Vacation

Well hello stranger where have you been….

Oh wait that’s me that has not updated the blog in some time.

I guess one of the problems with not working at the hotel is I can not spend 16 hours on the weekend updating my blog. So there may be some breaks in my posting of blogs but I will do everything I can to keep up on it.

So in an effort for Lisa to keep me busy so I don’t think about going back to work, my first weekend away from the hotel was a vacation week.

So before I start talking about vacation I will need to apologize for the picture selection. I know for a fact Lisa took a lot of pictures for the week we were away. The problem is when we came home from vacation her summer job has kept her so busy that she has not had an opportunity to upload any of the pictures. So until she gets them you are stuck with what I can find from the ones she was able to upload and from my mother-in-law’s camera

We left on Saturday June 25 to drive to Myrtle Beach for the week. We left around 7am and made fantastic time to get there. I believe we made three stops in all two to change Jack’s diapers and another for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We arrived at North Myrtle Beach around 5pm. We were all really excited over the condo we rented for the week.

The Living Room

Kitchen/Dining Room

Upstairs Bedroom

The In-laws Bedroom

When unpacked everyone immediately went to the beach.

Lex swinging his way to the beach

Jack's first time on the beach of Myrtle Beach

Our First time in the ocean

The first day of vacation was a lot of fun. The entire family woke up and we went to the beach first as soon as we were done eating breakfast. The first thing I did was go into the ocean with Lex.

Lex and I in the Atlantic

When we were in the ocean we did a lot of digging on the beach and playing in the sand.

Scouting the area for our first dig

Off we go

Getting started

Jack we are almost to China

Lex having the time of his life

Lex finding the sand a new home

Not sure if Lex can reach the bottom with his arms anymore

Test how much more we need to dig

Lex sensing a trap

Lex falling for our trap

Lex buried alive...and loving it

Day two was more of the same. We went back to the beach and played there but that evening we decided to go to Broadway on the Beach. Broadway on the Beach, is just a small shopping area that may have one of my favorite stores of all time, a retro 80’s store! I could have spent our lifesaving on the junk they had. But instead I bought Lex a $4 can of sour candy that was in a Ghostbusters tin. Before we walked the shopping center we decided to go to the Aquarium.

Walkign to the Ripley's Aquarium

The Year of the Shark

a play area for kids there

I like to think Lex is King Arthur and pulling the sword from the stone

This is one of those times I do not have all the pictures that were taken. I had a very good time at the Aquarium. It was not as big as the Baltimore Aquarium, but they had a really fun shark exhibit, they were not nearly as expensive and not very crowded either. It was nice to be able to enjoy looking at the fish and sharks and not being run into 1000 kids with no manners. Not to mention the parents of those kids with even less manners. I did find that Jack did not like being placed as close as possible to the sharks. I guess he has the same fear that I have of being eaten by a shark. (Thank you Jaws, and Open Water for that fear)

As we walked around Broadway on the Beach we were trying to find the Hawaiian restaurant that Lisa saw an advertisement for and when our search failed everyone turned to me for a dinner suggestion…. Oh yeah we went to…

On Tuesday Lisa and I decided to take the kids and visit an old friend of mine, Jennifer. Jennifer was the second GM I had at the Hampton Inn and my first AGM. She is resort manager for the Caribbean hotel and Villas. We had spoken on Sunday and she told me to bring the family and she would get us into their water park.

When we arrived there Jack was sound asleep and was not happy when he woke up. And was even less happy when he realized he was in the pool water. So Lisa took Jack out of the pool and he ended up falling asleep on her shoulder for the time we were there. Lex on the other hand took one look at the water slide and wanted to go down it. He got to the very top of the stairs, looked down the slide and had cold feet. So the life guard called me to come up and Lex had to see me go down the slide first so he knew it was okay. I haven’t gone down a water slide in years and had a blast. I may have gone down that slide ten times. Lex went down that slide for the next 2.5 hours. Around 12:30 Lisa did not think Jack was feeling well so we had to go and Lex was so upset about leaving.

