While some people are busy writing Christmas cards, making sugar cookies, shoveling snow, and roasting chestnuts on an open fire, I have not been doing any of these things. I don't say this to boast or to sound proud, to be honest I am not sure where all of the time has gone. I have never been so far behind at Christmas as I am this year! In fact I feel a little pressured and stressed about it.
At the same time, I must admit I have been having fun! On December 13th Uday and I went to the Vanilla Ice Party and I forgot the camera but it was really cool. I got to be up close and person with Rob (Vanilla Ice), see his pet kangaroo and kids, and see him and Jason (from the radio station Wild95.5) sing together for the first time. You can see pictures of the party at Wild Morning Show.
This last weekend on December 20th Uday and I went sailing on a Yacht hosted by the company he works for, Authentium Inc. Uday and I spent the day of his Holiday party shopping for a red dress for me as an early birthday gift. We attended the party that night and the next day visited the Miami Zoo for my birthday (but that is the next blog). I have to say that this year I have not felt the winter blues like I did last year. It really helped to take time to appreciate the weather while on the Yacht.
I have gotten to know some of Uday's co-workers and bosses the last three years and really enjoy their company. Uday is very fortunate to work for such a great company and has fun-loving co-workers.
The dinner cruise on this Yacht included free dinner, drinks, and dancing. It was quaint, relaxing, and fun. The weather was perfect with a beautiful sunset and I appreciated once again living in south Florida especially hearing about the cold harsh winter that has been happening around most of the country.I have been to three holiday party's with Uday that were hosted by Authentium. The first was on a Yacht but Uday and I were roomates then and he brought a date and had me go with one of his (not so fun) co-worker. The second was last year in a beautiful hotel with an awesome D.J. and food. This year was on the Yatch again. I really enjoyed being in the Yacht this time compared to the first time. Uday is a much better date than the co-worker he had me go with two years ago and we had a great time dancing! We also got to practice our salsa moves!
It also turned out to be a romantic night for most couples!
I apologize to all for being late on Christmas cards and to my mom for mostly getting gift cards for Christmas this year but it seems that time flys when your having fun! Wishing you all a very fun-filled holiday season!
Click on the picture below to view all pictures from the Christmas Party on the Yacht:
The last three pictures on picasaweb are courtesy of Krassi.
Screaming at the top of my lungs, as my heart falls 200 feet before my body catches up to it...!! no, it is not our plane crashing, it is Uday and I living life to the fullest at Bush Gardens!! The roller coaster ride "Sheikra" was the most thrilling!!! Here we are at Bush Gardens in Tampa, Florida, instead of in India...Uday and I were going back and forth last weekend debating about if we should try and go to India a few days later than planned, despite the unrest and terrorist attacks in Mumbai, or cancel it all together. We had decided to cancel the trip all together and instead of sitting around during the long Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to make the best of it and go to Bush Gardens. This is one of the last big theme parks in South Florida that we hadn't visited. Soon enough, we were on our 4 hour drive towards the west coast of Florida. We slept over in an inexpensive hotel that gave a free hot breakfast buffet the next morning.We were able to spend a day and a half at the Park. It seems to take about two days to see everything at this park because it is so huge. Uday and I really enjoyed Bush Gardens because it was part zoo and part amusement park with our new favorite ride "Sheikra". It is famous for it's 200 feet, verticle drop!!! We went on it twice and really enjoyed it both times.The first roller coaster we went on was an old one and it was so shaky with so much whip-lash that I thought my brains were going to fall out of my head. It hurt my head so much that I could not concentrate on the ride. I definately don't recommend this ride and Uday also hated it!
There were a few other good roller coasters at Bush Gardens and we both also enjoyed watching the animals at Bush Gardens. We took a train ride around the park to see many of the animals and also went on a ride called, "Rhino Rally" that was like a small safari. This little jeep safari was awesome with surprising effects and views. We could not take too many pictures as we were in motion but I was able to get a few shots of the animals from a distance as we continued to move on.
Bush Gardens has a variety of birds and animals as well to enjoy. We were able to get up close to some of them and get some good pictures...
They also had a few shows at Bush Gardens and in a day and a half we only had time to see one show. The show we saw was called "Katonga" and had some cool dances and costumes.
We were very glad that we ended up going to Bush Gardens especially when we decided not to visit India at this time.Bush Gardens was a fun short break and we are looking forward for our next longer vacation and to see where our next destination leads us! Ahhh it is good to be alive!Click on the picture below to see more pictures of our time in Bush Gardens.
Sticky and somewhat sweet Madonna hits her electric guitar as if she had played it all her life. Head banging, and even playing the guitar with her booty, she was proving to the world that she did deserve the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame Award that she earned earlier this year. Madonna has always been my favorite singer/entertainer and my idol, so this blog post might be a little bias. I felt so lucky and excited to see Madonna again as Uday gave this to me as an early birthday gift. This was my third time seeing Madonna in concert and it is always exciting but a bit of a tease to be so close to her yet so far away!
