You can donate online here.
After reading Erin’s update on her mom, I realized there’s much more to life that being upset about stupid things. I texted my parents to tell them I loved them, I apologized to Josh for acting like a hormonal brat last night, and I tried to turn my outlook on the day around. I couldn’t imagine how Erin was feeling, and every time I thought about her and her mother, tears came to my eyes. She’s had to be so strong over the past year, among dealing with other life situations; it’s unfair that she lose her mother. If Erin is anything like her mother, she was a strong and passionate person, and Erin will have a guardian angel to look after her, I am certain of that.
Hours into my day, I continued to call the store/delivery company to attempt resolving the situation and nothing came of it. They weren’t able to schedule a re-delivery for this evening – or give me a time this week it’d be available, and I was over it. So after talking to the general manager, I informed him I’d come up to the store this evening to get a full refund – and I did. Moral of this aspect of my rambling, don’t buy sporting equipment from Dick’s Sporting Goods.
But it all turned around this evening.
I was sitting on the phone with my mother when an email came into my inbox that I’d been waiting for since September of last year.
Subject Line: BridgeClimb is now open for sale until 31 January 2012!
I quickly got off the phone and started up my Skype app to call and purchase our BridgeClimb tickets for December. I managed to snag tickets for the Dawn Bridge climb, where:
“For early adventurers, Exclusive Dawn Climbs have a tranquil and pristine quality. Watch from above as the lights fade and the city awakes like an enormous, animate machine. The city seems calm, the Harbour glistens, and you reach the summit just as the day emerges from the night.”
Our tickets are for a 4 am climb!!! Have any of you EVER seen me up and ready to go at 4 am? It’s not a pretty site. This should be interesting! In any case, after 8 years of regret, I’ll be climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge!
And with that my emotional roller coaster over the past 24 hours is ending on a happy note. All is well and I’m hoping to remember the lessons learned today, that life is short and unpredictable. Love the ones in your life with all you have, don’t take today for granted, and don’t go to bed angry (because you won’t have a good night’s sleep anyway…).
[#13 of #52]
* The 409’ers are some of my best online friends. Yes, I said online friends. I’m a geek, but if you’re reading this, you probably already knew this. We all met on The Knot, where we met via the April 2009 Wedding Message Board. We bounced wedding ideas off of each other, complained about vendors, shared stores about our mother-in-laws, etc. Over the past couple of years, we’ve formed a bond and have our own private message board where we share intimate details about our lives with each other. This group of women provides a great source of support with all life matters. Love these girls!
With Rihanna’s recent single, S&M, constantly playing on the radio – I often think of a crazy night in Sydney that a couple of friends and I experienced while visiting one weekend.
We opted to take a ghost tour one evening, and it was an experience that we will never forget. I don’t recall who researched the tour, or how we decided upon it, but we ended up going on Destiny Tours’ Weird Sydney Ghost and History Tour.
We met after dark, to find that we’d be riding around in an old hearse named Elvira. It was me, three friends, and a nice couple from Utah (if I remember correctly). We rode around town, learning historical facts about the city, stopping to get out and look at old buildings that were supposedly haunted, learning about the ghosts said to be present. I will say that while I do believe in ghosts, the tour was a little hokey. We were having fun though exploring a fabulous city, so it didn’t matter.
As the tour was about to conclude, our driver informed us that we’d be making a final stop. A stop that required everyone to be age 18 or older. Being the naïve girl that I was at the time, I was curious as to what would require us to be of legal age on a ghost tour, but I’m pretty sure no one else would have guessed where we were heading next.
Once confirmed we were all of age, the driver told us we were scheduled to stop at a haunted bondage parlour.
Say what?
We’re going to a bondage parlour?
The nice couple from Utah opted not to engage in this part of the tour. I myself was a little anxious, but peer pressure is a powerful thing (as is extreme curiosity), so our group enthusiastically decided to proceed.