When we came back to the condo we started to eat lunch when Jack threw up everything he had eaten for the day. And just like that my Tuesday was over. Jack did not want to be anywhere else but having his head on my shoulder. So while everyone else went to the beach Jack and I had to stay behind.

Wednesday morning Jack was back to his normal self. His fever had broke and he was ready for some adventures.

Jack not going to let a little illness get in his way

Jack

Mommy and Jack

Digging until he hits water



Lex finding the best sand

Nothing says family then digging holes on the beach

On Thursday morning we decided to go play Putt Putt. We found one of the courses and yours truly was the clear winner. Not to mention I was also playing with a handicap of Jack, who wanted to be held the entire time. I was actually pretty impressed with myself because playing with one hand I shot a 1 under par. May have been the second best game I have played. However, towards the end we could see Lex’s attitude start to change.

He ended up catching a fever which ended my Thursday and he wanted me to stay home with him. While he slept.

Lex sleeping on his sick day

On Friday everyone was feeling better and we spent more time on the beach and went back to Broadway on the Beach to do more shopping and feed the fish and ducks.

Lex at Tiki Jim's



Feeding Time

If only...LOL



Whenever I see anything KISS related it make me think of my friend Richard

A long week

We had such a good time that week. The weather was beautiful and we are already looking forward to going back. I will take Myrtle Beach over the unnamed Ocean resort that is only a few hours away, any day of the week. With the exception of the car ride home we could not have asked for a better vacation…. Yes the children cried from Myrtle Beach to Baltimore… second worst car ride of all time.

Myrtle Beach we miss you and we will be back soon.

A Broken Heart

So this past Monday I was outside watching Lex, Jack and our neighbor daughter Kaelyn play. And as all children do they started to argue over something really silly. I believe this argument started because Kaelyn climbed to the top of the slide and would not slide down. Lex went to tickle her, and push her down the slide but she was having none of that. This argument is about 5 minutes in, and thankfully I caught the last 30 seconds. Because at second 31 I was laughing so hard they stopped fighting. Enjoy the video below.

End of an Era

May 31, 2011

To whom it may concern

It is with a heavy heart I am writing to announce my resignation from Skye Hospitality’s Hampton Inn effective June 20, 2011. The past 10 years have been wonderful and rewarding and I appreciate the opportunity I was given.

Thank you for the opportunity that has been provided for me.

Sincerely, Scott D. Williams

And with the words above the end of an era is now upon us.

I am posting this as I am about to walk out the door of the Hampton Inn hotel in White Marsh, MD. I am filled with memories of co-workers, guest, and some amazing stories to tell.

My first day at the Hampton Inn was on Halloween day in 2001. Previously I was working at Sbarros in Towson Town Mall when they decided to close the store the day before my birthday. I was not that upset because the job was only supposed to keep me occupied while I looked for another job. I had gone on a few interviews o this point but I have not heard back from anybody yet. So with no job I thought back to an absolutely crazy girl that I met a few months previous who was working at the Hampton Inn Annapolis. My thought was if she can do this job so can I. I walked in and grabbed an application and things took off from there. I was told later that the girl, who I picked up the application from, Rashanda, immediately went to the back and told them to give me a call. A few days later I received a call for an interview and was hired immediately, with a start date of October 31, 2001.

I will never forget my first day at the Hampton Inn. It was Halloween and everyone was dressed up while I am wearing a tie. But then I was shown a tour of the hotel by the same girl who interviewed me who was dressed in a skin tight cat outfit. After the tour I was introduced to my AGM who was wearing a witches outfit and she did not look half bad in that either. I walked out of there my first day and said, “I could get to like this job.” Little did I know at the time how true that statement was going to be.

