Golf on New Year's Eve

Woo hoo! We made it on time to catch the Golf bus this morning. Upon arriving at the course, we were assigned our rental clubs and caddie. Poor guy- we didn't rend a card. Giffy (our caddie) carried two full sets of clubs for 18 holes in the warm Jamaican sun. Neither of us had ever had a caddie before - it was nice for me because he gave me a lot of tips and I liked the fact that he picked my clubs for me. Not that I can't pick my own - but he gave me clubs I wouldn't normally have used in certain situations. I think it helped to make me think outside the box or my comfort zone.

After our round, we chilled by the pool (prounounced "peeyoul" for you Family Guy fans), played a little volleyball, then went to dinner. I'm such a sleepyhead that there was about zero chance of me making it to midnight for the New Year's bash, so my ingenious husband suggested a nap after dinner. I slept from about 830 - 1130when he then woke me up so we could go to the New Year's Eve Party. Jammin to the Reggae, we rang in the New Year on Jamaican soil and wearing flip flops. I've decided that every New Year should be this warm - especially after watching everyone in New York freezing their butts off in Times Square. No envy.

Honeymoon

Let the honeymoon begin. Mr. and Mrs. Marco got up early to view and choose our wedding photos - which turned out very nice might I add. We then began an adventure into the Jamaican jungle on a zip line canopy tour. See video where I fully declared who I now am - Mrs. Ireland.

Tuesday 12/30

Due to incorrect times in the hotel lobby, we missed our bus that was taking us to play golf. We decided to book an ocean safari tour for the afternoon instead and hit the beach for a while. Marco discovered that the snorkeling boat was leaving shortly after we arrived on the beach. So he signed us up. Snorkeling was beautiful, we viewed a shipwreck and reef... and then I started to feel not so good. It was then that I remembered getting sick the last few times I had went snorkeling. I swam back to the boat and tried not to loose it and gross everyone out for the trip back to shore. I didn't toss cookies but I'm sure I was a light shade of green. Needless to say, we had to cancel the ocean safari. Instead, we booked a more land based trip - a jeep safari and trip to the famous Dunns River Falls. The famous thing to do at Dunns River falls is to climb the waterfall from the ocean to the top. I'm not talking about a trail next to the falls. I'm talking walk up the steep rocks with water gushing. It looked like a death sentence and I was not too sure about all of it. But, after I saw what looked like a three hundred pound woman and a seventy year old man trekking up the falls. I couldn't not give it a shot. Hmmm - risk death or look like a wuss. Better not look like a wuss. Our guide makes us line up boy-girl-boy-girl and hold hands while climbing - which I think is completely idiotic. Picture a chain of people holding hands, climbing steep, slippery rocks while water gushes over them. One goes down, they all go down. Despite my thinking that this is clearly one of the riskiest, stupidest things we could be doing, I do it anyways. We made it to the top. Phey. Then, we got into our jeep with the rest of the group and went off-roading up the mountains in Jamaica. At the top of one, we stopped and our guides chopped up fresh local fruit (oranges, tangerines, coconuts, pineapple, sugarcane) and gave us rum punch and facts about Jamaica. It was a pretty cool trip - after sunset we were taken back to our hotel.

The Wedding

Our big day started at 830am with a knock at the door serving breakfast in bed. It was too much stuff for us to attempt to eat in bed, so we dined on our patio. Mid-day we spoiled ourselves with a couples massage at the spa - getting us all relaxed. Then we were off to shower and dress for our ceremony. The "wedding van" and our coordinator picked us up and took us to the beach. We walked along the beach to the boardwalk and our volleyball friends from the day before cheered us on. Along the boardwalk, our music started playing "One Love" by Bob Marley while we walked into the Gazebo to meet the minister. The ceremony was the same as any other wedding; we said our "I Do's", exchanged rings and kissed. It was very special for us and an exceptionally happy few minutes of our lives. We then danced our first dance in the gazebo to Etta James "At Last" at sunset. We had our wedding cake right there on the pier and did our wedding photos. The honeymoon dinner followed and it consisted of a private isolated table on the beach by candelight with white glove service and champagne. We also had two stray cats that wanted to join in and watched us eat every morsel. A more perfect day could not exist.

Jamaica Finally

Today was supposed to be our wedding ceremony, but due to our flight problems we were instructed to go to the wedding office to reschedule. Who does that? Who has to reschedule their wedding? I think its kinda funny.

