Lately

Ever since the vacation, Scott and I have been going a million miles a minute!  Scott has been studying for the NAPLEX, which he’ll be taking in a few weeks, and I have been catching up at work and unpacking.  Every since I’ve known Scott, he has been a student.  Somehow throughout this entire time, I’ve never seen him study until now, which makes me think that this NAPLEX thing is a pretty be deal.  Apparently it’s a 300 question test of everything you learned in your 4-years of pharmacy school.  How crazy is that?  If someone tried to test me on everything I learned in my 4-year undergrad classes, I would have failed before the test even started!  So, a HUGE good luck to him- I’m already just so proud of everything he’s done!

In other news, my foot surgery will be this Wednesday!  It was originally pushed back for 2 weeks because the doctor got sick.  What kind of doctor gets sick?  Exactly.  I guess we all forget that doctors don’t walk on water and they too, are human and get sick.  I can’t wait to wear my fancy shoes again and for my mom to come visit!! 

The thought of not being able to work out for 2-3 weeks makes my head spin.  I cannot think of any one time in my life where I’ve gone over 3 or 4 days without workout.  The gym is my stress reliever.  Our Crossfit coach, Clint, said he could find some workouts I can do while sitting down-sounds like a Silver Sneaker workout-I’d rather not.  Speaking of CrossFit, my beloved coworker, Scott Hercules, did what people dream of…he quite his corporate job (OCC) and went with his passion.  He is now a CrossFit and Endurance Coach at CrossFit Inertia in Jacksonville, FL.  I know he absolutely loves his new life-training for triathlons, CrossFit competitions, and talking about food all day…I’m jealous.  Check him out (he even does online coaching! http://www.herculesendurance.com/ )

Lastly, sweet baby William has Pink Eye.  I’m not sure who’s to blame for this dirty infection---being around 100 kids at daycare, or his mother, Ann??  Since William is the most loved kid at school, I know no one would do this to him; therefore, his dirty mother is to blame.  Sickening.  First, she puts William in Jesus sandals and/or Crocs, and then she gives him a Lloyd Christmas hair cut, and now Pink Eye.  I’m pretty sure Child Protection Services will make Ann give William up until she cleans up her act.  Luckily, I’m his Godmother and I would be more than happy to take him-and never give him back.   

  

Vacation Part II

Barcelona- We started the trip off with a bang - 1 ½ days touring Barcelona and all its beautiful, unique architecture.  The city prides its self for its architecture with no building being a square.  During this whole trip, experiencing buildings built in the 16th century with the details that only a brain surgeon could do, really makes you think about how young and square the city you live in is.

One of Gaudi's famous buildings

Sagrada Famili

1992 Olympic Stadium

Nice, France- What is the likely hood that the annual F1 race will be happening on the day we go to Monte Carlo? About 1 out of 365 chance.  Once in France, we hopped onto the train and headed to the playground of the wealthy.  We got to be around the F1 race, listen to their jet-like engines race through the city’s streets, and we got to the last gate of security to see The Casino de Monte-Carlo, where James Bond was filmed.  Beautiful cars lined the streets of townhomes with the perfect view of the water and even prettier people walked the streets.  Most people that came to the F1 race came by water in their fancy yachts with a helicopter pad.  It was a beautiful town and I enjoyed walking the winding roads with the most perfect views.

Monte Carlo

The Casino and stadium seating for the race

Us at some Fort in Nice

Florence, Italy- Here we experienced our first Excursion hosed by Celebrity.  The port was about a 90 minute bus ride into Florence, so almost everyone on the ship contracted Celebrity for the bus ride.  So, as most of you know, there are tons of “more mature” people on cruises (to be politically correct, lets call them Q-tips, since all their heads are white).  Ok, so these Q-tips, walk around the ship like its their nursing home-but let me tell you-the second they hear “please line up for the bus” you would mistake them for a marathon runner.  It was quite unreal to witness and was even quite comforting to think that one day, I’ll get to do the same.  Beside from the Q-tips running us over, Florence was beautiful. We climbed up over 540 stair steps to get to the top of a chrurch’s bell town.  The view was amazing, but what was even more amazing, was watching Scott try to fit through the tiny openings in the stairwell.  Scott studied in Italy during a summer in college and had already been to Florence, Rome, Naples, and Venice-so he was my personal tour guide, taking me to all the local hang outs and the best gelato shops. 

