Mr. WOW

I get to travel a lot for my new job, and my first traveling adventure was to good ol' NYC for a training seminar. Yes, it sounds incredibly boring, but I was a good girl from 9 to 5, and then had a blast the rest of the time!

My cousin Matt is living in Brooklyn right now, so I got a chance to visit his apartment and see some of his favorite haunts. After a fun evening on the 11th of July, I had to take the subway from Brooklyn to my hotel on Columbus Circle. It was about 11 pm at this point, and I was exhausted, but I had to make it back asap.

And this is where the adventure begins...

I grabbed the L train to 8th Ave in hopes of catching the A train to Columbus Circle. However, the A train was getting worked on, so I was SOL. Luckily, a nice guy from Brooklyn named Brian told me to go back to 6th ave and catch the 1 train, which would take me to the same Columbus Circle station. He was a little drunk, but several other "true New Yorkers" agreed with his assessment, so I proceeded to do as he told me.

(Does anyone actually find this useful?!)

I finally made it to 6th ave and had to wait 20 minutes for the next 1 train. (UGH!). I just wanted to go to bed! It was already midnight by this point, and I was pooped. Then, out of NOWHERE a guy comes right up to me (seriously, 6 inches from my face) and loudly asks, "Do you play WOW?" I was stunned (What the heck is WOW? Is this guy trying to kidnap me? Please tell me I packed my mace.). As it turns out, this was his attempt at a pickup line. WOW is World of Warcraft, which I don't play. He didn't believe me when I said that I didn't play, and responded with, "Are you sure? I get that vibe from you."

I asked, "What kind of vibe is that?"

He responded with, "The World of Warcraft Vibe."

Nice. I'm sure it made total sense to you, genius, but that does squat for your explanation.

After I made MANY references to my wonderful husband and made it abundantly clear that I was perfectly faithful to him, not interested in being picked up on the subway, and not at all impressed with his attention, Chris (a.k.a. "Mr. WOW") used the line, "Once you go black you never go back" as well as, "I love your eyes; they make you look so innocent - are you?"

Finally, as we neared his stop (which, thankfully, was before my stop) he grabbed my hand and asked me out for coffee. I told him that I don't drink coffee. He said, "I'm afraid I'm never going to see you again." As the subway doors opened I said, "I think my husband would prefer it that way." I swear I heard the lady seated next to me softly chuckle as Chris sadly got out of the train and the subway doors closed. I'm glad someone else witnessed this ridiculous display. So, to you, stranger on the subway who saw and heard nearly everything Mr. WOW said to me on the subway that night - Thank you for sharing that moment with me. I'm afraid we'll never see each other again, but at least we'll always have that night on the 1 train to Columbus Circle.

~bê~

Happy Fourth!

I know it was a few days ago, but I haven't had a chance until now to blog about my fourth of July! I went to New Smyrna Beach for lunch at Breakers on Flagler Ave. They have a front row seat to the beach! The picture of me at the beach is taken right outside the restaurant :-) I made the mistake of wearing flats to lunch. When Joel (my boss) found out that I hadn't been to the beach since my honeymoon (June of 2008) he made me buy a pair of flip flops so that I could dip my toes in the ocean! It was great :-)

That night my coworker, Beth, and her nice boyfriend took me to Daytona Beach for dinner and a fireworks show. We had pizza on the pier and enjoyed an awesome (and very crowded) fireworks display. All in all, I think my Fourth was pretty great :-)

Getting Ready for Latin America

I confirmed with my boss this week that he wants me to go on a Latin American tour to recruit students. I am so freakin' excited!!!

I can't wait to go on my first big tour! I will be going to 7 countries in 16 days - AMAZING!!! I'm a little nervous to use my Portuguese in Brazil at the tours, but I'm hoping that it will end up strengthening my language skills in the end.

My main concern is that I am just now finishing week 3 at my new job. I know so little about Stetson University! I hope I can learn enough by that point that I will actually be of some use to the students who stop by my booth. :-)

Wish me luck!

~bê~

Puppy Fever

I have been seeing puppies everywhere I go! A couple of my colleagues have dogs, and I see them at Stetson, at my apartment complex, at the bank... They're everywhere!!! I can't get one right now because I'll be traveling too much (and my husband is in another time zone) so it's a little impractical. However, my heart just won't listen to my head. I want one!!!