Things I'm loving right now

So I'm like in love with two new things right now.


1) Pinterest- OMG. I've been in love with this site since I got an invite. It's like an online pin board. You can save photo's of anything found online to different boards. I have ones for home, clothes, places, Daniel and even Lottie. It's amazing because sometime I'll see something I like and when I go to look for it again I can't remember what website I saw it on. Now can just pin it. I have a pin it icon on my toolbar, so I just click it, name it, and post it to the corresponding board.   Simple!!! Plus there is a whole community on Pinterest. I can see these amazing crafts that other people have made. And then there is the recipes section. There is a never ending supply of recipes. It's great for entertaining. I've already made a couple of them. All in all there are 31 different categories for boards. Best of all you can follow your friends.

2) Pollo Tropical- We have this place here that has some of the best yummy food. They are local FL restaurants with a couple out of state. They have this cilantro garlic sauce which is divine. We stopped in today to try it out. We went through the drive through and it's a good idea to either grab a menu prior to getting to the drive through or checking it out online. There is a lot of different combination's and we sounded like a pair of noobs at the window. The food was quick and oh so tasty.

Trains vs. Planes

So I'm one of these weirdo people that like to plan trips. Not take the trips but just plan trips. At any given time I have about 4 of these mental trips going in my head. I read somewhere that planning a trip is just as rewarding as taking the trips. Any who I said all that to say this.....The rail system in America STINKS. Amtrak is failing and we don't have high speed rail her in the states. They say that is because there isn't any demand for rail. I think I know why.

When I was kicking around the idea of going to Chicago, Daniel tossed out the idea of taking the train up there. We took a local sightseeing train on our honeymoon and LOVED it so we've always wanted to take a trip via rail. So I went to the Amtrak website and plugged in the information for our fake trip. We picked March of 2012 and said we wanted to leave March 4th and return March 9th. Then I was hit with the tragic truth. To take the trip to Chicago is would cost $579 and take us 40 hours EACH WAY to get there. Whaaaaa?!?!?!? It would involve switching trains with one layover of 8 hours in DC. Just to give you an idea of how crazy that is I went to Priceline and punched in the same dates and we could fly there in less then 4 hours and it would only cost us $56 more. Hmmmm I wonder which one we would pick? Give up 80 hours and save $56 or spend $56 and save 72 hours of my life. Which one....which one?

I like traveling by train. That trip on our honeymoon was amazing and relaxing. No TSA to worry about. No weighting suitcases. No being cramped up with the seat in front of you invading your personal space. I would LOVE to say goodbye to the unfriendly skies but we don't have any other alternative.  

Oh well I'm off to plan my mental trip to Bora Bora.

Knocking them out left and right.....

1. Be a mother
2. Go to Naples Italy
   
3. Skydive
4. Take a road trip to CA
5. Stay at Disney's Wilderness Lodge
6. Learn to play the piano
7. Learn Italian
8. Bake a cake from scratch
9. Go to Vegas (Planning a trip next year)
10. See Beatles Love (Planning to see it on the above trip)
11. Attend a taping of the Martha Steward Show.
12. Go to a Sun's game
13. Do a mission's trip.
14. Learn to fly a plane
15. Knit a scarf
16. Learn First Aid and CPR(again)
17. Take Daniel to DC
18. Take a cruise (Done)
    