The wedding coordinator gave us a book to choose our location, music, cake, and flowers. We took it to the beach with us and perused it in between reading, sunbathing, and volleyball. Marco let me pick out everything, which was awesome. I think his main requirement for the whole event was that we were both present for the ceremony. The coordinator also had rescheduled our ceremony for Sunday at 430pm - right around sunset which actually worked out better. We also had to go to the tour desk to reschedule all of our outings that we had booked - but the hotel's boat was broken so two of them had to just be cancelled. Boo.

We basically did a lot of nothing on our first day. And it was great!

Yay for Fort Lauderdale

Wedding Trip Day 2

We woke up and had time to kill before our flight. Marco wanted to be all fit and sportsy so we went for a run/walk down the main road near our hotel, then we consumed our 11$ per person buffet breakfast that the hotel offered. Had we had any of our 7$ "breakfast" vouchers left over and not spent them going hog wild on a big fancy (not) hotel dinner the night before, it still would not have been enough to cover our big fancy (not) hotel breakfast. Cheap Airline = Cheap Vouchers I guess.

We arrive at the airport and end up spending a good 30 minutes at the ticket counter explaining to them why we shouldn't have to pay to check our bags - our flight the day before should have been straight through, yada yada yada. But, we had time to kill and I wasn't about to spend 50$ to check luggage. We finally convince them to waive our fee and then proceed through security and find a seat at the gate. Note: When they switched our flight the day before, i had called the hotel to let them know. I had also made arrangements to be picked up at the Kingston Airport which was different than our normal arrival. I called the hotel again to check on our ceremony arrangements - we were going to be arriving late on Friday and supposed to be having our ceremony at 10am on Saturday morning. We hadn't been able to get in touch with the wedding coordinator because of the holiday to pick the location, flowers, cake, music, etc. So, I'm sitting in the airport and I still can't get the coordinator on the phone. I was frustrated and worried about our ceremony. Finally, I was able to get someone, not the coordinator, who could help and I was told that we could not have our ceremony the following morning. Jamaican law holds that you have to be on the island for 24 hours before you can get married. At this point, I started to freak out a little. I had previously been told that they were low on availability of wedding slots and was afraid we wouldn't be able to do it at all. My freaking out wasn't the angry type, but more the worried weepy kind. Marco held up like a champ during my mini breakdown.

I was told to call the wedding office in the morning. Then, I placed a second call to confirm our pick up at the airport because our flight was being delayed (again). I spoke to the same woman I had talked to the day before when all the problems started. I told her the time we would be arriving and she politely decided to tell me that they don't pick up from that airport. And this my friends, was where the straw broke the camel's back. All of my attempts to be polite and understanding of every frustration I had endured thus far on our trip came out in that one phone call. I didn't curse. I didn't get out of control. But I did get angry. The conversation ended after I spoke to a manager and got my way. Or so I thought.

We arrived in Kingston, Jamaica and there was no driver there to pick us up - as promised by the hotel. We found a driver who called our hotel for us and the hotel hired him to take us on the 2.5 hour tour to Ocho Rios where our hotel was located. I was really excited to drive across Jamaica - we got to see a lot of little villages along the way and I sat and stared out the window almost silent the whole time - taking it all in.

The entire trip we passed fire upon fire at the side of the road where locals were making jerk chicken. I had the window open and you could smell the smoke from the pits. We also passed about a hundred (no joke) Rum Bars - mom and pop little joints booming with Reggae music and a few patrons on the stools. All of them were open air places so it was like my own little window inside each places so it was like my own little window inside each place as we passed. We also go frequent whiffs of the local ganja weed. I had always heard that people smoked a lot of it in Jamaica but I didn't really think it was going to be so prevalent.

Finally, around 8pm, we arrived at our hotel. They greeted us with champagne and we were shuffled off to our room - a fantastic villa style little house with a pool.

Spirit Didn't Break Our Spirit

The beginning of our Jamaica trip. But first, I have to warn all of you that the next few blogs are going to be lengthy... mostly because I was stuck in airports and was killing time, but also because I wanted to document in detail our wedding for posterity. Feel free to skip any rambling or mumbo jumbo.

