From another planet ...

Have you ever had those mornings where the sight of yourself startles you in the mirror?  Like you actually look like a person from another planet.  It's like you forgot to take off your make up and it smudged everywhere, like you stuck your hand in a socket and it fried your hair, and not to even mention your breath smells like you ate 42 cloves of garlic and 3 onions during the night.  I definitely had one of those mornings today.  I actually laughed at myself and wondered how this could happen in just 9 hours of sleep.  Thank goodness for showers. 

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Live by the currents, plan by the tides, and follow the sun ...

Cocoa Beach, 2011

What a great weekend at Cocoa!  The sand, surf and sun were much needed.  Although the sunburn (yes I wore sunscreen) I acquired was not.  We spent the night at a hotel right on the beach.  The next morning we woke around 5:30am and watched the sun come up.  It was absolutely gorgeous to see.  I can't wait till our next big trip in June when we head out to Key West! 

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Every drop in the ocean counts

 Thailand, 2009



Today I got to talking with one of my friends from college about our trip to Thailand.  We went with a group of students and spent a month exploring, learning, relaxing and touring the city of Bangkok.  It was one of those experiences I will never forget.  The picture that is up above was taken on our final weekend in Koh Samet.  It was fabulous.  We stayed in bungalows that were roughly a 2 minute walk from the beach.  The smell of the ocean was intoxicating and the lull of the waves was our soundtrack of the weekend.  One day I will get back there and once again be put under the spell of the island, but that's just fine by me.

from Florida with love,

Jilly

Expedition Everest - COMPLETE!

I am so proud of myself for completing Everest, you have no idea! It was so much fun.  I arrived around 7:00pm and there were huge tents set up and music was playing.  Lots of people had already started filtering in.  We just hung around and stretched and talked.  So around 7:45, they started doing the course talk again and letting us know what to expect (sorta) and then they just cranked up the music and we had a big dance party before the race.  So around 8:15pm they opened the gates and we started to fill in the chute.  I was in wave 1, and there was 7 other waves behind us that were going to be coming in 5 minute intervals.  Then they started to count us down.  So instead of the traditional guns that go off to signal the start of the race we had fireworks and loud music, it was epic!  The race started in the butterfly parking lot and made a giant loop before entering into the park.  But before you could, you had to jump over the small bails that they had set up.  Then after that we made are way into the park and up to Rafiki's planet watch where we hit another obstacle, tires! It was classic football style, we had to kinda hop through the tires before setting off again.  Along the way the cast members from animal kingdom had spread out and were cheering us and giving us words of encouragement.  They had volunteers who would give out water along the way.  After we made it through the bails, tires and all through animal kingdom we made our way out of the park for our final obstacle.  We had the choice of climbing over ropes or crawling underneath this mesh stuff.  I choice to climb over the ropes.  Then came the second part of the race, the scavenger hunt! We then had to solve 5 clues, each one of them taking us to various parts of the park. So a 5K race completed and then a scavenger hunt done, we had to run to the finish line which was at the base of Expedition Everest roller coaster.  At the end they gave us powerade, water, bananas, Clif bars and a giant medal that had a compass on the inside.  Ruth (my friend from the UK who did the individual race as well) and I rode Everest 3 times and went on Dinosaur.  We hit the dance party for a bit and then grabbed our bags and headed home.  I am so so so happy I did the race.  It's a good starting point for all the next ones to come!  Today my friends and I are hitting up Fort Wilderness lodge and Animal Kingdom (again) today, followed by Hollywood Studios tomorrow!

from Florida with love,
Jilly

No question this night will be epic ...

Tonight it all goes down!  Today is the day of the expedition everest challenge.  I have to go to ESPN today and pick up my race packet.  Then it's time to just chill out and then after supper, head on over to Animal Kingdom.  I'm really looking forward to it.  The event is sold out so there should be a lot of people!!  Last night my friends and I went and watched the opening of "Something Borrowed" and it is by far one of the best movies I have seen this year.  Yes it is a chic flick, but it was well done and it wasn't to predictable (unless you've read the book before hand, then you know what's up) which I liked.  I should head out and make my way over to the world wide of sports.  Wish me luck for tonight!

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Imma celebrity ... hah just kidding

Some of you may or may not have noticed that little newspaper article about me.  I had such a great afternoon talking about Orlando and Disney ... I probably talked his ear off.  It was a lot of fun, and I was very happy with how it turned out.  Anyways, this week has been pretty slow at work.  We only had about 1069 people in our attraction on Wednesday so it's definitely a bit of a lull here in Disney. I got groceries so now I can eat for the next couple of weeks and I run my 5K race tomorrow which will be a bit of a gong show.  Lately I've been obsessed with tea.  I drink it in the morning, afternoon and in the evening when I get back from work.  It's so good, I just can't get enough. One of my shelves in the kitchen is dedicated to tea.  Green tea, white tea, herbal tea, black tea ... any time is tea time for me.  I tried making a broccoli salad last night but I had a terrible knife so my broccoli ended up getting butchered instead of cut.  The salad turned out all right but it looks scary to eat cause of the poor broccoli.  Ah well, there is room for improvement I guess. 

from Florida with love,
Jilly

Paul Reevre & the Raiders

I had so much fun while I was home in Saskatchewan!! It was so nice to see everybody and have some good home cooked meals. I don't think there was any point in the week that I wasn't eating haha.  Like I always say, the more time I spend away from Saskatchewan, the more proud I am to call it home and to really appreciate it when I do get a chance to get back to my roots.  If I missed seeing anybody, I'm sorry and next time I come home we'll have to get together!  The flight home was easy and I didn't have any trouble at customs. I was glad to get back to my house and see all my friends.  Although the day I got in I had to get ready and head out again. It was one of my friends last night in Orlando and we had a going away party/ throw out.  I was completely exhausted by the time I got to bed (close to 1 am) since I  had almost been up for 24 hours.  Work started the next day and I had to just keep trekking on until my day off! 
During the Flower and Garden festival here at Epcot we also have weekly concerts held at the American Gardens infront of American Adventure.  I was lucky enough to land a spot working on Friday while Paul Reevre & the Raiders played.  They play such songs as "Cherokee Nation" and "Kicks" along with some other ones that I wasn't familiar with.  Paul Reevre is actually hilarious, half of their show is just the band talking and joking with each other.  They played three shows and all of them brought in a full house.  Another thing that kept me up was the wedding of William and Kate.  6 am came rolling around and my roommate was up watching the wedding.  That day we went to work and the UK pavillion was handing out free food and cake as well as champagne.  I was talking to some of my UK friends and they said that it was proud day to be British.  That was definitely a good way to end the week off! Since today is my only day off I plan on doing laundry (finally!) and going grocery shopping as well as doing some much needed napping.  I heard that there is another cold snap coming to Saskatchewan, I'm glad I got to visit while it was somewhat warm and sunny.  Hope yall are enjoying the last few days of Easter holidays!

from Florida with love,
Jilly