One of the biggest things I have always, really, truly wanted to do was write.
That, and marry a rock star.
I have been writing since I was very young. My 1st memories are from age 7 or 8; writing awful, hideous "horror tales" (because frankly, that is what interested me.)
I didn't actually enjoy writing until I got some recognition and encouragement. Which, oddly enough, was from my 4th grade teacher. Shortly after that, I won a writing contest at our local mall. LOL
But, the one thing I always come back to is - writing about my own life. My stories. My experiences. My adventures. There are so many (really, you have NO idea) and even though most people might find them utterly boring or silly (or hard to swallow), I like them. So, I am planning on sharing some of them here for you.
It will either be genuinely funny to you or you will just like laughing at my expense. But either way, I am perfectly fine with that.
xoxo
AATJ
Showing posts with label Flashback. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flashback. Show all posts
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Me vs. The United Kindom: Part Two
As I previously posted, I was beyond blessed with being able to visit the UK when I was 17. In Part One I discussed our trip there and the first few days in London. But, this post will be the good one. Trust me.
When we left Bath in England, I was pretty sad. I could have easily stayed the entire 2 weeks there but I also knew we were heading to Ireland soon. And that I could not pass up. But before we hit Ireland, we first had to venture through Wales and Scotland.
Driving into Wales was quite the experience. This was the first thing I saw –
We stopped for lunch at this little eatery that was more or less some fast food place. But it was situated out in the middle of nowhere and was surrounded by lambs. Not even kidding. I ordered a BURGER but once I started to eat it I again had the feeling I wasn’t eating beef. I mentioned something to my Dad who then jokingly nodded towards the lambs out in the field – I nearly lost my lunch. To this day I have no clue what animal I was consuming.
Then we entered Cardiff Castle. There is nothing in the world comparable to being in a genuine castle. Especially knowing that it holds all sorts of history. This was one of the high points of our trip – being able to hang out in castles or at least, say I got to hang out in castles.
We found a quaint little B&B called The Pottery Inn in Blaenavon, Wales. The room my brother and I stayed in had all these weird occult books in it – and naturally, I swiped them. {I still own them actually.} Dinner was fantastic. Below our rooms was a restaurant and I enjoyed a fun evening with my family, playing the jukebox and OMG, I found the first smiling picture of me, maybe the only one! Naturally, being a major Goth at that time in my life, cemeteries were a total pleasure. I still get all giddy when I think about those old, creepy graveyards and you better believe I took a ton of pics. I just can’t find them right now.
The next day was one of the most memorable days in our 2 week adventure. My mom loves to be a tourist and not wanting to miss out on any of the local color, the 4 of us entered The Big Pit Mine.
I have already shared this story in one of my previous posts but will quickly recap it for you here. Basically, we were in a mine. To enter we had to wear helmets. And guess what? For all us American tourists, they offered to (oh yay!) take your picture. My mom jumped at the chance and before I could gather myself, our picture was snapped. I was just trying to overcome my shock at having to wear such an atrocity on my head and having the entire tour group stare at us. My exact thoughts were “Take the mother-fing picture and let’s get the hell outta this damn mine!!!” A few months later, that photo was sent out to about 100 family members and friends as our Christmas Photo for 1997. It continues to haunt me. (The picture is on my previous post, if you are at all curious….)
After the horrendous mine incident, we drove into the City of York. It was so….British. And I loved it. Street performers were everywhere, there was a giant, life-sized chess set for people to play and tons and tons of neat little shops.
We jumped back into our car and headed for Scotland. I’m not sure what time we had expected to arrive in Scotland that day but I am pretty sure we got lost. And I also vaguely remember us not being able to find one single place to stay for the night. My cloudy memory might be due to the fact that it was actually about 3AM (and after almost having to sleep in the car!) when we finally found one room in a Holiday Inn in Edinburgh. Apparently we came on the week of the Edinburgh Festival and every single hotel, motel and B&B was booked.