The Duomo

the view after 540 steps

sculpture of Scott's back

Rome, Italy- We took another Excursion with Celebrity- so we could cut all the lines! This was the longest day of the trip!  We went to the Colosseum, ate a 3 course Italian lunch, went into the Vatican and toured the church and Sistine Chapel. Pretty much everything in Rome blew me away.  Our tour guide was excellent and taught us all about the history.  However, this day was a special day in the Vatican-part of the square was blocked and they were getting ready for some big event with the Pope. Therefore, the place seemed even more packed than normal.  However, I think what blew my mind almost as much as all the art work, were the massive groups of Chinese tour groups that are about 50 deep.  They all follow a tour guide holding a pole and will completely run you over to get to the tour guide-that is unless their umbrella doesn’t knocks you out first. Overall, Rome was one of my favorite stops- I just wish we had more time to visit.

The Colosseum

Beautiful ceiling in The Vatican

The Alter in St. Peters Basilica

Naples, Italy- Ok so when someone says they are going to Naples, what do you think? Rolling hills filled with vineyards and olive trees, big homes with orange tile roofs…wrong.  I should clear the air.  Naples is the dirtiest city I’ve ever been too- dirtier than New York after New Years Eve.  The image that most people think of is more of the outside towns of Naples- the Amalfi Coast.  Our plan was to head over to Capri on a water taxi to soak up the sun on the picturesque beaches and then purchase my birthday present from Scott- a pair of bespoke sandals.  Unfortunately, the water taxi drivers were on strike because of the price of oil- what a let down.  So we walked the street of Naples, ended up in the ‘wrong part of town’.... whoops, so we high tailed it back to port and called it an early day.  But everything ended perfect because once we got back to our stateroom, we had rose petals, champagne, and chocolate strawberrys waiting for us- thanks Tiffany (oh and breakfast in bed the next morning)!! To top it off, I even won the minute slot game in the casino!

One of the few pics we took in Naples

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Thanks Tiffany (and Scott for the pose)!

Just enough money to pay for drinks that night

Montenegro- On our boat ride into the port I saw this very long road that went all the way to the top of a big hill that over looked the bay.  I told Scott, we were going to hike it.  He thought I was crazy.  After walking around aimlessly we finally foundthe beginning of the road- which is actually an old trail made by monks to get to the top of the hill where a church was.  We were told that it will take 45 minutes to get to the top.  Of course, Scott saw this as a challenge.  So we booked it up the hundreds of stairs to the top in 25 minutes-he thinks this is good training for The Amazing Race (if we ever get on it!)  The view was well worth the hike!  After, we walked around the old town and went back on the boat and chilled at the pool/pool bar.

view from the room

view after the hike

future Amazing Race winners

Venice, Italy- This stop was by far on the my favorite places! Venice is amazing! We took a water taxi to Murano to check out the glass blowing.  Once in Murano we quickly got escorted to a private gallery to check out all the one-of-a-kind pieces.  Since I wasn’t able to get the sandals in Capri, Scott and I purchased a gorgeous glass piece which will be shipped to us soon!  We even got the artist to sign our names on it! After that, we took a gondola ride around the town and headed back to the boat for dinner. Our boat actually stayed docked in Venice for another day, so we headed out the next morning to walk the bridges and do some shopping.  We had breakfast at a little restaurant that overlook Ponte Di Rialto, the oldest and most famous Venetian bridge.

view from the bridge



St. Marks Basilica
  

our 1st Murano piece

Gondola ride

Breakfast of a champ

 Croatia- Another beauty.  We took a ride up to the top of a mountain that over looked the Old City and its great wall.  Scott is a huge fan of the show The Missing, parts of the show were filmed on the great wall- so that was pretty cool.  We also walked around the Old City and found the oldest pharmacy in Europe, and the 3rd oldest in the world.  I tried to get a picture of the inside, but a Chinese tour group was in the way.  Scott loves the Italian coffee so we enjoyed coffee and a croissant in the Old City.

