Fill-in-the-Blank Friday!

I don't know why I'm up so stinkin' early. I woke up, on my own, at 5:45 this morning ... and didn't wake up to a pretty sight - my kitty's butt was in my face! Thanks a lot, Mrs. Norris.

Also annoying: I got 2 phone calls and 2 texts from either a prank caller/texter or possibly a drunk girl trying to reach her (not)boyfriend - very suggestive, bordering on vulgar... and nobody said anything when I picked up the phone the first time. All this happened after midnight. AFTER I had been asleep for over an hour. I sent him/her a not-nice text back this morning, saying basically DO NOT CALL OR TEXT THIS NUMBER AGAIN. Hopefully that will take care of it. And, the mean part in me sort of wanted to wake them up before 6 like they woke me up in the middle of the night. Just to show them. ... Anyway, that's my prank call story for today. (I hope the story ends there, at least...)

Moving on ... Fill-in-the-Blank Friday!! It's been forever since I've done one of these things! Great theme this week ... if you want to play, just hop on over to The Little Things We Do and play along!

1. My dream vacation would be a 2-3 week-long trip to Italy and the Mediterranean area - Greece, Sicily, etc. Or ... I could probably just spend 3 weeks in Italy alone... I've always wanted to go to Europe, and just haven't ever made it there. It makes top five on the Things I Want to Do Before I Die list. And I want to go with my best friend, since Mark isn't too particularly keen on Italy. He can come along if he wants to. .

2. The best trip I've ever taken was either our cruise a few weeks ago, or my American Studies trip in 11th grade. The cruise definitely has high points - it was GORGEOUS, the food was amazing, I got to snorkel for the first time, etc etc etc... But the American studies trip was pretty awesome too. We took a (fast-paced) tour of the Northeast - starting in D.C., we went to NYC, Boston, Rhode Island, Gettysburg... and I think that's all. It was an amazing trip with some of my really good friends, and it was the first time I'd ever been that far North .

3. The most important items to take on a road trip are an iPod, food, and a pillow .

4. The next trip I'm looking forward to is hopefully my next trip to Nashville to visit Elissa! I always have such a great time there - I just don't know exactly when we'll be going. I'm also trying to talk Mark into a short trip somewhere this fall. He protests, saying we can't afford it ... but hopefully our census at work will pick up some, I'll work extra, and we'll be able to go somewhere :) .

5. If I had to pick one CD to listen to for a long road trip it would be Oh man, just one?? I like my iPod playlists ... and my entire collection of songs, really, on long trips. But if I had to just pick one, that I wouldn't get tired of ... Coldplay's Viva la Vida, the Avett Brothers' I and Love and You, or a Jack Johnson CD. Or Glen Hansard. .

6. The biggest disaster I've ever encountered while traveling was when we went to Edisto Island with my family when Kelly and I were younger. The whole trip was a disaster. First of all, I was about 14 and extremely moody. I was NOT excited about being there. Then Kelly broke her arm bicycling with a girl we met there - she rolled down a hill in straight into a tree. Only Kelly could manage this. So I was bored all day while they took her to the ER. Then my dad tried to take us to this battleship. (I STILL hate battleships.) It was closed, or we couldn't go on it for some reason, or SOMETHING, and Daddy wasn't happy about that. Then they cancelled some tour we were going to take. Then we got stuck in Wendy's for several hours with no power during a major storm - I think a small hurricane was coming through. Basically ... the entire trip was awful. NOT a good vacation. Oh, and then a few weeks after we got back, our house got sprayed by a skunk. The week after I started high school. And I had to go to school, smelling like a skunk, and move into a hotel while our house was fumigated. That was not my best summer, to be honest... .

7. My favorite traveling memory is ...as usual, I have several. Mark and I went to visit Andy in New York City while he was interning up there the summer before our senior year. That whole trip is happy memories, but one stands out - we were eating brunch at St. Bart's Cafe, and I was drinking a mimosa and eating scones, and I think it was the first time I realized that I was an adult. I felt grown up, independent, and mature. And so, so, blissfully happy. (Until I got home, and found out that I overdrafted. Not so mature. Not so happy.) And then when my mom and sister and I went to Hilton Head and Savannah, I remember taking a trolley tour of Savannah, where you could get out, walk around, make pictures, and then get back on the next trolley that came along. It was just an extremely fun day with my extremely fun favorite girls, and I have some really excellent pictures from that day. And THEN, possibly my all-time-favorite traveling memory was on our honeymoon to Disney World. I had made reservations at the restaurant at the Contemporary Resort - to this day, the most expensive place I've ever eaten. There's a balcony off the restaurant, and after dinner, we went out with our glasses of free champagne because it was our honeymoon and watched the Magic Kingdom Fireworks show from the best seat in the house. Watching those fireworks with my brand new husband and our whole lives ahead of us was so, so amazing, and such ... I don't know, it was very moving. Sadly, I don't have any pictures because I forgot my camera, but I don't think I need any to remember that. .