The Unsinkable

Friday: I met Dustin at the mall because we both had Apple Genius Bar appointments to go to. I was going to see what they could do about the speck on my lens. And Dustin has been having problems with his volume buttons not working. We got there and signed in and waited for a bit. A very nice female Apple employee came to help us and we both ended up receiving brand new iPhone 5's because of our issues. Score! Apple customer service is top notch and it's why we have been such loyal customers for the past 5 or so years.

We ended up grabbing dinner at the food court which was kind of fun. It definitely was not our typical Friday night.

Dustin left to go home while I stayed behind to check out American Eagle. I don't really shop there that  often but they sent me a $10 off coupon and I was bound and determined to use it. I ended up getting a new pair of skinny jeans that were already on sale for $29.99 (originally ($39.99), minus $10 and I got those suckers for $20ish including tax. Double score! AE jeans are my favorite jeans. They last forever and make my thighs and ass look their best. I wore them both Saturday and Sunday because why the hell not?!

Saturday: We got up early and headed to 'Tourist Land' aka International Drive. I had a 'buy one get one free' admission to The Titanic Experience. Tickets are $21.95 PER PERSON (kind of steep if you ask me) but totally worth it if you only have to technically pay for one ticket. Again, I didn't want to waste such a good deal. I had asked Dustin earlier in the week if he wanted to go and although he probably would never admit it to his friends he was totally down. We actually talked about how excited we were throughout the week. Both of us had been to the old Titanic Exhibit back in high school. On field trips. But they moved to a larger location within recent years and updated a lot of it. I honestly didn't remember much from high school so it was almost like going for the first time.

We got there right when it opened at 10AM. We like to go to things early to beat crowds. We're 28 going on 82. We aren't ashamed. We were on the first tour of the day with maybe about 10 other people. 'Dorothy Gibson' was our tour guide and although I thought she (the actress) was a bit corny at first, I really started to love her. She made jokes about 1912 vs. 2013 and also about the movie the Titanic. She knew her shit too. I mean, that woman knew everything there is to know about the Titanic. We moved from room to room as she told us story after true story. Then she'd give us time to look at all of the things that were in cases. Each item had either a black or white plaque. The black plaques meant that it was actually on the Titanic and brought up from the wreckage. The white plaques meant that the item was from the same time period. Dustin was the first to notice that most (if not all) of the glass cases had thermometers in them. They had 'White Star Line' plates, electrical outlet, parts from the grand staircase, piece from the hull, a mirror and hair brush, and an unopened, still full, bottle of champagne (personally my favorite) and a million other super cool things.

Once we got to a room modeled after the balcony of the ship, the air was drastically colder than the rest of the rooms. Also it was really dark. 'Dorothy' had all the women and children in our little group stand against the fake balcony and the men stand on the other side. She was showing us how it would have been. Who would have gotten a shot at a seat on a life boat and who wouldn't. I know it was just a demonstration but it got me a little choked up. I wasn't standing next to Dustin any longer. I was looking at him from feet away. I couldn't imagine what those women must have gone through having to leave the men in their life like that. It hurts to even think about it. Our tour guide also told us about how one side of the ship loaded women and children FIRST and the other side of the ship loaded women and children ONLY. She told us a story about how one woman who was already loaded into one of the life boats got out and gave up her seat so that a mom could be in the same boat as her children. The woman who gave up her seat never got in another boat. There were a lot of extraordinary stories like that. Those stories of selflessness and bravery in any kind of tragedy are what always restore my faith in humanity.

At the end, 'Dororthy' brought us into a room with a huge block of ice. And by huge I mean it was taller than all of us and long enough for the whole group to have their own little space. She asked us to put one of our hands close to it and on the count of three we were to all try and keep our full palm on the ice for 10 seconds straight. She even did it with us. After two seconds I started to wince in pain. Dustin had a much easier time with it. It was painfully cold. I wanted to chicken out and take my hand off but no one else had, so it motivated me to stick it out. And I did. We all made it 10 seconds. We could all see one another's hand prints still left on the ice once we took them off. It really got me thinking about how truly cold it was out there that night. Sigh.

We were all given 'boarding passes' at the beginning of the tour of a real passenger. Dustin was Mr. George Widener who was in 1st class. I was Mr. Charles Duane Williams who was also in first class. At the end of the tour we all got to find out who lived and died. Unfortunately, both of our guys didn't make it but some of their family members did.

The whole thing was heart-breaking and fascinating in equal parts.

We weren't allowed to take any photos or video of anything, which at first I was pretty disappointed about, but after going through the entire tour I was totally fine with it. My phone stayed in my purse (on silent) the whole time. It was nice to just be in that moment. I wasn't concerned about this photo or that photo. I was just living it as it came and wasn't concerned about preserving it for the future. I paid more attention to the tour guide and also to all of the written facts on the walls and cases. All in all it was better this way. No I don't have any photos to put up on my blog but I have the memories which are just as good.

Before heading back home, we stopped at Friendly's just up the road. I have been craving Friendly's forever now but they closed the two that used to be by us. So now the closest one is in the middle of tourist land. Total bummer. Their food is always pretty good but their ice cream is where it's at! We shared a three scoop, Reese's Pieces sundae and it was Mmmazing.

Once we got home I immediately searched for Titanic on Netflix and Hulu. Neither had it. BUT Dustin had the brilliant idea to try Amazon. Ding ding ding. They had it available to rent for $2.99! So I of course spent my entire afternoon watching the romance and heartbreak of Jack and Rose. So good! I haven't watched it in it's entirety in years and it still held up perfect.

We got there while they were literally rolling the red carpet out. // A beautiful cornucopia filled sundae with a Dustin on top!



You bet your ass I'll put these in a scrapbook. 

Sunday: Dustin and I are very proud of our Sunday tradition to stay in doors all day long but sometimes we break it. Once in a great while aka a few times a year. This Sunday was one of those days. I left the house at 10:30 AM on a mission. I wanted to hit up the Dollar Store for Halloween decorations but of course they weren't open. Ok. Next stop, my favorite fabric store. Nope, they weren't open either. Had all of Orlando joined in on the greatest tradition ever on the one Sunday I was actually out? Apparently.

My last stop was Target. I can always count on Target to be open. Thankfully! First things first, Starbucks. I bought my very first Pumpkin Spice Frap ever. I never said I thought the Pump Spice craze was overrated, I just think people need to stop posting photos of them. And no I didn't take a picture of it because I was too busy enjoying it. That shit is amazing.

I moved on to the dollar section of Target which is just as good as the actual Dollar Store. I was able to score quite a bit of Halloween decor. Yeah!!

I spent the rest of the day doing laundry, cleaning and organizing the house. I was able to even slip in a little water coloring. I busted out my water color set for the first time in maybe 10 years or so. I even thought to myself "I wonder if water color paint goes bad?" but it didn't stop me from at least trying them out. The caps were a little hard to get off and the paints were a little runny at first but they worked just fine. I'm no artist but it was so nice to just sit down and paint. I had forgotten how much fun water coloring truly is. I love the different effects you can achieve by adding water or mixing colors together. So much fun!

My super fancy paper plate paint palette.