The day I turned 28 was a great day. I was packing and cleaning to leave for my trip and got to talk to all the people I love the most who were calling with their birthday and trip well wishes. Then Sherah came to pick me up to drive me to meet up with Ben. I was not done packing and I was still wearing my bathrobe and a winter hat as the hat was the only thing I could decide on to wear. She got me finished with my packing, picked me out an outfit and headed to DC.and we then w picked up Ben and headed to Annapolis for dinner. I LOVE Annapolis and it was such a fun night walking along the water, cat calling sailors (I can be shameless sometimes) and remembering old times. We spent the night at Ben's since he lived just about 10 minutes from the airport and early the next morning Ben drove me to the airport. It was a LONG journey to Thailand. I knew a few of my fellow travelers would already be there, but the bulk of the group wasn't coming for several more hours. Since I was flying in, the people already there came to the airport early to meet me. Luckily we had Facebook so we knew who to look for. Nick, Andrea, Megs and I spent the next few hours talking and getting to know each other. Then the rest of the group arrived and we headed for our flight to Phuket. Phuket was a dream land- every morning I would wake up, put a bikini on and a dress over it and we would head out to explore the amazing sights. The food in Thailand was incredible, the beaches were to die for and the company was incredible. Then we traveled to Kanchanaburi where we stayed in a floating hotel and played with elephants, pet tigers, relaxed on the balcony overlooking the river, and got trapped on a giant log with a crazy monkey who was trying to steal Amy's food at the most dream like waterfalls ever! Then we took a train to Siem Rep, Cambodia. It was a super long, crazy train ride and the thing I remember most was waking up and being surrounded by a bunch of sweet old ladies who were asking me if they could touch the light skin on my arms. In Cambodia we visited multiple ruins of Ankor Wat, hiked, shopped, drank amazing margarita's (Viva Forever!), got massages, visited an orphange, and took a boat ride out to a floating village and then found ourselves in the middle of a wedding where everyone was so excited that we had come. Even the bride and groom who had never met us. Also because of Facebook, I realized that my old flatmate Desirea and her husband Jonny were in the city and we met up for dinner. When it was time to come home I was so sad for the adventure to be over and I was at the airport waiting for my ride and between saddness & exhaustian, I started to bawl. This lady came up so concerned and I assured her that nothing was wrong.
While I was gone on my trip, PA had had some crazy snow storms and I was feeling alittle paniced that after several days of road plows and refreeze, I would never be able to get my car dug out of it's onstreet parking spot. To my amazement, when I arrived home, I discovered that Crissy, Ben, and Denver had come to dig it out for me (it had been in snow up to the middle of the windows) and Crissy had also put food in my fridge so that I wouldn't have to go to the store. I seriously have the best friends ever!
While I was at Jill's for Christmas the next week, Bobby contacted us about traveling to China together in April. He and Lindsay had worked at an orphange in Beijing and he thought it would be fun to take us there. Of course I signed right up. It had always been my dream to go to China to visit the Great Wall of China. I booked my tickets and then realized that Amy, Cherish, & Hank were on the same flights over. China started off with an adventurous car ride that included our cab drivers getting out of the cabs and yelling at people. We had such a fun time in China exploring the city, eatting amazing food, climbing the Great Wall and then I zip lined down from it, beer cheering, exploring remote villages, and hanging out at the orphanage.
That summer Sherah got married. She made a beautiful bride, the wedding was incredible, we danced the night away and I had tons of fun leading up to the wedding hanging out with Jacob. That summer I also had super fun visits from Megan and Jessica. Kris had also moved home so we got to see lots of him and we had not 1, but 2 pumpkin carving parties and a Christmas cookie decorating party.
The year before while watching the Macy's Day Parade, I had thought, "Someday I would like to see this live." Well Hank & Amy contacted me that fall and let me know they were staying in NYC over Thanksgiving if I wanted to come join them. I was SO exicted to see them AND to see the parade live AND to hang out in NYC again. I bought train tickets, but somehow missed the train out of Harrisburg so I waited for the next 1 feeling alittle sad that I was losing time, but decided to make the most of it. I arrived at Penn Station an hour later than planned, took the Subway to Brooklyn and at my first switch, I looked over and saw Brooke who had been on the ship with me at 14 who I had explored Chicago with by myself. I couldn't believe I was running into someone I knew after all these years in a train station in NYC when I wasn't even scheduled to be there. It was a good confirmation to relax. We talked all the way to our stops and I headed to the apartment. The next morning we got super lost when trying to get to the parade, but ended up finding an incredible station along the way with amazing mosaic artwork and we caught the last hour and a half of the parade which was amazing. We went out to pizza for Thanksgiving dinner, and went shopping. It was a great visit!
That fall I started taking a personal development class lead by the One and Only Mike Schall. I realized that though I had been working on so much personally, I still had a long ways to go with dreaming, confidence, and leading the life that I wanted. One of the things I really decided I wanted to do was learn to Snowboard so I applied at the closest ski resort. The week before my birthday I got an interview and got a job in Guest Services.
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