A case of the winter blues

Hey everyone? How you doin?

Today was the breakdown I had been waiting for. I'd like to say I've been pretty dang strong for 6 months, not had a crying moment since I've been here. However, today I think I hit a breaking point. Everything is fine now, maybe I just needed to get it out somehow.  What a day to do it though, if there were a day in the history of all days that everything could go wrong, it would be THIS day. I know people say this all the time but I really think it's true. When it rains, it really does pour.

Enough about my mental breakdown today. Lets talk about Florida for a minute. First of all, I can't believe that we got to stay at an actual Disney Resort in Disney World. It was pretty dang awesome. I had my own room with two queen beds... cuz I really need TWO queen beds just for me.. now that I think of it I should have just pushed them together and had a supersized  bed to myself. Anyway, the room was really nice and the pool outside had a water-slide and of course it was heated! Each day were there it was 75-80 degrees and sunny. The last day we were there it was overcast but still lovely. The conference I attended was useful, but a lot of the information was about things that I already  know. So, I learned a little bit, but most of the time I was falling asleep  and waiting patiently to go outside.

The first night we were there we took a bus to DownTown Disney and it was a blast! There was a ton of live entertainment and so many restaurants to choose from. We ended up going to Planet Hollywood where our waiter was the most annoying person on the planet. We were all ready to go within the first 20 minutes of being there. Plus, Amy (a friend on the trip) was so overstimulated by the T.V. screens and loud music I thought she was going to die on me.. hahah

So, we walked along. I went to the Disney store and bought a bunch of stuff. We saw the lego store which had the most awesome lego scenes outside. I can't believe that people actually build those. I can only imagine how long it takes. They were incredible. We went home late after that, I think we had a few drinks at the hotel bar but I can't remember at the moment. All in all it was a good night.

On Tuesday after the conference we used our free ticket to get into Magic Kingdom. I felt like a little kid again when I saw the castle for the first time. Disney World is seriously so cool. I never could imagined that I would like it so much as an adult. I was never one of those kids that yearned to go to Disney World. I never felt deprived because my parents never took me there... but it was cool. I can understand though, why my Father never took me there. It was a Tuesday  night in the off season at Disney and it was more packed then free pancake day at Ihop.  We kept running into people and I couldn't handle it at times. Too many people in such a small little space does not equal a fun time. The rides were fun, but nothing too amazing. I suppose they were all meant for little kids. There was a lot of adult humor in some of them, which made the experience worth while. For it being so packed, the wait lines were not long. I don't know what busy is but if I had to consider Disney World in the summer and how busy it might be ... I might compare it to black Friday x 100. Yep, that bad

The fireworks at Magic Kingdom were the best part, oh, and the funnel cake! If you know me, then you know that funnel cakes are my FAVORITE! hehe It was a lot of fun to relax in Florida and go to Magic Kingdom with some fun people. I enjoyed it. The thing I enjoyed the most about my trip was on Wednesday ( the last day of the conference). Our sessions were done at 12:00 so Kurt and I quick grabbed lunch after changing and went outside by the pool. I then proceeded to lay out on a chair for 5 hours. YES, 5 hours. It was overcast so I didn't feel like I was getting that much sun, but apparently I was because when I went to dinner that night my face was ON FIRE.. yes, ON FIRE! hahah That was for Amy, because I kept saying it over and over again. Who knows, maybe it was the tequila! ;)

The trip home was terrible of course. 30+ hours of traveling and a night's stay in wonderful Nome. Swollen ankles and a messed up head from time change, can't say that it's really worth it, but the memories are great! Man, maybe I really am a debbie downer today. I sound like it anyway.

I need to get myself out of this Winter Blues I am in. Seems like I was SUPER high being in Florida with all that great sunshine and now I'm SUPER low due to darkness, snow and very cold weather. I will get used to it again soon I hope.

Still waiting to hear if I will have a job next year. Waiting on a grant could take a while and I'm just not sure what is going to happen. So, I have decided that I will start applying to other places next month and see what happens just in case I cannot stay here for another year. So, I will be applying to Hawaii, Florida, Arizona, California and all the other warm places in the world. I think my body deserves it. I might apply to a few places in WI as well. Just to see what happens. Who knows where the road will take me. But the honesty of the situation is that I am free as a bird and I can go wherever  I want. Can't I? no obligations, nothing to hold me back from going on my next adventure.

Rachel and I started skiing this week. I really enjoy skiing but these are really hard to balance on for me. I'm not used to cross country on these type of skis so I fell about 1000 times. It was fun though, and a good work out at that. Felt good to get out and do something for once. Made me feel a bit better. Took my kiddos to the post office on Wednesday so they could mail their Valentines. They had a heck of good time and were so proud to mail their own letters. Also fun for them to get out of the building and have fun in the snow!

Well, I started this post a week ago and am finally finishing it today. I have lots of pictures to post so we will see if it works! Rachel, Dianna and I just went for a walk on the sea ice to take some silly pictures. It was about -30 out there. It is very cold today! By the time we got to the store to warm up we were all frozen solid! It's a beautiful sunshiny day ... it can be very deceiving, making it seem as though it's warm out and all. It's COLD!!!!!! Looking forward to spring and 20 hours of sunshine come April.

Enjoy the 1 MILLION pictures I posted :)))

Sammy
xoxoxoox