I suck! (sorry Brianne!)

Well as we can see it has been a very long time since I have blogged and I received an email yesterday informing me of my lack of updates.  So for Brianne, who it seems is one loyal reader, this one is for you!

Needless to say a lot has happened since the end of August so I will do my best to only highlight the big things and do my best to keep them short and to the point.

It all started just a few days after my previous post when I went out after work and had a few drinks.  Because of that I left my bike in town (drunk driving is bad!) The next morning I went to get my bike on the way to work and as you can see from the picture below, my bike attacked me!  Its a long story but basically I got my foot caught between the kick stand and the kick start and it caused deep tissue damage.  My right ankle is still swollen!

If only that was the worst part of that week...but you'll hear more about that in a bit!  This happened just before Labor Day weekend and 2 days before Lorna came to visit again.  Not a great way to start her 4th trip to the island.  Thankfully since it was her 4th time we didn't have to do a whole bunch of touristy things. What we did do that was awesome was spend a day on Philip's brothers boat.  It was a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon and we made the most of it.  We went pretty much all the was around the island.  I could not think of a better way to spend the day.  After a long day out on the boat we thought it would be best to have a nice relaxing dinner at home with a lot of bottles of wine.  Sounds like a nice night, in theory.  And it was until.......

The Fire!  We were all sitting outside having dinner when I heard a noise (bear in mind I was still on crutches) so Philip went to investigate.  When he opened the door smoke billowed out.  That is really bad because we were in the front of the house and the kitchen is in the back.  He managed to fight his way through the smoke to see that our entire stove was up in flames.  It was a freak accident because we hadn't even used the stove, we were grilling outside.  There was a cutting board left on the top of the stove and it some how ignited and the whole thing went up.  Philip tried his best to put the fire out but I ended up having to call 911 and having the firetrucks come. We were very lucky in that nothing else caught fire.  It didn't spread and it was out out quickly.  The only problem was the entire house was full of smoke, so everything was covered in soot.  It has now been almost 5 months and we are still finding soot in random places!  We ended up having to move out for 2 weeks so the place could be cleaned and painted.  In the midst of it, there was a category 3 hurricane heading for the island! Thankfully it lost speed and it veered away from us. All in all it was an ordeal I hope to never have to go through again!

So that takes us to October which was a quiet month, thankfully!  One big thing did happen in October though, after a 15 year hiatus I have started painting again!

Philip got me a shopping spree of art supplies for our anniversary this year and I am happy to say I have put it to good use.  I did these 3 paintings for Kelly and Ed for their kitchen.  All 3 were of actual pictures Kelly posted of veggies she had grown in their garden.  I think for my first try after a long time off they came out pretty good.  I am doing a lot more painting now that I have so much free time (yup, that's what we call for shadowing!)

Then in November we took a trip to Boston for a long weekend and what a trip it was!  We went with friends we have made here on the island (actually they are our Bermuda family now!).  Kelly and Ed drove in from NY to spend the weekend with us.  Lorna gave up her whole weekend to hang with us as well so it was an awesome time!  We did so much.  Our first stop was to Solas so Philip could start the trip with his favorite beer that he can not get here on the island.

As I said we did a lot of stuff including: The Script concert, mani/pedis, James Bond movie in IMAX, Target, tailgating for Sunday Football, Chinese food and maybe some drinking as well!  

November concluded with Philip turning 45!  Because I love birthdays so much and think that everyone should I wanted his birthday to be fun.  We decided to do murder mystery dinner with a Wild West theme.  It was a blast!

Dirk and Penny

Lynn and David really got into character!

Everyone dressed up and played their parts so well.  We would love to do it again sometime for sure.  

We made the mistake of thinking all of the bad parts of 2012 were behind us (injury and fire seemed like enough!) but we were wrong.  The week before Philip's birthday I was let go from my job.  Of course there is no good time of year for this, but in my opinion this time of year is the worst!

So I am making the most of my free time as I said before.  I have been doing more painting, I have a list of project around the house that I want to get done, plus we have Christmas!  I am very excited that we will be heading to VA for a full 10 days this year!  Look out Reid family, the Butlers are coming to stay! 