The morning started off with tons of rain and Edinburgh Castle. I was again in awe of the castle but not as much as my brother was. He was basically drooling over everything – especially in the gift shop – because this castle was all about William Wallace, aka Braveheart aka Mel Gibson. He was in seventh heaven. He got this cool dragon t-shirt (I remind you, he was about 13 years old) and I have caught him wearing it a few times in recent years. He is now 5’11″ and his beloved shirt has become a BELLY SHIRT. And he doesn’t seem to have a problem with that either. God, I love my brother.
One of my favorite parts of Scotland was going to Llandudno (by the sea) the next day. We stayed in yet another B&B and my only complaint was that there were tons of seagulls. Birds, most notably seagulls, and I are not friends.
Two days later we took a train and passed by this –LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH.
(No, I did not just pass out and smash my head on my keyboard, that’s the name of the town.)
They call it Llanfair.
And then, the Mother Ship: Ireland.
Among my many phobias (what can I say, I am a freak) besides birds, I am terrified of the ocean. I think it’s a combination of seeing “Jaws” one too many times and also, the sheer size and depth of large bodies of water scare me to death. I even went through a phase as a kid where I was afraid to go in our swimming pool (which was about 9 feet deep) because of sharks. I might have been 11 but I won’t say for sure. And I might have been insane.
We boarded a ferry called the “STENALINE”. Picture a giant “cruise ship” that is like a casino on water. There were games and McDonald’s so I managed to get through it alright.
We entered Dun Laoghaire Harbor and soon we were in DUBLIN!!!
It’s important to note that my mother is an O’Connell. Ireland is crawling with them. Our original family is from County Cork, Ireland to be exact. Her family is Catholic & some of my distant relatives were even nuns. Yeah – it’s hilarious if you have spent any time with me that my ancestors were nuns. It cracks me up.
Dublin had my favorite B&B out of all of them. It was an old Victorian style home that was decorated very European. The only drawback was that there was ONE bathroom in the whole place. So, people had to share. I can’t tell you how freaked out I was to even take a shower for fear of someone bursting through the door. I managed to swipe some more goodies – in a drawer in my room were several UK fashion magazines, which at the time were a huge obsession of mine. Hey, I was a bit of a klepto, I admit it.
Which leads me to the end all, be all high point of our trip: and yes, I am being 100% sarcastic.
For some reason, that first morning in Ireland, I was not in a good mood. Maybe my eyeliner didn’t go on right, maybe my hair was frizzing out from the weird humidity, maybe my ass was hanging out of my dress – who knows. All I remember is that I was irritated.
As we walked down the street to catch the bus for a day of sight-seeing, I erupted into the loudest “FUCK” I have ever said in my life. Not even sure why I said it. Maybe I had a burst of turrets or something. All I know is that it happened in front of my parents and brother. And….. in front of 2 nuns.
You could hear crickets, it was so quiet. The nuns walked past, looking at me. After a moment, my Mom brushed past me and didn’t speak to me for a good part of the day. I guess I don’t blame her. That was pretty inappropriate, even for me.
Unfortunately on that same day, we were supposed to take a family photo at the cool, gothic cemeteries in Ireland and use it as our Christmas card that year. Well, none of us were talking to each other (uh, pretty sure it had to do with the nuns) so we never got that photo. And this is why The Mine picture came back to bite me in the ass.
After getting my vulgar outburst out-of-the-way, I ended up in a great mood. We walked around Dublin, saw O’Connell bridge, some cool street paintings, and wow, I smiled again!
On our last night in Ireland – we all went out to dinner. I remember 2 things about that night. The food was expensive and delicious (prime rib, I think) and as we walked back to our B&B in the dusk of an Irish evening, a very drunk guy standing in line in front of a pub hollered at me “SCHWING!!!”.
I wanted to die. I couldn’t believe it. Good ol’ Wayne’s World. Thankfully my parents laughed. Thank. God.
The end was pretty uneventful. We got back on the ferry, back to London for one more night and then, we flew home.
A few days after we came home, on August 31st, Princess Diana was killed. Even though her accident and death occurred in Paris, I watched the news coverage of London and the Palace and was not only grief-stricken but thankful we had come home before it happened.
London was a ZOO.
I can’t even imagine what our trip would have been like had we been there then.
