Escaping from life with Manic Mommies

New Orleans view from our room

After a lot of hemming, hawing and a little incentive from Chevy, i along with several people i know went to new Orleans for the Manic Mommies escape. It was an adventure. I've wanted to go to New Orleans for a while now and it did not disappoint. It was an experience, the city is just different.

After lots of tweets, texts and a few video chats with Tiffany and the aforementioned incentive where Chevy decided to give us a Traverse to drive there and back, i was fully committed to going on this Escape. I picked up C1 from school early so i could drive her down to the beach to stay with my grandma. I thought i would get a nap in before hand but well that wasn't in the cards. Around 8 we had all 5 of us int he truck and we took off for parts south. After dinner i moved to shotgun and stayed awake with the 1st driver until she got tired. Somewhere past Charlotte most of the truck was napping. When she hit her stopping point the next driver moved up from and i stayed to be the awake navigator. Granted i wasn't needed to navigate since we had OnStar it was more so that if your driving you have someone to talk to. When she hit her limit somewhere in Alabama i was ready to sleep having been awake since 6am the previous day and it was around 4am. I dozed off for about an hour or 2, the sunrise said it clearly wasn't meant to be. On a side note, i was the tallest person in the truck, the Traverse seats 8 and throughout the trip i sat everywhere but the back row. I had plenty of legroom in the 2nd row which is a big deal to someone like me who usually has to be in the front because of my height. After another bathroom and gas break i drove the rest of the way into New Orleans.

It sure is a good thing i have raging insomnia huh?

So what do we do after we check in at 10am? we sightsee of course. We walked over to Cafe Du Monde and had beignets and cafe au lait. I've never had Beignets before but they tasted exactly like Zeppoli. Seriously the zeppoli i grew up eating in Brooklyn. exactly.the.same. I wanted to ask for a bag to put them in and shake it up.

We walked around some more and hit up some voodoo shops. In hindsight i should have bought the lust candle i saw.

That evening there was a reception for all the roadtrippers. There were 5 teams who got the Chevy sponsored trucks, Tampa, Boston, Nashville, Atlanta and us.

Team RDU via ManicMommies

This pic above was taken during our welcome reception. I already had 2 glasses of champagne and a mojito in me. Of course i kept drinking because i'm in New Orleans! At the reception for everyone else i got a hurricane glass and after having a hurricane i went back tot he bar to fill in with straight vodka. I was completely ready to drink myself into a stupor and bare my breasts for beads. I was surprised to find out i got beads without the whole breasts reveal. Who knew?

The next day we were treated to a breakfast while we listened to the keynote. Considering how hungover i was it was nice to have this large egg cheese thingee to eat and insane amounts of coffee. The day was filled of various classes and clinics as well as tours of the Garden District and the 9th Ward. I also got to test drive a Chevy Equinox and a Camaro.

Rolling in a Camaro

That was one sweet ride.
That night we went to the Hermann-Grima house for a tour and a mixology class. I learned how to make the 2 signature drinks St. Charles punch and sazerac. The latter will put you on your ass if you aren't careful. That night after dinner there was a Marine birthday and a LSU game. Screw everything that can happen in New Orleans, our hotel lobby was buzzing with excitement. I ended up having down there with Olu and one of the girls from Team Boston all night.

We headed back on Sunday and we split up since Team Boston decided to not drive back. 3 of us headed home and drove straight thru, I took some pictures of the huge Kia plant on the Alabama-Georgia border and we almost hit a dear. By now my eyes had recovered enough to drive at night and i headed home with the Traverse. I drove it to the beach to pick up C1 and my grandma got a good look at it. She may be thinking of moving to that from her Dodge Caravan.

In all it was a good trip. a lot happened and yet i still missed doing so many things because it was a short trip.

Disclosure: The Chevy Traverse was part of a deal between Chevy, Manic Mommies and my group. While it was a free loaner for taking part in the Escape i was under no obligation to talk about it in anyway. 

-

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

Although i think i drank way more than that. So here is part 2 of my vacation to the house that Walt built. We did the cruise that Walt didn't live to see. Yes after we packed up and the picked up our bags from the room at 8am thursday morning we leisurely had some breakfast c1 did more shopping and we waited for the bus to take up to the Disney Wonder.


So we got to the ship and this has been only my 2nd cruise. the other one was over 20 years ago. All i remember is that cruises weren't very child friendly back then. We had to wait a few more hours for the luggage but not as long as when Disney lost my luggage the day we arrived. They claim it takes 4 hours or less to get your bags, well they shouldn't have called and then knocked on the door to ask again what color my bags were. anyhoo... i took off to go register c1 for the kid's club, my mom and sd went somewhere else and then i took a look at the shore excursions. Mostly because i couldn't remember what day i had signed up for. An absolutely gorgeous man from south africa with piercing blue eye was behind the desk. Men should not be that pretty.

