[We Partied Like the Class of 99]

Because we were the class of 1999. I do believe this is the first time my entire post title is changed to fit my life. And also, this isn't entirely the song. It's the karaoke version, but it's the best I could get on youtube.

And so here I am, back from another trip. And what an eventful trip it was! For once, my airplane out of Seattle wasn't delayed or even cancelled! Yippee! Already the trip was off to a great start :). While waiting for the plane in Seattle, I met a girl who was headed off on her mission to Uruguay. It was nice to pass the time chatting with her. We landed in Dallas/Ft. Worth and I got to my next gate and made conversation with someone else who was on the same flight. And then, lo and behold, we get the announcement: mechanical problems with our plane. They'd keep us posted. I'm starting to get a complex. Maybe it's me? Anyway, they gave us a whole new plane, and we ended up being an hour behind schedule. We landed in Atlanta (by the way, American Airlines doesn't feed you anything aboard their flights for free -- not even pretzels) without incident, and then I had to figure out how to get to Emily. I ended up getting help from one of the airport employees who was very tall and walked very fast. So there I was, practically running -- back-pack on my back and rollaway suitcase rolling along behind me -- through the Atlanta airport. I finally found Emily, and after our salutations, we left the airport and walked out into the very muggy Atlanta air. The airport parking deck was particularly ick. And I have to say, it's interesting that Atlanta has as much traffic as it does at 10:30 on a Wednesday night. Interesting to me, at any rate. So we made it back to Emily's, and we went through Emily's senior yearbook to see who had RSVPed for the reunion. I got a shower and finally laid down to rest after a long day at about 1 in the morning.

Oh, before I forget... The weather was beautiful in Seattle when we flew out. We saw four huge mountains, one right after the other: Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helen's, Mount Baker, and Mount Hood. I should have thought to get a picture, but I didn't. I did, however, get a picture of Seattle as we flew out:



The following day, Emily and I were scheduled to drive down to Orlando. It probably would have been nice to get an early start, but that didn't really happen. I slept until about 10. Lazy, I know :). On the up-side of things, my bags were already packed and ready to go :)! So anyway, we got on the road around 1 p.m. and headed South. One thing about the Southeast, particularly parts of Georgia and Florida, is that it pours rain nearly every afternoon. So, we had to pull off the interstate a couple of times when the rain got so heavy we could barely see the road. I do have to say, though, that the lightning show that was happening in front of us was beautiful!!! We stopped in Valdosta, GA, for lunch during one of the downpours. Nothing fancy -- just some McD's. Then we were off and running -- well, driving -- again. We made it to our hotel a little after 9 p.m. So yeah, that was a long day of driving. And so we got checked into the hotel and headed to our room. Well, so the light was on in the room, which I thought was weird. And then I couldn't get the door to open with the key. It felt like it was locked from inside! So I asked Emily if she could see people in there. She said she couldn't and that the towels looked all nice and folded, etc. So, we tried again. No dice. We were about to give up, but then Emily tried, and we were successful. So we thought there was just a special knack for opening the door -- and I didn't have it. So I got a shower, and Emily and I were laying there talking. And a cell phone starts ringing. Emily finally looks at me and says, "Are you going to get your phone?" And I said, "That's your phone." She says, "No, it's not mine." And I said, "Well, it's not mine," and held mine up. Hahaha... So we open one of the drawers in the room, and there are 2 phones!!! Emily looks at me and goes, "Oh my gosh! Someone is still here!" Hahahaha... Well, it turned out that the last people just forgot their phones. So we turned them in, and we got a phone call at about 11 in the room. Which was also weird, because I've never gotten a phone call in the hotel room before. But that was so funny, given the door thing, and then the cell phones.

On Friday, Emily and I went to Aquatica, which is the water park associated with Sea World. It was fun, though there were droves and droves of people. Emily and I spent most of our time on the lazy river, just floating around and around in innertubes. We went in the rapids as well, which was basically the same as the lazy river, just faster-paced, and you couldn't use innertubes. We also did the wave pool, and went to the deep end where the waves came out really high. That was pretty fun. And let me tell you... in the Florida heat, being immersed in water was wonderful! It was usually between 99 and 102 degrees there! YIKES! Emily and I spent a lot of time trying to remember who was in our classes back at Balboa High School and telling stories about those days. You know, revving up for reunion :). We did stand in line for a couple of actual water slides. The first one was over incredibly fast, and we went head-first down this steep slide. The second one, we were both able to go in the big tube and we went through a dark tube where you couldn't see anything. But the lines were really long, so we only did those each once, and skipped the other ones that had lines. Thirty minutes standing in the sun is a looooooong time :). Especially when there is the refreshing lazy river with no line at all :). So here are Emily and I, getting ready to leave around 2 p.m.