Oh, I forgot one thing, last night was my birthday!!!!!  Philip planned an awesome dinner with a few close friends.  It was perfect!  Plus I didn't have to worry about having to get up for work this morning, so bonus!

Philip keeping it classy with the brown bag in the park before dinner!

Thank you to Brie for he kick in the butt I needed to get everyone up to speed on my life!  I will do my best to try and stay on top of things a little more so no falls behind.  (On a side note, most of this has been on Facebook and even my Dad is on there now.  It may be time for you to breakdown and join Brie!)

If you do not hear from me between now and then, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Here's hoping 2013 treats us better then 2012 did! 

This one is for my mom



This is moms Sr pic from High School

This week marks the anniversary of the biggest loss of not only mine, but a number of peoples lives.  This week marks for me the anniversary of having lived half of my life without my mom.
 

1  of my fav pics of mom and I ,
we were both so happy! (Gotta love the perm!)

In thinking about writing this post I have spent a lot of time thinking of all of the things I have done that my mom has not been here to see...I have graduated from both High School and College (which meant a lot to her and she would have been very proud of), I have dated many boys (some of which she would have liked, some of which I think I would have

mom, Krystyn and I on vacation
 I am guessing in Conn.

broken up with sooner had she been here to put me straight!), I married a wonderful man (who I know she would have approved of and I wish everyday had the chance to know each other), I have moved many many times, including twice to Bermuda where she picked to go on her honeymoon.  I have traveled to places she never got to go, I have seen and done things in the 16 years since she left us that she would have loved to do with me or at the very least to hear about, I have had the joy of watching my sister do many of these things as well, and I have had the added bonus of becoming an aunt to 2 boys she would have loved with all her heart.  I have remained friends with many of the same people she loved (some as much as she loved us) and I have made new friends, most of which she would approve and 1 or 2 she would have loved! I have walked thousands of miles in her name to try and defeat what took her away from us (as well as one of her BFFs, Nancy Norton) and I am doing what I can to make sure she is not forgotten. 



The 3 of us the last Xmas we got to spend with mom,
only 4 months before she was diagnosed

 My intention in writing this blog is not be make it sad or depressing because that was not how mom lived her life, as is evident by the picture of the 2 of us above.  My intention is to remind everyone who was lucky enough to know her how great our loss still is, but also to introduce all of the people in my life who I met along the way that never got the chance to know her.  I know it is an easy thing to say my mom was an amazing woman, but in this case it is actually true. You could say that mom walked to the beat of her own drum, but not in a bad way!  She was fun.  She made up her own songs and dance moves, she had funny sayings that no one else really knew where they came from but still knew what she meant when she said them!   To this day I find myself still saying some of these things and then having to explain to whomever I said it to where it has come from.  If it is someone who knew mom then I tend to get a sad smile of remembrance from them, if it is someone who didn't know her, the reaction is typically one of confusion.  After all, how do you put into words the feeling that you get when you think about someone so special and all of the ways they touched your life.  There are no words that do it justice (I get the irony of that statement and the purpose of this post!)



The Shebanies when mom and dad renewed their
wedding vows ontheir 25th anniv.  This was only 2 months before mom died.



I don't want to dwell on the time that she was sick (as it was only really 4 months of her 46 years of life) except to talk about this picture.  Everyone who knew her knew how much she hated to have her picture taken.  This is the last family picture of the 4 of us and I cherish it.  Mom and dad had been  married for 25 years, as a celebration of that wonderful accomplishment they decided to renew their vows in the church they had been married in 25 years earlier.  This was on Saturday June 21st, 1996.  The day before I had my 2nd attempt at my road test to get my license.  My appointment was after mom's doctor appointment so I drove her there and then we went to the DMV in Poughkeepsie.  I could tell when we left the doctor something wasn't right but she insisted all was well and that she was just nervous for me.  We went to my test and I passed!  Once we got back in the car she started to cry and silly me, I thought she was so happy that I had passed.  As it turned out she had been told that morning that the cancer had spread.  She didn't want to tell me before I took my test because she didn't want to upset me.  Again, the point of this is not to be sad, it is to say look at that picture and how happy she is.  She is holding hands with the love of her life and surrounded by her 2 girls and all of her friends and family.  This was the happiest day we all shared that summer.  Little did we know 2 months later we would be at the same church with the same young priest (this was his first wedding and then mom's was his first funeral) to say goodbye to her.  Even if we did know what was coming, I don;t think any of us would have chnaged a thing about that night.  In a word it was amazing 





