The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. ~ Oprah Winfrey
Tabby out on the prowl. This cat is the energizer bunny of cats, she turns 17 this year. When I met my husband he had a Doberman and I had three cats, the story has always been interesting since Sadie, our Doberman, hates cats. We managed to survive living in a house and unfortunately over time lost two of our cats. Tabby the lone survivor and the oldest was blessed with the chance to go on the road and become a traveling cat with her beloved Doberman sister Sadie. To this day we still keep them separated which always keeps life interesting.
Our first wedding anniversary on the road fell during Spring Break, also one of the busiest times on South Padre Island. We managed to squeeze in a dinner date the day before our anniversary and in between the madness. Jamie surprised me with special t-shirts just for the day and his love of the Yankees.
We headed to Padre Island Brewing for an appetizer and a beer. I picked the fried artichokes because it was something neither of us had tried before and I was pleasantly surprised. This was all just a pre-game event and soon we were off to dinner at Liam’s Steakhouse and Oyster bar. I love a good ribeye and they did not disappoint. Honestly, I normally cook most of our meals and especially for special occasions, we love cooking together and are known to be food snobs. I chose asparagus and brussel sprouts with bacon for a side. Jamie went with the NY strip, broccoli and cheese and corn topped with…you guessed it cheese. They even gave us free pie, who doesn’t love some free pie. The restaurant had a wall covered in oyster shells. Good thing I don’t live in a house or I could definitely see a new project in the works. Living in a camper I can appreciate decor but really glad I don’t have to think about it, accessories, furniture, the cost and all the time involved in said projects. Yes, a lot of people redo campers and I’m not ruling that out in the future but for now I’m happy we bought new and everything was handled for us.
Soon after our anniversary we celebrated by birthday. Birthdays have always been a big deal to me, and I have never worked on my birthday and don’t intend to. We both managed to get off work which was a miracle. I was turning 35 and felt I really wanted to do something special. Unfortunately there was no time for trip to some exotic place but we already lived on an island so I figured that would work. The weather was not in my favor. My b-day wish list was a little over the top and I had no misconceptions that everything would or could happen but they all relied on the weather so I ended up shit out of luck. My big plan was to go skydiving and even when my husband decided not to go, I did not waver. The weather on the other hand took control which also cancelled watching the sunrise, fishing, just being on a boat or hanging out at a beach bar. We did get up for the sunrise but saw the fog, went to breakfast and the food was overrated.
Trying to salvage the day we did hit up Palo Alto National Park and stopped in town to buy binoculars we had been searching for going on a year and to head out to a wildlife preserve. We also stopped for lunch and quickly left after reading the menu and it taking 15 minutes to order a beer. I was completely confused, Jamie said “can I have a Sol with a lime” and we even pointed. We decided we needed to head to nature to soothe our souls. Maybe the bartender thought we were asking for a soul instead of the mexican beer Sol. New binoculars in hand we headed to the wildlife preserve on the way the rain started. Okay that’s enough so to the bar we go.
I really tried to stay positive but, man oh man, I kept striking out with every new plan we made. All of the complaining aside, my birthday rocked. We went to see our best friend on the island who was bartending and then hoped over to Louie’s where Jamie worked. We were surrounded by our new friends who supplied key lime pie and shots. Afterward we went dancing, one of my favorites. This was a very planned birthday that became very unplanned and we rolled with the punches to have a very spectacular day. I have a video of my lovely dancing skills but fortunately I can’t get it uploaded so I can save myself the embarrassment, I will leave that up to the imagination!
