Cruise Outfit and Packing Strategy

For your viewing pleasure: a few looks from dinners, a few from post-dinner hanging out with our table mates, a few from playing around in port during the days.

I will mention, though, that taking clothing was a royal waste of space in my suitcase. I packed over 9 tee and top options and only wore 5. I had two pairs of shorts and only wore one (mostly because all of our time on deck and on shore during the days were spent in a swimsuit and coverup. Why would I bother getting dressed to go to a beach if I can just drape and cover to go to a beach?).

MVP's for the week:
- Ankle/skinny white jeans- wore them almost every evening to hang out with a simple t-shirt and necklace or t-shirt and scarf combo.
- That floral scarf. I only took one with lots of color and was able to match it with a citron tee, a grey tee, my blue flowy dress, my tailored cream sheath dress, coral tank, etc, etc, etc. Incredibly versatile.
- Coral anything. It was the accidental theme color of vacation.
- Peeptoe neutral pumps, which looked rockin' with every dinner outfit, even if I opted for the cognac sandals instead (some choppy water during a few evenings).
- The absurdly bright batik'ed green and orange sarong coverup. I wore this draped across my back with two corners criss-crossed around my neck to make a modest dress. I felt perfectly tropical and a little bit foxy without showing my boobs to everyone.
- One darling vintage clutch, which gave a nice chic vibe to my formal dinner looks, and a kicky bit of personality to my white skinnies and a tee ensembles at night.
- SPF. No burns, only tans to show for our week away.

Big wastes of space:
- Tennis Shoes. Working out was a pain in the butt with so many suburban moms around and all my walking and hiking was done in my moulded rubber footbed Chacos.
- 2nd pair of shorts, too many extra tops, jacket.
- Too many jewelry options. I knew I'd choose simple or choose a scarf, so why did I bother?

 

The Do-Nothing Floating Vacation

We're baaaack.

Rob and I were given the unwarranted and completely appreciated gift of a cruise vacation by my sweet mom and dad in celebration of his degree, new jobs, and making it through the last few years. I'm so grateful for the chance to really unwind (something it usually takes 2-3 full days to do when I'm working) and enjoy my husband's company.

Cruise highlights:
- Reading (sporadic and with a background 90's pop soundtrack blaring through the ship's speakers)
- Lounging in shady areas during bright days, both on and off the ship
- A 75/25 ratio of swimsuit and coverup to real clothing
- Choice beach lounging locations as a reward for getting our buns out of bed early during days in port in Roatan and Cozumel\
- Awesome dinner tablemates- we spent every evening together at the piano bar or pub, singing our guts out
- Being the only person in the lounge (including a few 40-60 folks) who knew the words to the Cheeseburger in Paradise "rap"
- Comedy shows
- Watching numerous children in the midst of a sugar-induced meltdown since there was 24-hour access to soft serve ice cream
- Accidental 5-course meals at dinner upon requests to "try just a little of XXXX"
- Holy Blue Water, Batman
- SPF 30 reapplied a thousand times and no sunburn to show for it
- Saw a pair of monkeys on the beach and held an iguana, who felt like a heavy sequined purse
- Shallow water snorkeling with our own equipment- no expensive tour guide necessary

If you ever get a chance to cruise, I highly recommend it. We had a lot of fun people watching and gorging ourselves on the ship, explored new countries as we got to port on the cheap by just hiring a taxi for the day, took borrowed snorkel gear from my family, and bargained like crazy whenever we could.

I'll share my dinner looks later on in the week, it was really fun to have an excuse to get dolled up each evening!

Up on the "Adults Only" deck of the cruise, sipping on unlimited sodas and reading

Overlook on the ridge roadway in Roatan, Honduras. I spent literally half of my waking hours in a swimsuit and that coverup wrap.

Reading on the beach on Roatan, Honduras

Windy departure from port

Pina Colada, private cabana with hammocks, and loud waves in Cozumel.

Nerd. I love him.

No joke. Water that perfectly blue.

I was so grateful for a table full of cheerful, chatty, and low key couples. We had so much fun with this crew all week!

Wrapping Up

Skirt: Target...Tee: J Crew Factory...Scarf: TJ Maxx...Belt: Target...Shoes: Naturalizer...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

It's been so. darn. cold in our office the last month. AC is my nemesis. My fingers are literally freezing after having them exposed and elevated to work on the computer. Solution? Dress like it's early spring: lighter, happy colors, worn in pretty extreme layers (there's totally two long sleeved shirts going on up there), along with an oversized scarf. Oh, yeah, and then die of heat stroke once you step out into Houston's 96 F, 80% humidity afternoon weather.


