Florida!!!!

As you may or may not know I enjoy traveling as much as I possibly can.  I'm not sure why this is exactly but perhaps it comes from the fact that the city i live in gets cold in October and doesn't warm up until typically June, just a possibility.  I'm very fortunate that I have many friends around the country and therefore have somewhere to stay in many areas of the country.  I choose to go to Florida on my latest trip to visit my very good friend Ashley from college.  I have a rule that vacation begins as soon as you get to the airport therefore I can eat whatever I want and spend as much money as I want to.  This was going to be a very quick trip Friday evening to Sunday evening because as I am now an adult and have a big girl job where they expect me to work Monday thru Friday (crazy I know I must find a way to turn these work weeks into 3 or 4 days rather than 5).  


I began my trip at Midway airport where I proceeded to enjoy a tasty treat of combos before getting onto the plane.  This plane had XM radio (my favorite) and I was able to listen to Dr. Laura Berman (another favorite) the entire way to Atlanta.  Unfortunately the topic Dr. Laura decided to talk about was very close to home for me and I spent the majority of this flight fighting back tears for fear that my fellow passengers may think I was crazy or suicidal or both.  Didn't stop listening to the show however because I feel a little punishment in life is necessary.  Once I landed in Atlanta I attempted to find a McDonald's so I could enjoy some delicious french fries while I waited for my flight.  However apparently terminal D in Atlanta's airport doesn't have McDonald's and I had to suffer through a medium Burger King Fries, they were very difficult to force down but somehow I managed.  Landing in Tampa I was very excited to see Ashley so I rushed down to the pick up area thinking it's 10:30 at night no one will be here.  Clearly i was wrong not only were there other people there I am pretty sure the entire city of Tampa had gone on vacation that week and was returning at this exact time.  Ashley was traversing thru traffic that had to be made up of Florida's most moronic and I was climbing over people to try to get to her car.  Having traversed what felt like the worst obstacle course of my life I finally got to Ashley and off we went to Bradenton.  


As it was quite late we decided to go grab a casual drink and get some food.  Ashley took me to the most happening place in Bradenton, the local Applebees.  Interesting I thought that Applebee's in Chicago get very little patronage yet here in Bradenton it was clearly the place to be and be seen!!!  We met up with a friend of Ashley's there who was very nice but clearly was a little taken aback by my choice of conversation topic and openness about my life, I believe he may have asked Ashley later if I was drunk.  After enjoying quite a few Sangria's and checking out all the locals we headed back to Ashley's to go to bed and get ready for a fun filled weekend.


The rest of our weekend was made up with a lot of sleeping in, manicures and pedicures complete with wine, some sun worshiping by the pool complete with a canadian man friending us, checking out some yachts (at which point I told Ashley she is no longer allowed to date any man that doesn't own a yacht) and drinking bottles and bottles of wine.  The peak of the weekend had to be our outing to The Lost Kangaroo bar where we did some great people watching including some folks that looked like they were straight off the Beverly Hillbillies set and a wedding party that had apparently chosen this wonderful establishment for their wedding reception.


This trip concluded with my flights home, among which both were oversold and I witnessed one man throw a "Meet the Parents" esk fit in the aisle of the plane because his fiancee didn't have a seat.  As I stood outside the airport in Chicago waiting for my cab I was deeply saddened to be back in Chicago where it was sleeting and feeling a little blue that my adventure was over.  Then I got into my cab and listened the whole way home to the cab driver as he informed me that he had come up with a cure for diabetes and was currently working on a cure for cancer too, give him about 2 months and that would be done too.  


This is when I realized even at home my life is full of daily adventures and interesting characters.