We had been back in Idaho for a few days when, I was driving my Dad’s 4 Runner in downtown Boise and was dropping my Aunt off at an appointment. I turned onto a street and a few seconds later my aunt screamed at me “YOU’RE DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!!” Scared the bejesus outta me. Guess those 2 weeks sitting behind my Dad driving in the UK rubbed off on me.
When we left Bath in England, I was pretty sad. I could have easily stayed the entire 2 weeks there but I also knew we were heading to Ireland soon. And that I could not pass up. But before we hit Ireland, we first had to venture through Wales and Scotland.
Driving into Wales was quite the experience. This was the first thing I saw –
That is a long ass bridge.
We stopped for lunch at this little eatery that was more or less some fast food place. But it was situated out in the middle of nowhere and was surrounded by lambs. Not even kidding. I ordered a BURGER but once I started to eat it I again had the feeling I wasn’t eating beef. I mentioned something to my Dad who then jokingly nodded towards the lambs out in the field – I nearly lost my lunch. To this day I have no clue what animal I was consuming.
Then we entered Cardiff Castle. There is nothing in the world comparable to being in a genuine castle. Especially knowing that it holds all sorts of history. This was one of the high points of our trip – being able to hang out in castles or at least, say I got to hang out in castles.
We found a quaint little B&B called The Pottery Inn in Blaenavon, Wales. The room my brother and I stayed in had all these weird occult books in it – and naturally, I swiped them. {I still own them actually.} Dinner was fantastic. Below our rooms was a restaurant and I enjoyed a fun evening with my family, playing the jukebox and OMG, I found the first smiling picture of me, maybe the only one! Naturally, being a major Goth at that time in my life, cemeteries were a total pleasure. I still get all giddy when I think about those old, creepy graveyards and you better believe I took a ton of pics. I just can’t find them right now.
The next day was one of the most memorable days in our 2 week adventure. My mom loves to be a tourist and not wanting to miss out on any of the local color, the 4 of us entered The Big Pit Mine.
I have already shared this story in one of my previous posts but will quickly recap it for you here. Basically, we were in a mine. To enter we had to wear helmets. And guess what? For all us American tourists, they offered to (oh yay!) take your picture. My mom jumped at the chance and before I could gather myself, our picture was snapped. I was just trying to overcome my shock at having to wear such an atrocity on my head and having the entire tour group stare at us. My exact thoughts were “Take the mother-fing picture and let’s get the hell outta this damn mine!!!” A few months later, that photo was sent out to about 100 family members and friends as our Christmas Photo for 1997. It continues to haunt me. (The picture is on my previous post, if you are at all curious….)
After the horrendous mine incident, we drove into the City of York. It was so….British. And I loved it. Street performers were everywhere, there was a giant, life-sized chess set for people to play and tons and tons of neat little shops.
We jumped back into our car and headed for Scotland. I’m not sure what time we had expected to arrive in Scotland that day but I am pretty sure we got lost. And I also vaguely remember us not being able to find one single place to stay for the night. My cloudy memory might be due to the fact that it was actually about 3AM (and after almost having to sleep in the car!) when we finally found one room in a Holiday Inn in Edinburgh. Apparently we came on the week of the Edinburgh Festival and every single hotel, motel and B&B was booked.
The morning started off with tons of rain and Edinburgh Castle. I was again in awe of the castle but not as much as my brother was. He was basically drooling over everything – especially in the gift shop – because this castle was all about William Wallace, aka Braveheart aka Mel Gibson. He was in seventh heaven. He got this cool dragon t-shirt (I remind you, he was about 13 years old) and I have caught him wearing it a few times in recent years. He is now 5’11″ and his beloved shirt has become a BELLY SHIRT. And he doesn’t seem to have a problem with that either. God, I love my brother.
One of my favorite parts of Scotland was going to Llandudno (by the sea) the next day. We stayed in yet another B&B and my only complaint was that there were tons of seagulls. Birds, most notably seagulls, and I are not friends.
Two days later we took a train and passed by this –LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH.
(No, I did not just pass out and smash my head on my keyboard, that’s the name of the town.)
They call it Llanfair.
And then, the Mother Ship: Ireland.