Guys, it's my very last day at work today. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, and I'm definitely glad to be trotting off to China soon.

I won't say I'm not a little sad. This job has had its challenges- grants writing (but mostly grants reporting on Education and programs which I know nothing about) is hard. And diving into it with no prior experience and being given very little training made it tougher. But, I was surrounded by really good people, extraordinary work being accomplished, and, if nothing else, I was part of a shift in the the energy of the office after a few years of tricky office dynamics and leadership. If nothing else, I contributed to creating a cheerful and positive culture and working relationships. Was the position itself my best fit? Probably not. The Gala, streamlined branding and templates, and positive energy are things I'm proud to put my name on, though.

But, as of today at 5:00, I'm unemployed. Rather, I'm officially on vacation. Rob and I are going on a cruise to Belize, Isla Roatan, and Cozumel. And then we get one final week to soak up friend time and finish painting and cleaning this apartment that's been home for four years.

And then three weeks stuffed full of family time! I just saw my family during my brother's HS graduation a few short weeks ago, but I'm beyond excited for this.

And then we're getting onto a plane to move halfway across the world.

Move. Across the world.



Whoa.

Playing Catch-Up

Hits and misses from the last little while:

Bri Marie of Work Clothes, I Suppose was in town briefly for a work trip. You'd better believe I snatched her up and took her to a favorite local place for cocktail. And it was awesome. Beyond words kind of awesome. She's every bit as sweet and charming in person as she seems on the blog. 

Our friend Erika left town. I sobbed like a weenie. 

MY BROTHER GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL. Which officially makes me an old fart. He's going to have so many awesome adventures at college next year and I can't wait to hear about all of them.

Which also meant that I spent over two days with my whole family. (Well, not Rob, but we did add on my sissy's fiance) Thems girls know how to make dipping sauces. 

I gorged myself on all the grilled meats. Ho.ly.Cow.

We recreated a childhood photo of the four of us kids on the front stoop with our childhood babysitter. She was an arm-flapping madwoman getting hands at just the right angle and arms overlapping just so. We laughed our butts off. 

I got back into town for a nice 4 day workweek.

Surprise! We turned it into Dog Week at work.

It shortened to a 3 day workweek because I spent Thursday barfy and achy. Note to self: no more crappy Chinese food. I think it was the culprit. It was the absolute pits- stuck at home, tired beyond words, wanting to do something helpful for the move, but all I could muster was telling Rob a few prices for things that went into our yard sale. I slept most of the day away and hurt the whole time doing it.

Woke up early (and I mean around 4-4:30ish) on Saturday to the sound of a drippy shower. Dangit. Couldn't turn it off and went back to bed annoyed. A little later, I heard a commotion in the tub and squawked at Miles to quit being a turd and getting into things. He licked me on my face to prove his innocence. 

As it turns out, it was a slow drip from our upstairs neighbor's faucet  that finally crumbled through our ceiling. Don't worry, our landlord got the sweet maintenance guy here to help us repair it by about 6:30. Gotta love it when management companies really do a good job for their tenants.

Neighbors hosted a yard sale and we got rid of lots of good stuff! Not the tall table and chairs or media center, but lots of good stuff. 

And a crap ton of cleaning, sorting, packing, and preparing on Sunday. 

Ohmygosh, packing, sorting, and cleaning. It's really getting tricky to be sure we've planned ahead well so we don't send something in boxes to China that we'll want for the summer. And on top of that, there's a range of summertime events from my sister's shower, rehearsal, and wedding to baseball games and bbq's to family dinners with grandparents. It's all getting wild!

I'm also getting started on thiiiis for you guys. As we get closer to the move, I'll keep writing about things we've learned along the way and tidbits we swipe from my sister since she moved back to the US from Beijing and Hong Kong. And once we're there, I'll start to fill it with tales of all the most adorable pockets of town.

How did you all spend your weekends?

Beginning of the End

Skirt: Target...Button down: Banana Outlet...Shoes: Nine West via Buffalo Exchange...Belt: Target...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

Friends, it's starting. Our apartment looks like a bad horror movie set. Dust bunnies, derelict and strewn boxes, a tragic lack of furniture. I'm also rotating between about 7 total articles of clothing and wearing them like mad. So, I'm rationing photos from outfits past. For example, that skirt was last worn about three weeks ago and found a new home with my sister. And that gingham blouse got packed away in the "to be shipped box." Instead, I'm wearing all of the t-shirts that look like they won't last the summer anyway. If I look a liiiittle bit silly for my last three weeks of work, what are they going to do? Fire me?

