The Many Adventures of a Thede

I'm back from vacation in California! Getting back from vacation just makes me want to go on vacation, you know? It's never enough. I had a great time on our first family vacation in I don't know how long. Laguna Beach is paradise. Seriously. I don't know how anyone could actually live there. If you did, your expectations on life would be unrealistically high. It's just too perfect. But I love it. We spent every day on the beach, in the water, taking walks through town. Adam and I took a couple trips into LA to see Harry Potter and go to Universal Studios. But other than that, it was enough to just sit on the beach.

Vacation highlights:

Now that I'm back in New York, my skin has begun to peel off and I'm back to reality. I worked 12 hours the day after I got back! But that evening was nice because Eduardo took the day off work and we went out for our anniversary! One year! I'm excited we've made it this far, but not surprised. We have a great time together. The next day was my birthday! This year it was pretty low key. I mean, I just had a big vacation and then my anniversary, and also worked 20 hours in 2 days. So, by the time my birthday rolled around, I was just tired. But I did hang out with my co-workers for a couple drinks after work. And then I spent a low-key evening with Eduardo. It was a nice day. Maybe I'll have a party when I turn 30.

Labels: Birthday, California, Eduardo, vacation

I'm back from California! What a great trip! What's weird is I still can't believe I actually went. It's like a dream. My decision to go was so last minute, I didn't even have time to anticipate and plan. I just...went. But it couldn't have gone better even if I did have more time before the trip.

My trip started with a six hour direct flight from JFK to LAX. I've never flown coast to coast directly before. I felt just like P Diddy. Anyway, after my very long flight (in flight movie: Horton Hears a Who. Review: 2 complimentary pretzel bags up), I took my first shared ride airport shuttle to my friends' house is Placentia, California (near Disneyland). It wasn't quite as bad as this:



A guy did give me his number on the shuttle. He was a pretty nice guy, but I didn't call him. Oh, well. I guess I'll never know how that would have worked out.

So, I arrived to my friends' house where I met up with my friend Jona from Albania! I hadn't seen her in about 4 years, so it was a happy reunion. We spent that first evening talking and catching up. The next day we ran some errands with our host, and then we were able to go for coffee just the two of us, so that was nice. That evening we went with Stephanie (a girl Jona knew but I had never met) to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping, which was pretty fun. Then the next day, Thursday, we actually went to Disneyland! Going to Disneyland with someone from Albania is like going with a 3-year-old child in that to her, everything was amazing and magical. She had never seen anything like it. So, for someone who has been to Disneyland more times than I can count, it was like a whole new experience. Friday was my last day with Jona. We got breakfast and pedicures in the morning, and spent the rest of the afternoon getting her ready to go. Adam and his girlfriend Katie arrived late afternoon to pick me up. It was a tearful good-bye, and of course, now I want to go visit Albania as soon as I can! Maybe next summer...

So Friday evening Adam, Katie, and I went to Laguna Beach. It wasn't exactly like this:



I mean, the beach is gorgeous, but we just weren't surrounded by beautiful angsty teenagers. Anyway, Adam and I have vacationed on Laguna Beach before...back when we lived in Vegas, long before MTV made a TV show about it! We were really excited to go back. It was a lot of fun and just as great as we remembered it. We did some boogie boarding, had dinner at Pomodoro and then called it a night. On Saturday, we went to Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Pier, where we did a little shopping, eating, and walking along the beach. Then, Adam and Katie drove me to LAX and I was on the long flight back to New York.

What a great trip it was! You can look at photos on my flickr page! Click the badge on the right.

Labels: California, Disneyland, Jona

I'm being spontaneous...just a few days ago I decided to take a trip to California! I was on Facebook and one of my friends from Albania, Rudina, who I met on my trip to Kosovo a few years ago instant messaged me using the fabulous new chat feature (I love Facebook...just FYI). Anyway, we were catching up a little bit, and Rudina asked me if I knew that my BEST friend from Albania, Jona, was in the United States! I did NOT know that. Apparently she hasn't had internet access for a while and couldn't get in touch with me. But I was thrilled to find out. I immediately got in touch with Jona and found out that she was in Chicago, but would be traveling to California for the last part of her trip. After some very quick planning, I booked a flight with my frequent flyer miles and I'm leaving tomorrow! It's perfect timing since today was officially was last day of work for Junie B. Jones. It's a great time to take a little vacation to decompress before my summer gets too hectic. Oh! And coincidentally, Adam will be in California at the same time! So, I'll get to see him too. Hopefully I'll be able to update during the week to let you know what a great time I'm having on the west coast.

And now, an update about my activities for the rest of my summer. When I get back from California, I'll be starting rehearsals for a play called Happy Hour. It's just a showcase production (meaning low pay and no benefits), but I usually don't get good work in the summer, so I figured I'd rather do this than nothing. It sounds like it will be a fun project.

Also, I just took a job as the company manager for Studio 42. It's not going to be too glamorous to start, but I have a lot of faith in this company and I think it will be worth getting in with them at the ground level. I really think they're going places, so this could open up a lot of opportunities for me.

I'm rushing through this update so I can get to bed...I have to leave for the airport early tomorrow!

Labels: California, Happy Hour, Studio 42