Sporadically Sandra

Joseph and I went to Florida for the weekend to visit some family. My cousin had graduated high school and my aunt and uncle were throwing him a party. My mother had used some of my father's hotel points to get us a Hotel room at the Comfort Suites in Tampa.
We arrived at the Comfort Suites around midnight on Friday night. Walking into the lobby, my first thought was, "Gee, our fore fathers puked up patriotism all over the place."


After checking in, I practically fell into bed already asleep without taking in any more of my environment… Girl was tired! The next morning I got up to take a shower and was startled by the ugliest sight I had ever seen: Me, under the worst fluorescent lights in the world. They managed to not only turn my ridiculously pale skin even more pale, but also slightly blue and green and every single blemish stood out in sharp detail. I don't even want to discuss what that awful light did to my wonderfully highlighted hair.

Ignoring the mirror as much as possible, I climbed in the shower to try and scrub off the ugly only to emerge and notice that the lights still sucked all the pretty off my face.

Not even applying make up appeared to help with the horrible lighting so I woke Joseph up as I turned on every light in the hotel and opened the curtains in the hopes to get enough normal light to use the mirror in the room. If I sat on the dresser and tilted my head just right, I got enough light to discover the pretty.

I returned to the bathroom to dry my hair, and not even fluorescent lighting could combat freshly applied makeup. I snickered at the tag for the hair dryer.


I know that this is a common warning but apparently today I'm easily amused. Keep away from water? Well, I can keep it away from pools of water but I'm afraid if I keep it away from water then I won't be able to actually dry the water out of my hair. I'll just use my tagless dryer that doesn't deter me from putting it near water.

There were two good things about that room though. The first: the full length mirror was made to make me look skinny. And second: a/c that I could crank up and not have to worry about paying for.

So, some highlights (and pictures) of the weekend:

Besides having dessert every night, eating at Cow Licks a few times, having fried cajun shark at Aunt Catfish's and eating at Bubba Gumps, we did actually have time to visit the beach.

As well as visit the beach, Joseph and I climbed the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. This lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in Florida. We climbed it just over a year ago and it was hard. I thought I would die, I wanted to drop dead from exhaustion *and* I was sore for days. This time around, I felt like I could have climbed it more than once, I had plenty of energy to walk around and explore the historical buildings and nature trail *and* I was barely even sore the next day. It is amazing how much I've changed physically to where climbing the tallest lighthouse in Florida was a peace of cake.


Joseph and I also jogged on the beach together. So much more fun then jogging on the streets of Georgia. I mean, I ran in the water, testing out the Vibrams. It was nice and breezy and beautiful. Besides that, my grand plans to work out while on vacation didn't quite come to frutition, but, I did exercise twice. I also did a lot of walking on the beach, crab hunting and sitting on the beach covered in sun screen.

Yesterday, Joseph and I woke up early enough to see the sun rise over the water before making a Krispy Kreme run (hot sign, what!). Then, later that day, he did something truly crazy.

"We have some free time, want to go buy yourself an iPhone?"
What kind of question is that? Why, yes, I do want an iPhone!

This morning, before leaving, I made sure to snap a picture of the sun rising. So, this was my last vision of the gorgeous beach:

Sadly, that is the only beach picture I have since taking my camera to the beach didn't seem like a great idea. But, I think my brother in law got some pics. So, I migth have to steal some of his pictures.

Now, I'm back home. Meals for the week planned, groceries bought. I'm about to throw a load in the wash as I avoid life going back to normal.

But, I got a ton of reading done, some additional writing. My whole mindset has been refreshed and in a whole new good place.

And, as sad as I was to leave, I'm a little happy to be home.

I thought you could only catch crabs at the Jersey shore... and I'm sure if you've seen the show, you can agree....

As I write this, I can hear waves as the roll onto shore, I can see pristine sand and blue ocean, and my skin is sticky from salty air and sand. Up until a few years ago, I didn't think I cared about the beach. Then, we got invited to a beach wedding and for the first time in a number of years, I visited the beach. This is my third time back since that wedding. I love the beach.