The other little bit of weirdness is packing what needs to get shipped on the slow boat since that will need to get picked up within about a week or two to get to China in time for the start of the school year. And academic books for instruction are kiiiind of important for a new teacher and a new program.

Happiest Wednesday, dear ones!

Adios to the Three Musketeers

Skirt, Cardigan, Belt, Necklace: Target...Shoes: Nine West via Buffalo Exchange

Well, it's happened. We had our first for-real adios. Our friend (Rob, his Bromance, and this buddy all three came into the doctoral program together) is getting ready to skip town for several summer festivals and conferences and he definitely won't be back before we leave. There have been a few friends that have left after the school year ended who we won't see again before we move, but this is the first major goodbye.

And I didn't cry. Don't know how I managed it, but I didn't cry. It may be because his wife is still in town and I know we'll spend time together, so it doesn't feel "real" yet.

Anyway, we did a BBQ, because there really isn't a better way to say farewell than with a potluck and burgers. We started a grease fire, let it burn off and roasted marshmallows a few hours later, sipped a hodgepodge of leftover beers from the graduation BBQ, nibbled on chips until the 90% humidity made them stale and disgusting, and did a lot of really good reminiscing.

Gosh, it's been a good four years here in Houston.

Brights

Skirt, Cardigan, Belt, Scarf: Target...Shoes: Nine West via Buffalo Exchange...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

Ever have one of those looks where you think it's a cheerful flurry of color and then you realize it's really just a matter of wearing skittles? Or jelly beans. Yup, that happened. The candy-colored rainbow barfed all over me and I wore it to work. I suppose that's what I get when I have all my favorite neutrals packed away into a duffel bag and I'm left with the collection of "I don't reeeeally know if I want to keep it for the move" bits and pieces of bright.

I would apologize for going MIA so often, but I really haven't been feeling like blogging lately. Because it's too soon to really talk about our upcoming move to Suzhou, China (I could only tell you about adventures in banking and making arrangements for a Penske truck rental to get our crap back to Ohio. And I can't really talk about life because it's been a series of busy weeks and a funny cycle of doing the same things with the same friends overandoverandover because we want to pack in as much time with them as we can. And I can't really talk about work because... well, it's just work. I'm writing a lot of grant reports.

Okay, well, I guess you guys are all caught up! Thanks for stickin' around in this really weird phase of life.

Graduation Season and a Sister Visit

Highlights since we last spoke:

Rob's mom and dad were in town for 2 1/2 glorious days to celebrate graduation with us! We ate well, we drank better (his mom is a very discriminating red wine drinker and his dad is a lager buff). We had crazy big storms on Friday morning and overnight, but it cleared up before Saturday morning graduation. We had to muck our way through a swamp to get to seats on the lawn, but the ceremony was outside and the bright blue sky was gorgeous! Rob and his two best buddies got a "Ta Da!" style horn-quintet chord played for each of them during the Friday Doctoral Hooding Ceremony (epic), and that was topped by getting to high-five Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who was the commencement speaker, as they walked across the graduation stage (epic-er).

The three graduates hosted a BBQ in our friends' backyard for only our families and their main composition professors and it was nothing short of the perfect way to celebrate their hard work and accomplishments. They're all such laid back guys and so family oriented; anything else, like a dinner out, wouldn't have felt like the right conclusion to their four years together. Spending time with the other two guys' families was a real treat. Oh, and the plethora of grilled dinner options was pretty much the best.

My sister got engaged a few months ago and they plan to wed before we depart for China. Since they had lived in China and Hong Kong before their move back to the States, they wanted to find a way to incude their friends from all over on their special day, even if they're halfway around the world. So, in the tradition of Chinese FuXi (wished for luck and prosperity), she wants to send out red hanging tags that friends and far away family can write notes on and they'll all be tied to a cord at the wedding. With my arsenal of cutting mats and exacto blades, I volunteered to work on the project. And then she got really sad that she wasn't able to work on wedding projects alongside sisters. So, a ticket was booked with miles and less than 48 hours later, she was hanging out in my living room. I got sister time! I got to spend time talking, giggling, crying, and getting excited about the next year for each of us with my sister standing in the same room as me! And she got over 250 red mat board hangtags to include in mailings to her friends. And, now, I wouldn't be at all shocked if she showed up in Phoenix to work on invitations with our other sister.

