Away I Go to an Island Fair that Lies in a Southern Sea

***Kudos to anyone who gets the title reference!***

Saturday morning, bright and early, I'm getting in my little Saturn, complete with bike rack and bike, and heading to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. I've been looking forward to this vacation...oh....since February, I think. A whole week at the beach with nothing pressing to do...divine. Well, I do have to keep up with tri-training, hence the bike on my Saturn...but Hilton Head has so many lovely bike paths that I think that won't be too taxing.

My family has been going to Hilton Head for as long as I can remember. Until I left for college, it was an annual event in June. I have so many fun memories...for me, going to "the beach" always meant Hilton Head. I spent countless hours on the beach, in the ocean, and particularly looking for shells. Most of my beach trips contained quintessential childhood beach memories...here are just a few of my favorites:

• Shelling
• Crabbing
• Watching the shrimp boats come by as we were swimming
• Peering into tidal pools to see the creatures (I had a stage where I desperately wanted to be a marine biologist)
• Watching schools of porpoises come by as we were swimming
• Floating and riding the waves on a canvas raft
• Biking (gonna definitely re-live this one this year...but to the tune of 20 miles at a time!)
• The joy of taking a shower after a long day on the beach
• Eating seafood out (we didn't eat out much when I was growing up, so it was always a special treat!)
• Spending time with my family
• Shopping!
• Playing hide and go seek in the house (I can still remember the time my Dad took the mattress out of the sleeper sofa and hid one of my friends in the sofa!)
• Sitting on the screened in porch for hours...reading, watching people, and playing Crazy 8s with my Grandma
• Feeding the turtles in the lagoon off the porch
• Running away from the alligator in the lagoon!
• Eating ham and turkey sandwiches for lunch (inside family joke)
• Having a TV in my bedroom! (I never, never had this growing up...probably would have never passed any class!)
• Afternoon naps to escape the heat of the day
• Kayaking at Shelter Cove

And many more. Decided I had to end the list, though! In any case, I will be doing some of these things while I'm at Hilton Head, and I can't wait! See you in a week or so!

A Series of Open Letters

Dear Starbucks Triple Grande Iced Latte,

I definitely thought you would taste the same with nonfat milk instead of 2%. But you don't. You are more like watery coffee. Next time, I will not try to save the 40 calories and 5g of fat and just order you the way you are.

Signed,

Addicted to Caffeine

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Dear A/C in my car,

Why oh why did you have to spring a leak over the winter? Two leaks, in fact? Fixing you (and the tensioner belt that made you whine so noisily) cost all of the cash I had put aside for the MacBook I am seriously coveting. It was a hard decision to have you fixed...but one day of sweating through my shirt on the way home from work convinced me. You know that I don't like to spend on credit or my "regular" savings, so it looks like I'll have to wait until the Fall to actually have a home computer that can open iTunes in less than 5 minutes. Thanks.

Signed,
No Longer Sweating During My Commute

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Dear Gilbert and Sullivan Theater Co I sang with last summer,

Do you really have to be located in Baltimore? If you were somewhere closer to me...say Odenton, or even ya know....Bowie....I totally would have come back this summer. Well, that and if I could skip the auditions...seeing as how I depise auditions! I'm a lowly choral singer...singing by myself makes me want to cry! Oh well, I will miss you this summer...but my waistline and Triathlon finish time will be much happier!

Signed,
A former Chorus member

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Dear MacBook,

I promise I am doing everything I can to acquire you. But do you have to be soooo ridiculously expensive? If you were say....$500 cheaper I could definitely acquire you now. But you aren't, so I'll have to wait until the Fall. In the meantime, I'll be the one drooling on the window of the Apple Store as I covet you...

Signed,
Your future owner

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Dear Couple making out in Lane 1 (the widest lane) of the Swim Center,

Ewwww. Just ewwwww. Don't you see the folks around you completely grossed out by your PDA? And seriously, other people are waiting for a lane to swim. If you want to make out, you should probably head to the shallow end with the kiddies. And young man, I'm sure you think you get a better swim workout with your girlfriend hanging onto your neck as you doggie paddle down the lane, but we'd all be better off if you just swam on your own.

Signed,
The swimmer in lane 3 who was shooting you dirty looks

P.S. Could you also please tell your girlfriend that strolling around naked in the locker room is a bit off-putting as well?

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Dear Bike,

Oh how I love you! I mean, I definitely enjoyed my time with you last summer, but this year I've really noticed how nice a ride you have. Even after 20 miles, you glide effortlessly down the road. You are worth every penny I paid for you!

Love,
Your smitten rider

Classic Annapolis Days...

Last Friday I went to the Naval Academy graduation to watch our midshipwoman, Maile, graduate. I got to hear a great speech by the President, and watch all of the midshipmen shake his hand. I also ended up with a big ole sunburn...