All was going well for our Jamaica trip. It was Christmas day in the morning. We got up, got the dogs out the door to the kennel and grabbed a cab to the airport. All by 8am. At the airport, we went to check in at Spirit Airlines and things weren't looking good. The woman behind the desk said we needed to speak to another woman who was behind us dealing with some very angry customers. I overheard her saying to them something about the flight being delayed and missing a connection. One of the passengers was very verbal and angry with the airline representative and the airline woman had to keep asking her to calm down. I let the airline lady know that we, too, were going to Montego Bay. She then began re-explaining the flight situation. The only thing I heard was the part where she said "arriving Saturday". It was currently THURSDAY. I started to cry - Saturday morning was when we had our ceremony booked - not to mention two lost hotel days. She started listing out the options available and the other irate woman got very angry - saying that the airline was accommodating us but not them, even though the same options were available to her. She then took it another step and said that it was because she was black. We got very uncomfortable - not wanting to be a party to any of this arguing, so we walked away. It was very tense and the woman was close to being escorted out of the airport. They ended up working some things out for us - trip to Ft. Lauderdale for the night and then fly the next day to Kingston, Jamaica. We took it, and Marco was able to get us some free tickets out of the whole ordeal.

We finally arrived in Fort Lauderdale later that day (after a lengthy wait to get on a plane in the airport giving me plenty of time to blog those last long paragraphs). The airline had generously booked us a free room at the Hilton Garden Inn, which was right next door to the airport but not next to anything else. Upon arriving at the hotel, we inquired about going to the beach. It wasn't within walking distance. A cab to Miami was 70$ one way; a cab to the beach in Ft. Lauderdale was 40$. We were stranded unless we wanted to fork out the dough. Considering the fact that we were already losing a nice chunk of change on the hotel room in Jamaica that we weren't getting to enjoy, we opted to just scope out the local area on foot after dinner. The airline had given us vouchers for dinner (12$), breakfast (7$), and lunch (7$). The appetizers at the hotel couldn't even be covered by our dinner budget, so we ended up using all our vouchers in one meal and then forking over some additional cash to cover the rest. So much for our "ultra all inclusive luxury" vacation! We made the most of it though - and apparently our waitress - "Crystal" had seen it one too many times. As soon as she came over and introduced herself then spotted our vouchers, the bubbly blond quipped "Oh no, so Spirit broke your spirit!" Not too funny but bring me a rum and coke and it will all be ok.

Over dinner we decided to try to find a movie theater - banking on the guess that it's probably the only form of entertainment open on Christmas day instead of holing up in our room and watching the "A Christmas Story" marathon on TBS. We ended up seeing Four Christmases. It was a decent comedy that strangely is similar to our situation with flight problems and stuck on Christmas dreaming of the beach. Marco and I can have fun in a paper bag, though, so it was all good.

Wedding in New York

On November 15, as you all know, Marco asked me to marry him and I ecstatically said yes. Since that day, it seemed like every day we were talking about the wedding. Right from the beginning, both of us had declared that we didn't want the planning and execution to be a lot of work. We wanted to do something small and simple. After tossing around a few ideas and dates, we got to thinking about locations. I wanted to get married somewhere warm, on a beach, in flip flops. Marco agreed (what a good man). Jamaica was my choice. And after a lot of thought about the logistics, planning, and potential cost to guests we started to think more and more about having a ceremony with just the two of us. We also wanted to get married soon, excited to start our lives together. [No, not pregnant - got asked that about 100 times!] So, we spoke to our parents and got the green light to go it alone. And then we booked our trip to Jamaica - about a week before we planned on going.

We knew there were documentation requirements to get married in Jamaica, but didn't realize that we couldn't just bring the docs with us...they had to be sent to Jamaica two weeks in advance. We found this out a few days before we were scheduled to fly out. Hey, I never claimed to be a great planner!

So, we had to rush to get married legally first in NY.

Our Courthouse Wedding
First, we had to get a license. Here we are, in line at city hall for about 2hours. The couple in front of us apparently had just met. They were learning all kinds of things about each other in line. What kinds of tattoos she has, what kind of phone he has, what classes she is taking in school. It was all very surreal and interesting. We got our form and left..had to now wait 24 hours before we were allowed to marry.

On December 23, I left work at lunch to go get married. We met at the courthouse but were a little early, so we went to lunch. A pannini. The bride wore a black pant suit with brown winter boots. The groom wore a nice suit and tie. He looked nicer than I did.