My dainty little cat also got hold of a gecko and ate him. That was thrilling.

This week was not at all what I expected, but the mix of good and bad (uugh, work is getting tricky with end-of-the-school-year-grant-reporting) makes me tired and happy.

Whirlwind Week

Pants: Zara...Blouse: thrifted...Cardigan: Target...Shoes: Naturalizer

It's been a wild week and getting more nuts! We sold our Honda Fit on Tuesday (I cried. It was such a good car), and went to see my friend's dress rehearsal of Chinglish, which was an excellent play. A friend from Arizona was in town visiting his parents, so we went to dinner last night and ate a disgusting amount of sushi. We've been packing and selling things like crazy after we posted a bunch of things in the university's online advertisement forum. Poor Rob has spent two days doing nothing but answer questions like "Yes, it's a pretty standard crock pot. No, that tall shelf can't be shortened. Sure, you can come look at it, but it has to be before Friday at 10."

And that's because Friday afternoon is his Doctoral Hooding Ceremony. And Saturday at the buttcrack of dawn is Graduation. Which, by the way, might get rained out, so each candidate only gets two tickets for the Field House, and our group includes a spouse and two parents. (Oh, yeah, and Rob's parents are arriving tonight!) Bromance's family is here too, and his cousin is joining the group, so if we can't weasel our way into any extra tickets, his mom and I are going to spend our morning watching the televised version and drinking mimosas together. I sure would love to see them graduate since I'm so sick of student-hood, but spending time that way isn't a terrible alternative.

So, I'll see you all next week! Maybe. There's been a lot of friend time each evening, lots of arrangements to make, but at least we're getting it all done earlier than later. Phew, I'm overwhelmed and exhausted already!

Beaches and Ballgames

Okay, so last Friday, I got a little ahead of myself when I chattered about the baseball game. And I never posted a photo of the weekend in Galveston. So, here we go.

It's been a yearly tradition to join the head of the composition department for a celebratory weekend away with all the composer students. This year, we all piled into a house south of Galveston. I've ripped on Galveston before for being too touristy and for not having nice beaches. But, dang, if you get out of the city a little ways, the sand is light and fluffy, wide beaches, and quiet. A little overcast and a bit chilly, but we got some good tennis golf going down on the beach, card games and giggling, and tons of opportunity to watch some cut-throat beer pong. I enjoyed myself immensely!

Thursday through Sunday, we were able to score cheap seats to see all four Detroit Tigers' games against the Houston Astros (charmingly known as the Last-ros. They're not very good). Rob has been a Tigers' fan since he was in the womb (no joke, he was born days after the last time they won the World Series) and he and his dad have been long-distance radio and online tracking the seasons together since we moved away from northern Ohio. And the Astros juuuuust switched leagues, so they came to town to play a series for the first time since we've been down south. Needless to say, we were really excited about it!

I spent the beginning of every game hovering around the 3rd base fence, hoping to get my favorite player, Austin Jackson, to sign my ball cap. I'll be honest, I have a big crush on the guy, but it sure doesn't hurt that he's a pretty potent center fielder. Dude can run and can catch some really impressive fly balls.

No luck on a signature, but he did turn and wave once when the kid next to me yelled his name. I would say "Close enough" but I really thought I had a chance at a pitty autograph since I was down there every day. Tough luck. Also, Sunday's game was pitched by Justin Verlander (widely reconized as the best pitcher of any team right now) and we were less than 200 feet from his warm up before the game. Rob did a little fan-boy dance. Can't say I blame him.

This is when he turned to acknowledge the little boy.

Oh, hey, Justin Verlander. No biggie, we're 200 feet away from the MLB MVP of 2012.

Nice sneer.

Other highlights: Bromance came to all four games with us and purchased a refillable popcorn tub for $10 the first game. We refilled that bad boy for free the rest of the series. Brilliant. Little Roo was in town for a visit from L.A. and we got to spend all of Saturday with her. Such a treat! Our buddy also made a strange face in every photo I snapped of him. It's a series of photographs I'm proud to have. Aaaaand, on Sunday's game, Rob was accosted by the Astros' mascot for being a Tigers fan. He was made to tie the mascot's shoe, and then the mascot flipped his Astros jersey over Rob's head to cover the Detroit Tigers "D" shirt. No joke, it was 3 minutes full of pretty absurd interaction with an enormous green muppet. The Little League kids a few rows behind us were cackling, they loved it!