Elephantidae

As my below post states, I am soon to leave for an almost 2 week vacation in Thailand. My sister and I have been researching a bunch of different sights to see, activities, etc. and one of our high priority activities just got confirmed. A day with elephants!!!! And no, not some tourist crap of riding on a chair on their back for an hour w/a guide on their neck. Nope. We're going to learn how to bathe them and then ride them bare back ourselves!!! We found a great Elephant Conservatory that works for the good of elephants and saving ones from horrible situations of torture and mistreatment. They teach you about their health and diet, lifestyles, approaching and handling and then riding and bathing. It's going to be amazing. I cannot WAIT. I have a feeling that I'm going to become very attached to my elephant in the span of a day. I love giant creatures, riding them, interacting with them. I rode horses for 10 years and there's something about knowing you are putting yourself in the "hands" of an animal that could trample or kick or turn on you in seconds...something so powerful about creating a connection with such a powerful being. Elephants are so majestic to me...so humble. I think this will be one of the highlights of the trip. 

BTV to BKK

In less than 2 weeks (8 days to be exact) I will be heading to the BTV airport with a final destination of the BKK airport...also known as Bangkok, Thailand! I am peeing my pants in excitement. It's really coming. I'm really going. It has felt like a hellacious circus road trip trying to nail things down, get the plane ticket finalized, dates, and so on. My oldest sister Alli and I are going together so whereas I'm used to traveling solo and being on no one's schedule but my own, we were coordinating two schedules and two sets of ideas. But after many stressful nights and many Skype conversations, it is locked in and hotels are being confirmed. 

I have traveled extensively and it's the same feeling everytime I travel. I am excited yet I know I won't truly feel it until I land. Until I get the first whiff of the local air, the first sound of local traffic, the first taste of local food. Then it hits me. It comes on like a tidal wave. I feel excited and scared at the same time. Overwhelmed and at peace. I love it. I love the rush. Although I will have a travel partner therefore taking some of the nerves out of things, it still packs that punch. Not to mention she may not arrive until the evening after I get there. Travel makes me feel alive. It is a place in my life that I feel inspired and full and glowing. I can't explain it. 

Just knowing that in a week or so I will be stepping onto the first of 4 planes, I can barely believe it. I will fly from Burlington to Detroit, 4 hours in Detroit, then Detroit to Tokyo-Narita for a 3 hour layover and then Tokyo to Bangkok. I arrive in Bangkok at 12:30am on Thursday morning (after leaving at 6am Tuesday morning). We'll spend Thursday and Friday there and are taking a late flight Friday night up to Chiang Mai in the north. We'll spend 4 days there with potentially 1.5 of them spent trekking through the jungle on elephants. Then we'll fly from Chiang Mai down to the

 southern beaches, most likely to Ko Phi Phi, an island off of the western side (near Phuket and Krabi). We'll hopefully be staying in a beachfront bungalow and taking boat trips to other islands, getting Thai massages, lazying in hammocks, snorkeling and diving and just enjoying the gorgeous scenery. I've pulled some images from online and it makes me melt. 

I can't wait to be there. 

Reunion

This past weekend I was at yet another wedding, the last for this year. It was the wedding of a good college friend of mine, Mike Davis. He got married to a lovely lady, Kathleen Trupiano, whom I only met for the first time this weekend. It was a fun weekend and an unofficial reunion of my college friends...the people I met my freshmen year and became a family with over 4 years. It was cool to see everyone...the first time in 3 years since I picked up and moved away after graduation. It's crazy that I haven't been back since...well minus seeing my parents over holidays. I literally just packed up and walked out of the door of their lives, our big family life, one day. It was sad in that sense, sad that I had abandoned them. I got a lot of the same question..."where the heck have you been the past 3 years?!?!" It made me realize that I really did just abandon them all. I was a big part of that group, not just an outlier so it meant something. But now we're back, reunited, caught up. Everyone is pretty much the same, only a more grown-up version. There is still an energy between all of us, a cohesiveness. These people will always be part of my family.

So, something that was really cool was a reminder of the fact that Gators are a special thing in and of itself...being a Gator is a special thing. Both the bride and groom are Gator grads and therefore the majority of the wedding attendees were Gators. So, there was a Gator ice sculpture at the raw bar and we did the Gator chomp during the reception...it was pretty amazing, something I had forgotten about, but remembered how amazing being a part of that is. I will be forever a Gator.

Put your hands up and shout!

This past weekend was Mindy and Bobby's wedding in Buffalo, NY. To set the tone...I typically refuse to dance to songs like "YMCA" and "Shout" at weddings...but this wedding, I was rocking out when "Shout" came on. It was a good time and inspired participation in these sort of "traditional" wedding ballads.

