Aruba with "Mi Dushi"

I just returned from my trip to Aruba, and I am, for the first time in awhile, tan, relaxed, and happy Joe and I had a great time together in the sunshine. We left his house late Wednesday night and drove to Newark, NJ where we were going to catch our flight. We stayed over night in Newark to make things easier since our flight was at 9:00 am the next day. The next day we headed to the airport, and despite our flight being a little late taking off, everything went off without a hitch. We landed in Aruba at about 2pm on Thursday. When we arrived, the weather was quite cloudy, but warm. Being the city folk that we are, we budged the cab line and hailed a taxi with no waiting. On the way to the hotel had our cab driver stop at the grocery store, to get some essentials since food in Aruba is very expensive. We figured we could save a little money if we bought bagels, beer, wine, snacks etc. We arrived at the hotel about 4 pm and went to check in. My great friend Megan had gotten the us the Marriott Friends and Family discount rate, which I failed to read the fine print on. Apparently the fine print is that if the hotel is sold out, they reserve the right to put you in a room of their choice, even if you didn't request it. Now, I had specifically called the hotel and asked them about the "construction view rooms" the week before and specifically told them that I didn't want to be put in a room facing the hotel they are building next door. Low and behold, we get to our room and the beeping of bulldozers in reverse filled my ears.. WTF. I was furious.. I didn't come from noisy dirty Philly to listen to this sh*t. Joe saw my disappointment, and told me he was "going to go take care of it". He went down to the desk and had the following exchange:

Receptionist: Hi MR PETRUS, what can I do for you?

Joe: Uh, yeah, we didn't ask for a construction view room -- it specifically says on our sheet "garden view" [Receptionist proceeds to explain discount policy to "Mr. Petrus" ]

Joe: That fine but my wife and I dont want to be woken up by bouldosers every morning, we want to be moved.

Receptionist: Ok Mr. Petrus, we will move you tomorrow.

Problem solved complete with complimentary breakfast! [Note to self - let Joe book the room next time, since they will assume we are married since we are NOT children anymore and its a little dig to his manhood to be called Mr. Petrus - which proceeded to happen the remainder of the week] Later that night, we went to an Italian buffet at our hotel for dinner, and out to Senior Frogs for some good old fashion Spring Break fun. On our way back, I decided to hit up the hotel casino, and won! $600 on a penny slot.

Day 2 we moved to our garden view room. This view is more like it! We spent most of that day sitting by the pool relaxing and enjoying each others company. After all the traveling, the fighting, the long distance relationship, the ups and the downs it felt amazing to just be in the sun, sharing the same space, doing nothing, and having our problems 3000 miles away. At about 4 pm we went and cleaned up and got ready to head to restaurant called "Smokey Joe's", famous for their baby back ribs! At this point it was down pouring rain, so we were worried we wouldn't be able to get to sit outside like we originally planned, but when we got there, the usually crowded restaurant was empty and there was plenty of seats under the awning (I guess the rain scarred people away!) The ribs were fantastic!! They probably rank up there with the best ribs I've ever had! After dinner we were stuffed, so we just headed back to the hotel, gambled a little, and went to bed.

Day 3 we decided to go check out downtown Oranjestad, Aruba. Aruba is mostly known for their deals on jewelry, so I was pretty excited. We arrived downtown and went form store to store looking at all the jewelry. I had my heart set on looking for a ring, as those are really my vice in life. I fell in love with this $1,400 pink diamond with white diamonds surrounding it, and diamonds on the band. But, honestly, Joe pretty much talked me out of spending $1400 on a ring as I have many expenses including paying for the trip we were currently enjoying. So, I settled for a ring half that cost that I liked just as much. It was a blue diamond center stone surrounded by a a quarter carrot of white diamonds on a white gold band. I am in love with it. After that we ate lunch at "Iguana Joe's" ( A sister restaurant to Smokey Joe's) and looked at expensive watches that Joe was drooling over. That afternoon we went back to the hotel and Sat by the pool until it was time for dinner. Saturday night was our "romantic dinner" night. We ate at a restaurant at our hotel called 'Simply Fish'. The tables are ocean side, right on the beach. Our reservation was at sunset, and the weather was perfect. The food was amazing and the atmosphere even better. Even Joe, who struggles with finding romance said it was one of the most romantic places he's ever been and WOULD HAVE been a perfect proposal spot. ((Thanks captain obvious! -- wheres my ring?)) As it got later, they had a island band playing songs like 'Red Red Wine', and some people got up to start dancing. Being in the romantical mood, I asked him if we could go dance, he turned around and looked at the dance floor and responded, "that looks like a Cialis commercial". As I examined it further, it really did! We skipped the dancing...