Mom and I at my first prom when I was a freshamn,
 she didn't get to see me go to my own proms



Of course we all struggled in our new life without mom and I have had many people commend me on how I handled that at such a young age.  The thing is it never occured to me to do otherwise.  I guess I could have very easily turned to drugs or criminal activity or I could have done a crappy job at school and no one would wonder where it came from.  But as a true testiment to what a wonderful job mom did raising me, the only thing I thought to do was go forward.  One of the best complimets anyone can give me is to say mom would be proud of me.

 

So as this week comes and goes and as the years flash by us, thank you for taking the time to read this and remember with me what an awesome person my mom was...afterall, we only get 1 mom and I was lucky to get this one, even if the time I spent with her was way too short!  

 

miss you mom xoxo    

BDA->PHL->VA->OBX!!!! it was a worth it!

So I just noticed that it has been an entire month since my last post and I do apologize, I suck!  Now that I have a real job that does not allow me to sit around play games and update my blog all day, this has suffered.  Lucky for you I have since been off island and have many wonderful (ie- hilarious, embarrassing, stupid, etc...) tales to share. 

I began my journey on Thursday, July 19th with not only 1, but 2 delayed flights!  I was late getting off the island and then really late getting out of Philly.  Thankfully I have an awesome brother-in-law who it seems always get stuck with picking me up when my flights are delayed (big shout out to Big Jim!!) oh, he always gets the even better job of getting me to the airport for the ridiculously early flights back here (but maybe by then he is ready to get rid of me!)

This vacation started for me as they all should moving forward.  My sis and I had Friday to ourselves to go get mani/pedis a nice lunch and then massages!  We did a little shopping as well, we needed to ensure we had enough supplies to get us through the week....

6 boxes of wine...check! very large bag of popcorn...check!

For more than half my life now (for serious!) my family has been going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  It has been with different families and different house over the years, but for the past few years it has been the same crew of 24 (14 adults, 10 kids) in the same house, The Bella Donna Del Sol and for us it is one week of paradise.


our home away from home for the last week of July every year

This year we decided that rather than sit in house of traffic on Saturday to get to the house, we went Friday night and stayed in a hotel.  The kids were able to swim and Krystyn and I went on an adventure of our own trying to find pizza for everyone for dinner.  It would have all been great had we been able to get into the house on Saturday early like we did the year before.  As it worked out we were not able to get in until 4pm.  We had a whole bunch of unhappy kids which resulted in some grumpy (and a few hung over) grown ups.  But finally at 4 we were in and vacation had officially started!

The week involves a lot of fun activities and  many trips between the pool, the beach and the cooler for beers.  One of the newest activities is the Speedo Run for the men...this year they were each offered $50 to run down the the beach together and "frolic" in the ocean.  They did so and it resulted in a round of cheers from the many appreciative onlookers on the beach. 

We also have the opportunity to celebrate some half birthdays while we are there, any excuse for ice cream cake works for me!

Is Madison checking Jamesy out????

We  had a wonderful fireworks display (which was way better then the 4th of July one I saw here in BDA) thanks to Brendan! I also got a chance to eat so much food that I am not able to get here so I went all out and ate everything in sight, the extra pounds are totally worth it. 

This year we started a new tradition...The Ricky's!  They were awards given out at the end of the week in honor of Rick who we were forced to say goodbye to way too early and miss greatly.  With categories like "SandBarTender" given to Ryan for the number of times he swam out to the sandbar and back and "Face Off" to James for accidentally hitting Jen in the face with a football, it made for a very fun evening.

most of the kids waiting for the Ricky's to start

After spending  months counting down the days until the trip, the week ended up going by way too fast.  I would say it was a perfect week, except there was 1 really important person who was not able to join us, Philip.  He was missed by everyone. 