The expression, “my work place is like a family” is so true when it comes to the hotel. I pin pointed it to you are stuck working with someone for 8 hours at the hotel. You have two options, being friendly and get to know the person you are working with, or sit in silence for 8 hours and be miserable. Most of us end up going with the friendly approach. We end up getting to a comfort level with everyone that singing and dancing and making a complete fool of yourself is something natural as opposed to being guarded and careful. Topics that are normally off limits like religion and politics are talked about like we were talking about movies and books. Jokes played on each other can happen daily and really teach you to put your guard up. I also have learned one really good joke can give you a legend status that makes it really hard to top, and that they talk about for years after. I have made some friends here that I hope I have with me for a life time.

Here I am ten years later about to walk out the door. It is an extremely bitter sweet moment but it is a decision I am proud to make. It was so hard to walk into my GM’s office and tell her that I was calling it a career. I almost instantly started to regret the decision until I got home that night. I told Lex I was not going to be working at the hotel much longer and he gave me the biggest hug, and with a huge smile on his face he told me he loved me. At that point the decision was set in stone.

I feel like so much has changed in my life since I started at the Hampton Inn. When I started Lisa and I had only known each other for a few weeks, here we are 10 years later with two kids, a mortgage payment and adult responsibilities. I have grown personally and professionally because of the people who I have met at the Hampton Inn at White Marsh. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity that I was given by Mr. Dresher and I hope I never embarrassed the hotel too much when talking about it in public. I will miss my friends that I leave behind and I hope we stay in touch. Thank you, thank you, and thank you for the time of my life.



Omnia mutantur nos et mutamur in illis

Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there

Being a dad to Lex and Jack is the most important thing I have done in this world. The boys got me the coolest tie for fathers day, which I received a day early because Lex is the worst secret keeper of all time.
My Fathers Day Gift

Being a dad to Lex and Jack is the greatest honor in the world to me. And I will try everyday to be a better dad to them then I was the day before. I love you both with all my heart.

I also want to send out a special father day to my dad.


You have taught me so much in life, and I want to thank you because with out you I would not be the person I am today. Happy Fathers Day dad, I love you.

Friday

So I noticed that Rebecca Black was trending on Yahoo earlier today. And I was very curious to know why.

Rebecca black is the soon to be 14 year old singer who jumped to be infamous when she debuted a music video for the song “Friday” on you tube. The song was originally uploaded to You Tube on February 10, 2011 and received a lot of negative feed back.

Well the news is that Rebecca Black asked You Tube to pull the song.

Below is a link to the video. I am not sure how long this is going to stay up but it here for your listening enjoyment(?)

Rebecca Black singing “Friday”

I am not a fan of the song, although I do admit I hum the refrain when I walk out of work on Friday, but I am also not the audience she is after. But I did find this cover version of the song.

Katy Perry Singing “Friday”

The whole point of this blog post is to show this below video of Stephen Colbert covering Rachael Black’s “Friday”
Stephen Colbert covering “Friday”

Rebecca Black will has cemented herself a place in our pop culture. One day we will be watching VH-1 best of 2010 and that song will be something they talk about. And really is that a bad thing. Besides as long as this guy is around she will never be the world’s worst singer.

Back to GBMC

So I definitely have had better weeks then the one I had last week, that’s for sure.

Monday June 6 started off like any other normal day. We had some big wigs in the company come in so I was dressed a bit nicer than the normal outfits.

Everything started around 4pm. I was at my desk and had this terrible pain in my back. In college I had herniated my L4 and L5 vertebrae, so I have had back pain for some time. However, this pain was completely different. This pain was too left of my spine around the kidney area. I could feel the color drain out of my face I became uncomfortable and wanted to pass out. I became extremely hot, and just wanted to sit in front of an air conditioning unit. I went into the bathroom and threw water on my face and that did nothing. So I grabbed my things and told one of the AE’s I work with that I was not leaving I just needed to sit in my car. They could see me in excruciating pain and immediately became worried. I was trying to walk to my car and god love my co workers, everyone was so concerned but they kept preventing from getting to the car because they were so worried about me. They tried to get me to drink water but everything and every smell made me want to throw up.