Oh yeah, and we also got a dolphin education. We headed back to our hotel room to change, then ate next door to our hotel at a place called Friendly's. It was pretty good, especially the yummy sundae that ended our meal :). Emily and I then walked down to Walgreen's to pick up some snacky foods for our hotel room. We were very full at this point, though, so nothing looked very appetizing, and we ended up just getting some sweet'n'salty Chex Mix. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was getting close to time to get ready for reunion. I was pretty excited by this point. So here are Emily and me, all ready to go to reunion:

We got to the resort (okay, this thing was massive. We didn't stay at the resort, because it was quite expensive, and we saved over half of what it would have cost us by staying elsewhere) around 7:45. I immediately saw Brian, who is like my 3rd cousin or something. He's my dad's cousin's son. After some lobby-visiting, Emily and I started searching for the hospitality suite where our part of the reunion was taking place. Because maybe I should explain this... Every year, the Panama Canal Society puts on a Canal Zone reunion. And during that huge event (of over 3000 people, believe it or not), the classes that are celebrating decade-reunions kind of break off to their own mini-reunion for a part of it. And lucky for the class of 1999, this was our year. Scary, huh? So we were off to find our hospitality suite. We ended up going up in the elevators, when we should have gone down. But by so doing, we ended up back in the lobby and I ran into more of my extended family:

That's me with two of my dad's cousins and my dad's aunt (this is my grandmother's sister). After we took this picture and visited for a few minutes -- let's just say all of them said, "We didn't expect to see you here!" (I mean, why would they? I live in Washington State, after all) -- Emily and I headed down to the class of 1999 reunion. As I was walking down the hall to the suite, I passed one guy in the hall that I had gone to school with since like kindergarten or first grade. His name is Michael, and he's on my left in this picture:

Michael recognized me immediately in the hall and came over and hugged me. The other guy in the picture is named Jared. He went to the same elementary school as I did, but was a year behind. He was actually with Brad's graduating class. He recognized me as well, and came over and talked for a bit and asked about Brad. I was glad to find out that I was not the only person who decided to go to the reunion who didn't actually graduate with the class. I would have, had I stayed in Panama my senior year. But I went to school with a lot of these people for 11 years, so I felt that counted :). There were two others who did the same, so I was not alone in that :). In the next picture, you will see me with 4 other people. Three of them were people with whom I went to elementary school: (Carrie the blonde, Rafael in the striped shirt, and Jessica in the white dress). The other guy's name is Anthony. I never even spoke a word to him in my life, so I'm not really sure what he's doing in the picture. Hahaha...

Here is a picture of me, Emily, and Sarah. Sarah is one of the others who didn't actually graduate with BHS c/o 1999. She moved away after sophomore year. But she and I had been in 8th grade P.E. together, and we ate lunch together in 8th grade. So it was neat to visit with her and catch up.

And then this is my cousin Brian and me:

And here I am with two others with whom I went to elementary school. On my right in the picture is Jack. On my left is Romel. Confession: I had a crush on both of these guys in elementary school. Jack in 4th and 6th grades and Romel in 5th. Romel looks about the same as he did back then. Jack has changed a lot.

Now apparently the class of 1999 really did party like it was 1999. And apparently, for the most part, they still do. There was a DJ that set up in there and was so loud! I mean, it had been loud already with all the talking. It was hard to hear others talking. But then add this DJ in the mix. Phew! You couldn't hear yourself think. And if you went out in the hallway, you could hear us all the way down the hall. So I guess it's no surprise that others from the CZ Reunion found their way to our room. And that's how I bumped into this guy:

This is Sidney. He is my sister's age. This is the person with whom Christina was playing when she put "lipstick" on with a very very very hot pepper, and he used his hot hot pepper as a crayon and "drew" all over his arms and face. Yeah, they were burning quite a bit that day. Christina ended up looking like this at the end of that event:
So anyway, I asked if he'd take a picture with me so I could show Christina and Brad. By about this time, we were getting ready to take the class of 1999 10 years later picture. I didn't plan to be in it, since I didn't graduate with them. But I was invited into the picture, as were the two others who were there in the same situation as I was. We all even got a class of 1999 t-shirt, so that was really nice. So here are a couple of pictures I snapped while everyone was trying to get together for the picture:

And here's the professional one, for which I paid $25. Ick! They kind of have you over a barrel though. They know you're going to pay that price if you really want it!

Right after this picture, Emily and I headed out. It was about 11:45, and we were hot and my feet were killing me! In fact, I walked barefoot all the way back to the car, which was parked in the back forty, believe me. And since we left so late, the parking lot guard who was supposed to collect our $8 for parking wasn't there, so we got to keep that $8! Woohoo! Emily and I stayed up talking and reliving our reunion experience until about 1:30 in the morning. And then we went to sleep :).