Becky and I headed to Buffalo Friday morning and had a really fun road trip there. The 8 hour drive didn't seem bad at all. Perhaps it's because we always have great conversations or because we were catching up after not having seen each other in a while or what, but it was fun. We got in to our hotel and met up with Penelope, Colin, Elisa, Brett and Zoe and all went for a nice dinner in a cute neighborhood. P, Col, Becky and I then went to the Chocolate Bar/Martini Bar at our hotel for some fancy pants drinks...although P almost got sick after drinking her spiked Coke Float. Saw a crazy trashy girl talking smack to another girl...very Jerry Springer-esque. K Dogg (as his new shoes say) joined us for a beer then we all turned in.


Saturday we took a trip up to Niagara Falls on the Canadian Side. It was pretty impressive...the massive spray of mist coming from the bottom was one of the most impressive parts about it. We took a trip into the VERY touristy area right by the falls for a some trashy food (candy store, dairy queen soft serve and hot dogs) and did a Ripley's Motion Movie...it was lame. We almost got in trouble crossing back into the US...apparently even though the Canadian border patrol doesn't even ask for any form of ID, the US side is requiring Passports...Becky and I only had ID's...alas. They let us through...we must have looked normal.



The the wedding. Mindy and Bobby looked great. The ceremony was short and sweet, a nice cocktail hour w/some yummy hors d'oeuvres then to our awesome table...just the 8 of us, it was perfect. Good food and conversation, many laughs, definitely the cool table :-). Then the reception. The band was AMAZING. Total Zoot Suit type band in full on Zoot Suits and everything. They rocked it and we danced along the whole time. Tons of fun. Lots of cool people at the wedding (no surprise since Mindy and Bobby are the coolest!). Becky and I stayed past the reception and went to check out downtown Buffalo "nightlife" with some other Burlington people (the rest of our crew retired early) and some of the grooms party. Pretty interesting "scene".

Another 8 hour drive back on Sunday. Again, we were both surprised by the fact it wasn't too bad. Granted, we were exhausted but we kept it fun...I laughed until I cried, literally. Good times. Fun weekend. Great excuse to sit down in one place with such great friends...we've all had a hard time getting together, all of us in one room so this was great. One wedding down, one to go this coming weekend! Naples, FL here I come.

The next step

Wedding season is upon me. I have one this weekend in Buffalo, NY for my dear friends Mindy and Bobby and then next weekend I fly down to southern Florida for the wedding of my college pal, Mike, and his fiance, Kathleen, who I have yet to meet.

It's really crazy...my friends getting married..especially my college friends. Most of my friends in Vermont are older so it's not as odd but my college friends, that throws me for a loop. I suppose part of it is because I remember them in the bubble that was 4 years at the University of Florida. We were all so young, so untouched, so lost in this world, so glad to have found each other.

I had this really special group of friends in college. A large group of us who found ourselves in the "anti-social" dorm on campus, thinking we'd never make a friend there...until we did. I remember meeting Mike at our dorm "orientation". He lived down the hall from me with Conley, Joe and Chris. One day I was driving back to my dorm from being someplace on campus (our dorm was on the edge of campus) and I saw Mike and Conley sitting on a bench waiting for the bus so I rammed up over the curb, rolled down the windows and told them to climb in. We were friends from that day forward. We would all eat dinner together at the dining hall almost every night of freshmen year. Myself and those four boys became friends with the four boys directly across from me...Ryan, Mark, CR and Jeff (co-ed floors were pretty great) and then the 2nd semester of freshmen year we met the kids downstairs. At this point, our group of best friends was around 20 people...no joke. We were inseparable. We had a block of seats at the football game so we could all sit together (getting a block wasn't an easy task either). We had an intramural softball team...the girls all wore knee high striped socks. We snuck kegs into the bathroom of one of the downstairs rooms so we could pump beer through the window while playing in the kitty pool we'd set up outback of the dorm. We camped together. We considered renting an old fraternity house so we could all live under one roof, all 20 of us. It was the greatest year. The other 3 of college were right up there too...the only big difference was we all moved off campus to different apartments. Mike, Conley and the rest of the boys from my floor all moved to one place. I moved in with Ryan, Joe and Snyder...they are my family now.

It's when I think back to those times that flashing forward to thinking of next weeks wedding, it is so bizarre. How things change so quickly. I haven't even met his fiance so it's happened in the past 3 years. And now Ryan is engaged. Apparently Mark is too. I remember one night freshmen year, Mark and I got up at 4am and walked out to this field and laid down in the grass to watch a meteor shower. I haven't thought about that in years. I remember sophomore year having to go pick Ryan up after he got in a bike accident...he had tears in his eyes because his bike had been ruined, ill aware of the blood trickling down his injured leg.

How things change. How people grow. How we age. How it used to be tailgating and late night spray painting and beer and Tijuana Flats. Now it's marriage, homes, children, 401Ks. I can't wait to see my college friends. I haven't seen most of them for 3.5 years. I left Florida in a whirlwind, left it for a faraway tundra, for the real world. I left my best guy friend standing in my driveway at my parents house with tears in his eyes, wondering when we'd see each other next.