I finally know what Jimmy Buffett meant when he sang this song and I had this catchy little tune in my head as I peered over the rim of an active volcano on the first day of my Nicaraguan vacation adventure.

Volcan Masaya is a short distance from the Managua airport and you can drive your car right to the top of an active volcano! There are warning signs telling you to back your car in just in case you have to leave in a hurry. Other warnings include getting under your car if rocks start spewing….somehow I don’t really think that would help much. But it was an impressive site and almost overwhelming as I breathed in the noxious gases from the volcano.

The volcano was nice little side trip but we only stayed an hour which is much longer than the 20 minutes recommended on the warning signs. Hey what can I say …we are adventurous.

Stay tuned for more adventures including finding Jesus and an interesting massage.

Rummy “Hot Lava Momma” Runner

Relieved we were allowed to enter the country we got our rental car and happily headed toward Granada with a poorly hand drawn map and my navigation system with extremely limited Nicaragua data. It was clear very quickly that this is a very poor country with lots of people walking or riding bicycles with not one or two but THREE people on one bicycle! It was not even an hour since I was reluctantly allowed into the country that our next big adventure happened…A police traffic stop.

Apparently we missed a school zone and we were pulled over for speeding. I say ‘apparently’ since I’m still not sure. As mentioned previous we don’t speak much Spanish and the cops didn’t speak any English. A male cop stopped us who looked pretty young and harmless except for the big gun he was carrying. For some reason he decided to send the female cop over to deal with us. (As a side note I was impressed to see a female cop and it’s good to know women have career opportunities there). We assumed she was sent over since she spoke English but no such luck. We struggled to understand what was going on but I didn’t feel too scared since she was very nice and polite.

Finally we realized she wanted to keep my boyfriend’s driver’s license and have us drive to a bank and pay a fine and bring the receipt back to get the license. Now we had already spent all morning in airports getting here and we had no clue where ‘el banco’ was so we started to get a little stressed. So what could we do but ‘bribe’ the cops. Actually we just gave them the fine amount of 300 Córdobas (about $15). I was afraid she would think we were trying to bribe her and we would end up in a Nicaraguan jail! Luckily she accepted the money and let us on our way. I really think she did us a favor since we seemed like your typical clueless tourists and she was tired of dealing with us.

So although it was a bit scary at first we were yet again on our way. This time to something totally safe like the rim of an active volcano!

Rummy “Bad Boys Bad Boys What Ya Gonna Do” Runner

My boyfriend treats me to only the best the third world has to offer and our latest adventure vacation to Nicaragua was the most exciting and adventurous vacation to date! If you grew up in the 80’s like me the only thing you associate with Nicaragua is a long civil war with Contras and Sandinistas. So I was originally shocked when my boyfriend suggested this country as a place to vacation. But in time I realized that it would be a big adventure and was relatively safe these days.

I got off the airport in Managua to be greeted by a heat sensing camera and people wearing surgical face masks. Those who listen to our podcast will realize that I have a bit of a sinus problem. I’m not sure why and I just call it ‘part of my charm’. But in a third world country so worried about swine flu that they are using a heat camera my little annoyance almost turned into a vacation stopper!

I sniffled (something I’m known to do) as the customs agent was looking at my passport. Apparently this is a good sign of swine flu so I was quickly escorted to a back room by a ‘doctor’ for probing and other scientific experimentation. This was a bit scary since I was in a foreign land and no hablo español. Somehow we managed to decipher that they thought I was sick and wanted to take my temperature. So the nice ‘doctor’ put a thermometer under my armpit. I was thankful my temperature was normal and a bit grossed out when the ‘doctor’ promptly put the thermometer back in the case…no cleaning…no sanitizing.

But I was allowed to enter Nicaragua and our adventure began. Stay tuned for our next adventure – bribing the Nicaraguan cops!

Rummy “a sniffle a day keeps the doctor away” Runner

I’ve posted before about trying kite boarding. I’ve spent lots of time and money on this hobby for very little reward. I have a short attention span so usually I would have given up by now but for some reason I kept trying and it FINALLY paid off!

