Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time

 

The obligatory hand-held shot.  Us on the balcony in Florida.  

Well, it would appear that it's that time of year again: India time.  Matt got an email from the tech services guy in Delhi a couple days ago who said that IOCL ("India Oil Company, Ltd"... at least that's what I think it stands for, though I might have made it up) wanted him to start work on the 18th.  I believe their exact words were "please send He, the expert", which we're all assuming means Matt, though I have sincere doubts about his expertise on most things.  Anyway, so we have tickets to leave Thursday, and I'm all set up in my usual economy exit row seat, where I will surely sit staring daggers at what I think is the back of Matt's head in *Business Class*, forever longing to be a part of his world.  Sounds like a plan.  While I still harbor a healthy amount of anxiety at the thought of going to India for the rest of my life, I'm actually pretty ready to get this Vadodara show on the road.  I've had this brown cloud (sometimes I'm so funny and clever it hurts) hanging over my head since we left for India the first time, and I just want to get this party started (and then finished) asap.  A couple things new things are bumming me out: first off, the other crew that's still there will surely finish up within a month or so of our arrival, leaving us all alone, shivering in the cold darkness of their departure for a couple months until our crew arrives.  Also, Luis, who was set to accompany us (and about whom I hear great things but have never met) has been pulled from this job and is now en route to Guangxi, China, where the REAL party is.  Doesn't matter.  We don't need him.  


Anyway, in other news, we DID in fact, have a marvelous time in St. Petersburg, FL, and we had a pretty decent time on the road trip in general.  We played Botticelli and Sign Game (a couple Streett family road trip staples), and sang lots and lots of country music.  After we arrived, the hotel upgraded us into a two bedroom room... for freeeee!  

Our hotel room(s).  Two bedrooms AND two bathrooms!  I've never seen such space!

   

I know this is too many pictures, but I wanted you to get the full picture of how luxurious we were living. 

Much more space than we needed, but it was awesome.  The whole week we pretty much laid on the beach in the mornings, and then retired to the pool after lunch.  We made a couple sand castles, and of course, they were da bomb (in other news, I've recently discovered that having an engineer on my team makes me sort of a perfectionist when it comes to sand castles).  

 

Matt with our first beauty. The moat is his, everything else is my handiwork.  

I had one minor setback while constructing the second of our fortresses - I stepped on a bee and got the stinger stuck in my foot.  It hurt (a lot) but I didn't cry, mostly because I am 25 and too old to be crying, but also because the last time I cried when I got hurt, Matt made fun of me relentlessly... sometimes I wonder about the health of our relationship.  Anyway, after much self-medicating, I went back to finish the castle and found that dead bee's body, which I then stuck to the door of my castle... you know, as a warning to the other bees.  

 

You can't really see it, but that spot on the front is the bee body.  

The weather turned out to be okay for us, and while it rained every day, it usually stopped after about an hour... until Friday, and then we just went to the outlet malls and spent a bunch of money on stuff we don't need but will decorate our storage unit nicely until we have a house.  

 

Another balcony shot.  Obviously Matt didn't know where to look.  

Things are pretty great in Chi-city at the moment... we switched hotels and while I'm not at liberty to give any details, it was a good switch.  Makes my life easier, which in turn makes Matt's much happier.  Yesterday I went to the movies with Angela and Hema, two other roadwives (there are so many of us now, it's amazing!) and saw Eclipse (that's the 3rd installment of the Twilight saga, for those of you who have been living under a rock for the past four years).  I had this whole thing on here about the movie and the actors, but then I got embarrassed and deleted it.  Trust me, it's better that way.  


Today I have big plans to lay by the pool all day, because now our hotel has an outdoor pool (that's all I'll say!  Don't ask me anymore!), and tomorrow we might just have to go floating down the Fox River again.  Trying to live it up before we get sucked into the black hole that is India.  Don't threaten me with a good time.  

Way Down Yonder

So where are we today?  India?  Chicago?  Thailand?  False.  We are in Chattanooga, Tennessee, of course.  And why are we here?  Funny you should ask...

 

Matt got a call Thursday after work from his manager who asked the obligatory: "So are you in India yet?" To which Matt responded, "No, India has been pushed back for a month." (Side note: isn't it kind of weird that Matt has to tell his manager that the job is delayed and not vice versa?  It's just the UOP way.  They're all about self-sufficiency over there... making boys into men, and men into engineers since 1917.)  Anyway, so then Mr. UOP said they needed Matt to take the rest of his missed holidays and get out of their collective face for a week.  Don't mind if I do, said Matt.  So then we put off deciding where to go until Saturday, and then we finally settled on Chattanooga!  False.  We settled on Chattanooga for one night en route to St. Petersburg, Florida!  Should be a pretty good time, providing the weather holds up for us.  The forecast called for rain every day, but we Correntis like to walk on the wild side.  We laugh in the face of danger... danger being rain and the potential for oil muck to come onshore.  We'll be fiiiine.  Anyway, that's all my news.  We'll be in Florida for a few days, and will drive back through TN on the 2nd or 3rd of July, and are planning to spend the 4th in Nashville where they are having an Independence Day concert on the river - for freeeee! Trace Adkins is headlining, and Matt, having recently embraced his inner country music superstar, is actually really excited about it.

So anyway.... sorry I don't have a picture today.  After 10 hours in the car, I didn't really feel like taking any pictures.  Rest assured, it is a lovely town.  From what I've seen of it... the hotel.   I'll try to update sometime this week if I can peel myself away from the beach (or the indoor pool, depending on the weather) long enough to do so.  Just wanted to let you know we're here.  Somewhere.