October 18, 2009

Ko Samui, Thailand
An island in the Gulf of Thailand
I love this picture.
I love this memory.
I love this story.
This is the story of an incredible journey. To me its a magical story. A fairytale of sorts. The kind of thing doesn't happen to a girl like me.
To tell this story I am going to go back even further. Lets say the summer of 1992...
There was this boy who just moved to FL from WI. I met him because there was a new girl in my 4th grade class. We found out that her and I rode the same bus and lived in the same neighborhood and we became wonderful friends and she had a WONDERFUL brother. Oh was he wonderful. I was in love... I was madly in love. The school year ended and my mom worked and my new friends mom stayed home so I was able to spend the summer at their house so I did not have to sit home alone all everyday. This was great. I got to have a wonderful summer with a new friend and my CRUSH. By the end of the summer I was going to marry this boy. Well time goes by and we are all friends and then we go to Jr. High. I am still madly in love. I think at one point he agreed to be my boyfriend but then stopped talking to me so I figured I was never going to get this boys attention. Then one night I had some friends over and this boy was over and OMG he kissed me. AHHHHHH!!! ( now I am 14 at this time so yes this was a AHHHHHH moment) But then... nothing... So my first serious boyfriend ended up being one of his best friends. Then that ended and not well so I went on with life down another road and made new friends. And I didn't see this boy anymore. I thought about him. The years went by. Before we know it I am 19 and getting married and moving away. I came back to visit. And for some reason even though I knew he was grown up as well I would still drive by his parents house whenever I was in town. I never ever forgot this boy. Time keeps going and I am divorced and living back at my moms house, back in the neighborhood we grew up in. I move back out on my own again with my munchkins and then I ran into another old friend. I hung out with this friend and we took a walk in the neighborhood that we grew up in with my kids one day. So of course we were talking about everyone. And then we walked by the house that this boy grew up in. He said he talked to him and his sister sometimes and we talked about memories and went along. But I went home and I could not get this boy out of my head. I just wanted to say hi. So what do we do when we want to talk to someone from long ago??? Facebook of course... Now until 3 weeks before this, I did not have a Facebook. 3 weeks before my favorite cousin was visiting and I said what the hell, whats it going to hurt and made a Facebook. Well this could not have been at a better time. So I looked him up. And I found him and sent him a message...
He responded.
And the stars must have been lined up just perfect.
And we talked on Facebook and found out that we were both divorced and we talked about things from when we were kids so hey why not get together this weekend.
And we did...
And the weekend after that...
And the weekend after that...
So now here we are in September 2009. Every weekend this boy would come up from his job in the Keys and spend the weekend with me. Well... one weekend in September he came to my house and said that he had received a phone call saying that his cousin was going to be going to Thailand in 2 weeks and was wondering if he would want to go. He wanted to go all right but we were falling madly in love with each other and he was having a hard time knowing we would be apart for so long. Well the end of the weekend came and out of nowhere he asks me to go to Thailand with him. ARE YOU CRAZY??? I HAVE 3... DO YOU HEAR ME, 3 KIDS AND A JOB AND NO VACATION TIME AND ARE YOU CRAZY? I DON'T EVEN HAVE A PASSPORT OR MONEY OR OMG ARE YOU CRAZY? I CANT GO TO THAILAND. WHATS WRONG WITH YOU? ( now... as I am freaking out I am obviously on cloud 9 just for the fact that he wanted me to go ) The next day I had to go pick up the kids from their dad and while I was driving along down the highway asking myself if this really happened, I called my mom. I asked her a big question... I thought she would laugh at me and then yell at me for being crazy to even think... but I asked.
Me: Mom, if by any chance I can get 2 weeks off of work and a passport, can you watch my kids so I can go to Thailand with this boy I was madly in love with from the ages of 10-14 and that I am currently sleeping with now at age 27
Mom: Yes
( ok so obviously not exact words but really it was amazing that she understood this was a once in a lifetime chance and was behind me to help )
The next day was Monday and I went to work and sat down to ask my boss a big question.
Me: I know that we are in the middle of a huge company merger and the largest change goes into effect at the end of the month and that I do not have any vacation time but can I please have 2 weeks off with no pay so that I can go to Thailand
Boss: Its okay with me... Lets double check with my boss. I will let you know when I hear back. She is out of the office so it may be a few days
Me: Awesome, great, okay
Well 2 HOURS later I receive an email from my boss saying that as long as I am back by a certain date I am free to go. So I called the local passport office and they said sure just pay an extra $50.00 and you can get a rush passport in time to go.
UMMMMM..... OMG!!!!!! IS THIS REALLY ALL HAPPENING... IS EVERYTHING ACTUALLY WORKING?????
Midnight October 13, 2009 (this is also my 28th birthday) I am landing in Bangkok, Thailand. PINCH ME NOW PLEASE. OH STOP THAT HURTS...
This trip was incredible. Just getting there was amazing but the trip well... There are not words to describe the most amazing 2 weeks of my life. *
After spending some time in Bangkok we took a 8 hour bus ride in the middle of the night to another part of Thailand and then we took a boat to go spend a few days on one of the islands. We then went to another island and spent one night there and that is when this picture was taken. We then flew back to Bangkok and spent a few more days there and then headed to Tokyo for 3 days.
I will over time write more about things from this trip. It was an amazing time for me. Something that just does not happen to a girl like me. But it did. This happened and it is really hard for me to try to describe it. Should I make this more about the actual trip? Probably but I think the fun in this is how I got there and how this memory came to even happen. I know there is a part of me that still does not believe that this trip ever happened. It seems like such a dream.
So there is still what happened with the boy and me...
Everyone that we talked to before leaving to go on this trip joked that we would come back married. It really was crazy but everyone said this.
We didn't...
But 2 weeks later we took the kids to the courthouse and eloped. And that is how I became the Mrs. to my Mr.
and
that is how 17 years after I met him and fell in love and declared that I was going to marry that boy...
I DID
XOXOXOXOXO
Nicole
* Amazing 2 weeks of my life is meant to be most amazing 2 weeks of my life not counting anything related to my children. They are better then any trip to anywhere with anyone... I just had to say this because I am weird and I feel weird writing that something other then my kids is the most amazing thing in my life.