I went to the beach to try kite boarding after work recently. This time was different since I was on the land instead of in the water so a smaller and less intimidating kite is used which helped tremendously. On the land you use a mountain board which is kinda like a skateboard but for off road. The gods must have been on my side since the winds, sand and sun were all favorable that day. So I put the trainer size kite in the air and was feeling a slight pull down the beach from it. It started off slow…so slow walkers were going past me. But hey they were power walkers! My friend and coach told me I needed a bigger kite but I was scared. Finally after seeing the backside of countless power walkers I reluctantly agreed. The bigger kite made all the difference and I was cruising along at around 15-20 mph. I was so excited and happy that I was singing as I zigged and zagged down the beach. This is such a fun sport and great for me since it combines the beach, sun, bikinis and lots of upper body exercise all into one fun filled activity.

But wait there’s more! I have to admit I’m a bit of a show off or ham as some might say. Well I guess kite boarding is still somewhat new and definitely an attention grabber with the huge colorful kites in the sky that can be seen for close to a mile. Several people saw me and decided I was picture worthy! Yep a British couple, Asian lady and several others stopped to take photos. With my limited control I don’t think they realized they were putting themselves in danger but thankfully no harm was done. I felt like a celebrity which made me feel great and added to my joy of this sport. I think my monthly hamming it up needs were met that day!

I still have a long way to go but it was a blast! I can’t wait to do it again and get in more vacation pictures!

Rummy “Coming Soon to a Beach Near You” Runner

One of my Favorite Bloggers Catherinette did a blog about panty lines. I was immediately reminded about the underwear crisis of 2007.

In 2007 I found myself single, after being in a very LONG relationship. After a few weeks, I finally decided to be happy about my liberation (AKA Single Life) and I embraced it with open manly arms. I Immedialty starting making LOTS of new friends, going out all the time, getting lots of attention (A hot guy tripping over himself to say hello is a HUGE injection of self confidence), and learning to love life. During my adventures, I began discover something was amiss. You guessed it, it was the underwear crisis of 2007. Normally I didn’t wear panties at all (Did I mention I hate doing laundry?), but on rare occurrences, I would wear comfortable white panties. Imagine my horror when I discovered… I was granny panty girl *Phcho scream*. My Knickers were soo bad that I made bridget Jones look good.

Typical girl stuff, like pretty matching (NONE of my underwear matched) underwear or makeup was never my thing. I had always concentrated on my education, self improvement, and my career. Being single made me realize packaging (makeup and underwear, to name a few) was important. I ask you, What does a girl do when they find out, they are “granny panties girl”? Does she crawl into the corner and cry…of course NOT! She goes on an underwear shopping spree *YaHoo*.

1st stop… Victoria Secrets. I was surprised that the trip to VS was so… shocking. For someone that is use to buying panties in plastic packages containing 5 pairs, I suffered some sticker shock. 50.00 for ONE bra? $12.00+ for one pair of Panties? *Chocking sounds* After my shock subsided, I sucked it up and spent a small fortune for colorful, silky, lacy thongs and MATCHING bras.

My quest continued for months. Everywhere I went shopping, and I went shopping A LOT, I looked for cute underwear. Target was a great find. They weren’t too expensive, had good quality and a nice selection. Old Navy also had (and still has) some great panties. Not to mention a few shops in the mall that had 5 panties for $10.00.

Today, I’m proud to say I don’t own ONE pair of Granny panties (I threw those bitches OUT!). I now own MANY pairs of thongs and a few boyshorts and I have matching bras for each pair.

Thanks Catherinette for remind me (and boring the most wonderful blog readers…EVER) of my incredible quest.

Epilogue:
A friend once asked me, “Is it worth spending soo much money on cute underwear?”

It was an expensive venture. And they were only strips of fabric. And shouldn’t a guy like me for me, even if I wear granny panties? About that time, I thought about the cure lacy green thongs I had on and the matching bra, and it made me smile. I thought about explaining to her about how the journey impacted my life (as silly as that sounds). I could tell her that wearing nice underwear that I bought for ME was a way to remind myself that I was worth it. That doing something for JUST ME, was a gift. But knowing she wouldn’t understand I said…

With a huge smile on my face I answered “Yes, it absolutely was! And the compliments I get, don’t hurt either”

The moral of this story, is buy a pretty pair of undies, just for you. And when you are pissed at your boss, or start to feel a bit down, remember your pretty undies. You will be surprised how much it will brighten your day.