The Old City and its walls

The old pharamacy (note Chinese tour group)

Everything about the trip was amazing...until the end.  A HUGE thank you to everyone that made it so memorable-- The Neidhardt Family for booking the vacay (Cruises-n-more.com), Uncle Mike & Aunt Pat for the special dinner, Tiffany for the special treat, Mrs. Carol for watching Nellie, Momma Sita for taking care of the house and Gigi, our dinner friends- the canadians (who, we just found out is famous  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3RE34Mog7M) and the many Chinese tour groups for blocking most of our pictures.

sailing back to Barcelona

We're Alive!!

After 6 countries, 15 days, 7 hr time change, and many memories later, we made it back to Alabama.  To say our trip was amazing and to try to write down all the crazy stuff we did, just wouldn’t give it justice.  I’ve decided to make this vacay a 2 part blog post.  The 1st part will be about the boat and the people we met, and then 2nd will be each port we went to and what we did. 

This post is going to be a bit long- I have a reading comprehension limit of 20 minutes so I am particularly sorry for this long post.  Along with all 150 lbs of luggage, we headed off to Barcelona and then on to the cruise boat, Celebrity Solstice, for a 12 day cruise.

The boat was great!  It has all your regular cruise boat stuff, 3 pools, plenty of hot tubs, spa, gym, beautiful foyer, huge dining room, entertainment…ect. The Solstice also has a real grass putting green, another large grass area to play other games, along with a glass blowing studio.  How nifty is that? 

Good lookin' guy enjoying our balcony

Besides from stuffing our face 24 hrs a day, we also enjoyed the A Capella group, The Neptunes.  We didn’t miss a show (I might have dragged Scott to all of them)!  It’s a group of 4 guys about our age from Oregon who performs about twice a day.  Not only were they good at singing, but their body language and synchronized arm movements were hilarious!  On my Birthday, Scott got them to dedicate a song to me, My Girl.  How cute!

The Neptunes

We lucked out and ate dinner next to two very fun tables.  On one side, we had a table of 4 Norwegians.  I made friends with them and soon figured out we might be related.  They were your typical Norwegians- ordered fish most nights, had light color hair with blue eyes, and a slight tint of red in their cheeks.  They all could have been twins with my grandmother.

On the other side of us, we had the Canadians!  It was a table of 4 made up of Alex and Jill (his wife), Jill’s mother, and her aunt, Bonny.  We had a blast getting to know them.  Alex was a news broadcaster (when he had hair), then he went bald and is now on radio.  He is hilarious!  And Jill works at a university with the college of engineering.  They taught us all about Canada, Jill’s talent for funneling beer, and their dislike for Air Canada.  Jill’s mother is precious and we wouldn’t mind if she adopted us as her grandkids.  And Bonny is only ½ Canadian because she moved to California - she is a hoot!  Its going to be a bit sad sitting down to dinner tonight and not having them to talk to and hearing their funny stories.

The Canadians

Scott and I also participated in tons of activities on the boat.  In true Farris fashion, Scott and I won 3 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze Celebrity metals doing random sporting events on the boat.  We also participated in the Newly-Wed game.  Technically,we won, but one of the Jersey Shore couples we were up against got 3 questions in a row correct and we only got 2.  Whatever-we still won.  The questions were quite hilarious and I’m glad I didn’t know anyone on the ship!! Hahaha.

We also got to know a few members of the crew.  At night we hung out with some of the singers and dancers-which was tons of fun.  Nester, our favorite bartender, poured a mean rum drink that could knock a dead man awake.  And our waiter, Shubert, and hisassistant, Olhxandar were great.  Olhxandar dreams of coming to America – actually, I was surprised how many people dreamed of coming to America.  Whether it’s to see New York City or get a job, many workers on the ship said that the opportunities in America are like none other.  Really made me feel proud and humbled to be an American-despite our economy.

We also learned a few things on the vacation:
Scott over packs.
People in Europe smell.  [probably because they don’t use AC]
Somehow, we ate 2 bread baskets for dinner every night.  Slightly embarrassing.
Do not get in the way of a Chinese tour group.
Food in Barcelona is nasty.
The most interesting man in the world lives in England and is named Doug.
Most people speak English- that you may or may not understand with their accent.
We didn’t really see anyone related to Jersey Shore in Italy.  Which was quite a disappointment and I now think the Jersey Shore people are Spaniards.