On Saturday, we talked to Heather and then headed back to the resort to see the vendors and stuff like that. Now Heather also graduated with the class of 1999. She and her husband weren't able to make it in time for the reunion on Friday night, but since she, Emily, and I always got along, we decided to spend the day together catching up. I had actually seen Heather in 2006 when I went to her wedding in Pensacola. And prior to that, she'd been to my wedding in 2003, and she'd come up to Dothan to stay with me a couple of times before that. Emily and Heather hadn't seen each other in 10 years, though, so this was a great opportunity to all catch up. First, we all went in to the vendors to walk around and see what kind of Panama wares were for sale. While there, I bumped into another 2nd or 3rd cousin: Linda. I was in Linda's wedding when I was a little girl. I was her flower girl. She now lives in Italy. I hadn't seen her in at least 11 years. So we got a picture together:

After walking around the vendors, we decided we were hungry for some lunch. And they were having a special menu for us "Zonians" of empanadas and yucca sticks. And so that's what we had :). Here are me and Emily, proudly displaying our food:

And here are Emily, me, and Heather and then another of the three of us with Heather's husband Greg:


After lunch, we hung around talking and then went to the Panama Canal Society Museum. It was pretty cool with all the things they had in there. They had the actual Balboa head that used to sit outside of the high school for special occasions (otherwise it was hidden away, because it had a tendency to be stolen):

They had the maps that could be found in the backs of the PanCanal phonebooks blown up all huge and had pens so people could label where they used to live. So I totally did that, and here I am pointing to our house in Cardenas (though you can't see the writing, it's there in blue :)):

By about this time, we'd seen all we wanted to see, so we decided to head back to our hotel rooms and rest. We were planning to meet up again later with the hopes of seeing some fireworks somewhere. So in the end, we decided on Universal City Walk, because that was free :). Talk about a massive area!!! Here I am at the entrance of Universal (oh yeah, and of course it had poured rain, so that's what's on my shirt):

We decided to eat at Hard Rock Cafe, so here are Heather, Emily, and me outside of Hard Rock Cafe Orlando:

And they make you take a picture inside, so they can sell it to you later. Heather and Greg bought the package of pictures and shared with me and Emily, which I thought was so nice.

And you know me... I had to get a picture at the table too :). But this ended up being a pretty awesome picture, so I'm glad :).

After leaving Hard Rock, we stopped in front of the Universal Globe, so I could get my picture:

Then we hung out for about an hour and 15 minutes waiting for fireworks. We didn't get to see any (they were making it so you had to pay to get into Universal to be able to see them), so we gave up and left -- only to realize we could've seen them better from the parking deck -- and even
better from the car while driving away. Hahaha... We said our good-byes to Heather and Greg and headed back to our hotel and turned in for the night.

On Sunday, Emily and I got up early to take the shuttle to Sea World. We walked around a bit, and saw the stingrays. We even got to pet them. They felt kind of weird. Hard to describe. And there were these birds there (possibly egrets?) that were trying to get the food, so they'd kind of attack you and be aggressive. Luckily for me, I didn't pay for stingray food :). We watched the dolphin feeding, and then headed over to Shamu Stadium to watch the Orca show.

Here I am outside of the stadium:

By this point, it was time for us to head back to the entrance to meet up with Jon and Julie, who drove over to spend the day with us!!! Which was way awesome, by the way :). We went to the sea lion show, where we saw a guy volunteer to go up front and he ended up having to do "I'm a little teapot" and also got wet by the sea lion; we went through the underwater shark tank. We ate lunch. And then it started raining, so we decided on an indoor exhibit and we chose the penguins. So there we were, listening to the story about the penguins in the exhibit and the lady tells everyone that she's going to ask a question, and she'd call on the first person who raised their hand. And if that person got the question right, he (or she) and their family could come down front. So she asks the question, and Jon puts his hand up. And Julie freaks out and says, "no, no!" And motions for him to put down his hand. Because, remember, we'd just seen what happened to the volunteer at the Sea Lion show. Hahahaha.... Turns out nobody else raised their hand, so Jon got called on. And he got the answer right. So Julie was horrified about having to go down front, so I asked her if she wanted me and Emily to go too. She said yes, so we all went down. And you know what???? We got to go in the back and meet one of the penguins!!! Soooo cool. So, here are several pictures of Emily, Julie, and myself petting Fisher:



And here is a picture of all of us with Fisher and the lady who works in the exhibit:

Oh, and excuse my pose. I knew I'd look stupid, but I didn't pick a good spot to lean down, so instead, I poked out my big ole butt. Hahaha. Anyway, then, it gets even cooler! -- literally! We got to go into the cooler and see the exhibit from behind the scenes!!!