I finally made it to my car and the air condition could not get cold enough quick enough. I tried calling Lisa several times but I did not get an answer on her cell phone or the house line. At this point I was in so much pain I was almost in tears. It was around 4:30pm now and I knew my In-Laws were on their way to drop of Lex and Jack. I called my mother-in-law and told her what was going on. She told me Lisa was home because she had a horrible migraine and could not see straight (Yes I know we did well on the parenting that night). I told my in laws I wanted to go to the hospital so my father in law took me to GBMC. About a 5 minute drive from my work but it was the longest drive ever. He dropped me off at the emergency room and then went to park the car. I got myself checked in and saw a nurse within 20 minutes of arriving. She immediately thought it was a kidney stone. So they took blood and a urine sample. She also gave me medicine to help me from my nausea and a Percocet for the pain. They booked me for a CT scan and they confirmed blood was in my urine but they did not find the stone. So they assumed it already passed. I was sent home around 7:30 that night. The boys ended up spending the night at my in laws house and Lisa and I went home and rested.

On Tuesday, I woke up feeling pretty good. I still had some pain in my back but it was not as bad as Monday. That changed quickly. I was part of a political meeting that morning, and during the meeting I could feel the color drain from my face. I wanted to pass out, and I must have sounded horrible to the person sitting next to me. I was trying to catch my breath and be tough in all of this. Finally my boss saw me from across the way and asked to see me in the hallway. I went out there and he just told me to go. So my co workers saw me again in poor shape and I just walked to the car and ended up falling asleep. At 12:30 I woke up to two of my coworkers checking to see if I was dead. Obviously, and thankfully, I was not. They did not have to do much but the convinced me to drive home and get some rest. I was having the most wonderful nap of all time when around 3pm Lisa got home and was not happy with me that I did not pick up the phone when she called (ironic since the day before she did not pick up the phone for me when I called). She had made me a doctor’s appointment to my personal physician that I have not seen in a few years. When we got there again I had some more problems with feeling dizzy and light headed. They put me in a room and just let me sleep for the two hours we waited to be seen.

In a funny side note Lisa tried to pull out the part of the chair that when a patient lies down they can put their feet up. She pulled a little too hard and broke it, and the best is part she just hid the broken piece in the doctor’s office.

My doctor disagreed with the Kidney Stone diagnosis. He felt the problem was more of a pulled muscle because with the kidney stone the pain would move and this pain did not move. He felt all the other symptoms were my body reacting to the pain.

So here I am a week later and I feel pretty good. By Friday of last week I was in no pain at all. Here I am hoping that it does not happen again because it really sucked. But I am so grateful for my family and my coworkers because it’s nice to know people care about you.

Our Visitor

Monday, May 30th was a very special day for me and my family. It was Lex 4th Birthday. I will blog more on his birthday after his birthday party coming up. But on this Monday we had a special visitor in our backyard.

We were eating breakfast when our neighbors dog, Buddy, barking like crazy out back. Buddy had slipped a disc in his back the day before so we were surprised at how full of energy he was. However, Lisa and I didn’t really pay any attention to it at all.

An hour later or so I looked at my Facebook page and saw my neighbor posted on our wall to go out into our back garden, and that we wouldn’t believe what was in there. By the time I saw the message what ever was in the garden was gone but it had definitely dug up the ground.

Our neighbors took a picture of it and we had a GIANT snapping turtle there.




The next day, Lisa was chatting with our neighbors and did some research on snapping turtles. We then went out to the garden with a shovel. Very quickly we found what she was doing in our garden.



When all was said and done we discovered almost 30 eggs were laid.



We talked to a friend of ours who told us we could rebury the eggs and when they hatch the baby snapping turtles are harmless and will go right to water.

Sadly the next morning we discovered something had dug up our garden and had taken the eggs. We were really excited to see the eggs hatch. I guess there is always next year.