This is the true story...

This is the true story... of twelve strangers [sorta]...

who chose to live in a sweet ass 6 bedroom beach house...

party together and have their lives photo
[and sometimes video] documented ...

to find out what happens...

when people [CAN'T] stop having fun...

and always keep it real...

The Real 12.

(snagged from Tots)

Hotel Carolina 2009 was great. 

Hotel Carolina 2010 was amazing. 

I headed out Wednesday for a vacation I'd been planning for nearly a year  -- Hotel Carolina 2010 in Isle of Palms, SC. I loved the 2009 excursion so much, I knew I was in again this year.  I'd made some upgrades from the previous year (flying instead of driving and beach house instead of hotel).  I was a bit nervous about the fact that I'd be living with 11 other people for four days.  Remember, I'm used to living alone and being alone a lot.  I also worried that I'd built up this vacation so much in my mind that I would be underwhelmed.

I could not have been more wrong to worry about those things.  My 11 house mates became a new family.  The Dirty Dozen.  We laughed together.  We gossiped together.  We stayed up all night together.  We hit the pool together.  We cooked and ate together.  We drank together.  We lived together.  Over the course of four days (well, some of them stayed longer), we did all this and more.  I can honestly say I love each and every one of the people in that photo (and the one who is missing).  I think Beans said it best --- we're all so different we balance each other out. 

I'm not going to disclose too much about my vacation because Hotel Carolina is like Vegas.  What happens there, stays there...for the most part.  I will list a few of my highlights, however...

- The music.  Always the music.  That's what brought us all together in the first place.

- The late-night chats.  Friday night's was pretty awesome.

- Getting in a pool for the first time in years, thanks to much insistence from Beans and Vogue.  And their "won't take no for an answer" attitude about it.

- Guuuuurrrrrl. 

- Ethnic quesadillas.  (I laughed until I cried.)

- Breakfast made by the boys. Cory made the eggs and Keaton did the bacon, but Jon's sausage gravy is what I remember most. So good!!

I'm sure there's so much more I could say, and I'm sure the memories will keep resurfacing as I begin planning for Hotel Carolina 2011.  I can't wait to reunite with the Dirty Dozen for more debauchery, laughter and, of course, fantastic live music performances.