As anyone who knows me knows that no trip home would be complete without a couple hundred dollars spent at Target.  Krys was able to get me there on Saturday before I flew out on Sunday.  This resulted in me having 5 bags on the way back here (including a suitcase borrowed from Krys because I didn't have enough space).  At $90 per bag for overweight bags I had my fingers crossed when they were put on the scale and of course they were both overweight.  Thankfully I was lucky enough to either have a very nice or very mathematically challenged woman check me in because somehow I did not pay for either bag.  

So now I am back here on the rock missing everyone and looking forward to seeing them all again next summer.  In the meant time I have already started the count down to Christmas in VA when I can see my family and have another amazing week with them.

This one is for Eileen, my number 1 fan!

So it seems this fancy little blog of mine has gone international, and by that I do not just mean Bermuda or North America. I have a fan in Ireland! It may have something to do the fact that one of the staring people in a lot of my posts is the daughter of this person or (and this is what I like to think) she has very discerning taste and knows good writing when she reads it!  Either way, this one is for Eileen Carton!

I know I have been very bad about updates and for that I apologize.  Now that I have a job that I actually have to do work, my time for writing posts has been very limited.  Since we are talking about my job, I am still very much in love with it.  I am still learning a lot, and still have A LOT to learn.  But it is keeping me busy and happy all at once.  It is hard to believe I have been here almost three months already.  For those of you keeping track and who believe in karma, you will be happy to know that my former boss (yes the one who called me fat) has been suspended from his current job.

 

So what else has been going on?  Well….I finally got a big girl bike! This means I also had to get a big girl license.  Here is a picture of my new “tweet” ride.  It is a Peugeot Tweet, hence the play on words (oh I am funny today!) This is a much bigger and way more powerful bike than my last one, which makes me love it even more!

The other big thing was Chuy (Eileen you know her as your first born, Lorna) came for her third visit, which means that she officially has her own room at my house now.  Sorry to everyone who has only been once, or not at all, you will now need to book any stays through Chuy in order to sleep in her bed.  Otherwise, we do have a very nice couch or an air mattress that deflates as the night goes on, you are welcome to sleep on either of those.

This was the first time I was able to go pick her up at the airport on the new bike (it was only 3 days old by then.)  Little did Chuy know I had never had anyone ride on the back of the bike before and was very nervous that I was going to kill the both of us.  I am happy to say we did just fine and both made it through the weekend unscathed (with only 1 close call of us crashing, but I kept my cool and we were fine…nothing to worry about Eileen!)

As usual we had way too much fun and perhaps one too many drinks.  Based on the amount of time spent on the couch on Sunday, I am scared to say, but I think we may be getting old! 

Eileen, I hope this blog has lived up to the others.  I also wanted to personally invite you to come and see us here in Bermuda.  Lorna tells us that you and your husband would love it here, so if she is ok with it, you are more than welcome to come and stay in her room.  I would love to finally meet you!  Thanks again for being my #1 fan!!





Mess with the bull, you'll get the horns

I am now a few weeks into my new job and it is amazing what a difference it makes when you do something every day that you enjoy.  I come home every night excited to tell Philip all of the stories about my day, what I have done and all of the new things I am learning. 

My very first day on the job had me on a plane to Houston to attend a convention called Convergence.  The funny thing is that because of the late booking, I was the only one who got a first class ticket!  I have now seen how the other half lives!  Before we took off I already had a glass of wine in hand.  That's how it should be.

just hanging out in first class!

The first full day in Houston we were able to get some retail therapy in (you all know how important that is to us!)  Once that was set we had to get registered for the convention that kicked off the next day.

Anna, Chantelle and myself letting our inner geek out

 The first night we went to the Minute Maid baseball field for reception.  It was awesome!  They had all kinds of local foods and beers for us to try.

