FL Vacation: A State of Mind

"I'm alive and enjoying my vacation. It truly feels like the first vacation in a very long time. The last real vacation was on John's pre-deployment leave and as much fun as we had, we couldn't help but feel the cloud of the coming deployment overshadowing it. This...this is way different. I feel like I don't have a care in the world - for once."

The above text is the only blogging I got to while away on vacation. I realized after slowly punching away on my blackberry (that I'm still not a fast typer on yet) that...I was on vacation. And blogging could wait. Even if I was sitting in a cigar bar with nothing to do since I had already finished my cigar. Now if that's not a teaser, I don't know what is one. It may not sound like one to many of you, but to most (or maybe just the bright ones...kidding, kidding), it is meaningful because I've never smoked anything in my life...besides a french fry once. And yes, it worked. Pretty weird french fry. So keep reading to hear the whole story of my first cigar. (Note: I don't really consider this truly smoking. Yes, it is smoking. But I will never be a regular smoker and I will never smoke cigarettes. I learned I enjoy cigars. I've had two. But I am not making it a habit. For several reasons...firstly because I think making smoking a habit is pretty lame. But also because cigars have some kick.)

So on to vacation.

Vacation - A state of mind:

We left the house around 5pm after work. John had a half day so he was able to get the car all ready and packed before we left. I was barely able to get myself to pack the night before because I just have not gotten into vacation mode for this trip. I've been so stressed out with everything else and its dog that I just couldn't think far enough ahead to get excited about vacation. The idea of "vacation" was just so foreign to me. Several hours on the road and I was still not really excited. I did have a new feeling flooding through me though which was encouraging: relief. The release of stress and worries. I let those worries waft out the window as we drove into the night and settled in my seat to enjoy my Harry Potter book. We stayed in Walterboro, South Carolina that night and I slept well. The next day we hit the road and waved to Georgia before entering Florida. Again, I had trouble really feeling EXCITED. But this is partly due to the fact that the south is to blame for being so darn flat and repetitive. The scenery changed very little on our drive besides the slowly rising temperature and the switch from long leaf pine trees to a few palm trees and swamps on either side of the road. Around 4pm we found ourselves approaching our destination; John had gotten us a condo at a resort-ish place about 20 minutes from Disney World. After going up the wrong stair well, we found our room and simply stopped. It was amazing. John had gotten us a two bedroom, two bathroom beautifully decorated condo (pretty much an apartment) with a beautiful view and full kitchen. I'm still in shock at how nice this place was and also knowing John did NOT spend very much on it at all. And what's even more shocking? Neither of us took ONE photo of the place. John MIGHT have right as we were leaving. I know I took a video tour of it...but that was that. Anyway...at this point, I got excited to be on vacation but it still hadn't hit me that we were going to DISNEY WORLD.
After getting groceries for the week, we got some pizza for dinner and relaxed on our 4th floor balcony and I smoked my first cigar. It was very random. John made us drinks and was selecting a cigar from his collection that he brought along. I just randomly decided I wanted to try his and then I had one of my own. I liked the flavor, the overall taste of the cigar. I enjoyed amusing myself by taking self portraits puffing smoke. After many failed attempts at blowing smoke rings and going into a fit of coughing from accidentally inhaling (we both made this mistake at exactly the same time, hacking in unison), we called it a night and went to bed early but not before I finished my Harry Potter book. On to the 5th. Two more to go.

To be continued...