We then went to get in line. We found out then that we needed a witness. Neither one of us planned for that - and the people at the courthouse didn't tell us when we got our license. So, we went on a telethon. Marco started calling his pals and I called mine. I had one friend that I knew I could count on. She's the friend who is always up to something and has the best stories. This was a job for Marsha.
True to form, Marsh grabbed a cab and rushed over to help. Voila, we had a witness. She was great ..even took photos for us during and after, much to the dismay of our matter of fact Judge. I honestly think the judge has married too many people in her life. I almost felt like she was reading us our rights or sentencing us rather than marrying us.
The ceremony was super fast .. It probably took about three minutes, and then it was done!
After the ceremony, we headed over to Wolfgang's to celebrate - not for a savory Wolfgang Puck steak, but instead for the best appetizer in the world. They have the most amazing "real" Canadian bacon strips. And a glass of wine. Strange, but oh so satisfying. Then we went home and jumped right in to married life: we did the laundry.

I know it sounds like a strange wedding day, but it was so very "Marbecca", in our own special way. And we loved it. r

Christmas 2009

This year for Christmas, I had someone to decorate and bake with ... MARCO! First, we drug home a nice tree, and then I tried to decorate it. After putting the lights and garland on, I asked Marco to help me light it. Probably should have involved him sooner. Apparently I strung up the lights in such a way that the outlet connector was in the middle of the tree. But, he is a resourceful man and fixed it up perfectly without having to undo all of my work. Genius.

Then we made sugar cookies and ginger bread men to help along the festive mood. And to what did our wondering eyes did appear? We discovered that, while we are good at cutting and baking sugar cookies - we are NOT good at decorating them. We could never own a bakery. The were VERY tasty, but very ugly cookies. The worst were the angels. I made fun of Marco when he decorated his first one and told him they looked more like halloween ghosts, but then when it was my turn I could do no better. So, instead of angels, here they are: The ghosts of christmas past, present and future.

Side note, we did NOT eat all of these cookies. Instead, I hatched an evil plan to bring a tupperware full of them every day to work until they were gone. Everyone in my department is now on a new year's diet.

Long Island Wine Tour

Our sort of semi-annual girl outing was to do a wine tour in Long Island. I say sort of semi-annual because we try to do something that often, but sometimes it gets delayed a month or two. So, after two Atlantic City tripes and one trip to Ocean City, Maryland, we decided to do something different. We rented a stretch SUV limo for the day and toured four wineries. The highlight or most funny part fo the day had to be Juan from Chile. He was the owner of one of the wineries and gave us a personal barrell tasting in the cellar. We had several girls that were just over 21, and he wanted to give us an official introduction to tasting wine. However, his dramatazation of tasting wine seemed to sound a little more like something taboo and the girls had already tasted several wines. Needless to say him telling them in his nice South American accent to put it in, swish it around, move their heads back and forth, and then swallow left them all giggling.

Black Tie Birthday

One of Marco's long time friends had an AMAZING black tie birthday party. In true class, Marbecca rolled up in our supped up black 2000 Honda Accord and tossed the keys to the valet in front of the house - exiting in our nicey nice outfits. He in his tux and me in my fancy little red dress.

So, here is the scene - we walk in and there was a mini orchestra in a cleared out room playing some very nice mingling music. There was a heated, tented dance floor set up on the back lawn, a DJ, a bar with bartenders and hors d'ourves and waitresses. And the cake... woah, it looked like a wedding cake. Three tiered and gorgeous. If you have the funds to ever throw a birthday party like this - do it. And invite me.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was spent at Marco's Mom's house (Blog Name: Bella Chemie) in Long Island. My dad flew in from Utah for the weekend and we did fun things like go to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway and also went to the Ranger's game. Marco is not a hockey fan but he endured it well, up until they started singing some special "goal" song. He sat in his seat while the rest of us stood up and sang - he looked like he wanted to be shot as evidenced by this video.

Hockey fans in New York are a special breed - very similar to Mets fans. They tend to have a seedy and crude quality. Lots of yelling and beer - more so than for other sports or teams. It was an experience - my first Ranger game. I can cross that one off my bucket list now.

The actual turkey day was nice - we stuffed ourselves as usual and Marco's mom made a fantastic dinner. I'm not just writing that because I know she is going to read this (woo hoo, brownie points baby!).

This year I have more to be thankful for: I had made it through a round of layoffs at work. As we all know how things are right now with the economic situation across the globe we share in the fear and sadness of those who were not as lucky to be able to keep working. I was also thankful for my father being able to come to Thanksgiving and meet some of my future in-laws and that both mine and Marco's families are healthy and doing well. And, lastly, still high off engagement, I am very thankful to have a great man in my life who wants to marry me. Go figure.

And, how I escaped an entire holiday with no Turkey day pictures is beyond me. So, here's to hockey pics.