My new co-workers are fun.  We had a great time together and they all made me feel like part of the family from day 1.  So I should have seen this coming....it was decided that as my hazing I would need to last at least 7 seconds on the mechanical bull.  As you can see below, I lasted 20 seconds!!

WARNING: this video is not for the faint of heart!

After some more successful bull rides we went down on the field to watch a live Daughtry performance.  I always felt like I could take him or leave him, but to see him perform live was great.  I really enjoyed the show.  I should say that after this we went home for the night to make sure we were well rested for a long day of sessions and so on.  But.....you know me better than that!  We found a local bar across the street from the baseball stadium and continued with a few libations.  Needless to say, day 1 of the convention was very very long! But I can also say that I learned a ton.

Chantelle, myself and Elias at Papa Brothers

Chantelle, Myself and Ann at Hard Rock Cafe

The 2nd the last night we went to a great steakhouse called Papa Brother's.  We had an amazing meal and a lot of fun that night as well.  We went to a sponsored event at the Hard Rock Cafe in Houston.

The last day we went to the closing key note address which was given my Gen. Colin Powell.  I really had no idea what to expect but it was defiantly not what we got.  He was funny, down-to-earth and charismatic.  I left feeling proud and inspired.  It was actually very moving.  

We were back to Bermuda on Thursday afternoon and I had my first day in the office on Friday.  I was finally able to meet the rest of the team and where we actually work.  Once again everyone was very welcoming and friendly.  It is crazy that this was a surprise to me.  You know you have been in the wrong job for too long when this is a surprise!

So now for the big question everyone keeps asking, what am I doing?  I am the newest Business Relationship Manager for Emergence.  That clears it up, right?? 

Life is a series of hellos and goobyes....

In the infamous words of Billy Joel "I'm afraid it time for a goodbye again".  Except I am not afraid, I am over the moon! 

I realized this morning on my very long ride to work that I have spent over half my life in one version or another of the hospitality industry!  Starting at the Dutchess County Country Club as a cocktail server when I was 16, to waitress at many different establishments in NY and Boston, to Cater Waiter, to Wedding Planner (god save us all!) to Hotel Sales Manager.  And at long last I am finally getting out of the industry.  It is like a legalized verison of the mafia with way more people than I can count coming up to me in a whisper saying "how did you do it? how are you getting out?"

I do understand the grass is always green, but here are some of the things I will not miss (some of this is my own list and some I had help with!):

• you open doors for other people everywhere
• you answer your phone with "Good morning this is Katie speaking, how may I help you?" no matter what phone it is and where you are
• when visiting another hotel, a hotel customer has trouble getting his electronic key to work and as a  passerby you offered your services to go down to the reception to reactivate the key for him
• You sat at the same desk for 4 years and worked for 8 different Managers
• Food left over from a banquet or meeting is your main staple diet
• You get a strange twitch in your right eye when people say the word wedding (I feel like it will be years before this one leaves me!)
• You smile and say 'good morning' to total strangers in the street
• It's dark on your drive to and from work
• Communication is something your 'group' is having problems with
• You forget what you look like in anything but a suit
• All the work you were hired to do gets done before 9 and after 5
• You're already late on an assignment you just received
• Your boss's favorite lines are: "When you get a minute...", "In your spare time...", "I have an opportunity for you..."
• 50% of the people in your company don't know what you do
• The other 50% of the people in your company don't care what you do
• Vacation is something you roll over to next year, if you are allowed
• You have never paid more than $99 for a hotel room thanks to employee and Friends and Family rates
• Six months is considered to be substantial longevity
• You dial '9' before the number no matter where you are calling from
• When you are walking in public, you have to fight the urge to pick up scraps of paper and rubbish on the floor
• Your toilet paper at home is folded in a triangle on the first sheet
• You inspect your hotel room when traveling
• You call your spouse or partner your "added value"
• You correct people when they use the word free, saying it's complimentary
• When friends visit you at home, they wonder why you always take them on a "site-tour"
• you refer to the wi-fi in your own house as complimentary (I really did this!)
  
  Most of all, you read this entire list and understand it.