So after getting acclimated to where everything was and getting my first drink with rum c1 and i headed up top to do the farewell celebration with streamers and everything. of course there were also the disney characters dancing and what not, but we enjoyed and she took a few runs to the 24 hour soda machine. FYI Disney is Coke affiliated. I got another drink and went to go play bingo before dinner.

Friday we docked in the bahamas and all the pirate theme for talk like a pirate day kicked in. c1 and i took off for our shore excursion AK swim with the dolphins. I've always wanted to do this and i think it was just as great for me as it was for her. We didn't actually swim with them that was another program for an additional cost but it was sold out anyway. but we did get to hug, pet, shake, dance, and kiss the dolphin. To me that was good enough. Just like a crazy american i bought the overpriced photo opt pictures. woohoo capitalism and commercial greed! Surprisingly c1 didn't want to do any shopping, so we headed back to the boat she went to the kids club and i got more rum. while i was sitting and relaxing i ran into my mom and sd as they were heading to the wine tasting so i went too. i had some good bad and amazing wine, including one Shiraz that i drink very often. Disney of course makes their own champagne and it was really good. I got another drink and me and c1 ate diner at the french place with the others eat at the adults only restaurant. I played bingo again in there somewhere and won a facial and saw the toy story:the musical stage show in a theatre that had to be 30 below. after dinner we went to the pirate show on the pool deck and catch the fireworks. Yes the Disney ship can shoot fireworks.

The next day was disney's private island. mom and sd went tot he adults only beach while me and c1 hung out at the now empty pool. the benefits of everyone being on the island. we later went off and i spent most of my time either in the ocean with her or repositioning my chair so i can be in the shade of the umbrella. since we went late they had 2 for 1 happy hour. of course after i flagged down a waiter (very hard to come by on the family beach) i had 3 drinks. Also i was quietly complaining about the lack of a beach chair flag for drinks. my plans had been crushed. I played some more bingo and then we went back to the boat so i could say it with me now get another drink. c1 was at the kids club and i was quietly lounging in the adults only area. I wanted to get a picture with capt jack sparrow but the line was insane and then i tried hard to find capt hook and never did.

The cruise was overall pretty good but the food was really subpar. i only liked the food at animators and i did enjoy the adults only areas and c1 said she loved the kids club. the bed i slept in was all kinds of painful and i only went out to the deck once. also the last night the turbulence was insane. i couldn't sleep and i was dizzy the whole ride home.

I do want to go back, maybe not the cruise part but in 4 days at disney we did about half of what we wanted. still it was a much needed vacation even with the hiccups and general displeasure i get from spending that much time int he company of my family.

The most happiest place on Earth so they say

My still unemployed ass just got back from a weeklong vacation that was paid for well before i lost my job. I got to spend a whole lot of time with C1, my mom and stepfather in the happiest place on land and sea. I did the Disney Land and Sea vacation. 4 days at the park and 3 or maybe it was 4 days on a cruise ship. I'm exhausted.

Let's start by saying even the best laid plans have some hiccups. Like leaving my sneakers at home. i ran tot the car for my sunglasses putting on the first pair of shoes at the front door and forgot to take them off. I realized i had on flip flops when i got to the airport and halfway through security. Instead of giving in and either 1 returning home to change (i had enough time but not enough cash) or 2 buying a new pair with on vacation i did neither. i have a lovely bit of sunburn on my feet to prove it. But surprisingly my feet were not the most sore thing while i was on vacation. That would be my back and legs and now that i'm home my head.

I attempting to connect with not 1 but 3 of the ladies from my mom's group while at the mouse house. So not planned we just all happened to have overlapping vacations. C1 is tracked out and well Sept isn't exactly high season for florida so its cheap to do right about now. Anyway other then a few calls we never ran into each other. Its not a small world after all when you never see each other!

We stayed at the Polynesian Resort which is huge and a person with environmental allergies worse nightmare. yet they had 2 pools, a water slide, 3 restaurants including a 24 hour place, a boat marina and a beach. yeah we could have stayed there and not done a damn thing there was so much. You could even see the magic kingdom fireworks from the beach.

There isn't much to say about the Park section. other then i want to stay on property forever. I've been to Disney about 9 times starting with the first time when i was 6. Never once stayed on property and man where we missing a bunch! the convience of it all as well as not even needing a car made it great. We split up a few times me and C1 never made it to animal kindgom but hit up magic kingdom twice so i could ride my very favorite ride pirates of the Caribbean. My mom never made it to Hollywood studios and her husband never got over to Epcot except for dinner after ti closed. so much to do so little time but the lines were mostly non-existent. we got everything we could fit in with the longest line being Soaring at Epcot and Peter Pan at magic kingdom. sure we did fast passes when we could but for some rides like space mountain we walked right on, no line.

