Please ignore the crazy back-from-vacation hair, and be thankful that you can’t see the even crazier recovering-from-heat-rash skin.
Our week in the Galapagos was most certainly an adventure, and I’ll tell you all about it in the next couple blog posts. About 1500 pictures and videos are currently transferring from my camera to my laptop, and I can’t wait to show you some. You know, after I catch up on all the laundry and ice cold beverages and puppy cuddles.
The short version is: we had an amazing time. (We swam with mother-effing penguins, y’all!) Yes, the tsunami affected us, but not too badly. (My heart absolutely breaks for Japan.) My Spanish is serviceable, but rusty like whoa. Andy and I learned that we are not built for extreme heat and humidity. And sometimes coming home is as wonderful as leaving, without taking anything away from the incredible experiences we enjoyed.
Better known as… the Galapagos Islands! (I.e., where Darwin developed his theory of evolution.) And barring any crazy/awful mishaps, that’s where Andy and I are right now.
This vacation has been a dream of Andy’s for a long time. We planned this way before I decided to write full-time, so while it’s a little weird to go on such an amazing trip just 1 month after “starting my new job”… ah well! That’s life, I’m just rolling with it.
(We try to take 1 international and 1 domestic vacation every year anyway. Just the two of us. For mental health and broader horizons, you know? Oh, and for plain old fun. That’s reason enough in my book.)
If you’re curious, this is a video of the ship we’ll be living on for a week, along with some highlights of the excusions.
Neither of us are particularly strong swimmers, but we’re both looking forward to the snorkeling. Supposedly sea lions will just come right up to you, and the little ones might even nibble your toes!
Andy’s greatest wish is to see a real live sea turtle, and an Orca if possible. My greatest wish is to bring back a blue-footed booby. Think I can sneak one past the TSA? I mean, there’s no liquid involved…
The humidity makes it very difficult to stay smelling fresh.
7-lane freeways rule.
Real traffic sucks.
“Y’all” is not a weird thing to say.
All those songs I loved in high school? Yeah, they’re still awesome. (I swear, one of the radio stations here is stuck in a time warp.)
I’m back home for my friend Mary’s wedding, and I’ve had the good fortune to get to see a few other friends as well. (Ding and Aisha I was expecting, but Julia was a pleasant surprise!) Not to mention time with my family. The front end of the trip has been busy — the good kind! — but after the marital festivities tomorrow, things should calm down. I’m looking forward to writing, watching the Oscars, and more yoga with my mom.
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Unrelated: This is super mushy, but it’s also well-written, and almost exactly how I feel after 5 years with Andy.
Picture a thirty-something Asian man from California who went to West Point Academy and served as an Army Captain in Afghanistan. Now picture him living in Cincinnati and working with my boyfriend. Picture them hitting it off through a mutual love of practical jokes and other ridiculous things (like a giant poster of David Hasselhoff as Knight Rider, or Ascot Friday). Now picture my boyfriend nominating that man for a radio station’s contest to find Cincinnati’s Hottest Bachelor.
You have just pictured the last two weeks of my life.
What started as a prank turned into an all-out, world-wide campaign for J.W. (I’ll use his initials to spare him any (further) embarrassment.) At first Andy sent the email and link to vote to only a handful of close friends and colleagues. Each of them in turn forwarded the email to (I’m sure) only a handful of close friends and colleagues. From there, things began to snowball, and by the end of the first day of voting, J.W. was neck-and-neck with 2 other men in a field of over 40.
That’s when Andy got serious.
Andy has always been one of the most focused, dedicated, hard-working people I know. (Robot, I may have called him on occasion.) But he tackled this challenge with more passion and childlike excitement than I have ever seen. Every morning he would wake up and ask me, “Who’s in the lead?” Every night when he came home he would say to me urgently, “Did you vote yet? You have to vote!”
Vote we did. And after a couple days, J.W. and some guy named “Dreamboat” had taken the lead. They were unreachable.
Then something changed. The radio station hid the vote counts. They wanted the winner to be a surprise. Andy got nervous. Would our friends stop voting if they couldn’t see a direct correlation between their click and J.W.’s odds of success? Would Dreamboat take the lead without us even knowing? Were all of our hopes and dreams about to come crashing down?!
Instead of just sitting around, worrying and moping, Andy took action. He appointed himself J.W.’s campaign manager and sent out daily reminders to vote, full of rousing language and embarrassing praise for (or jabs at) J.W. He created a slogan. He even recorded an audio ad based off the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man In the World” commercials. (FYI, it is AMAZING. He sent it in to the radio station but I don’t think they ever played it.) And he did all of this while working full-time, going to MBA classes at night, reassuring his girlfriend that her decision to quit her job and write wasn’t insane, cooking dinner, playing with the dog, and watching Syracuse basketball games.
(See? Robot!)
At last came the night. The night. The night of the radio station’s “Little Red Dress” party, where women could mingle with the bachelors and then Cincinnati’s Hottest would be announced. The night was last night, and let me tell you, Andy was as fidgety as a kid on his way to Disney World.
You may have already guessed this, but I’ll say it anyway: J.W. won. Andy’s efforts were rewarded. We all lost our voices cheering with glee. (We had the largest fan contingency by far.)
After we went home that night, I couldn’t help reflecting on the series of events that had led us to that glorious victory. I realized that what had started as a mere joke, a little email, had spread like wildfire, and erupted into a story that I think Andy will tell for 100 years. Was J.W. the most likely candidate? No. But he had friends, and his friends had faith. One friend in particular went the extra mile. And that’s all it took.
You didn’t think there was more, did you? Well, when we docked in Tampa after the cruise, Andy decided he still hadn’t seen enough marine life. (Plus we had like 8 hours to kill before our flight home.) So where did we go? Why, to the aquarium of course!
Seriously, he cracks me up. He’s like a kid when it comes to this stuff.
Fortunately for him, I like it too. And the Tampa aquarium had this great, color-changing jellyfish display. (Jellyfish are among my favorite things to photograph!)
Okay, The End for real now!
…
Actually, I could do 1 more travel recap — this past weekend I went to Pittsburgh and had a great time seeing friends and family — but I think I’ve gone on long enough, don’t you? Plus, with all this travel, I’ve totally thrown my writing routine out the window. It’s time to get back on track, and my blog, though it contains plenty of words, does not count.
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