Overall, the vacation was unforgettable.  Between the people we met, enjoying the boat, deadly rum drinks, meeting people from all over the world (even if they were smelly), and each others company, we had the time of our life.

My Birthday Cake

Happy Day!

There are so many exciting things happening soon, that I’m not sure where to start!  First, a HUGE congratulations to my smarty pants husband on his graduation!! Now I can officially say I’m married to a doctor (well, kinda). I’ve successfully disguise a vacation as his graduation gift and a 2^nd honeymoon!  Pretty creative, right? That means today is my last day of work for 3 weeks!! 

I’ve decided that every vacation will be a numbered honeymoon.  This way I won’t feel guilty taking the time off work and spending the little bit of extra money to make it special.  Our 3^rd honeymoon is already planned as a Christmas cruise, and the 4^th will be going to Hawaii.  Maybe when we tell the check-in desk that we are ‘honeymooners’ we’ll get upgraded?  Not sure if it’ll work…but totally worth a try!

In other exciting news, I just discovered a new Pandora Station called Rap Strength Training.  I jammed to it all day in the office.  My coworkers are just finding out my secret love for dirty rap music.  I can’t hide my true thug colors anymore.

Not sure if this is exciting news, but my entire body is hurts.  I didn’t even know you could be sore in some parts.  I guess the good part is at least I can feel that the workouts I’m doing are making a difference.

The last exciting news is that I have a new follower, LARA, my dearest friend that lives in NYC.  She eats veggies using a juicing machine, rowed for U of Alabama, is cooler than all of us, and is my shortest friend.   As most of you know, I have minimum height requirement.  I get uncomfortable around anyone shorter than 5 feet- if shorter, you must wear heals.  Don’t get upset short people, its not you, its me- its my own insecurity.  So a big shout out to Lara- I miss you and can’t wait to see you at a football game!!

This will be my last post until I come back from the vacation-not that any of y’all will even notice other than Beth.  And the only reason Beth notices is because she is my only real blogger friend.  Her blog is totally legit-even has a fancy background and she posts pinterest pictures.  Can’t wait to post pictures of our trip- lets hope I don’t break Ann’s fancy camera!!!

Taking Things for Granted

There are many things in life people take for granted- Your health, family members, sunny days,….here is my short list of the things I’ve taken for granted lately.

(1) Hilton Hotels. Last week I brought Nellie on the road with me, so I had to stay at a ‘pet friendly’ hotel. As most people know, ’pet friendly’ hotels are either dumps or 5 star hotel. Last week, it was beyond a dump. Luckily this week, I have the privilege to stay at a Hilton hotel. The smell of clean sheets, vacuumed floors, a toilet that flushes, and cookies at check-in reminded me how thankful I am to be a Hilton diamond member. I will never again complain about any hotel-as I highly doubt I’ll ever find a hotel worst than last week.

(2)Stilettos- Not to brag, but I have a pretty extensive shoe collection consisting primarily of stilettos. For the past 3 months, I have been wearing either a big black boot, tennis shoes, or heinous flats. Whoever invented flats must have been severely disoriented. They serve no purpose- The only people that wear flats are either (a) freakishly tall (b) too uncoordinated to wear heals or (3) have a broken foot. Any other reason to wear flats is unacceptable. I guess I’ve always taken for granted a non-broken foot. I look forward to the day where I can put on normal shoes, walk around making the perfect click-clank, and throw away the 2 pairs of flats I own.

(3) My mother- I don’t get to see my mom very often- she is usually jet setting around the country either golfing in exotic location, attending a Board meeting, or attempting to locate my father. With that said, I miss the days of seeing her everyday, eating her boring dinners, and getting a play-by-play of her golf game. While I probably only listened to about 20% of what she said, I took for granted her optimistic, carefree personality constantly around.

(4) A clean house. I love cleaning; the smell of Clorox, the noise of the vacuum cleaner, and folding laundry makes me happy. My house hasn’t been the same since Scott and Nellie moved in. First, Scott is your basic Ogre who either breaks or spills something on a daily basis. And Nellie is your basic Ogre’s sidekick, who sheds and love to chew up anything that will fit in her mouth. I took for granted my perfectly organized home and I look forward to the day when the Ogre and his sidekick have a man cave to disappear in.

