Wandering Aimlessly

Shall I start from the top and go from there? I think we shall. Warning: LONG. Long-ass long.

My plane on Wednesday was an hour delayed. Bastards. I got off to many voicemails. Thanks for calling, Michelle! That was sweet. ;) Carolyn picked me up (thanks, C!!) and we went to Jen's where we pretty much just crashed. Er, *I* crashed, and Jen and her friends crashed, and C went home and crashed. Yeah.

So Thursday. C picked me up and she and I met Stephen at Animal Kingdom. Thanks, Stephen!! Then C and I went to Disney-MGM Studios where we ate at good old Toy Story Pizza Planet and saw some of my old fellow cast members. Good times! We headed over to Who Wants to be a Millionaire: Play It, and then Rockin' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. More good times. Then we headed back to C's for some air conditioning and FYC video-watching. Afterwards, we struck out again towards Epcot and headed straight for Mission: Space. It doesn't open until August at the earliest, but they were previewing and testing it, so we got to ride. It was an AWESOME ride. Wow. Makes you feel like you're lifting off into space. Like, the skin on your face gets pulled backwards with the force of it. Damn. Totally awesome. Makes you feel kinda drunk, though, so on that note, we headed to Mexico for some margaritas and ice cream. Yum. Wandered the World Showcase a bit, saw the Living Statue in Italy, and rode Test Track before heading back to MGM for Fantasmic. Ran into Cinnamon, our old GT at DAK ODF from 2000. Good to see her! After Fantasmic, we met up with Karen (good to see ya!!) at Margaritaville on City Walk for some Blue Stone Circle. Yay!

Friday, we headed out towards Miami. We had fun in the car, listening to our boys most of the way down. We caravaned, Jen, Danielle and Amy in one car and Carolyn, Leslie and myself in the other. We made it to Miami about 3:00 and checked into our hotel, the Kent. It was such a cute, trendy place! We did learn the definition of trendy, though. TRENDY: (adj) Consisting of low lighting and lots of mirrors. But very cute. The entire room was purple with light wood and silver furniture and wood floors.

Anyway. We weren't in Miami ten minutes, not ten minutes, when this guy came up to us and asked if we partied. Thinking he was going to tell us about a club or something, we said yeah. Well, he was trying to sell us drugs!!! I made it through twenty-two and a half years without having to use my D.A.R.E. training and Just Say No. Ha. So funny. So we headed down to the beach, which is topless-friendly. Whoa. So we saw Naked Lady having Sex in the Water, and then a cute little gay couple getting their smooch on, also in the ocean. Then Brandon, our wonderful concierge, suggested this place called Texas Taco to eat at. LOVE Texas Taco. Yum.

Friday night was the party at Crobar. C and Leslie didn't have tickets, so I went with Jen, Danielle and Amy. We met up with Tonya and her friends there. Good times. Mr. JT (aka the biggest ass ever) did not show up. This didn't bother me, because my boy JC was there representin'. And he looked gooood. But Jen was upset. He's a stinker. We danced up a storm, and I ran into a bunch of people I know, which was cool. Joey came down and danced with we peons, which was awesome. He made a Magical Moment. Cuz dude, I danced with Joey! Of course, it was me and the hundred girls crushing me against Joey's friend, but yes. He was having a great time and you could really tell. We also danced with Papa Fatone, but Tonya's friend Jen really danced with Papa Fatone. Like, whoa. Heh. Too funny.

So after the party, we saw a hooker. Like, honest to god. Crazy. Miami was an experience, let me tell you!

Saturday was the Skills Challenge. We thought it started at 12:30, so about 10, Leslie, Carolyn and I went for a walk to C's bank so she could get some cash. Yeah, we walked. And walked, and walked, and walked. We walked through a rather upscale neighborhood, which was pretty cool. We just freaking walked forever. It was fun, though. Walking tour of South Beach. We arrived at the beach for the Challenge about noon, and yeah, didn't start until 1:30. What's more, doors opened at 1:30, and the event wouldn't start until 3. So we walked back to the hotel for a bit, then back to the beach.

Skills challenge was great fun. Let me try to remember all the celebs involved. Of course, our boys. Joey, JC and Chris were on the Knights. Then there was Donald Faison (from Scrubs and Clueless), Trevor from O-Town, Beverly Mitchell, two guys from Good Charlotte (one on each team), Gabrielle Union from Bring it On, and some random football and basketball players. Justin and Lance were on the Daze with Alfonso Ribiero (?) (Carlton from Fresh Prince), Emmanuelle Chiriqui (no idea if I spelled that right, from On the Line), Shannon Elizabeth and others. Taye Diggs and Jermaine Dupri were there, but I can't remember what team. Anyhoo. JC was not dressed for playing. He came out in jeans and a long-sleeved white shirt (in Miami! Where it was freaking HOT out!). He looked mighty fine, but did not participate. We were angered. He ended up leaving early (more on that in a bit). But the challenge was good. Lance was HOTT and chisled out of stone. Mmmmbaby. They did a bunch of games that no one understood the rules for (as seems to be par for the course). There was lots of cheating and getting up in people's faces jokingly. Donald and Alfonso had a dance-off where Alfonso did the Carlton with his entire team joining in (SO funny!) and then an awesome Michael Jackson impression, and Donald just strutted his stuff. So much fun.