Among my many phobias (what can I say, I am a freak) besides birds, I am terrified of the ocean. I think it’s a combination of seeing “Jaws” one too many times and also, the sheer size and depth of large bodies of water scare me to death. I even went through a phase as a kid where I was afraid to go in our swimming pool (which was about 9 feet deep) because of sharks. I might have been 11 but I won’t say for sure. And I might have been insane.
We boarded a ferry called the “STENALINE”. Picture a giant “cruise ship” that is like a casino on water. There were games and McDonald’s so I managed to get through it alright.
We entered Dun Laoghaire Harbor and soon we were in DUBLIN!!!
It’s important to note that my mother is an O’Connell. Ireland is crawling with them. Our original family is from County Cork, Ireland to be exact. Her family is Catholic & some of my distant relatives were even nuns. Yeah – it’s hilarious if you have spent any time with me that my ancestors were nuns. It cracks me up.
Dublin had my favorite B&B out of all of them. It was an old Victorian style home that was decorated very European. The only drawback was that there was ONE bathroom in the whole place. So, people had to share. I can’t tell you how freaked out I was to even take a shower for fear of someone bursting through the door. I managed to swipe some more goodies – in a drawer in my room were several UK fashion magazines, which at the time were a huge obsession of mine. Hey, I was a bit of a klepto, I admit it.
Which leads me to the end all, be all high point of our trip: and yes, I am being 100% sarcastic.
For some reason, that first morning in Ireland, I was not in a good mood. Maybe my eyeliner didn’t go on right, maybe my hair was frizzing out from the weird humidity, maybe my ass was hanging out of my dress – who knows. All I remember is that I was irritated.
As we walked down the street to catch the bus for a day of sight-seeing, I erupted into the loudest “FUCK” I have ever said in my life. Not even sure why I said it. Maybe I had a burst of turrets or something. All I know is that it happened in front of my parents and brother. And….. in front of 2 nuns.
You could hear crickets, it was so quiet. The nuns walked past, looking at me. After a moment, my Mom brushed past me and didn’t speak to me for a good part of the day. I guess I don’t blame her. That was pretty inappropriate, even for me.
Unfortunately on that same day, we were supposed to take a family photo at the cool, gothic cemeteries in Ireland and use it as our Christmas card that year. Well, none of us were talking to each other (uh, pretty sure it had to do with the nuns) so we never got that photo. And this is why The Mine picture came back to bite me in the ass.
After getting my vulgar outburst out-of-the-way, I ended up in a great mood. We walked around Dublin, saw O’Connell bridge, some cool street paintings, and wow, I smiled again!
On our last night in Ireland – we all went out to dinner. I remember 2 things about that night. The food was expensive and delicious (prime rib, I think) and as we walked back to our B&B in the dusk of an Irish evening, a very drunk guy standing in line in front of a pub hollered at me “SCHWING!!!”.
I wanted to die. I couldn’t believe it. Good ol’ Wayne’s World. Thankfully my parents laughed. Thank. God.
The end was pretty uneventful. We got back on the ferry, back to London for one more night and then, we flew home.
A few days after we came home, on August 31st, Princess Diana was killed. Even though her accident and death occurred in Paris, I watched the news coverage of London and the Palace and was not only grief-stricken but thankful we had come home before it happened.
London was a ZOO.
I can’t even imagine what our trip would have been like had we been there then.
We had been back in Idaho for a few days when, I was driving my Dad’s 4 Runner in downtown Boise and was dropping my Aunt off at an appointment. I turned onto a street and a few seconds later my aunt screamed at me “YOU’RE DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!!” Scared the bejesus outta me. Guess those 2 weeks sitting behind my Dad driving in the UK rubbed off on me.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Me vs. The United Kindom: Part One
For someone like myself, who considers travel to be one of the most important things in life, I have only traveled outside of the country once. (I haven’t even been to Canada or Mexico.) But, I have been to over half of the States in the US, so don’t feel sorry for me.
Among my many, many future destinations are: Italy, Paris, Prague, Japan & Denmark. Oh, and can’t forget New Orleans, NYC and Austin.
Let me bring you back to 1997. I was 17. My parents took my brother and I to the UK, as a sort of trek through our family genealogy, on my Mom‘s side. Had it been my Dad’s side – we would have gone to Greece or Germany. But on our UK trip, we visited all the prominent places “we” were from: England, Scotland, Wales & Ireland. It was amazing.
