Ocean City: The Highlights.

Traveling with family is always an adventure, especially if you mix a couple of generations. Case in point me, my dad, step-mom, two young sisters (3 and 5), a set of married grandparents, and a widowed grandmother.

For starters let's just start with the food, cause well why not...Grandma Joyce is a semi-vegetarian who doesn't drink during meals because it makes her vomit...she will eat fish and shrimp. However, the fish she eats tends to lack flavor because she cooks it until it is the consistency of beef jerky. It is the family joke that the last time she was allowed to cook the Thanksgiving turkey it was nothing short of the Griswold Family Turkey. Picky Eater Numero Uno.

The little sisters could survive on a diet of "chicken nuggets and french fries". They will eat these "chicken nuggets" from the following, and only the following, establishments: McDonald's, Popeyes, KFC...they will not except fried chicken that has been peeled off of the bone, it was tried, and quickly rejected. French Fries are preferred to come from McDonald's, but they will at least lick the salt of the fries from the other two restaurants. Their drink of choice, lemonade, preferably pink.--- They are a bit high maintainence.

My dad and I will eat anything spicy that's not pork.
Cassandra and her mom aren't picky eaters either.

Now second matter on hand is getting 8 people- 3 senior citizens, 2 juveniles, and 3 active adults- to move at the same speed toward the same objective......let's just say if it was announced that we were leaving for dinner it 5 we generally left at 6....hauling kids in car seats, constant bathroom breaks, my grandma and her hair, not wanting to leave in the middle of Ali G.....

Third, My Grandma Joyce's Hair...it requires it's own paragraph. This just goes to show that you can't teach and old dog new tricks..to quote my grandmother...she must wash then roll her hair; this is followed by sitting under the hair dryer for 2 hours, followed by styling, followed by many mirror checks and restyles before she will be seen in public. Now on the days she does not wash the hair, there is still rolling of the hair required- rolled at night before bed, rolled after the 1.5 hour power walk, rolled before shower....you think I'm exaggerating, but it is a fact....I offered to blow dry the hair and use a curling iron to which she replied "well I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks."

My grandpa is the strong silent type- he mostly watched Tiger Woods and other golf related things, went on power walks with my grandma, and just waited to be directed to whatever "Best Seafood Buffet in the OC" that we were going to that night....Although, I will say that he did give me an awesome compliment on the outfit that I wore to Jalen's 3rd, 5th b-day party, "I like those shoes, really pointy, but I like them...If I had a camera with me I take a snapshot, you look sharp, very nice."....awesome compliment from the man of few words....He also was very impressed with the running that I continued to do on vacation despite being sick and having some odd back problems, but that's another story....

We played around on the beach, I body surfed- possibly the cause of the now very sore back and inability to get a full night's sleep-, I bought a pretty white skirt (I'm into white clothes right now, who knows... I have no rational explanation for most of my behavior), I ate a lot of salt water taffy, went for runs on the boardwalk, and a t e a l o t o f c r a b s! ....it is Maryland!

The best part was the conversation which is better told in person but just know that every single member of my family is a sarcastic shit which makes for a good time..for instance, my grandma said to me "How can you like sushi, I just thought people ate it because it was popular you actually like it..?" "Yeah grandma I like it. I don't know why; why do you like dry meat with no flavor?...no one knows, you just do."....take that times 1 million and that was the beach house.

Anyway fun-times with the family, many more stories, but tired of typing.

Jalen had 3- 5th birthday parties- bowling, backyard pool party, waterpark/amusement park.

Jasmine had a birthday party because "daddy it's not fair that Jalen get's a birthday party and I don't"...so we just whipped a quick party up for her- threw a few candles on her piece of cake, sang happy birthday, she was happy!

yup.

Dave and I at John R. and Barry's Scientology Party....yay stripes! 

Random Ramblings

So I've been slacking on the blog front...partially because most people already know what's going on in my life and partially because with work, marathon training, hanging out with my
chi-town buddies/drinking/parties, traveling...doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging...that being said here's a summary of the last month or so.....

Parties: Wisconsin Lakehouse, My Tapas Party, Pete's BBQ, John and Barry's Scientology Party

Hanging out With: John R., Barry, Masood, Dave, Randy, Aline, Shannon, Jim, Aaron, Zach, Matt, Dan, Martin...I don't have a lot of girlfriends as I generally find most girls annoying...

Movies Seen: X-Men, Da Vinci Code, Failure to Launch, Match Point, The Break-Up, Pirates of the Caribbean;
The Motorcycle Diaries, Maria Full of Grace, BrokeBack Mountain, Rumor Has It, The Family Stone, Capote, Diary of a Madman, The BenchWarmers

Shows Addicted to: Re-Runs of Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Houswives as well as 24, Entourage (DVD's, need to get HBO prontisimo!), The Entire Food Network

Most Miles Ran: 14 miles on Monday Night, yes it was 90 degrees and about 75% humidity and we ran from 9:30 pm to 12:15a and I had to be at work at 7...but marathon runners are insane...

New Fun Facts: I have exercised induced asthma...yay albuterol, my stomach is shit-yay tests at the hospital tomorrow under sedation, my blood pressure is back down woohoo, I have a heart murmur so apparently need antibiotics if I receive dental work/surgery

Baseball Games Attended: 3 Cubs games (one in the bleachers when they kicked the Card's ass...gotta love a sweep) 2 White Sox games (both free, on in the Sky Box..love the box!)

Sports Teams On: Softball (1 game but very good game!), Kickball

New Spanish Words Learned: Pompes-butt, Sentadillas- squats, Enchado-swelling; Ya Terminaste- are you finished...there are more, but I'm drawing a blank, I'm hungry!

Family Vacation in August- Pool Party for sister's 5th Bday then off to Ocean City Beach House for a week

Sister is coming to Stl for 5 months as my brother-in-law is being sent to Afghanastan...Will convince her to come to Chicago for her 21st birthday!

So that's what I've been up to.

Interesting Conversations: Bryan (Shan's Bro) made the point that I often try to forget which is that it may be hard for me to find a guy(in particular "white guys") worth dating because a lot of guys have "getting on" a black chick on their "list"...therefore they may want to make out with me or whatever for a while to "check this off of their list" but are not balsy or whatever enough to date me and certaintly not take me home to meet the family or good friends because....get this I'm a black chick (yes it's true for 24 years now) and they have some issues with this they may not like to admit or are subconscious....which could explain a lot of current events in my dating life...disturbing thought but definately a huge possibility ...and then he said "And what makes it worse for you Amber is that you would be the perfect black chick for 'these white guys' to get on because you're smart, not ghetto, atheletic, laid-back, pretty and like fun so it's like they aren't getting with a typical black chick...ya know what I mean."....And I did get it, which sucks...because how do I know which are they guys with the "list" and which are the "you a cute fun girl, you're black, whatever"...also they have to pass the newly initiated "I don't give a shit what strangers/onlookers on the street say, do, throw etc...when they see you with said black chick."....new test because I never noticed this sort of thing happening until it was brought to my attention on various occasions...However, most of the guys don't seem to notice anything or if they do they either don't tell me about it or respond with "fuck off" or "ya gotta be kidding me is this the 60's?" or "yeah jealousy sucks, lucky me" or they just laugh.. (laughter and/or complete oblivion are my favorite responses).....

Okay then time to continue the 24 hour fasting....15 more hours to go...seriously what kind of test requires a 24 hour liquid dying...I'm starving, don't these ppl know I run!