The Engagement - Rebecca's Version

Setting: Richmond Virginia, Suntrust Marathon
Date: November 15, 2008

I had no idea what was going on. Here, I thought I was just running an 8k in the morning to proove I am not completely lazy and out of shape and then cheering on my man later as he ran his first marathon.

At the finish line, I was the last to reach him to congratulate him. I ran up and gave a big hug and kiss and told him how proud I was of him. He whispered some sweet nothings into my ear, then knelt down and asked me to marry him. I was shocked - completely not expecting this. I mean, I knew we would eventually get to this point, but didn't expect it until 2009 or so. I really would prefer to be engaged to him sooner rather than later! So, it was good. I bent down to kiss and hug him, knocking him over. The crowd of marathoners standing near by clapped for us. His muscles were like jello from the run and I knocked him over onto the ground, still kissing him. It was then that I realized how this must look - me, on top of him, kissing him, in front of lots of people.

We sat up and took in our congratulations. People wanted to know what he had said to me. It all went so fast and was such a blur. I know it was sweet and wonderful, but can't remember a damn word. So, I began to tell people that he said, "you had me at bacon". Mostly for the comedic quality. I know he really didn't whisper that, but I also know that I did, actually, have him at Bacon. On our first date we sat down at a table in a restaurant and I opened the menu and declared, "I Love Bacon". I was told later that when I excused myself to use the restroom he texted friends to tell them that I love bacon and he was oddly excited about it. Go figure.

And in case you haven't seen the video of the actual engagement....Click Here

Marco's Suprise 40th Birthday

I forgot to blog about this one on the "Old" blog. Marco turned 40 this year. OLD MAN! His mom and I planned a special surprise party for him at an Italian restaurant. He was surprised and many of his friends and family were able to come and celebrate. So, a big shout out to my man - Happy 40th. You look fantastic. I love you.

As a side note to this whole post (because I just can't write something simple like that normally), I have an issue with the word "Surprise". I am not sure if I am just some strange person who has a major brain block with one word - Surprise- but I CAN NEVER SPELL IT CORRECTLY! I always think I have outsmarted it and spelled it right this time, but alas, the stupid spell check just has it jump up all over the page, blinking at me in its bright red letters that might as well spell out idiot instead of surprise. Tell me this is not just me? Do other people in the world have difficulty with just one seemingly simple word that they have written out hundreds of times but can never seem to get right? If so, would love for you to leave them as a comment on my blog to make me feel less stupid and also show the rest of the world that I am not the only one. Thanks for your prompt attention to this matter.

xoxo
Rebecca

Genesis - The Birth of Marbecca

Welcome to Volume Two of my blog life. The old blog, phloggerific, shall cease to exist because it belonged to a single person. I ain't single no more - woo hoo!

One of the first things decided as a couple after our engagement was that we would team up and have a blog of our life together. So here it is. Let's explore the genesis of the blog.

After careful consideration, we decided to name our blog the Chronicles of Marbecca. We decided to over glorify ourselves and proclaim that we are, indeed, a Supercouple, joining the ranks of the Tomkats, Brangelinas and Bennifers so famous in tabloid history. Supercouple, per wikipedia the online source of all bad information is defined as the following: supercouple (also known as a power couple or dynamic duo) is a popular or financially wealthy pairing that intrigues and fascinates the public in an intense or even obsessive fashion. Well, *technically* we don't fit the definition unless you guys all want to donate to our "financial pairing". And, I highly doubt anyone is obsessed with us. OK OK, so we are not REALLY a supercouple except for in our own minds. But we wanted to do the cool name merge thing - mostly because its funny but also because we're stupid like that. Side note, due to the flexibility of Wikipedia, we plan to go to that site and change the definition of Supercouple to include us. That way we won't be lying. So, henceforth we shall be known as Marbecca. I suggested Rebarco, but that was shot down. Apparently that name is already taken for a rubber tree plant in the Congo.

So, you may be asking yourself...what can I expect from this new blog? Will Rebecca continue to post pictures of strange toilets? Has "Fernando" been forever abandoned and the site will no longer use his pseudonym?

To answer your questions... yes. To both. I officially am introducing the online Blog readers of the world to Marco (aka Fernando). This name confusion has caused some problems in the past - people thought I was dating two men because of it. They also called Marco by the incorrect name when meeting him, not knowing that there really was no Fernando. This should clear all that up.

As for Marco's involvement - he says he will write. I must warn all of you - I cannot predict what will come out of that head of his and into the computer. I would expect wit and some ranting.

Our goal is to document our life together and share with our family and friends. We look forward to blogging for you.