Afterwards, we walked BACK to Texas Taco for dinner. We walked over ten miles that day, at least. It was a LOT of walking. My feet were protesting in a serious way. I have so many blisters. No pair of shoes was sacred, they ALL hurt. But it was worth it.

After dinner, we met up with Tonya and her gang. She picked us up in her swank rental convertible and we did a drive-by of Krave, the club that was having the VIP party. Then we went to Eden Roc, the "official" hotel of CFTC, where the boys and all the celebs were staying. Everyone was at the VIP partay, but we just hung out in their outdoor bar area and had ice cream and chatted the night away. It was fun. There were a couple guys there we recognized from Skills, but we didn't know who they were and decided against finding out.

Sunday, we got up early and headed straight to the beach for one last time. We hung out there, witnessed a guy get totally hit on (too funny... "Your freestyle's GREAT. I love your suit; what's it made of? Nylon?"... ahahaha). Then we went back to the hotel, showered, and checked out. Bye, bye, bye, Kent Hotel! We love you! Leslie, Carolyn and I headed up to Ft. Lauderdale.

We were early, of course. We saw signs for highway A1A, which is the road that runs up the Atlantic coast of Florida, so we headed that direction for the beach. Oh my gosh, Ft. Lauderdale is gorgeous. Wow. That's what Florida looks like in the brochures. The sand was white, the sky was perfectly blue, the water was a gorgeous, clear blue-green, the palm trees were vibrant, and there were colorful sails on the beach. Wow. Breathtaking. We found a little cafe called the Oasis. The tables were swings! Like, the table and benches were connected, and on gliders, and you could swing while you ate your meal on the beach. Too cool.

After lunch, we headed for the Office Depot Center for the basketball game. Our team, the Knights, was down 10 points from the Skills Challenge. JC was ready to participate this time, and was a big ball of energy. Oh, back to his leaving early from the Skills. Turns out, he had been severely sunburned (hence the long pants and long sleeves) and ended up going to the doctor or hospital or something. When they asked him how he was feeling, he said "Greasy." Heh. That's mah boy! So the game was good. People played pretty fair, except for Justin giving Chris the most major wedgie I have ever witnessed. ha. But then they inexplicably gave Justin ten free throws. For no reason at all. The six points he got from the random ten free throws made the Daze win 106-101. So not fair. My team would have won! And they were DOWN 10 points to begin with, so yeesh. Unfair. But Justin had been pouting, and he'd been being his cocky self, and ugh. Really not impressed with him.

Other cute B-ball moment: Joey totally parodying Justin's songs. "I wanna wash my body every day (dance with me) I'm gonna take a shower each day (dance with me)" ... or something similar. Hysterically funny. They let Joey have the mic after a while, which was great fun. He made it entertaining. I felt like Chris was a bit off. Wonder why. Hmm. All in all, a jolly good time.

We headed up to Orlando after the game. But altogether, they raised $3.5 million dollars for the charities this year. GOOD JOB!! That's totally awesome. Anyway, we arrived in Orlando around 11. Jen had to take Amy to the airport at 4:30 and then be at work at 8. Poor thing. Leslie also had to work. I feel for them.

So today, Monday,Carolyn came and got me about 11 and we went to eat at Donato's, this really good pizza place on Kirkman. Yum. Then we wandered around Downtown Disney for a bit and then headed back to her place before going to the airport. Drama at the airport also! Our plane was a bit late leaving due to weather conditions in Kentucky. And what weather conditions they were! We ended up being routed towards New Orleans to avoid the weather, which we did only semi-successfully. There was turbulance. There was one point with BAD turbulance. Like, we DROPPED. A couple times. I seriously thought the oxygen masks were about to pop out. A flight attendant got hurt. They were like "If anyone is a doctor, nurse or paramedic, please come to the back of the plane." Bad stuff. I think they said she had broken her foot or something. Regardless, the paramedics were there to meet our plane when we landed. Other than the bumpy ride, though, it was good. We saw Chicago, which was great fun. But the drama was happening during Cell Block Tango, which was sad. They were talking through it, and that's my favorite song. Oh well. Better that the poor woman get taken care of. The other fun thing was that "Wish Upon a Star" sung by nsync was on one of their radio stations. *g* Good times.

WHEW! So that's it. My vacation in a nutshell. Um, a very LARGE nutshell, as I didn't leave out too many details. Ha ha. If you got this far, more power to ya. Now I'm exhausted, and I don't wanna go to work tomorrow! ::pout:: Can't I just move to Florida?