I heart Miami

What a crazy week(s) I have had. It all started a week and a half ago on Wednesday... I left work to hop on a train to KC. Sally greeted me with a sleeping Jason in tow and we headed to her house to make little gift boxes for the wedding. Having small child-like fingers came in handy. Danielle and Theresa (along with Sally) had planned an all day bachelorette extravaganza beginning poolside. It was quite the fiesta complete with a pinata (that wound up in the cheese dip). After getting significant sunburns (Theresa wound up with a lovely outline of a pinata from the sticker tattoos) we headed to the power and light district. Tons of fun was had including Sally riding the bull and tons of free booze from some nice men.

I had decided that since I would be in KC already it would be a prime time to get some beyond necessary dental work done. Needless to say I wasn't expecting to have to get a tooth extracted. Yuck! I wound up on vicodin for the day and night which only made the rehearsal dinner more exciting. Saturday was Sally and Jason's wedding. It was beautiful. Sally and Jason both said yes and we danced until we were kicked out...

As things turned out we had to fly out to Tampa at 7am that Sunday. Nick's sister Karina graduated on the 6th (we were told the 2nd which is why the crazy scheduling). While in Orlando I had a wonderful wedding dress shopping experience. Nick's mom and sister took me out to 3 places including another trip to David's Bridal. I must admit I was not looking forward to dealing with DB again but, I was pleasantly surprised. I believe after that trip I may have found the dress I plan to wear.

On the ride down to Miami I came up with a potential wedding idea. I love love love love LOVE Miami. Something about it has always felt magical so, in the car I said, "we want a destination wedding. Why not Miami?" and then the idea of NYE came up. Soooo now we might get married on NYE instead of waiting until next year. While in Miami we wound up visiting a beautiful potential location. We've got an idea of where to have the rehearsal dinner. Nick's cousin's girlfriend happens to be a wedding coordinator and his other cousin has offered to help. Marisa has also offered to help with planning too so between the three of them and my all star maid of honor, Sara, I think I have all of my bases completely covered. I've also started researching vacation rentals near that location. It's all very exciting. I just need to discuss with the family and see what they think.

The trip back to KC was pretty hectic. We had to get on the road from Miami at 6am in order to make our flight at 1:30 out of Tampa. We decided to wait and get gas on the highway. At one point I turned to Nick and said, "it's ok if we wait just so long as we don't run out of gas in the middle of the everglades." On the highway we are under a quarter tank when I see a gas station sign that reads "last gas stop". We keep going on down the highway looking for an exit or turn around to go back to the gas station but, 15 miles go by and nothing. Thats when the gas readers beeps and reads "low fuel". Previously this had happened while we were driving and it said that we had maybe 40 miles left in the tank. So from that point on I am watching the miles go by. When we got to 10 miles left I though "well at least we have onstar." It was moments later that Nick pressed the button... a recorded message came up and said if this is an emergency call 911. So, onward we went. 0 miles left of 40 and Nick is almost eating his thumb he is chewing on it so fiercely. The off in the distance we see an exit and, it has gas. Luckily we made it and arrived in Tampa with time to spare.

We had a layover in Charlotte, NC and previously we had been told to pick up our boarding passes at the gate once we had arrived. The woman at the gate informed us that our flight had been overbooked and that we might not get seats. She later went on the PA and offered free RT tickets to anyone wiling to give up their seats. Nick and I sat and watched as everyone boarded the and eventually they called us up. They only had one seat available and we weren't willing to separate so, we were forced volunteers. They compensated us with 2 RT tickets, put us up in a hotel for the night, and gave us vouchers for dinner and breakfast. We made it out of NC at 8am on Sunday. Fun fun.

Needless to say, Nick and I have made it back to Columbia and it looks like we have our flights paid for our next FL trip.