So what will I be doing you ask?  I am the newest Business Development Manager for Emergence.  Once I figure out what that means, I will be sure to let you all know ;) In the meantime, my last day at Tuckers Point is tomorrow and then on Saturday I will be flying to Houston to attend a conference for my new job.  Talk about baptism by fire! 

Before I say my final farewells to the hospitality industry, I should mention that had my life not taken this path I would never have met some of the amazing people who I now call my closet friends (including my husband!), I would have never moved to Boston nor Bermuda, and I would not still have the amazing Friends & Family Rate hook ups that I will hold near and dear to me for years to come  (Or at least until the next trip I plan)

big, BIG news!!!!

First let me apologize for not updating in a very long time, not much has been going on here and I do not want to write about nothing and experience the mean backlash I received last time someone thought my content was not interesting enough (Lorna!).

For those of you who are holding out hope and wishing that my BIG news is that I am going to say that we are expecting a lil But-banie baby to make its way into the world in 9 months...sorry to disappoint, its still not gonna happen!  But....this is even better....I finally got myself a new job!

After many months, about 9 to be accurate, of looking and sending resumes I actually got myself into the running for 2 different position for 2 different companies both based here in Bermuda.  In one week I went on 6 interviews!  It was crazy.  And on top of that I had a head cold.  The fact I could even remember my name, let alone get out a coherent thought, was impressive to me.

I ended up being offered a position as a Business Development Manager for a consulting firm and after meeting with many of the people in the company felt it was the best fit for me.  I do not know if I was going to be offered a position with the other company as I let them down easy this morning but promised we could still be friends!

I gave my 2 weeks notice last Friday (which is going over so well my boss is not even speaking to me.  Is it any wonder I didn't want to stay here?) and am so excited to be starting my new job the following week.  Even better is that it is located in Hamilton which cuts my commute in half!  That means a whole extra 30 mins of sleep!! Plus, no more weddings!!  I have known for a while that I wanted to get out of the hospitality business, I just had no idea what I wanted to do.  I think this job is going to be an awesome fit and hope that I am going to love it for a long time.

Xmas in VA

Merry Christmas!

A few years ago Philip and I decided that we would try to spend Xmas with my side of the family in VA every year and so far we have not missed a single year.  This may be due in part to Ryan making us promise every year before we leave that we will be back for the next Christmas.  After all, who wants to break  a promise Ryan?

So with a lot of anticipation and excitement we packed our many bags and headed to the airport.  I am happy to report that for the first year ever we have traveled to and from VA for Xmas without any sort of complications (ie- being stranded in Charlotte for 4 days last year!)

The 23rd is the Reid Family Open House so we spent the day shopping and prepping for that.  It seems that every year it gets bigger and bigger but is always a lot of fun.  As is our family tradition we open gifts with dad that night because he leaves to head back to NY in the early hours on Christmas Eve.


Ryan with his 2 besties...Johnny Mike and Sugarfoot

 Christmas Eve was a fun day filled with 2 very excited boys!

Krys and the boys tracking Santa on her new iPad...how very hip she is!

Krystyn and I started the day with Manis/Pedis and since I had not had one in 7 months! (since leaving Boston) I was much in need!  That evening we went to their friends the Duggans house who always have a wonderful spread!  Then it was back home to get spread the Raindeer food on the front yard and say good bye to Elfie for another year (for those of you not in the know, Elfie is their elf on a shelf.  He sits and watches over them and then each night goes to the North Pole to report to Santa how they have been.)



the first ever pic of Jim and Philip standing side by side!

 Christmas Eve ending with all of our stocking hung by the chimney with care....

as you can see we each have one...Johnny Mike, Jim, Krys and Katie!
Contrary to the agreement that was made with the boys in the days prior that they could wake us up at 7:55 to go open gifts we had a very excited Ryan jumping on top of us at about 7:03.  When we asked him what happened to waiting until 7:55 he explained that he just couldn't do it....Enough said! We had a wonderful day of staying in our PJs until early afternoon and then yummy dinner of Beef Wellington!

Once again this trip went by so fast.  We are already looking forward to next year...we have to, we promised Ryan already!