Christmas with Taylor 2014

After work on Friday, I drove down to visit Taylor and celebrate Christmas. Damn, I missed that girl! We wasted no time in opening up some wine and opening our gifts from each other.  Oh, and I passed our friendship turd back to her. After adding something to it, of course. I think the red button looks great!


We talked for another hour, and then Kenny, Taylor, and I went to P.F. Chang's for dinner.  We are two very classy ladies, so it should be no surprise that we took advantage of the chopsticks and became walruses for a photo op.

By the time we were done eating dinner it was 10:30pm, so we went back to her place and went to bed.

I left around 6am for a 9 mile run. Even though I had a paper with turn by turn directions with me,  I still had no idea where I was because I'm not familiar with the area.  It was a great run. I ran 9 miles in Sunrise, Florida, on Sunrise Blvd as the sun was rising, so that was kind of special.  Kenny had already left for work by the time I got back and Taylor was already up getting ready, so I didn't get any extra sleep. After I took a shower, Taylor and I went to a flea market she wanted to check out. We followed the flea market with lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, which was my first time there. It was delicious!  We took our cheesecakes to go and ate them at her place before we left for the Phillips, Craig, and Dean concert.

We took a great photo by a Christmas tree before the concert.

When the show ended, we went back to Taylor's place and recreated a selfie we found on Pinterest. It was outrageous and hilarious. Memories were most certainly made while trying to recreate it.  After that nonsense, we went to bed. 



We slept in Sunday morning, and went to Publix for some baking supplies before going to church at 1pm. After church we went ice skating! I had forgotten how much I love to ice skate. It was great fun. Once we made it back to Taylor's place, we did some baking and took some selfies while we waited for things to bake. Once we finished baking, selfie taking, and listening to Christmas music it was time for me to head home. We're hoping to see each other in January.



My Trip To Sunrise

I left after work on Friday to go visit Taylor. It took me about three and a half hours to get there and it rained most of my drive down, which sucked. However, getting to see Taylor made it worth it. Wicked rain, wind, thunder and lighting accompanied me on the Turnpike, which slowed my pace. I arrived at Taylor's a little after 7:45pm. Then, Taylor, Kenny, Sean, Chelsea, and I went to P.F. Chang. Yeah, I was the fifth wheel, but I didn't mind.  I had amazing kung pao chicken. We followed P.F. Chang with Funky Buddha Brewery. The brewery was awesome because they had their own micro brews on tap, plus they had numerous tables to play games at. You sign out games from the game room like Apples to Apples, Monopoly, etc... then you sit in the well lit bar area with music at a lower volume than a typical club so that you can play the games and drink their great brews. I fell in love with their Hop Gun IPA. I've never tasted a beer like it before and it makes me want to try more local breweries around Orlando.  We closed the brewery and I'm not sure what time we got back to Taylor's place, but I know it was Saturday. I slept on their fold-out couch, which was surprisingly comfortable.

Saturday's wake up call came early because her birthday party started at 10am. By the time, we got up, got dressed, and folded up the couch bed Mrs. Conklin was knocking on the door. Slowly, people trickled in, Taylor's grandma and grandpa, Katrina, Kenny's sister's, Alisa and Emily, and CJ. It was storming, so we had to post pone the pool party. Taylor opened gifts and everyone snacked. Eventually, the storm let up enough for us to move the party to the pool only for another storm to chase us back into the apartment. We sang, ate cake, played games, and watched a movie. During this time a few people left and I went into Taylor and Kenny's room to take a nap while everyone else played another game.  By the time I woke up it was time to go to the Game Room, which is like a knock off of Dave and Buster's. Mrs. Conklin, Taylor, Kenny, Sean, Alisa, and I went to the Game Room where we raced, shot things, played guitar hero, bowled, and played air hockey.  I left in the middle of gaming because I wanted to get back home before midnight. I had a blast celebrating with Taylor, and I know it meant a lot to her that I came to celebrate with her. I love seeing her new place and where she calls home. Though I wish we would have gotten some time together without everyone else around... I'm just greedy like that I guess.

The friendship turd is now in my hands, so I get to think about how I want to enhance it this time.