The rest of the day involved some parties for Maile, and watching the sunset over Annapolis at the Eastport Yacht Club while drinking Dark N Stormys. And watching the sailboat beer can races. What a horrible day...:)

The rest of the weekend was spent with J...on a bike ride, at a party, at Turandot, and in Virginia wine country. I have to say that it was quite a great Memorial Day weekend!

This weekend, I get to catch up on life...

Lovely Evening on the 'Ridge

Earlier today I decided I would try to get a 5 mile run in this evening. Since it was nice outside, I thought I'd run a 5 mile loop down to the Bay and back. Also since it was a pretty night, I thought I'd bring my camera along. Once I got down there, it was so gorgeous that I decided to run the whole loop which is about 7 miles total. Once I got to the Severn, I saw the boats out for Wednesday night races. I loved watching the boats sail in front of the Bay Bridge. Here are a couple of my favorite shots (I wish I had a camera with better zoom!)

View down Bay Dr towards the Bay Bridge

Bay Bridge with racing boats in front

Looking up the Severn towards Annapolis (Naval Academy Chapel Dome in the distance)

Larger boats in front of the Bridge

The house that overlooks all of this gorgeousness that I will never own...

Playing Catch Up

Wow! Another long blog-post hiatus. It's like I fell into the black hole of blogging again. I feel like half of my posts recently start off with an apology for not blogging more often...but no matter. What follows is a bulleted list of what I've been up to...

• Most notably, on Mother's Day, I went to the Orioles/Yankee's game at Camden Yards. A friend gave us the tickets, and we were 3 rows behind the Yankee dugout. So I got to peer at A-Rod, Derek Jeter, and Johnny Damon very close up. Nice. It was a perfect day weather-wise, and was a really fun game as well. There are pictures out there somewhere...check Facebook for my roommate's pics.
• I also traveled up to Pennsylvania that weekend with a few friends for a voice lesson. A few friends and I have had a couple of lessons with my friend Sharon's teacher, Jean. Jean is a wonderful soprano and teacher...I'm sure she keeps wondering why we actually think we can sing and even sing in a chorus. I learn so much during a lesson, but it definitely brings me down many, many notches when it comes to what I think of my musical abilities!
• Last weekend, we had a little party for our graduating midshipman, Maile. She is headed off to flight school this summer. I'm very proud of her! We'll be going to the Naval Academy commissioning ceremony (graduation) this Friday. President Obama is speaking, so I'm looking forward to that.
• Triathlon training is in full swing, so I've been hitting the bike, the pool, and the road. I feel like I'm starting a bit early this year, but I also need to whip myself back into shape!
• Last weekend, I went to my friend Alicia's one-woman cabaret show. It was fabulous! She sang some funny songs with narration about dating, love, etc. If it was a recurring thing, I would recommend that you all come to one!

I think that's it for now...hopefully I'll keep being better at blogging in the next few weeks!

Day of Self-Discipline Success!

I think I accomplished everything on my To Do list that I didn't want to do...including running in the rain. I got soaked, but it felt good to get out and run and not be lazy! My bike is fixed...only took them 5 minutes to put a new valve on the tire and tighten up the chain. All that procrastinating for nothing...

I forgot to mention that another one of my "self-discipline" projects was to not immediately buy the Macbook that I want...but to wait until I have the money saved. My normal non-disciplined self would want to take the money out of savings or stick it on the credit card to pay it off in a month or so...but I've decided to be patient and wait a month or two until I have the cash on hand. This will be an ongoing self-discipline project...

Day of Self-Discpline

I've been a really lazy person lately. Although, most of it is probably due to the fact that I've been a little busy, and the rain probably hasn't helped me be productive...but still. I have been the Queen of Procrastination and laziness, and it's got to stop. So, I have declared today my "Day of Self-Discpline" where I will do all of the things I don't want to do. And what are those things, you might ask? Well, here you go:

• Take my bike to get the valve and chain fixed. This one sounds easy, but for some reason I have this huge mental block against going up to the Bike shop, walking in with my bike, and telling them I need it fixed. Strange mental block, I know. That's just me...I used to make one of my roommates call to make a hair appointment for me. I just have a hard time asking people to provide services for me...even if I am paying them!
• Drop off my dry cleaning (the reason?...see above).
• Run. I haven't done this just because I'm lazy
• Get up on time (I managed to accomplish this somehow)
• Not eat Crack-Fil-A for lunch (I accomplished this as well...had leftovers from the fridge)
• Fold my clothes...I hate doing this. Love clean laundry but hate folding and putting it away.
• I would add clean my car...but it's still raining so that would be a bad idea.
• Update the blog...done! Just need to get the running blog updated, as well.

Alrighty...enough procrastinating...self-discipline here I come!