Across the Atlantic

    Hello blog....My apologies for neglecting you the past month.  I have been busy traveling and accepting travelers, teaching skin care classes, and starting my new job.  My life couldn't be more stressful, but today, I finally have time to recover.  Yes, I would love to spend a portion of my recovering telling you stories of what has happened in this busy, busy month.  So, where were we....

    You are probably wondering why I would part from Maya for more than a couple of hours.  There are only a few things that would take me away from her, and this particular one had rainbows, Guinness, castles, a wedding, and manual cars.  Can you guess?  A little help?  Drum roll please.....IRELAND!  Before I go on, I must inform you that visiting Ireland should definitely be added to your vacation list if it isn't already.  Anyway, we chose to head to Ireland to attend our friends AJacks (who now needs another nickname) and KielMac's fairytale wedding, but that will be for another day.  Today, I must tell you of our travels across the Atlantic Ocean.
    This was my first trip to Europe on the longest flight of my life (course this statement changed on the way home seeing it took even longer to return).  Thankfully, PDub had been to France twice this year, and therefore, took it upon himself to coach me through the journey of airports, airplanes, and jet lag.  After two glasses of wine, some cheese and crackers, and a Cardinal's win (sad to say after this recent playoff series), we boarded our plane close to 10pm on Friday evening where I was greeted with a blanket, pillow, and free movies for the flight.  However, coach told me that I needed to sleep on the way there, or I would feel horrible the next day.  I watched about three movies in all but slept off and on throughout.  I really shouldn't say "sleep"; I nodded off a few times only to be awoken by my head crashing down onto PDub's shoulder....or the man sitting next to me.  Sorry, man.  Needless to say, the flight was miserable, but after chasing the sun for over six hours, we finally caught up and arrived in our oh-so-green destination.

    If you have never experience jet lag, I do not recommend trying it, for life was horrible for a whole day.  We checked into our hotel, and the first action I wanted to perform was sleep.  Coach told me that I was absolutely not allowed to sleep seeing that it was now 10am.  Instead, I jumped in the shower and stood under the hot water for thirty minutes.  If I couldn't sleep in bed, then I was going to sleep in the shower.  After drying off, I looked at my bathroom bag and contemplated whether to apply my night cream or day cream.  Should I brush my teeth?  What part of time am I limbo-ing in right now?  I didn't even get to gift my body with pajamas.  On top of all this confusion, my stomach felt queazy, my ankles were swollen, and my physique was giving anything to be prostrate.
    We completed our day with a stroll through Dublin, eating our only meal for the day (a true Irish dinner), and falling into bed at 6:30pm only to sleep for 14 hours (at least that's what I did; PDub stared at the ceiling for awhile).  The next day, our Irish adventure continued....

Our first of many Irish meals.  A "boxty" is a traditional Irish potato pancake.

Pdub's first (of many) pint in Ireland.