Cooler Scooter

The other night we went out and I happened to run into a spinning instructor from my gym.  This was the first time I had seen her outside of the gym so we chatted for a bit and then she showed me something I have never seen in my life-- a cooler scooter.

It's a cooler...on wheels.  Motorized wheels.

I just stared in awe and just then she said "You have to take a ride before you go in [to the bar]". My face said "Oh umm...alright" but my insides were screaming "OMG CAN I CAN I?!?!"

It was a pretty smooth ride.  Thanks to Erika and her trusty iPhone, we were able to document this joyous occasion.

Action shot!

Kansas to Florida: St.Louis

Our first pit stop after leaving Kansas City was in St. Louis.  I have always wanted to go the arch, especially when I learned that you could ride up to the top of it.

What excited me even more is that the vehicles we rode up in were these tiny little pods that were designed in the 60s.  One little space fit five people for a 5 minute ride up to the top of the arch.

We was squished.

We got to know our fellow pod riders in those 5 minutes.  The two people sitting across from us were a couple from outside of Orlando.  They just happened to be in town visiting family.  The other guy was a guy in his 60s and when we asked him what he does he said "I'm a full time RVer".  All he does is ride around the country in his RV.  Imagine that life.

Anyways...knowing my luck I started getting a cough and cold right when we left Kansas.  When we got the to the top, I started getting shaky.  My cold combined with the height was making me feel super light headed.  So we walked around a bit and headed back down after a few minutes.  But not without getting some shots of downtown St. Louis first.  So glad we made this stop!

Since St.Louis was only about 3 hours away from Kansas City, we decided to head on. We passed through Illinois (got some therapeutic hot chocolate) and stopped for the night in Kentucky. Poor Ojas did all the driving. What a sport.

Kansas to Florida: Kansas

It's official.  My Kansas boy is now a Florida boy.  We've been home for a few days now.  I have to say, it is going to take some adjustment to get used to him living here.  Not in a bad way...just in a different way.  Two weeks ago, we had been in our usual situation of leading our own lives and seeing eachother every 6 weeks or so.  Big change...but I am so happy we finally made it happen.

My mom and I went to Kansas on the 12th.  My mom finally got the chance to meet Ojas's parents. Ojas's brother, Udi, surprised us by flying in from Pennsylvania so she got a chance to meet him too.

My mom also had the chance to see some parts of Kansas...parts that I had seen when I went there last year.  We went to downtown Lawrence and had a beer at Ojas's favorite brewery, Freestate.  He was pretty sad about leaving this place.

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We showed my mom around the Plaza and had our first Sampat-Patel family dinner at a Mexican restaurant there.

 I took this picture when we were leaving the restaurant and I thought it was just so cute!

While we had the families together, we thought it'd be nice to have a little mini engagement. So we got dressed up and took some pictures at the Sampat house.

Ojas's family gave me a few gifts for our engagement.  I could see that Ojas definitely had a hand in it because all the clothes and such were teal.  What a good guy for remembering my favorite color!

We only stayed in Kansas for a day a half.  On the 14th, we started our road trip back to Florida with some awesome stops along the way.  To be continued!

Song of the Day

Kings of Leon is starting to become a favorite band of mine. Apart from being pretty to look at, the singer has a really cool voice. I wasn't crazy about this band at first because their songs are very different from the singles they've released (especially "Use Somebody"). But now I LOVE THEM! I even got my mom into them (them and Snow Patrol being her favorite bands right now). Common interest in music usually leads to us listening to YouTube videos...and me breaking out in random dance parties in the living room. Whatevs.

Annnnyyywaaaaaays. This is "Closer".

"I find a map and draw a straight line, over rivers, farms and statelines..."

In just two weeks my mom and I will be flying to Kansas City. The parents are finally gonna meet! It gets me a little nervous but I'm sure everything will go great.

Ojas is going to show my mom and I around the places where he's hung out for the last 6 years. Then my mom will fly back home. And Ojas and I will start our driving trek down to Florida. I can't believe it's time for him to move here. I'm definitely ready for it but it still hasn't hit me yet. He will be going from living 1000 miles away from me to 3 miles!

As you can see from the map above, we will be hitting a few cities on our way down. With any roadtrip, it's nice to stop along the way and have a little fun. We still have to work out the details of the trip but as of now we're planning on going to the arch in St. Louis, seeing the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, doing some miscellaneous fun stuff in Chattanooga, and going to the Coke Factory in Atlanta. Depending on our timing, we may make a pit stop in Tampa before we get all the way back to Naples.