So many things I would like to say to her and ask her such as what is it that she would like to do that she has not done yet in her life? I would like to tell her how her music has helped me to get through sad break-ups, torn friendships, deaths, and my difficult childhood. I would like to tell her how she and her music inspired me to be goal oriented, stand up for what I believe in, and keep dancing... But I did not get to talk with her and I was not even close to the stage so all I could do was enjoy her live performance and ponder how much she has grown since she first started inspiring me. I couldn't help but wonder how much I have grown too since I first began listening to her. I feel like she and I have similar interests in common yet I am not sure if this is because of our similar personalities or due to her influence over me. Which ever the case may be, I was proud of how "Wordly" she became and I am becoming.
Many of her underlying themes in this concert were on hope for world peace, decrease suffering, and the need for change. She is a big fan of Obama and promoted him well. Surprisingly, this was the only controversial issue that I saw in her concert this time, and I must say I was a little disappointed about that. I thought to myself, "is she conforming to sticking to safer subjects, or is it just that she has already said it all in the past?" Many of her clips about the world showed different parts and people in India, and Uday and I found out that night that we would be postponing our trip to India that we were supposed to leave for the next morning, because of the recent violence in Mumbai. This also put a damper on my excitement of being at the concert as Uday was busy talking with his parents, calming my mom, and on the phone with the airlines before, during, and after the concert. I tried to remain focused on enjoying Madonna as I knew it would be over too quickly.
The concert was suppose to begin at 7:30pm and a surprise guest was suppose to come out before Madonna. This never happened and Madonna did not perform until 10:00pm. This wait was disappointing especially when we had been told that a surprise guest was suppose to perform. I pictured poor Brittney Spears back stage saying, "Oops I did it again..." Overall I really enjoyed Madonna's concert and was surprised by her ability to rock out on the electric guitar and also to hold her own with her voice especially when she held a really long note on a song called, "You Must Love Me" from Evita. I would have loved for her to have sang more songs but I guess she just has too many songs and too little time. I took some pictures of the concert surroundings and of course Madonna.
Click on the picture below to see more pictures from Madonna's Concert:
I know it has taken some time, but here is the video you have all been waiting for... from our trip to the Smoky Mountains and Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. If you are interested in Deer and Bear in their natural environment then you might want to watch this video. We got some up close footage of the bears and deer, and they are just more beautiful in their natural environment being themselves! I was amazed to see the Llamas while on a hike in the Smoky Mountains. You can watch the Llamas as they walk past us and see the peaceful setting of Autumn in the Smoky Mountains. You will also see some footage of Uday and me in our favorite environment, "travel & adventure"!Click on the picture below to view the video of the Smoky Mountains and Gatlinburg:
I also could not resist adding this peaceful video of the footage we shot at Ripley's Aqaurium. I felt like I was swimming with the sharks and I show this in the video. It actually looks pretty funny if you watch it until the end!Click on the picture below to view the video of Ripley's Aquarium:
It all started around Halloween when mom decided to spontaneously throw a party at her house. Then our Salsa class that mom also attends were having a costume party. Here is a picture of mom with one of the Salsa teachers, named Jose. Jose is Mexican and for Halloween dressed like a Mexican guy. He is always very funny and my favorite teacher there. Uday dressed up as "men in black" and Boo as herself, "the joker"... I was too busy to dress up in a costume this year!!
Next we attended our friend Jerry's wedding on November 1st. Jerry and his wife Britney had a nice beach wedding on Singer Island, but it rained so the wedding was in a covered area. We got some good pictures outside after the wedding when the weather cleared.
On the way home we saw some people we recognized from the wedding on a main street out of their car stopping traffic and looking under a car. We assumed that they got in an accident. We stopped our car as well to help them and lo and behold, they were trying to rescue a dog which was hiding under another person's car. This man was very impatient and wanted to leave but we all stepped in along with a few other strangers to help the dog. Uday and I volunteered to take the dog to Peggy Adam's Animal Shelter (a "no kill" shelter where I got Boo). After grabbing one plain hamburger from Wendy's and a double plain Whopper from Burger King, along with a lot of water for the hungry and thirsty dog, we finally arrived at Peggy Adams Animal Shelter too late! They were not accepting dog's past 3:30pm. Reluctantly, we went to the Palm Beach Animal Shelter and they did accept him. We then called our friends and our mom's friends to see if they would adopt the dog, but they did not want a dog. I could not leave the dog at the shelter knowing that if he did not get adopted that he might be put to sleep. So we put our name as adopting him and we thought we could buy time and find him a home after getting him neutered and vaccinated. We thought about taking him home directly but we did not want him to give any diseases to Boo, in case he had any. A week later we found ourselves taking home a new family member. We named him Simba since he looks like the small skinny lion from The Lion King. He is a sweetheart so far. He is not yet completely potty trained and is now suffering with Kennel Cough as I write this. Boo is a very jealous Boo and it has not been easy working with the two of them this long weekend. Uday says it best, "This weekend has gone to the dogs!" Luckily I was off Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday due to Veterans Day!! Here are a few pictures of Simba:
On top of this, Uday and I celebrated mom's birthday, have been working on planning our India trip, and thinking about how to do well financially in this difficult economic time where we could both possibly lose our jobs somewhere in 2009! Needless to say, I got a little behind on keeping up with the blog, and keeping up with my Salsa dance classes.
I can't imagine how we would have done this if we had a kid! But that's another blog topic for another time! Keep in touch!
