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by e-mailDestinations: West Palm Beach and Kissimmee, Florida.
Day 1
Flight took off and landed just fine. Other than being stuck in the middle seat, my flying partners were both nice and didn't smell, snore, or shuffle, so it wasn't a bad ride.
Met up with Crystal and Brian no problem, right at 7:30 as planned. Sharon unfortunately had a different situation and her flight plus baggage claim took an hour longer. We found a "cell phone waiting lot" near the airport (they think of everything huh?) while waiting for her call, then headed right to Chili's for much-needed dinner. Note: Brian said he wasn't that hungry because he'd munched on some cocktail peanuts while playing Call of Duty earlier, but everyone else was starving. And of course drinks -- they were buy one, get one free which the waitress gave to us all at once, making us look like total lushes with 8 drinks on the table!
Went home, took the tour, met the dogs...
We then proceeded to turn UNO into a drinking game! All special cards (draw 2, skip, etc.) mean the person to your left drinks; wild everyone drinks. Brian was taking shots of grape flavored vodka, Crystal peach schnapps, Sharon and I straight Smirnoff (50% abv) because "it's vacation" so why not? We're champs. We stopped after one hand and thought everyone handled their alcohol very well, until Brian got out of bed at 5 am and threw up "because of the peanuts" he had eaten earlier in the night. Yeah, right...
Day 2
Saturday morning I slept in for the first time in a while. When I woke up I was pleased to find that Brian had brewed a pot of coffee and I drank that with waffles for breakfast before getting dressed, going out for smoothies, and then relaxing at the spa with the girls.
We all got pedicures and then hit the mall in such typical Jersey girl fashion that I felt like I was home except that everything was so much fancier and cleaner. Even the Shell station looked nice.
The mall was huge. Crystal told us there were 3 Starbucks within that very mall and the Victoria's Secret was the biggest I'd ever been in. I did buy a new bra there even though customer service was terrible, then went to MAC where I played with some eye shadows and then bought a beautiful turquoise shade called Steamy Frost.
Finally, we stopped at Hallmark to buy a birthday card for one of Brian's (male) coworkers whose party we were going to later, and picked out a ridiculous zebra print card with pink on the inside for Sharon and I to give. Crystal settled on something a bit more standard. Went home, got ready for a long night, and headed to the party around 7 pm. We were greeted by some very welcoming and warm individuals who offered us pizza and snacks and immediately broke the ice with - get this - party games! I love party games!
We played "How well do you know Matt?" (Sharon and I didn't do too bad, considering we didn't) and "Fluffy Bunny" which was hilarious. You have to shove marshmallows in your mouth, one at a time, and try to say the phrase, "fluffy bunny." It's not only hard to stuff them in your cheeks but to prevent them from coming back out when you laugh at everyone else!
After the party wound down, we headed downtown to Dr. Feelgood's. Unfortunately we got there after 11pm and had to pay the $10 cover (grr), but the rest of the night was a great, typical Spring Break evening. By the end of the night, we were on a first-name basis with the bartender, had each taken a shot from the shot girl, did the Cupid Shuffle in line for the restroom, helped a bachelorette complete her scavenger hunt, danced on the crowded tiny stage, avoided some creepy white-haired man and met some cool guys from Hershey, PA and Tennessee, and danced all night thanks to the fresh oxygen they somehow pump into the club (for real).
After all of this, I actually managed to wake up before noon, and before Sharon, the following day.
Day 3
Even though it was winter for Crystal, Sharon and I were dying to get to the beach, so we put on our bikinis and drove to nearby Jupiter, which was quite breezy by the ocean but sunny enough. Crystal kept her hoodie on.
After the beach, we hit up Publix, the supermarket in FL, for some sandwiches. Everything was much slower there and relaxed compared to supermarkets in the tri-state area. Then stopped at CVS to pick up some hair dye for me. After lunch, Sharon helped me with my hair while Crystal and Brian did their food shopping for the week. When they got back, we girls ended up getting into a long discussion about race and immigration and culture and plenty of other deep topics. Before we knew it, Brian had prepared and was serving us dinner - what a guy!
After dinner and plenty of wine, Brian and Crystal said nighty-night, while Sharon and I watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I had never seen before, then headed to bed ourselves for an early rise the next morning.