We saw many children in the mist or in full meltdown, even c1 asked to just go back to the room a few times. its a crazy place. We did character breakfast and pin trading and she got more than a few autographs (Disney is 1 giant conspiracy to separate you from your money) and i spent a whole lot of my budget on that part of the trip. Ok I'll admit i spent the most on myself at the pirate store. There was just so much going on and it was blazing hot on top of that, yet i managed to be photographed somewhere int he 40+ range. i know me, the photo hating woman dating a photographer. Unreal.

We had a few more mishaps but what do you expect on a vacation with me my mom and her husband. someones going to irritate someone else before the trip is over.

The best present is time

Thanks for the birthday well wishes. I decided that i was going to be happy for once and so me and TOM went to Westchester for our birthday weekend. Of course there's more to that story then just that.

A few days after Duran Duran i decided that birthday # 31 wasn't going to be miserable and i actually told TOM that since he sort of ruined my 30th he needed to do this for me. He hemmed and hawed about not having any money but since i decided not to get that LCD TV i have my stimulus check money just sitting in my bank account. So based on a recommendation I attempted to book a weekend stay at Dorral Arrowood. Apparently so did a bunch of people because i couldn't get a reservation for anything more then Saturday night. After so mini panic attacks i ended up switching to another place in the area that had space for a 2 night getaway. TOM was still giving me flack abut him having to cancel a job or 3 and wanted to stay 1 in jersey because its closer WTF? then he only wanted to be away Sunday night, so i told him I'd cancel the whole thing. You know I'm not usually a bitch about this stuff but I'm tired of giving in so i put my foot down for the 1st time in forever.

I took off from work and drove up Friday night. I also decided I'd get 1 more thing in for my trip. Saturday was my grandma's birthday so i decided to surprise her and show up unannounced at her doorstep. I almost missed her because she was on her way to atlantic city. I shocked the hell out of her but i was so glad i got to see her. I picked up om because i planned on doing early check-in. something told me that if i didn't we might be SOL. I even told him that he had better be ready and not make me wait 30 minutes outside for him like normal. I swear the man takes more time then any woman i know to get ready. Of course when he came out the door 7 minutes later i should have been suspicious. i ended up driving to 2 separate places in brooklyn to pick up his meals for the weekend. we left an hour later then scheduled and of course got stuck in traffic on the grand central. We got to the place around 5:30pm and i go to check in. You know why i barely got the reservation? there were 8 weddings and a bar mitzvah going on. 2 of the wedding receptions and one actual wedding were being held on property. Oh and sunday there was a children's birthday party at the indoor pool and monday a conference for Thomson Reuters. busy busy. there was also construction going on in the lobby. Surprisingly this wasn't an issue because our room was wonderful and we weren't exactly going to be out and about much.

Can i just say the food at the restaurant 80 West was amazing? i haven't had food that great in years. The hotel has fire pits outside that they lit int he evening, a walking trail and a lounge. while we were leaving dinner someone decided to go place the piano that was in the lobby. Sunday we drove into white plains to see Speed Racer on IMAX. As we were leaving they called security on some women at sex and the city, it was funny to watch. the night of my birthday i actually got dressed up for dinner and we sat and had a beautiful views from looking out on the sunset. it was great all around except TOM got sick shortly after we got back to the room.

It was still the best birthday's I've had in years and the one thing I'll take away is that over the course of the weekend he said clear out the blue that he was so happy we did this.

And he said it 4 times.

Sun, Surf, Shopping and Relatives oh my!

Just got back the beach yall. Wow did i really just write yall? I've been living here entirely too long. Well this memorial day weekend Oh the request of my beloved grandmother i loaded up the car and me and the kid made our annual trek down to myrtle beach. I got to my grandma's place before her thats in no part to my aunt whom I loathe. She calls me complaining beucase she got my grandmother to rent a suv for the time we are at the beach and she either booked a Jeep Liberty or they ran out of cars. I never got an exact explanation other then she was even more upset that when she got from Charleston tot he beach they didn't have any suv's left. Hmm its memorial day weekend and its happens to be the tail end of bike week ya think?

I only stayed till Tuesday due to the fact that in this wretched state i have to renew my drivers license in person well that and the fact my craptastic job give me very little vacation time. I couldn't afford to go without pay. C1 had fun, i did some back to school shopping, (hey the kid goes to year-round school and it starts in July) and i only fought with my aunt twice. That has to be a record. I was a bit disappointed that all my attempts to met up with my friend Mike didn't work out to well and a phone call from my ex followed my the service by the most forgetful waitress in the world during my grandmother's birthday dinner was making for a long LONG day.

On a side note in my rush to get ready for the beach the girl in t e nail salon painted my toes a bright fire engine red with gold sparkles. Looks cute though.