(no subject)
So in a few days, I'm leaving for a trip to Maui with Josh. My parents decided to send us on a honeymoon/anniversary trip since our job schedules when we got married last year didn't allow for either of us to take a lot of time off. We were able to take a weekend trip to my parents' beach condo after the wedding, which was fun but not very elaborate. I never really thought we needed any more than that, but I'm not going to complain if my parents want to send us on a trip to somewhere more exotic than the Oregon coastline ^_^ Anyway, our 1st anniversary is the 20th and we're leaving on the 23rd (it wasn't actually planned to be around our anniversary, it just so happened that work/school schedules made it the best time to go). I should be looking forward to it, but there's a couple of things that are kind of stressing me out....
First of all, vacation planning. This is the first time I'm going on a big vacation without someone else there to plan things out. All Josh and I have done on our own is go to the beach condo a couple of times, which doesn't require much planning since we usually spend all day at the arcade ;P Every other time when we or I went on vacations before we were married, there were always parents or other family members there to plan things out. Now it's just the two of us, and Josh has never been to Maui before, so it kind of falls on me to come up with things to do. And I'm bad with decision making. I don't want to veg out in the hotel all day, that would feel like a waste of my parents' money. I'll probably try looking at some websites or something to get ideas, but I still feel a bit worried that we could end up either too busy or having too much downtime if I don't plan things "just right". I know, I should just relax and enjoy myself, but I'm finding that hard to do.
Next issue, getting around. I have a terrible sense of direction. I'm clueless as to which way North and other directions are unless I have some landmark to guide me, i.e., the Willamette River that runs through Portland. But if I'm in an unfamiliar area, I have no idea. It amazes me how some people just know which way is which no matter where they are (my parents and brother can do this....I'm the odd one out :P) I think Josh is pretty good with it, too, but I am concerned about getting lost and not knowing how to get back or something. It's not like I'll have a computer and be able to look up directions online or anything (of course, I could always bring a map, but it's much more comforting to have something telling me every turn I'll need to make and how long it will take). I've been to Maui several times before with my parents, so I know that the roads aren't that complicated, but then again, the other day I tried taking an alternate route to work because my regular route was under construction, and I got lost....in my own home city where I've lived for 23 years!
The last thing is one I already had to deal with....it was more of a reality check. Since graduating from college almost two years ago, I've put on a few pounds. Not a whole lot, probably between 10 and 15, so it's not really noticable looking at me (though I definitely noticed at my wedding, when my dress ended up being way too tight after I ate :P), but it's definitiely noticable when trying to squeeze my ass into shorts I bought back in high school. There's a line between clothes that are small and tight in a cute way versus clothes that are small and tight in an unflattering way, and I found myself crossing that line :P So that means I had to go buy some new summery clothes for the trip. First problem I encountered....there aren't many summer clothes left; it's all Back to School stuff now. Even the clearance racks didn't have much in the way of shorts. I had to settle for getting skirts and cropped pants. The other issue: sizes. Since I'd gained some weight, I had to figure out what size I needed to get. This meant a lot more trips to the dressing rooms than usual since there was a six item limit and I often had to bring in two of the same item in different sizes to see which fit better. The conclusion: I'm not quite big enough to be one size up, which means most of the stuff I buy will be either a little tight if I buy it in my old regular size, or a bit too loose if I go for a new bigger size. And, of course, different companies do their sizes all differently, so for some garments even my old regular size is loose, while others that are supposedly the same size were so tight I couldn't fit them over my hips. Regulation, people! Is it really that hard?
Even though I'm worrying a bunch, I know I'll have fun. It's been a few years since my last Hawaii trip, so I'm looking forward to going back again, since it's my favorite place to vacation (I would put Japan at the top of vacation destinations, but my goal is to live there ^_^). I'll be back on the 29th and hopefully get the new Gravitation tracks scanned/summarized in a timely fashion. Aloha!
First of all, vacation planning. This is the first time I'm going on a big vacation without someone else there to plan things out. All Josh and I have done on our own is go to the beach condo a couple of times, which doesn't require much planning since we usually spend all day at the arcade ;P Every other time when we or I went on vacations before we were married, there were always parents or other family members there to plan things out. Now it's just the two of us, and Josh has never been to Maui before, so it kind of falls on me to come up with things to do. And I'm bad with decision making. I don't want to veg out in the hotel all day, that would feel like a waste of my parents' money. I'll probably try looking at some websites or something to get ideas, but I still feel a bit worried that we could end up either too busy or having too much downtime if I don't plan things "just right". I know, I should just relax and enjoy myself, but I'm finding that hard to do.
Next issue, getting around. I have a terrible sense of direction. I'm clueless as to which way North and other directions are unless I have some landmark to guide me, i.e., the Willamette River that runs through Portland. But if I'm in an unfamiliar area, I have no idea. It amazes me how some people just know which way is which no matter where they are (my parents and brother can do this....I'm the odd one out :P) I think Josh is pretty good with it, too, but I am concerned about getting lost and not knowing how to get back or something. It's not like I'll have a computer and be able to look up directions online or anything (of course, I could always bring a map, but it's much more comforting to have something telling me every turn I'll need to make and how long it will take). I've been to Maui several times before with my parents, so I know that the roads aren't that complicated, but then again, the other day I tried taking an alternate route to work because my regular route was under construction, and I got lost....in my own home city where I've lived for 23 years!
The last thing is one I already had to deal with....it was more of a reality check. Since graduating from college almost two years ago, I've put on a few pounds. Not a whole lot, probably between 10 and 15, so it's not really noticable looking at me (though I definitely noticed at my wedding, when my dress ended up being way too tight after I ate :P), but it's definitiely noticable when trying to squeeze my ass into shorts I bought back in high school. There's a line between clothes that are small and tight in a cute way versus clothes that are small and tight in an unflattering way, and I found myself crossing that line :P So that means I had to go buy some new summery clothes for the trip. First problem I encountered....there aren't many summer clothes left; it's all Back to School stuff now. Even the clearance racks didn't have much in the way of shorts. I had to settle for getting skirts and cropped pants. The other issue: sizes. Since I'd gained some weight, I had to figure out what size I needed to get. This meant a lot more trips to the dressing rooms than usual since there was a six item limit and I often had to bring in two of the same item in different sizes to see which fit better. The conclusion: I'm not quite big enough to be one size up, which means most of the stuff I buy will be either a little tight if I buy it in my old regular size, or a bit too loose if I go for a new bigger size. And, of course, different companies do their sizes all differently, so for some garments even my old regular size is loose, while others that are supposedly the same size were so tight I couldn't fit them over my hips. Regulation, people! Is it really that hard?
Even though I'm worrying a bunch, I know I'll have fun. It's been a few years since my last Hawaii trip, so I'm looking forward to going back again, since it's my favorite place to vacation (I would put Japan at the top of vacation destinations, but my goal is to live there ^_^). I'll be back on the 29th and hopefully get the new Gravitation tracks scanned/summarized in a timely fashion. Aloha!