I hope my 5 followers can learn from my mistakes- learn to not take the simple things in life for granted. You never know when the things you expect are no longer available.

Tampa Trip

I have been dying to tell all 5 of my followers about our wonderful trip to Tampa last week!  After our flight got in, we planned to meet up with Lord Ankit and a few other coworkers and have dinner; unfortunately, the plans were cancelled because poor William had to make a trip to the ER.  He fell off the playground and busted his lip open and needed stitches to close it back up.  William is a pretty smart kid, he can say his ABCs and count to 10 in English and Spanish.  A kid this smart doesn’t just fall off the playground.  My theory is that some punk bully kid pushed him off-maybe he is jealous of William’s look-a-like hair cut to Lloyd Christmas, maybe William get all the girls, or maybe he wants William’s cheep Target shoes…naaa that’s impossible.  Either way, William busted his lip-the cutest busted lip I’ve ever seen.





Same hair cut- differnt color.



Here is William with his Michael Jackson arm band. 



Last weekend we also went to a Derby Party Luncheon with mom and dad after a golf game, hung out with Ann & John, played some video game where you’re the controller, and experienced out first water main break.  It was a pretty chill weekend, but it was nice to see the family.



This week I’m working in the lovely town of Greenville, AL and I brought Nellie for entertainment.  Brining a dog on the road is not an easy thing, especially when you’re dog is 65 pounds of black fur, love, and way too much energy.  This town has no gym and no park.  Is that even possible?  Yes, its possible…the only gym is a beat up old YMCA which is not acceptable (think nasty dirty) and the park is an RV park.  I decided to test my luck with a run at the RV park.  My luck ran out- the park closes at 5:30-so the ranger guy had to hunt me down in a golf cart to tell me I had to move my car.  So, I moved the car and kept running…only to realize that there is less than 1 mile of road and the bug are eating me alive. I decided to cut my losses and buy bug spray for tomorrow.  Thankfully, my awesome coworker, Hercules, emailed me workouts I can do without a gym.  So a big shout out to him-THANKS!! You can check him out at http://www.herculesendurance.com/ 

This weekend will be full of packing, shopping, and planning! Oh, and Scott will be competing in the Iron Tribe Tribal Wars!! He got asked to be part of this really good team-I’m not on a team, no one wanted me- but next year my goal is to compete and Rx the workout!!

What I'm Loving on Wednesday

(1)   My hubby’s new hair cut!  Last night he asked me to buzz his head, which I’ve only done one other time.  So we go outside and set to Jane’s Salon and I start buzzing away with clipper #2.  Quickly, Scott asked what buzzer I’m using, and informed me that we normally use clipper #5, which gives a much longer cut.  Whoops.  Good thing hair grows back (in most cases at least)!

(2)   My shins.  Today at IronTribe, we did max weight for overhead squats.  On one of the last rounds, I failed and dropped the weight, only to realize I didn’t drop it correctly and the 95lb bar landed straight on my shins and scraped them all the way down.  Whoop (again).  Of course, I pretended to be a badass and that it didn’t hurt.

(3)   Turtles.  On my way to work, I pass an apartment complex that has a pond out front.  One of the turtles from the pond attempted to cross the road; unfortunately, I didn’t see it and ran over it with both tires.  I felt so bad, especially when I looked in my rearview mirror and saw turtle guts everywhere.

(4)   Tampa!  Scott and I leave on Thursday for our favorite mini-vacation location, Tampa!  We will be celebrating Mother’s Day, going to a Rays game, giving William his gifts (which includes Pez dispenser, 500 water balloons, and this stuff that turns bath water into gew), cookout with friends, Derby party, and of course shopping!

(5)   My job!  I can’t really say I’m ‘loving’ my job- but I guess it’s more of ‘liking’ my job.  Why?  Because it allows me to take leave for wedding/honeymoon (3 weeks), another 3-week vacation coming up, work from home for 2 weeks during my foot surgery, another week vacation for Susan’s wedding, and another long vacation for Christmas and thanksgiving all in 2012.  That’s pretty ballar.  And I’ll still have 200 hours of annual leave after all these long vacations!  I believe that is a pretty good reason to be liking my job!