Chuckysal.com

Unless it’s an emergency, don’t bother me after 6:00 p.m. and on weekends. - Merv Griffin (1925-2007)

written by Chuckysal

Update continued….

May - Well, this month was full of excitement First of all, before Brittany and I got married, Chad and I took a trip (conference, of course) to Anaheim, California to go to an IBM Common Conference. This conference was geared to our main database server and what was new and upcoming. It was held at the Anaheim Convention Center. While in Anaheim, we had a chance to visit Downtown Disney for dinner. It just happen to be the night that M&M was playing at the House of Blues. For those of you that don’t know, M&M was the cover name for Britney Spears so called mini comeback tour (LOL)… It was a crazy scene as all of these people were trying to get a glimpse of her and her new life… We also had the chance to drive the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) with two people we met at the conference. We went through so many towns that ended with the word Beach, such as Seal Beach, Laguna Beach, etc.

When we got back from Anahiem, it was time to get married! But, before we got married, by an answered prayer I was able to sublease my apartment to a lady who found my ad off of Craigslist. For those of you who don’t know, Craigslist is a free online classified ad website. Ashley, a friend of mine who now lives in New York, told me about this a few years back and I figured I would see if I got any hits off of it. Turns out, I had to move out of my apartment in two days because the lady who wanted to rent it was in a ’situation’ where she needed to be living elsewhere, so I thought this would be perfect and now I don’t have to worry about my apartment for the rest of the summer! Truly a answered prayer from above!

Now on to the wedding Brittany and I were married in Huntsville on May 12, 2007. We had our rehearsal dinner at the beautiful Ledges Country Club. The reception room looked over the 18th green and the Huntsville city lights! All of the food there was wonderful! The next day, of course, was the wedding. My then fiance was (and still is) the most beautiful woman I know… The wedding went very smooth, weather was not too hot, and most of all, we were married!!! About three hours after the wedding, we left to go to Atlanta for the night, then off to St Thomas for our honeymoon!

Our honeymoon was absolutely beautiful!!! We traveled to St Thomas for 7 days, 6 nights of pure enjoyment When we arrived at the STT airport, we quickly noticed that the airport was not air conditioned. We waited patiently for our luggage, and then took the taxi bus from hell through the narrow and curvy roads to the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort. When we checked in and got to our room, we knew we were in paradise… the view of the Virgin Islands from our porch was absolutely amazing! We opted to do the all inclusive plan with the hotel and it wasn’t a bad idea. It included all of your food, drinks, non-motorized water sports (like kayaking, etc), etc.

The most exciting part of the trip had to have been the day sail that we took over to the British Virgin Islands. Included in this trip were two stops for snorkeling, something I had never done. When we got in the water, Brittany took off like a motorboat racing through the water and I am struggling to keep water out of my mouth. Needless to say she saw more fish than I did. We also made two stops on the islands, one at Jost Van Dyke to eat lunch, and the other around the bend at the Soggy Dollar Bar. The water was crystal clear and the beaches were beautiful! I will post some pictures when I can! There are several other details about this trip that I cannot remember at this time, but if I do, I’ll edit the post and update them!

The return trip back to Auburn (through ATL) was a mess. We got to the STT airport 3 hours before our scheduled departure, thinking that was going to be plenty of time to check-in, go through customs, and grab a bite to eat. Three hours was barely enough time! Apparently on Saturdays, Delta triples the number of flights outbound from one to three. This resulted in mass chaos throughout the terminal. When we were dropping our bags off at the xray machines, we had doubts if they were going to make it on our plane. Sure enough, none of our bags made it on our flight. And, what’s even worse is the officials at STT didn’t bother to put our luggage on the second flight going to ATL an hour later. When we arrived in ATL, we waited (just in case) our luggage arrived on the second flight. It didn’t. So, I filed a lost luggage claim with Delta. I called Delta several times on Sunday trying to figure out where our luggage was. Delta told me that it was on the flight (only flight I might add) from STT to ATL Sunday evening. Once that flight arrived (and you know I was tracking it the whole time), I called again and they said two of the bags were on a flight to CSG (Columbus, GA) and the other two were scheduled on a flight the next morning. So, the next day, I called and called and they said CSG only had two of the bags when it turned out (I found out at 6pm CST) that they had all the bags the whole time. CSG said they had already made their last delivery for the day so I told them I would drive down there and get it myself. So, finally two days later, we had our luggage. I wish we got to stay with our luggage in STT for a few extra days

Other than the wedding and honeymoon, that about sums up May. I did find out from my friend Brandon that he will be deploying back to Iraq in the coming months. His activation officially started so close to his end of active service with the Marines. Keep him in your prayers that he will come back as soon as possible and that safety will be with him wherever he may go.

Hopefully I’ll have another update soon that will cover June - July (or current). Stay Tuned….

written by Chuckysal

So, like I said in the previous post, it’s been a while since I updated everyone with what’s been going on in my life… So here is my best shot at a good update on what has been happening from January through April.

January - We started off 2007 in Charleston, SC with several of our friends (old & new). It was nice to spend New Year’s in a different location than Auburn or the Lake J The rest of the month was primarily work and school, with wedding preparation in between.

February - Our big event this month was our Valentine’s trip to Atlanta. I had purchased a City Pass, which allowed us to visit a number of Atlanta attractions for a single price (discounted, too!). We enjoyed the Georgia Aquarium, World of Coke (before it moved), and the Atlanta Zoo. Unfortunately, the zoo was open but all the animals were inside since it was freezing outside. Oh well, we tried.

March - We took our engagement shots this month in and around Auburn. It was beautiful to take some pictures in front of Samford Hall, behind the new Forestry building, and other misc locations. The pollen was definitely out that day as by the end of the photo shoot, my eyes were teary and bloodshot! But, all that matters is the pictures turned out well. I also went over to Atlanta for a day in mid-March for a Symantec ‘Tech Day.’ It turned out that this event was a huge sales pitch that included lunch. Oh well, free meal J

April - This month’s big event was my bachelor party down in Sarasota, Florida. Brandon, aka OB, and I drove down and met the rest of the group (David, Sanders, Brooks, Peacock). We had so much fun fishing out in the gulf! I was the one who caught several strange fish. I cannot remember off the top of my head what they were! Go figure! It was fun to see more of Sarasota and spend time with all of the guys.

Coming later this week, an update from May through the end of July

written by Chuckysal