Oh how nice it'll be to just be able to hang out and not have to worry about who is going to fly where!

Song of the Day

When my mom and I were driving to Estero to meet up with my uncle, I decided that a good way to start off the night was to listen to a really good CD on the highest volume that we could tolerate it.  There's something so awesome about driving on the highway and singing to a really good song.  I mean...I'm sure the two glasses of wine I had consumed before the trip contributed to the good mood I was in.  But nevertheless...this is a great song.



(Jessica Szempruch, if you read this blog...this song ALWAYS reminds me of you)

"I'll wait by the backstage door"

My mom, Anumasi, and Maya must be sick of seeing themselves on this blog.  Well, tough cookies for them.

India Fest was on the day before my birthday this year.  This is a festival that our Indian Association puts together every year.  They sell food, clothes, and jewelry.  They also have performances on stage.

As with the Diwali show, I was kinda weirded out with the fact that my mom was the one in the show while I was the one in the audience.  This wasn't the case until about 2 years ago.  I really miss dancing.  Sigh...how I long for the garba years.  Anyways, I digress.

Since everyone was taking so many pictures of the performances, I thought it would be cool to take some pictures of where most of the action happens -- backstage.  It was fun helping my family get ready.  Maya was in a dance and her "costume" was actually my masi's wedding sari.  Crazy crazy.

"Please take it easy, it can't all be my fault"

I've done it again. I've neglected my blog. But I swear I've had my reasons.

Excuse #1:

I have actually been working lately. Gasp!  I have been employed to do some Sketch Up work for some people in Orlando.  While this house has taken several hours of my time...it's actually pretty fun for me.  Here's a little sample:

 Oh if only I could put a little teal on those walls.  I don't think they would like it though.

Excuse #2:

After completing said work one day, I decided that I would relax for a little while.  So before claiming my space on the couch, I walked into my room to grab a book.  That's when I discovered this:

Disregard the pink 80's furniture and you'll see that my carpet is sopping wet! What...not just the carpet in my room??

Oh cool...the hallway between my room and bathroom too.  After a little ("little" meaning "mega") meltdown, my mom and I call a plumber and the insurance company.  The tile of my bathroom isn't wet at all but there's a tricking noise in the wall.  The whole problem was because of this little sucker:

 

So flashforward past some drywall cutting, carpet ripping, and 4 days of giant fans...and now my room looks like this:

Come on, home insurance! Mama wants some new furniture!

Excuse #3:

I've been gallivanting with family.  I saw two live performances with my mom and other members of the Patel clan. One was a one man jazz show with my uncle (Nana).  While the music could've been better, the night was great and people were definitely enjoying themselves:

The other was the Beauty and the Beast Broadway Musical!! AHHH!! EXCITEMENT OVERLOAD! But seriously.  It was so good!  And so colorful!  And I'm really glad I liked the actors because that movie gives them a lot to live up to :)  

We went with my aunt (Anumasi) and my cousin Maya.  As you'll see below, Maya is 15 (count it...that's 10 years younger than me) and yet the two of us were equally excited about this show.

I already have my next post lined up! See ya tomorrow :)

Song of the Day

I cannot stop listening to this song! I love it! I think I'm sorta falling in love with this band.  Here's The Script's "Breakeven".




I feel like Terence Eglitis would concur?

"25 and yearning for a ticket out"

My birthday was on Sunday, March 28th! Can you believe I'm 25? Personally, I'm a little flabbergasted. 

For the last 11 months I've been sulking and whining about how I don't have many friends anymore.  But on Saturday night, I realized that I've had good friends here all along.  A group of us went out to Bar Louie and maaaan oh man I had fun.  Let's just say that it's a blessing that I drank as much water as I did.

Here are some highlights of our night out:

We start the night off with a nice picture of the girls (and Ryan...he somehow made his way into almost all of the pictures)

Later in the night and we cut to the dancing. Oh the dancing.  We all have to thank Victoria for starting this :)

And flash forward to our friend-walk to Pita Pit.  We walked like this for the whole way there...mostly to make sure that Ryan made it there okay.

At the end of the night, I decided that my feet were hot.  Notice the look of satisfaction on my face.

After Saturday's shenanigans, I needed Sunday to do absolutely nothing!  I woke up at 12 with my mom freakin out at something hovering in front of our door.  She thought it was a person when really it was a balloon from Ojas.  The balloon was attached to a box and when I opened it, the balloon got loose and now is sitting at the ceiling on top of our living room.

And this is what I found in the box (along with a really cute note).  Thanks, Ojas! :)

Again, I'm really lucky to have such good people around me.  This birthday was so much fun!