A weekend with my Zeta ladies. I love my new lens!

Here is a glimpse at 4 hours on a Tuesday evening in Hollywood. So eventful, no?

Btw, the random dude is my friend Matt. He was a great tour guide.

Ok, you probably don’t care for my scenery snapshots. Let’s get to the celebs.

We walked around a ton. And you all know how much I love pics.

‘d

Guess where I am! Happy to be here. Kings of Leon @ the Hollywood Bowl tonight. Can’t wait!

My favorite moment in hot yoga comes right before my least favorite moment in hot yoga. After a greuling, yet purifying 85 minutes of bending, stretching and balancing in 108 degree temperature with 70% humidity, we get to lay down and take a Savasana (corpse pose).

At this point Suzanne or John (depends who’s teaching) talks you through some relaxation and then (here it comes!) they open the two french doors of the studio, which lead to an outside courtyard. As I lay there, heart beating all over my body, I start to feel the *cool* Tallahassee air trickling its way into the studio, over our bodies. That’s the moment.

Without fail, the first tingling of the fresh air touching me brings a smile to my face. Because, it feels like home to me.

I spent the summer of 2006 in London, living in Flat 13 with some of my best friends. In Flat 13, we didn’t have air conditioning. It was on the fourth floor of a building with no elevator and crickety, unbalanced stairs. Some days, when the entrance to our building was locked [don't ask], we’d have to go in the building next door, walk down two flights of stairs, do some underground manuevering, walk up two flights, go through a maze, then face the four flights to get home.

Needless to say, when carrying groceries or after a few cocktails, this was no easy feat [but sometimes it really was so fun, especially with the cocktails part].

But at the end of all the stealth moves to get home, there was the promise of windows to open. Hot and defeated, the cool city air always changed our outlook. At night we’d fall asleep with our windows open, listening to lullabies of London’s noise and we loved it. It was our summer home. Home to a summer I will never forget.

So if you’re ever walking around during Savasana and catch a glimpse of the curious grin on my face, know that it is because I’ve been taken back to one of the best times of my life. And I’ll take anything that takes me there.

Court, Me & KJ in Oxford. We happened to be there on graduation day. We rented a boat and cruised down the river with a bottle of wine in tow. I steered us straight into the wall behind us and a chunk of it fell into the river.

Court and I in front of the Thames river on one of our first days there.

We took a 9-hour ferry to Ibiza. Courtney was sick and we had to take her to the clinic. I got to translate. Here we are after her release.

PS- If youre wondering what my least favorite moment in yoga is, it’s a minute into the Savasana. Usually we take a 5-minute long corpse pose and about 1 minute into it, I’m ready to go. I get very ADD laying there playing dead.

I never thought I’d be so happy to see this sign. After 9 days of being gone, I really started to miss Tallahassee. Maybe I belong here more than I thought?

Here’s what I was up to all week. Sorry for the crappy picture quality. These were taken from my phone.

View from my room in Naples. My job is tough.

The set-up for one of our events.

From one little monster…

to one big monster… this was on a building in Miami’s design district

*Sorry for all the typos I had on here. I was blogging from my phone; which is never a good idea.

Dear Delta,

Most of the time, I like you. But today, I hate you. I’m laying on a nasty green carpet as we speak praising God that I have a sweatshirt with a hoodie to protect my precious head from the filth. I refuse to sit in the grey pleather segmented chairs any longer.

There is a guy laying next to me and no he is not some awful decision made out of boredom and/or despair (I’m not the type to make those decisions anyway). He is a stranger; at the end of his rope, like me. Except he’s rapping about smoke and office work and using words I would never dare to.  I wonder if he can hear himself through his headphones?

I’ve been here since about 5:45PM (it’s now 10ish) when my Heathy dropped me off. I made new friends at Tipperary’s Irish Pub (the one bar past security here at tallahassee regional) but then it closed (at 7PM). Along with every other vendor at this airport. I couldn’t buy a bottle of water if I wanted to- or a beer for that matter. So essentially, I’m trapped in a watered down version of hell. I am missing holding my niece on her second birthday and I’m having to wait one more day to see my mom.

But all is well. I’ve explained to my new friends, who are headed to the hip hop music festival in Miami, that it’s not Delta’s fault that we are all still here (although now I’m starting to change my mind). I’ve napped, read and journaled and I know that through this, God is good. The same rainstorm that made it possible for me to leave work a few hours early is the same storm that holds me here now.

I can’t wait to hopefully board this flight soon, hold my Kaitlyn, hug my sister, kiss my mom, and thank my stepdad for being so patient in waiting for my arrival (he’s waiting for me in a Fort Lauderdale diner right now). Safe travels this weekend. Talk to you soon.