Unfortunately, the trip was not very fun at the time due to several things:
*I was 17.
*It was 100 DEGREES. One zero zero. The UK was having a major, unforeseen, heat wave that we were not dressed for. And, you ever heard of ICE, people?
*I had just been dumped by my hot, model boyfriend – 3 days before we left.
*I was PMS-ing.
*I was 17.
And really, 2 weeks in a rental car + tiny inn rooms with your parents? Not too great.
But, I appreciate the chance that I had to even GO there & I can’t ever thank my parents enough. Seriously, I am beyond grateful (now.)
After the 17 hour flight, complete with screaming child on board and “It’s no Good” by Depeche Mode and “Return of the Mack” by Mark Morrison playing on repeat the entire time, we emerged into Gatwick Airport. Talk about a zoo. Once we left the airport, we boarded a train for like, another hour it seemed. OMG, would it ever end?! Then, Victoria Station in London. It was nearly everything I expected it to be. The streets of London look exactly like what you would think they do. And people drive like mad! We jumped into a little “taxi” and barely squeezed our luggage in – I’m sure they thought – “Wow, those Americans…they brought everything but the kitchen sink.” Our stay began at the Vanderbilt Hotel. I loved it but, not at first. All I wanted was a shower. Unfortunately, it was a wooden bathtub (?@!) which I promptly hit my toe on and sat on the floor, crying. I thought it was broken. My mom was all ready to go sight-seeing. Uh, no – I don’t think so. I crashed on the bed while my family did….something or other. I was having my first real experience with jet lag. Add to this, the heat was unbearable and they had NO air conditioning. We had to have fans brought up to our room.
The following day, I felt better. We spent the entire day riding a good ol’ double-decker all around London on a sight-seeing tour. We stopped at the Tower of London – did I mention the place was crawling with….ravens?! Definitely not my cup of tea (birds are a huge phobia of mine). Then came Piccadilly Circus, and a few more sights. I noticed that (unfortunately) all the guys there were not cute….at all. Major. Bummer. I fully expected them to be gorgeous British sexbombs but, nope. And all the girls were super skinny. Weird.
We decided to have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I was elated! Our meal was fantastic (cheeseburgers and sodas….WITH ICE.) and we “oohed and ahhed” over all the pictures of rock stars. And yes, I knew who every single one was. They don’t call me the Trivia Queen for nothing! As we were leaving, I forgot that there were steps to get back to the main level and I fell…on my ass. I just sat there stunned in front of about 100 dinner guests. Scrambling up, I bolted out the door with my Mom laughing her butt off behind me. Not my best moment.
The next day we took a rental car through the English countryside. Of course, we hit Stonehenge.
I wish I’d enjoyed it more. But, I was pissy. And to give you some proof of how pissed off I was during this trip? Here’s the pic of me, my brother and my Mom. Note the pure indifference on my face? That was because my brother insisted on wearing his Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt on the same day I was wearing mine. Um, hello?! We look like freaking tourists!!! And I am pretty sure my mom was wearing a fanny pack. Uh – no comment.
Bath was our next stop and, my favorite. It was a little English town meant to look like Rome. It’s where the Roman Baths and the Bath Abbey are located. Most notably is that it is the site of Jane Austen‘s girlhood home, where she did much of her famous writing. The bed and breakfast we stayed in had an amazing view and I felt like I was in a British novel just staying there. However, I was majorly disappointed in the McDonald’s. It tasted nothing like the ones in America. Not even sure it was beef…
I could have very easily stayed in Bath the entire 2 weeks, but we had many more places to visit! If I ever decide to move to Europe and Paris doesn’t work out? Bath it is! However, I was embarrassed to see that in all the photos taken in Bath I am still glaring into the camera like I was to smash it. My only excuse? See my above reasons for being pissy….Haha!
Stay Tuned for PART TWO – which includes all our fun in Scotland, Wales and….Ireland!
Among my many, many future destinations are: Italy, Paris, Prague, Japan & Denmark. Oh, and can’t forget New Orleans, NYC and Austin.
