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.

Anything is possible. Even this:

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.

Snorkeling with stingrays was the no-question, hands-down, unrivaled, most fantabulous part of our cruise. Any safety concerns I had were quickly brushed aside by our friendly, funny, knowledgeable guide, as well as the sweet stingrays we met. The one you see us holding below is Lupita, and the smaller one we held was Gabriel. There were a dozen others in the “encounter” area, and they rubbed against our ankles like affectionate cats when we had fish to feed them.

After the encounter, we snorkeled for a while, and I got to play with the waterproof bag Andy bought for our camera. (A few of the kayaking pictures were taken underwater, too.) I don’t want to ramble too long — it’s a Friday, after all — but I will say that Cozumel and its marine life were incredibly beautiful, and my Spanish was embarrassingly rusty.

Last but not least, towel animals (because everybody loves those) and the main atrium of our ship (because I thought the vertical photo-stitch turned out pretty neat):

Last week on Labor Day, Andy and I set sail on the Carnival Inspiration. This was our first cruise, both as a couple and individually. I have to admit, I expected Andy to get bored, and possibly seasick. To my surprise, he was neither. He kept us busy, exploring the ship, watching the comedy shows, entering trivia contests, and even sunbathing!

I dragged him onto the giant slide, and it was a blast. Literally–of water, up your nose! But that’s okay, it was still a ton of fun. And I got to see him in swim trunks for the first time EVER. (We’ve been dating for over 5 years, folks.)

My favorite part of being at sea was being at sea. With nothing on the horizon but the curve of the earth, the sky and the clouds, and the endless rolling waves.

Now as I mentioned, we did have a little detour. The cruise was originally scheduled to dock at Grand Cayman and then Cozumel. Unfortunately, on the first night of the cruise, a gentleman became ill (or died… given the demographics of the passengers, we put the odds at 50/50). He needed to be taken to a hospital, so we docked at Key West instead.

While I applaud the Carnival crew and staff for the smooth and professional way they handled everything, from notifying us of the change to arranging excursions at our new location, I have to admit, it was definitely a disappointment. Instead of feeding stingrays, visiting Hell, and holding baby sea turtles (our plans for Grand Cayman) we kayaked through the mangroves at Key West.

The one thing that definitely went according to plans was our eating. We did a lot of that, and it was good.

No nap this week, but I admit, I’m finding it harder to post on Fridays. Like my brain is checking out early for the weekend. Blargh.

Well, last night Andy and I went to ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour games in Cincinnati. It was my first time watching tennis live (okay, let’s be honest: first time watching a full tennis game that wasn’t on the Wii) and I loved it! Except for the staring into the sun part…

American Andy Roddick (seeded 9) was up against Swede Robin Soderling (seeded 5) in what turned out to be an EPIC match. They played all 3 sets plus 2 tiebreakers. I got exhausted just watching them run back and forth across the court, sweating and grunting and slamming their rackets into the ball.

I have to admit, I had my doubts about whether or not our guy (Roddick) would win. He has killer serves, but his returns weren’t as strong as Soderling’s. He looked tired. He missed a few key opportunities to pull ahead.

But in the end, he persevered. The odds were not in his favor, but the crowd cheered him on at every opportunity, and he didn’t disappoint. Maybe the victory wasn’t quick or elegant, but it was still victory.

(And as it turns out, he defeated the #2 seed, Djokovic, today too!)

So here’s what I’m getting at: I’m Roddick.

Not actually, because that would be weird. But metaphorically, I am scrambling madly across the court, swinging at every ball I can, hoping to make them land in the right spot. And even though the odds aren’t in my favor, I’ve got y’all cheering me on, and I know that soon(er or later) I will achieve my victory too.