Day 4 was our active day. We had arranged to do an offroading jeep tour to some of the sites around the island. We arrived at the tour company and were put in eight-person offroading landrovers. In case you didn't know Aruba is your textbook island. It has a wayward and leeward side. The hotel zone side of the island is lush green, palm trees, and calm seas. The other side, the side we were doing the jeep tour was rough water, desert like terrain, and cacti. The jeep tour stopped at most of Arubas natural treasures including the natural bridge, the gold rush ruins, the lighthouse, a church overlooking sea, and my personal favorite, natural pool. To get to the natural pool, our jeep had to offroad down the side of a mountain. Then we had to climb down some stairs made of rock, to sea level. Once we got to sea level we climbed some rocks out into the ocean, where a calm lagoon was portioned off by rocks as waves crashed up around it. Once we jumped in the lagoon, you'd swear you were in a swimming pool, except waves crashed up all around you, but didn't touch you at all. It was the coolest things I have ever done. The ride back was pretty fun and bumpy as well. The remainder of that day was spent by the pool. That night we went to Amazonia, a Brazilian steakhouse (this was Joe's restaurant pick-- the guy version of a romantic meal). We overindulged in every kind of meat you can imagine, Joe was in heaven. That night, we were both tired from our adventure, so we went to sleep.

Day 5-- relax. The entire day was spent soaking up the sun. Not much to report on it, we had run out of things to talk about at this point. We just laid next to each other soaking up the sun and our last day in paradise. For dinner, we got sushi from the sushi bar at our hotel and brought it down to the beach and watched the sun set. We had bought a bottle of wine on our travels, so wine, sushi and a sunset was perfect. Joe also smoked his Cuban cigar that we had bought in the town.. he was in man heaven. All and all a perfect end to a great vacation.

Day 6 - heading home. Our flight left Aruba at 2pm the next day and we landed at Newark airport at 8pm. We gathered our bags and headed to Joe's parents house to pick up my car. I ended up staying overnight there because I was so tired and I headed back to Manayunk after work the next day.

Lessons learned: Reflecting back on the trip, it was a great time. I think we got along so much better then I was expecting. I was worried we would run out of things to say to each other, which we did towards the end, but I think if your really comfortable with someone, its not a problem to sit in silence. Going on a trip with my boyfriend made me feel mature and grown up and scared all at the same time at how fast life is moving.. everyone just assumed we were married. I think the trip definitely fixed a lot of the problems we were having, and made Joe realize that living with me wont be a death sentence. I think he enjoyed the responsibility of feeling like he needed to take care of me, and I was his responsibility. Since we've gotten home things with us are falling into place. He is getting interviews, and talking about moving out. I hope this trip was the beginning of great things for us, because I really do love him despite everything we've been through. When I put together my outfit each night, it made me think of my girlfriends and our trips, and how I wish they were there to offer an opinion on how I matched or fix the back of my bra when it was all twisted up (since guys just don't get it). When I had to get up at 7 am each morning to secure my pool chair, Joe asked me "who did that for you guys on your girls trips?" to which I replied "the boys we were hanging with or we were still up from the night before so we were first in line". With a laugh, I grabbed my towels and headed to the pool to secure our chairs. I hope next year can go back to doing a girls trip (and a boyfriend trip), because our girls vacations are something I will never forget and as life gets more complicated with each passing day, my love for my girlfriends only grows. They were there for me back when and they are there for me now... and there are only a few things in life that remain constant these days. To my girls, I wish you coulda been there.

Climbing the Corporate Ladder... In Heels

Last Friday at around 2pm, I was sitting at my desk working hard on a budget, deep in thought, and sans heels, which I kicked off underneath my desk. My boss came over and asked if he could talk to me for a minute. I said "sure", quickly gathered my shoes, kind of embarrassed that I had been sitting barefoot at work, and asked if I should bring a pad of paper. He said "no, the CEO and I just want to speak with you for a minute." At this point, my heart sank-- what had I done wrong? Its Friday at 2pm, prime time to lay people off, I thought. As we walked my boss proceeded to tell me that "since Joe's traveling makes me so excited, he thought maybe I'd like to spend some time in Poland or Russia working on foreign acquisitions". Now I am thinking, ok, hes telling me crazy places so that when they say they are sending me to somewhere crappy in the mid-west I wont feel that bad.

I get to the CEO's office and he shuts the door. They proceed to tell me that I am not in trouble, that they appreciate the hard work that I do here on a daily basis and are giving me a promotion to senior level and a raise. WOW! THAT WAS UNEXPECTED. They told me that my immediate boss had gone to management and put a case together about why he thought that I deserved to be promoted in advance of yearly promotion time. To say I was grateful would be an understatement. I really appreciate that my company recognizes you when you work hard for them. They are quick to tell you when you've done something well, and always give the recognition to the person that deserves it. That means a lot in corporate America today... as not many companies stand behind their employees like that.

The raise & bonus eligibility will also take a huge weight off my shoulders in a few months when Sara moves out. More money means that I can take a roommate if I want to, but now, I am not as desperate as I was. What a sigh of relief.

I think its true what they say, that the world doesn't owe you anything, but sometimes, if you work really hard, and your kind.. good things happen when you least expect it. That being said, its still hard to climb the corporate ladder without kicking off your heels!

I remember my first beer...

This weekend Joe, my brother Brendan, and his roomate as well as my friend Allie and 25 of her friends went to Beerfest at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. There was about 50 different brewerys that set up tents inside the cruise ship terminal. It was from noon - 4pm on Saturday. As you walked in they gave you a 3oz beer glass and it was a free for all from there. We had a great time trying all the different craft beers. I will definitely go again. Here are some fun pictures from the day.