Amanda and I recently celebrated our
one and a half year anniversary together on May 30, 2012. It’s hard to believe that time has flown that
fast in our relationship. As the old expression goes, time flies when you are
having fun, and we have had a lot of fun during the past 18 months of our
relationship. With our anniversary, we decided to plan a little vacation to
celebrate it, so we got a hotel for two days.
When people think of a vacation, they might think of somewhere exotic,
somewhere with nice weather, or somewhere far away. For us, it’s more about
having time to ourselves, away from everything, to relax, enjoy each other’s
company and take it easy. We usually
stay local. It’s more about getting away
and having alone time together.
We both live at home currently, so
it can be difficult to have time to ourselves.
We love our families, appreciate them, but sometimes you just have to
get away from everyone and everything, and it’s nothing personal. It’s just refreshing to have peace and quiet
and the freedom to do what we want when we want to do it. When you live with others, you have to be
aware of them and can’t always talk at a normal voice at 1AM or 2AM in the
morning. I respect that completely, but
it’s great to just live by your own rules sometimes.
We always stay at the Red Roof Inn
and use their Superior King Room, which includes a king-sized bed, a 32 inch
flat screen TV, a microwave and fridge. I love having a flat screen TV, a big
bed to relax in, and the microwave and fridge, so we can bring our own meals,
heat them up, and have them whenever we want. We are saving up for our own
place, and this is the next best thing to having our own place. When it comes
to a special occasion, we like to celebrate it in style by getting each other
gifts, decorating the room, and having alone time away from distractions and
chaos.
The night before the vacation is
always hard for me, as I have a hard time sleeping, and I am super excited,
anxious, and pumped up for the vacation. I toss and turn before finally waking
up and getting the day started. We always get as much stuff done beforehand as
possible. We shop at Target to get all the food and drinks that we need in
order to make it a great vacation. We buy candles for the room, pack well the
night before, and order the gifts ahead of time. Preparation is key for any vacation to be
successful.
We left at 12:30 for the 1PM check
in time. I was feeling a little tired, sluggish due to getting up early, not
being able to sleep. We stopped off at Speedway to get me an energy drink. I
don’t usually like to get energy drinks or rely on them, but I didn’t want to
be feeling tired, yawning, and sleepy on vacation. I wanted to be fully alert,
happy, and focused on everything, enjoying it.
Upon arriving in the hotel, we
unpacked and got everything situated. I got our lunch prepared for the day as
Amanda relaxed. I had chili and she had chicken soup. We didn’t want to eat too
big of a lunch as we were going to Del Rhea’s Chicken Basket for our
anniversary dinner that night.
They give you TONS of chicken. We snacked on
string cheese and yogurt in case we got hungry. From there, we watched Rocky,
which is one of my favorite films of all time. It speaks to me, as it’s a story
about someone that no one believes in or sees anything in him. In many times in
my life, I have felt that way, and the film moves me, brings me to tears and
resonates with me, even after multiple viewings. I see Amanda as my Adrian, the
one who doesn’t see me as a bum or a bad person. Not afraid to admit that once
again I cried during this movie. It’s so powerful, so gritty, so real, and so
well-written. It’s amazing and holds up incredibly well even after multiple
viewings.
Then Amanda got ready while I took a
shower. One of my favorite things about vacations is taking a shower. You might
say, “What’s so exciting about a shower?” With my place at home, the hot water
is very shoddy, and my family isn’t always happy with the water bill if I take
long showers. When I’m on vacation, I blast the water up all the way and stay
in there, sometimes 20-30 minutes. I do my best thinking in the shower and I
love the feeling of the hot water on my back. It’s very soothing and relaxing.
From that point on, Amanda finished
getting ready and we went out all dressed up to Del Rhea’s Chicken Basket. This
is our favorite place for a major occasion, as we have been there for our one
year anniversary and Valentine’s Day. The one waitress that works there is
amazingly sweet, always takes lots of pictures of us, and compliments us on how
sweet, nice, and cute we are together. We saw her there this time, but sadly
she was serving another table. She did say, “Hey, my favorite couple! I love
your hair, Amanda.” I got the chicken wings, which have so much chicken on
them, they are amazing! Amanda got the Chicken Basket, which was also out of
this world. We enjoyed another quality meal there. They never disappoint.
From there, we went back to the
hotel to exchange our gifts. Amanda knows me so well and always gets the BEST
gifts. We set a 30 dollar limit, so we don’t go overboard, and we always make
the most of that 30 bucks. Amanda got me Jimmy Fallon Thank You Notes 2, Roger
Ebert’s new book about bad movies, Magic VS. Bird DVD, and a ton of goodies,
candy wise. I got her some bows for her to wear in her hair, a new cell phone
case, nail polish remover, a Starbucks gift card, earrings, and also a ton of
goodies, candy wise. I love our gift giving and how we make the most out of our
budget and always have great gifts.
From there, we relaxed in the king
sized bed, read some of our books, and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the hotel
room. Then I took a bath, enjoyed the nice hot water again and was very
soothed. We got in our pajamas and ended the night with Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon,
and the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame on HBO. We passed out around 2AM, happy and
completely in love.
The next day, I woke up feeling a
little icky. Allergies have been a major problem with me lately, and I had a
sore throat. I was disappointed, but I didn’t want to let it ruin our vacation.
Yes, I was sick and it sucks to be sick on vacation, but you can’t make it ruin
your time. As the old adage goes, life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90
percent how you react to it. I didn’t want to tell Amanda at first because I
thought I could ignore it and it would go away, as I didn’t want it to have any
thought in my head. I decided it would be best to tell her, and she was super
sweet as she went to Target next door, got me hot chocolate, medicine, and
cough drops. After that, I felt a lot better! I was still a little sick, but it
was tolerable and not unbearable. I thought that was very sweet, incredibly
thoughtful, and loving of her.
Day two of vacation was what Bruno
Mars thought of when “The Lazy Song” was created. We stayed in our PJ’s all
day, watched Seinfeld, channel surfed, relaxed, talked, read, and did nothing,
and loved every second of it. It’s rare to get a day like that, where you can
do nothing and not feel bad about it or have someone tell you, “Get out of bed.
It’s 5PM.” We made the most of this day, as time was going by so slowly. We
were enjoying each other’s company, the brilliant quiet, peace, and knowing we
had no where to go and no obligations. No work, no school. It’s very freeing,
relaxing, and fun for the mind. It allows you to let go, enjoy the moment, and
not worry about anything.
We ended the night with Leno,
Fallon, reading, and Seinfeld before calling it bedtime at 2AM. We got up at
11AM the next day for the noon check out time. We finished packing, putting
everything away, cleaning up, showering, and we said goodbye to this vacation.
It was fun, amazing, relaxing, loving, romantic, and everything I needed and
more.
When I came back from vacation, I
always feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and rested.
I try to go on these at least once every couple of months with Amanda,
as it’s much needed for my health, mind, and body. I highly recommend it.
I’m very blessed, happy, grateful, and
thankful to have someone like Amanda in my life to share my life with, and
these vacations bring us closer together and even more in love.
Until the next vacation, thanks for
reading, everyone!
-Tony Farinella
No comments:
Post a Comment