Joseph and I, along with his brother's family have ventured down to Daytona Beach for the week. (Saturday to next Sunday to be exact) My porcelain pale skin is already freckling up and trying to take on a pink hue, which is why I'm up in the condo, taking a break from the sun and the beach.

There is something instantly calming about coming to the beach. I'm not sure if it is just the vacation itself or if the endless blue ocean rolling in and out has something to do with it, but I do know, I could be perfectly happy "toes in the water, ass in the sand". Zac Brown may not be my favorite band, but they got that part right.

For the most part our vacation is totally unplanned, but there are a few things we must do while we are here. One day for lunch this week we will be eating at Aunt Catfish on the River with their great lemonade and awesome cinnamon rolls. A trip to Crabby Joes is necessary so we can eat a delicious meal on the pier while we watch the tide roll in. Then it is a short drive from the condo to the lighthouse to climb it. That will be fun. And, I know Joe really wants to visit the Daytona Beach pier, so if it is open (It was closed for rennovations last time), we will be going for a visit.

So at the beginning of March I made some goals. Let's review them, shall we?
Enjoy my Anniversary! - Easiest Goal ever. See previous Anniversary post to see how much fun we had on that!


Hike a Local Park - Never did this. Between injuring myself, rainy weekends and not having time, it never happened. *But* I did tour Turner Field, which I feel should almost count.

Continue with C25K - Back to the darn injury. That threw a 2 week wrench in my plan, on top of that the gym at work has been closed. I have been walking with coworkers and this past week was my first week back on running and considering th rain forcasted for this week, I probably won't get to run this week, much.

Move on to Level 2 of 30 Day Shred - Although I did this with semi regularity, let me remind you of the darn injury. Seriously, stupid hip! But I also bought Jillian's Yoga Dvd and switched the two out. Still on level 1 but not giving up.

Workout 16 out of 31 Days - Even with the hip injury I'm pretty freaking sure I completed this goal. I've learned to actually *enjoy* working out so I do make sure to do it at least 4 out of the 7 days of the week and most weeks at least 5 days.

Attend Church at Least 2 of the 4 Sundays in March - Done. We didn't go today and that makes me sad, but once we are back from the beach, Church is on the To Do List

Make the Bed Every Morning - This was such a failure, not even funny.

But, I have some goals for this week I want/need to accomplish:

30 Day Shred - I want to complete this on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for sure. Friday might be difficult since it will be super busy with depositing my dog at my mom's, packing up the car for the trip and getting my nails done, but if time permits, I'm pretty sure I can talk the sis in law into doing it with me.

Laundry - it certainly is one of those things that is never done. BUT, I need to get it under control. I need to make sure everything gets folded/hung in a timely manner and keep the dirty laundry to no more than 1 dirty load at a time.

Pack for my trip - The list of things I need to pack for this trip is ridiculously long. Since we are staying in a condo for the week, not only do I have clothes to pack, but both kitchen supplies and cooking ingredients. I'm also one of those people who simply cannot pack light. I have a packing list (considering how messy I can be, I'm very list oriented) and I just need to make sure to follow it and add stuff as it occurs to me.

Stay OP- Ever since my anniversary, I've had the hardest time not going over points. It doesn't help that I haven't done a lot of cooking, Joseph has. But, I've discovered that for me to be successful, I have to be involved in cooking. This week we are having Turkey Burgers, Scilian Rice Ball Casserole and Chicken Taco Chili. Super yummy foods that will make it easy to stay OP.

Joseph and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary this past weekend. We headed to Atlanta and stayed the night there.

If you know Joe, you know of his intense *love* for the Atlanta Braves. He will tell you there are only 2 seasons, Christmas season and Baseball season. We started off our Saturday by going on a tour of Turner Field.

 We had a room on the "VIP" floor. Which I think is really just code for "Make them feel special" But whatever! The bed was comfty and as you can see, we were in a blueberry room! It was a super cute room and super cute hotel.
 We exchanged gifts and Joe got me a cute owl apron that I have been bugging him about incessentantly.





Then we went back to the hotel and watched a couple movies.

The next morning, I came out of the shower to this:

I love my husband.

I had a great time celebrating my anniversary with him and I hope everyone enjoyed getting to see a few of the pictures!