My hard (but amazing) Life... B"H: February 2012

2/6/12
12:41 AM

So... It's been a very long while since I have posted anything, and here's my excuse: My computer battery died, I caught a REALLY bad sinus infection, and then it was Midwinter vacation, during which I was in good, warm Florida with Chaim... And then I procrastinated.

Yeah, so I admit it, I have a hard time keeping to a schedule in writing a diary (or in this case a blog).

I guess I just like writing when inspiration strikes. Which it has, thankfully.

So to elaborate, since my last post from January 1 (wow! has it been that long???), I had laryngitis, which a week later became a really horrible sinus infection, with a fever of up to 103 degrees. I was hardly able to move. But let me tell you, Amoxicillen is really a miracle medicine. I started taking it on a Thursday night, and we flew out to Florida on Monday morning, at which point I had a slightly raw nose (from blowing so much), but overall felt quite good!

So that leads me straight into the Vacation talk. Our flight was on the 23rd, at 11 AM. We left the house at 8, (Totty gave us $100 of "pocket money" when I mentioned I needed to find an ATM) got to the airport safely, went through security (they took my cream cheese!) and got to the gate with 2 hours to spare. As I said, better 2 hours early than 5 minutes late, no?

When it got closer to our boarding time, I took a look at the screens saying what gates which flights were, and found that we had walked to the opposite side of the terminal, because they had changed the gate. And boarding time. We were delayed 30 minutes, and we had to catch another plane an hour after our scheduled landing time. Eeeps.

Thankfully, we were actually allowed to take off, (they were saying that there were limited planes being allowed to land in Philadelphia (our stopover... $100 cheaper). It was quite an interesting flight, as it was a very small plane... and when I say very, I mean very. There was one stewardess, around 40 seats, and 35 passengers. At most. That's less than a coach bus! We also boarded from the tarmac, so I was feeling a bit weird. I really thought that they didn't do that anymore.

So the flight was kinda uneventful, besides for the itty-bitty fact of the (cute!) guy sitting next to me. He was wearing a sort of sweater/shirt, and was reading a romance novel. If I weren't Jewish, and actually thought I had a chance, I would probably had worked up the courage to say "hi"... but I'm SO glad I didn't. I stood up to the test.

Anyway, that wasn't even the most of it... I took out my book (LotR:RotK), and started reading. Around 15 minutes into the flight, I put down the book in the pocket of the seat in front of me, and see him take out his iPod. Being uber sneaky, I peeked at what he was typing. He wrote "Reflections on a flight: a short story," skipped a few lines, and then wrote "Ethelbert B. Cranford," which he then fixed to say "Crawford." When I saw that, I thought "Gosh, this guy has a really weird name!" and then my eyes slipped down to my book... on the top of it was stamped the name of the library I had taken it out of a few years ago... Ethelbert B. Crawford Public Library.

I seriously had to bite my lip to keep from laughing! He was doing the same thing I was! Taking sidelong glances at me while I wasn't looking! And I thought I wasn't interesting.

I wish I had said something, anything to him, to let him know I saw what he wrote. I am dead curious to know who he is, and what he was going to write. Because it's totally what I do! Open my iPod, and write down something random to be expanded upon in a story later on!

Oh, and he had a pocket-watch. Come on. How is that not awesome?!

*sigh*

Come on! Sarah Dina! You're a Frum girl!!! Stop thinking of that one goyish guy you saw on a plane! He may just have been anti-semitic!

Ok... I'll stop trying to fool myself. I'll always wonder who that guy was. If he was some well known author, or if he was just a regular joe-shmo (with a pocket-watch).

Anywho... we landed, and Chaim and I ran and caught a shuttle to the other terminal, where we were due to be quite soon after we landed. We missed the area of the shuttle, so had to double back, loosing even more time. We quickly disembarked the shuttle, and found our way to the gate, which was, oddly, empty! Suddenly, we heard the man by the gate ask, "Orlando?" We answered affirmatively, and he said that the plane was about to leave! Eeps!

We quickly ran down the boarding area, and found that we were going to have to check our bags, because the carry-on areas, as well as the flight, was full. We ran to our seats, (Chaim was sitting in the row behind me). Amazingly, the woman who was sitting next to me asked if we were together, and when I said yes, she offered to switch seats with Chaim so that we could sit together.

As soon as we both got settled in, the fasten seatbelts sign went on, and the stewardesses (and one steward) started going through the safety mime. (I always wonder whats going through their heads when they're doing it. "pick up fake seatbelt. click it in. Pull it out. Smile." Gosh... must be so monotonous.)

Amazingly, the person who was supposed to be sitting by the window in my row seemed to have missed the flight, and so Chaim and I had the row to ourselves! He put his hat down on the seat in middle, and halfway through the flight, we switched so that he could see the landing through the window.

It was a 3 hour flight, during which I mostly listened to my podcasts... We landed, and got off the plane to a BEAUTIFULLY warm Florida breeze! Even in the walkway into the terminal!

We got our luggage, and called a cab, only to be told that they had a stand there...

We walked a bit, and got a cab to our hotel, the Westgate Palace. The cab cost $44! (the cab driver automatically took a tip of $6, to make it $50)

It took a bit of a while to get to our room (because they were doing some "cosmetic surgery" to the front of the hotel, we had to find a roundabout way to get into the check-in area.) We checked in, I got our room keys, and we were ready to go! The man who brought up our luggage was really nice, but I only had one single in my wallet to tip him! (the cab driver rounded up his tip, remember?)

So we were in the Hotel Room at about 4:45. It was absolutely beautiful! There were two bedrooms with King sized beds. I wanted the room with the Jacuzzi. In fact, I called it, but I gave Chaim a chance to win it with Rock-paper-Scissors. I won, so I gave him a chance two out of three, which I won, and then gave him a chance three out of five... Which I won.

But I still let him have it. What in the world happened to be being assertive?

I guess major part of my vacation, which trumped a relaxing bath in a Jacuzzi was not fighting with Chaim.

So I had the room with the adjoining bathroom with the shower area. The bathroom itself was bigger than my bedroom at home. And as angry as I was about the Jacuzzi, I actually enjoyed the showers!

Anyway, I unpacked while he watched TV, and then we sat down and watched Evil Dead 2 with the commentary together. We ate a real "TV dinner" in front of the TV. I definitely don't think that it's the way to live, but when you're on vacation, go ahead and watch TV all day and eat your meals in front of it. Go on, enjoy yourself!

After we finished the movie and some channel flipping, we both settled into our respective rooms. I watched some FRIENDS on the TV in my room, and then fell asleep.

(The adventures continue in the next post! For now, I am going to sleep!!!)

Good Night!

Sarah Dina Schiff

1:33 AM

My hard (but amazing) Life... B"H

Monday, February 6, 2012

Long Hiatus, but I'm back!

Computer breakdown!