Seeing as this is the time of year when my husband and I tended to go visit Hawaii, I decided to watch a Hallmark movie that I had recorded that was set in Puerto Rico.

And there were palm trees and a beach and sunburned feet.

It was a fun movie.  Even with the hurricane.

So Tess, the heroine, is the HR director at this big company.  She has to fire a bunch of people because the new CEO is “restructuring.”

And then she gets fired.  And decides to go to the HR convention in Puerto Rico anyway.

Her shoes get stolen when she goes through airport security.

She loses her cell phone somewhere between airport security and her seat on the plane.

Her luggage ends up in Boston.

The hotel she’s booked is under construction and her former employer had someone cancel her reservations, but she convinces them it was a mistake and gets her room back.

Her luggage arrives in the morning, so she’s able to put on clean clothes and wear shoes for the first time in a whole day.

Along with her hotel reservations, her former employer cancelled her reservations for the conference, but she’s able to talk them into being convinced that it was a mistake as well and they let her in.

And nothing goes the way she wants it to at the conference.  Networking fails.

Tess ends up in a hammock drinking coconut water out of a coconut.

This handsome dude, Carter, she keeps bumping into suggests that she get herself into more comfortable clothes and relax.

After changing into a swimsuit and cover-up, she falls asleep on a lounge chair on the beach and ends up with random patches of sunburn.

Carter later talks her into visiting San Juan because the construction at the hotel is way too noisy.  And Tess ends up having a blast.

In the middle of the night, there’s an electrical fire in the hotel.

Hanging out in the parking lot, Tess realizes that her wallet isn’t in her purse anymore.

And the concierge didn’t have her name on the list of guests so he hadn’t found a place she could stay.

She ends up calling her mom collect to have her overnight her passport so she can at least get home.

Carter to the rescue again!  He finds her a place to say at this lovely woman’s house.

Then the weather report comes on the television and there’s a hurricane headed right for Puerto Rico!

Carter and Tess help Stella get her house ready for the hurricane and Stella helps Tess stay calm.

Carter and Tess end up dancing.

They almost kiss.

And Puerto Rico only gets the edge of the hurricane.

Carter wants Tess to stay so they can get to know each other better, so she can be more relaxed; but she gets an email from the CEO who wants her to come back right away.

So she goes back.

And she turns down the promotion and awesome corner office because it wouldn’t make her happy, because she realizes that her dream had changed.

She’s able to stand up to her mom when her mom doesn’t agree with her decisions.

She fills her position by rehiring someone that she had to fire, who she had originally been training to take over HR.

Then she flies back to Puerto Rico.

Carter was going through security at the airport and doesn’t see her because he was going to fly to see her.

If it weren’t for the concierge seeing Tess outside and telling him about it, he would have flown to Colorado.

He races back to Stella’s house where he finds Tess who was there looking for him.

And they kiss and dance on the beach and the movie ends.

I was seriously feeling for Tess there.  Echoing her sentiment, “What else could go wrong?”

I think we can all relate to Tess.  All kinds of bad things happening all in a row.

And, like Tess, when so many things happen like that in a row, I tend to reevaluate a lot of things.  My job.  My health.  My stress.  Everything.

And priorities tend to change.

Maybe it’s more rest than usual.

Maybe it’s cutting down on extra things that bring stress.

One time, it required dropping half my class load.

Other times, it required me seeing a counselor.

You know, I wish that one of these times, I’ll end up somewhere tropical.

In the mean time, I guess I’ll just look at my pictures from Hawaii and dream of sand and surf.

If you’re curious, you can visit Hallmark for more info about the movie.