19. Take a trip on a train
20. Dress up for a costume party
21. See the cherry blossoms in Japan
22. Sleep in a hammock
23. Go camping
24. Go snorkeling
25. Sit on a jury
26. Own a Louis Vuitton
27. Kiss the Blarney Stone
28. Take ballroom dancing lessons
29. Do fire walking
30. See the Northern Lights
31. See the Fjords of Norway
32. Go to the Pike Place Market in Seattle
33. Read the Bible cover to cover
34. Learn to let go of anger
35. Unplug the TV for a month
36. Dye my hair red
37. Take a vacation without a camera
38. Buy something nauseatingly extravagant
39. Go to a film premiere
40. Travel to Ireland
41. Renew my vows with Daniel on a beach just the two of us
42. Do a Polar Plunge
43. Visit the White House
44. Visit Buckingham Palace
45. Have a reason to wear a ball gown
46. Own a really good camera
47. Ride in a Limo (Might do the Limo xfer from airport on the LV trip)
48. Ride the London Eye
49. Watch the sunrise at a beach
50. Watch the sunset at a beach
51. Achieve my ideal weight
52. Play a round of Golf
53. Take a social etiquette class
54. Fly First Class
55. Learn sign language
56. Take a trip with my Mom
57. Take a carriage ride in Central Park
58. Watch all 6 Star Wars movies back-to-back
59. Try and "In & Out" burger (Done while in California)
60. Log 100 hours on the Wii Fit
61. Use a metal detector at the beach
62. Spend the day at a spa
63. Go canoeing
64. See Phantom of the Opera on Broadway
65. Drive a wickedly cool car
66. Take my parents to dinner (Done on 4/26)
67. Play Poker at The Orange Park Poker Room
68. Wear a bikini in public
69. See the Taj Mahal
70. Receive flowers for no reason
71. Toured the UN
72. Rent the Hermes Vintage Crocodile Kelly Handbag
73. Attend at least one major sporting event: the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the U.S. Open.
    
74. Go back to college and graduate
75. Meet my half-brother
76. Live in New Orleans
77. Be on Jeopardy
78. Have over 1,000 entries on my blog
79. Forgive
80. Be admired by at least someone other than Daniel
81. Paint more
82. Sell one of my paintings
83. Meet either of the two remaining Beatles
84. Stop drinking soda
85. Go on a full-blown Shopping Spree at a Mall
86. Finish my year in photo's
87. Raise my children as my mother did me.
88. Buy a "little black dress"
89. Have a beach bonfire
90. Score a YouTube hit
91. Touch a pyramid in Egypt
92. Go fishing on a boat
    
93. Go completely organic
    
94. Finish reading Devil Wears Prada (Done)
95. Be in a movie
96. Rent a house at the beach
97. Own a copy of Dance in the City and Dance in the Country by Renoir
98. Buy two more pairs of Tom's shoes
99. Learn proper posture
100. Own an expensive piece of jewelry
101. Never make a list like this again. 101 things? Man it's harder then it looks.

Fashion & me

I'm far from a fashion plate. I've never been someone who spends a lot of money trying to look fashionable. As a plus size woman there isn't  much to choose from. I can't run into Target and grab something cheap and fabulous. In the plus sized fashion world you have two basic choices cheap, shapeless, colorless ugly grandma wear or expensive semi decent last year designs. I could go and be the avantguard plus sized girl where I don't seem like I care about fashion or that I'm plus sized. The problem is that I feel my sense of style is lady like glam (think Charlotte from Sex in the City).

Right now I'm watching The September Issue on Netflix. Trying to gleam nuggets of style from watching the people at Vogue. It's funny because I've never even opened a copy of the magazine. Manly because I don't live in that world. In the high fashion realm I don't exist. I'm a woman of color who's plus sized. I might as well not even try. LOL.

I wrote all that to say I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to wear to San Fran. I want to look good. I want to seem like I'm a first class traveler. So far I've got a white shirt with a light blue paisley scarf with black ballerina slippers. What I'm trying to decide now is do I travel in jeans or these gray slacks that I have that are really comfy?  I'm also aware that it's gonna be chilly both on the plane and in San Fran. I have a heavy light gray sweater that I'm thinking about wearing. Once I land I'm trying to figure out what to wear. I don't know why I'm trying to look more glam while traveling to see people I'll never see again. But I donno. Maybe I want to use this trip to break my mold.

I guess I'll just have to see. And hope for the best.

We're going to California

By some amazing miracle Daniel and I are going to California. We'll be flying to San Fransisco for a week. This is one of the most exciting things that has happened to me. We're both very happy for so many reasons.

This will be the farthest we've traveled from home together, the first plane trip for Daniel, the first time we've been to the west coast. I'm so excited since this will be the first big city that we've visited. I'm so excited I grabbed the suitcases out and started my packing list even though we have plenty of time to do it. Yay!!!!!