As we pulled up to The Kastle, the Mistress of The Kastle greeted us and welcomed us inside. She explained that they believed a section of The Kastle was haunted, but wanted to give us a tour of the whole place. There were no customers present, so we had free reign of the parlour. Our driver gave us notice that he’d be driving the other couple around, and that he’d be back to pick us up. Why I didn’t think this was strange at the time, I don’t know. Typing this out, it just dawned on me that this was an interesting position to be in…
Stepping through the door, it was at this moment that I was introduced to a lifestyle I hadn’t heard much about, and it was full on. The Mistress introduced herself, told us about The Kastle and then started taking us around. She showed us a room that was decorated like a little girls room (stuffed animals and frilly outfits included), where men would dress as babies as part of their fantasy. Next was a doctor’s office/patient room for those with an affinity to playing doctor. There were rooms with items hanging from the ceiling, objects I’d never seen in person, and cages everywhere. The Mistress had each of us participate in various examples while she explained what customers would come in for. It was *quite* an educational experience.
There were slings:
Hangin' around...
There were spankings:
"Yes Mistress, may I please have another?"
There were weights and chairs with holes:
That *has* to hurt!
In the end, we had an interesting evening with quite an experience and several stories to tell. I mean, how often do you get to experience a haunted bondage parlour? For the record, the mistresses experienced a sling falling from its perch connected to the ceiling multiple times – surely that’s a sign of paranormal activity! 😉
If you knew me back in 2003, you’d HAVE to see pictures to even believe this happened in the first place. Pictures have been doctored to protect the participants of the tour – this *is* the internet after all.
With the Mistress of The Kastle
And now, every time you hear Rihanna’s song “S&M“, you can think of me (because of this blog post, gosh, don’t be pervy!).
Rihanna's S&M Video
[#12 of #52]
Earlier this week TripAdvisor announced their 2011 Traveler’s Choice Awards for the top destinations in the world.
In reviewing the Top 25 Destinations in the World, I think it’s a pretty good list! The number one spot went to Cape Town, South Africa, while Sydney came in second. I’m lucky enough to say that I’ve visited 4 of the 25 (Sydney, New York, Honolulu, and Las Vegas), but I’d definitely like to experience some of the others (Machu Picchu, Peru; Paris, France; Rio de Janerio, Brazil; Rome, Italy; etc.). Honestly, I should probably just say the whole list would be fabulous to cross off.
There’s also one for the Top 25 Destinations in the United States, which I’ve been to 12 of the 25. Of that list, my top choice to visit would be Anchorage, Alaska. As embarrassing as it is to say, after watching Sarah Palin’s Alaska on TLC, I’ve bumped the state higher in my list of places I’d like to go domestically. It had nothing to with her (let’s be clear) but the scenes shown were so breathtaking on TV, I can only imagine what they’d be like in person!
Of the cities that made the list, are there any you disagree with? What other cities would you include? And more importantly, which cities would you most like to visit?
[#11 of #52]
Dear William & Kate,
First off, let me begin by saying, best wishes to you in your new life together. Marriage is great, and I remember what it was like walking down the aisle to meet Josh two years ago, to join our lives as one. It’s an exciting time that I find to be intimate for both parties involved – unfortunately, that’s not the case for you.
I feel bad that the media is hounding people for details, trying to find out secrets for the day of. I find it ridiculous that people are making ridiculous crap with your likenesses on it (and that people are buying it). I find it hysterical the amount of people that feel like this is something that will impact their life, that message boards have been created and are dedicated to constant updates about your processional path, the dress, the food, etc. And seriously, people are commenting on your guest list? Who cares that you didn’t invite President Obama – I didn’t invite my parents’ random co-workers either. It seems as if it’s a crazy ass circus that you’re living in.
I suppose you’ve grown used to it over the years William, and Kate, you’ve gotten a taste of it since being with William. I imagine it’s only going to get worse over the years. Good luck with that. I don’t feel entirely too bad though, because, you know, you’re royalty, which comes with a lot of perks.
I hope you have a wonderful wedding (because I’d never wish a bad wedding day on anyone) but I won’t be watching any of the coverage. It’s far too early in the morning for me, and frankly, I really don’t care.
xoxo,
Me
OMG, they released a new photo today!