Love,

Jovi

**BTW, I did board the flight soon after. Got on the plane, put my travel socks on and got excited. That is, until the captain came on the loud speaker to tell us our flight had been cancelled for unknown reasons. Fun. Heather came and got me, my step dad left the diner and I stayed in Tallahassee. Got to Miami the next night.

I leave for Sarasota tomorrow for Katie & Jesse’s wedding. My brain is already on vacation mode though! The bridesmaids and I will be wearing beautiful gowns by Laundry: Shelli Segal. This weekend is going to be amazing! I am so excited to be a part of it. I have a sweet surprise for Katie that she doesn’t know about. For now, I need to figure out my words for a bridesmaid speech and work on Katie’s scrapbook page that I was supposed to have done by her bachelorette party!

The Bride.

The Venue.

Bride & Bridesmaids.

Katie enjoying the scrapbook I haven’t contributed to.

Have a great weekend! I am sure I will be tweeting pictures of the fun. Follow Jovanitta84 for updates!

One of my best friends, Katie, is getting married next Saturday (read about how she met her fiance, Jesse). As a bridesmaid, I helped in the planning of a bachelorette weekend for Katie. She picked Key West as the location (we spent many spring breaks there, why not one last?) and left the rest up to us. Key West is a great option. The island itself is small so it’s easy to walk (or bike!) from place to place, it’s not absurdly expensive and the options for fun are endless.

We wanted to make sure it was one she’d never forget. And I think we succeeded.

In doing research of what to do, where to stay, etc. I found a lot of resources but no anecdotal experiences- with the exception of one blog post from the Jet Set girls. I knew Key West had a ton to offer but couldn’t find help in filtering through the myriad of options.

So, that’s where this post comes in. If you’re looking to plan a bachelorette or girls weekend in the Keys, following this structure will pretty much ensure an amazing time!

Transportation

 Being that most of the Key West Bachelorette party weekend guests are from Florida, we decided on the Key West Expressas our means for getting there. It leaves daily from Fort Myers and Naples and returns the same day (but you can sail on different days). The price was around $130 R/T PP. It is totally worth it though. The drive to Key West always seems like a better idea than it ends up being. It gets you to Key West by Noon and sets sail for home at 6pm. The hours ensure maximum time in KW! I suggest calling to make a reservation. If you do it over the Internet, the charge you immediately and they won’t refund you if something comes up. If you call, they hold a spot for you but you don’t pay anything until day of departure. Plus, the ladies who answer the phone are so sweet, I called back and thanked them.

The ferry drops you off in a convenient location. We chose to lunch at Dante’s after getting off the ferry. Dante’s has a pool, food and bar. It was a fun place with good prices. In an effort to soak up as much Key West as possible, we also spent some time there before our last boarding opportunity. The last dip in the pool was priceless!

Hotel

 We stayed at the Sheraton Suitesright in front of Smathers beach. Staying here was the one thing I would change.

The Good: the rooms were nice, clean and pretty large. Housekeeping brought us extra towels whenever we needed them. The concierge, Pavla, was so sweet and helpful.  

The Bad:Location; the hotel was right in front of Smathers Beach which is a couple of miles away from the action of Duval Street. If you plan on spending time on the man made beach, the location is great. We laid out by the pool but didn’t end up visiting the beach so the result was a lot of money wasted on cab rides. The pool is okay. There is a bar but no cocktail servers.

The Ugly:The staff at this hotel was AWFUL! The front desk staff never smiled and seemed to be annoyed any time you walked up. One of them even snapped at me upon picking up my bags from storage. I shared that my bag didn’t come out and she snapped back saying they weren’t done setting them out. Sorry I asked. At first I thought maybe the dismay was just toward us, a group of 14 and potentially overwhelming girls but then I witnessed the rudeness occur to other guests and realized they evenly distribute the love. Even the pool towel boy was miserable. Sheraton is a part of Starwood Hotels. I always stay at Starwoods if they’re available and up to this point, they’d never disappointed.

Next Up: What to Do and Where to Eat!

 I left Tallahassee on December 18, just shy of a month ago. First for Christmas vacay and then for training. I was starting to miss home [my sweet, sweet friends]; until this morning [sorry sweet, sweet friends]. Why trade this:

for this:

I am scheduled to go home tomorrow but there are terrible storms throughout the Southeast canceling most flights in and out of Atlanta. Delta released this statement to CNN: 

Atlanta, Georgia-based Delta Air Lines, noting “winter weather may impact operations,” offered winter weather travel waivers to Delta and Northwest passengers on flights to, from or through five states.

Travelers can change their schedule without fees until Saturday if their routes include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi or Tennessee.

May be one more day in paradise. Shucks [not].

PS- I need a new, two-column, WordPress theme. This one is too narrow for my snapshottery. If you run into any good ones, please do share!

Check it: Out my hotel window this morning (yes, I’m up this early).

Hello Tucson.