Let me bring you back to 1997. I was 17. My parents took my brother and I to the UK, as a sort of trek through our family genealogy, on my Mom‘s side. Had it been my Dad’s side – we would have gone to Greece or Germany. But on our UK trip, we visited all the prominent places “we” were from: England, Scotland, Wales & Ireland. It was amazing.
Unfortunately, the trip was not very fun at the time due to several things:
*I was 17.
*It was 100 DEGREES. One zero zero. The UK was having a major, unforeseen, heat wave that we were not dressed for. And, you ever heard of ICE, people?
*I had just been dumped by my hot, model boyfriend – 3 days before we left.
*I was PMS-ing.
*I was 17.
And really, 2 weeks in a rental car + tiny inn rooms with your parents? Not too great.
But, I appreciate the chance that I had to even GO there & I can’t ever thank my parents enough. Seriously, I am beyond grateful (now.)
After the 17 hour flight, complete with screaming child on board and “It’s no Good” by Depeche Mode and “Return of the Mack” by Mark Morrison playing on repeat the entire time, we emerged into Gatwick Airport. Talk about a zoo. Once we left the airport, we boarded a train for like, another hour it seemed. OMG, would it ever end?! Then, Victoria Station in London. It was nearly everything I expected it to be. The streets of London look exactly like what you would think they do. And people drive like mad! We jumped into a little “taxi” and barely squeezed our luggage in – I’m sure they thought – “Wow, those Americans…they brought everything but the kitchen sink.” Our stay began at the Vanderbilt Hotel. I loved it but, not at first. All I wanted was a shower. Unfortunately, it was a wooden bathtub (?@!) which I promptly hit my toe on and sat on the floor, crying. I thought it was broken. My mom was all ready to go sight-seeing. Uh, no – I don’t think so. I crashed on the bed while my family did….something or other. I was having my first real experience with jet lag. Add to this, the heat was unbearable and they had NO air conditioning. We had to have fans brought up to our room.
The following day, I felt better. We spent the entire day riding a good ol’ double-decker all around London on a sight-seeing tour. We stopped at the Tower of London – did I mention the place was crawling with….ravens?! Definitely not my cup of tea (birds are a huge phobia of mine). Then came Piccadilly Circus, and a few more sights. I noticed that (unfortunately) all the guys there were not cute….at all. Major. Bummer. I fully expected them to be gorgeous British sexbombs but, nope. And all the girls were super skinny. Weird.
We decided to have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I was elated! Our meal was fantastic (cheeseburgers and sodas….WITH ICE.) and we “oohed and ahhed” over all the pictures of rock stars. And yes, I knew who every single one was. They don’t call me the Trivia Queen for nothing! As we were leaving, I forgot that there were steps to get back to the main level and I fell…on my ass. I just sat there stunned in front of about 100 dinner guests. Scrambling up, I bolted out the door with my Mom laughing her butt off behind me. Not my best moment.
The next day we took a rental car through the English countryside. Of course, we hit Stonehenge.
I wish I’d enjoyed it more. But, I was pissy. And to give you some proof of how pissed off I was during this trip? Here’s the pic of me, my brother and my Mom. Note the pure indifference on my face? That was because my brother insisted on wearing his Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt on the same day I was wearing mine. Um, hello?! We look like freaking tourists!!! And I am pretty sure my mom was wearing a fanny pack. Uh – no comment.
Bath was our next stop and, my favorite. It was a little English town meant to look like Rome. It’s where the Roman Baths and the Bath Abbey are located. Most notably is that it is the site of Jane Austen‘s girlhood home, where she did much of her famous writing. The bed and breakfast we stayed in had an amazing view and I felt like I was in a British novel just staying there. However, I was majorly disappointed in the McDonald’s. It tasted nothing like the ones in America. Not even sure it was beef…
I could have very easily stayed in Bath the entire 2 weeks, but we had many more places to visit! If I ever decide to move to Europe and Paris doesn’t work out? Bath it is! However, I was embarrassed to see that in all the photos taken in Bath I am still glaring into the camera like I was to smash it. My only excuse? See my above reasons for being pissy….Haha!
Stay Tuned for PART TWO – which includes all our fun in Scotland, Wales and….Ireland!
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