Dear TV Media,
Please tell me that there will be other options for television viewing on Friday morning. I don’t care to watch the wedding, I think people that are entirely obsessed with the whole thing are slightly scary.
Will I look at the pictures after the fact? Yes, because I love looking at wedding photos – no matter who got married.
Do I think just because a Prince is getting married I should give up valuable sleep or become overly excited about something that will not affect me whatsoever? No.
Signed,
The girl that’s ready for the Royal Wedding to be over with
[#10 of #52]
[If you missed Part 1, you can read it here.]
The crowd’s excitement was contagious! It was almost 6 am and the gate attendant was making their way to the line. While we were all spread out overnight, we quickly began eliminating any sort of personal space between the people in front of us – hoping that the closer we were to the front, the better our chances were for getting inside the studio lot.
A tidbit that we learned overnight was that as long as you were in line before the bus stop bench, people typically made it in for the show. We had a good 20 feet between where we were and the bench, so surely we’d be one of the lucky ones to get the entry pass.
As we inched closer and closer to the gate, I noticed there were still passes in the attendant’s hand. When we came face to face with her, she handed us our numbers (we were 100 and 101 of the 150 granted access) and told us to come back at 8 am. What? Two hours from now?!
We decided to move the car to a parking lot at The Grove down the road, put our blankets and what not up, and I opted to put on make-up (since I didn’t want to “sleep” in it over night) and freshened up. It was still cool outside, so I was glad that I’d brought a fleece sweater with me. I decided to keep it with me, and I’m glad that I did.
Mom and I walked to a restaurant across the street and grabbed a bite to eat, along with a warm beverage. I felt like a zombie from the lack of sleep, but was ecstatic that we’d made the first cut. We walked back to the studio at 8 am and stood in line talking with some people around us. We met a mother and her two college aged sons, who had been in Las Vegas and decided to drive over to see if they could attend a taping. The sons thought it was kind of a lame idea, but went along for the ride since their mom wanted to go. Once everyone returned, we were herded into a line similar to what you’d find at an amusement park.
The crowd emcee walked around to every single person and had us introduce ourselves to the crowd, “Hi, My name is Amy, and I live in Atlanta!” Ah, how exciting!!! We had to sign some paperwork ahead of time as well, and then we waited…and waited…and waited.
Next up they broke us into smaller groups of 15-20 people and had mini interviews with everyone to learn more about us. We were to appear excited and enthusiastic, as this was our shot to get into the producers mind as a possible contestant for The Price is Right (yeah, I thought it was completely random too – but it’s not). I thought I was excited, but boy were there some people that were completely over the top! I knew my chances were slim due to the number of contestants that actually get called on stage, but I gave it my best shot.
Around 11:00 am, we were ushered into the studio. It was really happening! I was going to see Bob Barker, live and in person!!!
Bob Barker (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Once inside, it was SO incredibly cold. The room was significantly smaller than I thought it would be and it was clear that some sort of magic was done during the television broadcast in looking at the different pieces of the set. It didn’t matter though – I was going to experience “television’s most exciting hour of fantastic prizes.”
The first contestant to make it to the stage got to play Plinko. I was a little sad, since that is by far my favorite game, but I kept up hope that I’d get called to Contestant’s Row. As the names were called, one of the people we met earlier in the day made it to the stage (one of the two guys there with their mom)!
And if you look closely, right around 1:05 on the video – you can see me and my mom standing up cheering for the guy!
There we are!
During the commercial breaks, Bob Barker would come out on stage and answer questions and talk to the crowd. Halfway through the episode, the crowd convinced him to speak a line from Happy Gilmore.
The crowd went wild! Hearing Bob Barker speak those words made me laugh, and in that moment I felt happy.
I didn’t make it to the stage, but the day was definitely worth it. I didn’t take home any prizes, but I still have my name tag, and I have this story. All in all, a great way to cross something off my life list.
My name tag for the day!
[#9 of #52]
