Labor Day Vacay

Never in one weekend have I spent so much time, money or miles on the road. Especially in the same state. Good thing work was kinda slow on Friday because I got to leave early and miss at least some of the rush hour traffic on the way to Beth's homebase in Boca Raton. After taking an unplanned detour thanks to some spectacularly distracting lightning, we got into Tampa late that night and after greeting Bugbee, Melissa and Joey the hyper Boston Terrier, we passed out in the guestroom.



It brought back some memories to run on Bayshore the next morning and jumping in the pool afterwards was absolute perfection. That evening, we grilled out at M & M's apartment to celebrate the end of her chemo and I ate way too many delicious things. The next day I got up and started the 2 1/2 hour trek to Kate's beach house in New Smyrna Beach to celebrate her & Ben's engagement. It didn't occur to me to wear a swimsuit, like pretty much every single other person there, but that didn't stop me from playing at least 5 games of beach volleyball. And I finally got to meet the rest of Ben's brothers & sisters. I'm pretty sure some of the other guests assumed I was also one of the Whites, thanks to the blonde hair and athletic prowess.

I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had to drive back to the Bay to finally make a date with Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince. Of course the book is better but the movie wasn't bad. The next day, being part Swedish & all, Beth and I stopped at the mothership, also known as IKEA, on the way out of town. Lunch was delish, and I ended up buying a futon to accommodate all the planned and unplanned guests that I'm sure will be visiting in the next few months.

I FINALLY got home a little after dinner time, only to find a mini monsoon in my closet. I made sure maintenance came to fix it the next day and now they have to replace all the drywall on the ceiling in the walk-in closet that I once thought was so fabulous. This being my second consecutive weekend getaway/closet fiasco, I think I'm going to enjoy staying in SoBe for a while.

Upgrade

I love working in advertising, especially at an interactive agency. We get to find out about all the coolest stuff before it goes mainstream. I think we make up a lot of the innovators & early adopters according to the new product life cycle (and I thought I wouldn't use any of the stuff from my marketing classes anymore on the creative side - lol). Maybe because generally we're paid to create and promote the next big idea(s)...

Anyways, I am officially switching from YouTube to Vimeo for all of my video uploading and sharing needs. Youtube has become like MySpace for me, too overwhelmed and underdesigned by the masses. Plus, they're really pissing me off with all their copyright claims!

Vimeo has a way simpler & cleaner design (and bonus points for hybrid wordage: video + me = vimeo). The only trade-off is that your videos take longer to process and you're limited to 500 MB per week (unless you purchase the premium membership). I'll stick with the free version for now. Here's a couple videos I made from this past weekend partying at the W hotel & the Gansevoort with Christy & the girls and then a quick clip from the agency pub crawl in Key West yesterday!

Random Bull Riding from Miranda Peterson on Vimeo.

I've Got A Feeling... from Miranda Peterson on Vimeo.

Oh yea, and Happy Birthday Dad! (My sister and I bought him a case of his favorite candy, but I think his favorite gift was me getting a job and getting off his payroll - lol)