It was 30 degrees in there, but let me tell you -- that felt so good! It was so hot and humid elsewhere that this cooler really cooled us down and dried up the sweat! hahaha, gross, I know. Imagine feeling it! Me and Julie -- we're not really outdoorsy kind of girls :).And here are Julie and me with the cooler and penguins in the background:

After we left the penguins, it had stopped raining. So we went and watched the dolphin show, which also included some strange dancing and water-jumping by people dressed like birds. I love sitting next to Julie when things like this happen. We so get each other :).

After that was over, we went and looked at the manatees and Julie and I got a picture outside of that:

We also took the journey to the arctic where we saw walruses, beluga whales, and a polar bear. Then Emily and I rode the Manta ride, which is a new roller coaster. That was a pretty cool ride. We tried to ride it prior to the arctic thing, but the ride kept getting stopped and we never knew how long it'd be. It worked out better anyway, since the line really moved when we went back the second time. Jon and Julie were so kind to wait for us while we rode it, and they also watched our stuff. Julie took pictures of her mouth and foot and stuff with my camera while we were joy-riding. I didn't find them until later that night. I was tempted to put them here, but I didn't :). Would've been hilarious, though. Hahaha. We took one last picture before leaving Sea World:

And then we had to search for Jon and Julie's car. Now that was classic! There we were -- all four of us scouring the parking lot, looking for the car. I wonder if Julie got her foot and back massage that she earned for being right ;)? We all ate dinner at Friendly's before Jon and Julie had to get on the road back home.

It was so sad to say goodbye. But so awesome to have spent the day with Jon and Julie. We always make the most awesome memories. And sometimes, the memories just fall in our laps -- like the penguin! That night I took a picture of the tagua nut ring I'd bought for myself at reunion. I don't have that one anymore, since the one I'd picked out for Christina was either too big or too small for all her fingers. So, she and I traded :). I got one for me and each of my siblings. I thought it was a neat little memento. So here's what Christina's looks like:

Emily and I stayed up talking again until 1:30 in the morning. I still can't believe we did that, as tired as we were! But it was a great conversation!

The next morning, Emily and I slept until about 9:30ish. It was Emily's birthday. Then we started getting everything packed and ready for checking out. We headed over to The Holy Land Experience, which is like a theme park based around Jerusalem. We went through the Scriptorium that had artifcacts from a very very long time ago. That was pretty cool. We left around 1 and got on the road back to Atlanta. We stopped along the way and got Wendy's, and we made it into Atlanta around 9. As we pulled into the driveway at Emily's, we saw their neighbor's trashcan and a rather unfortunate Santa:

Random, I know. But so hilarious. We ate ice cream with a couple of Emily's roommates to celebrate Emily's birthday, and then we turned in for the night.

Tuesday morning, Emily had a doctor's appointment. So I hung out at the house until she got back, and then it was time to leave. Emily took me and showed me around the school where she works, and then she took me to the airport. The journey back to Washington was pretty uneventful. We were a little late, just because it took the second plane longer to get refueled. But other than that, nothing eventful. I was bored, though, on the plane. I should have taken 2 books instead of one, but I never read that much on vacation, so I only took one. Turns out I had plenty of reading time this trip. Oh well... It was just a struggle for about 2 hours of the flight, since I couldn't fall asleep and I had nothing to do! John picked me up from the airport, and we went and ate at Denny's on the way home. Once home, I had to do some email checking and such. Plus I had to get a shower. So I didn't get to bed until around 1:30 in the morning. And then I had work the next day.

It was great to be back and work and back in the routine. I got pictures of all the decorations they did for my mom's birthday:

After work, my mom and I went to Christina's. I had gotten a pair of tembleques at the reunion. These are head "jewelry" that the traditional Panamanian dancers wear. Christina used to have a whole set, but doesn't anymore. So while my dad and I were in Panama, she wanted us to get some of them. But, we weren't sure where to find them. Originally, they were made with fish scales that had been dried and bleached and were very intricate. You don't find as many of those anymore, and mostly they are just made with pearlesque beads these days. But one of the vendors had a couple of tembleques made of fish scales. So, I got them. And now Christina and I each have half of a pair :). It was neat to take it to her and see her face:

So here we are with them on:

And, of coures, Desiree wanted to try them:

And so we even put one in Emily's hair and held it in place for a picture:

She wasn't nearly as excited about it as Desiree was :). Hahaha.

And thus ends that Nillaventure. I've just been working and trying to play catch-up. Rather unsuccessfully, I might add :). Never enough time in a day! I did take my mom out for lunch yesterday to celebrate her birthday a bit late. And then after work, she and I went to Costco. But other than that, nothing very exciting. So, I'm sorry for the lateness of my post. But, I hope it was worth the wait :).