Where have you been all my life?

Okay – so I’ve been traveling again. I just got back from Newport News. Another work trip - an HR Conference & I got to spend a little time with some old friends who I don’t get to see often. Oh yeah, and learn some too.

I was also chosen to be one of six Regional Trainers with the company! Yay! My region is the Southeast. I’m pretty excited about that. I LOVE training – it’s the best part of my job. I only wish I had more time to do it.

I also came home with one of these little lovelies (raffle prize)…in light blue:

I’m in love. It took me a while to figure out, but last night I downloaded *three* whole songs on it. How have I ever lived without it? And since I’ll be traveling a bit more – this will come in handy. It’s such a treat because I never would’ve bought one for myself. Ever. It’s not something I would’ve spent money on – just secretly pined for it instead.

I called the husband to tell him the good news. He was happy to hear about the trainer position, but even happier to hear about the ipod nano.

He said, “Oh cool! I was going to put that on my Christmas list!”

I replied, “You still need to. This one is MINE.”

Can you guess where I am?

If you said the Milwaukee Airport – you’re rrrright!

(how’s that for modern technology? I’m able to take a photo of myself at the airport, load it on my computer, and put in on my blog… all in just minutes – once I figured out the airport wifi system)

I’m one of those crazy people who feels like they need to get to the airport super-early. So now I sit here waiting for my flight, surfing the ‘net, and people-watching. I’ve got plenty of time to do this. And airports are the best place to people watch… (especially when there’s some sort of football game on that many people are interested in… there are simultaneous cheers and groans coming from different areas of the terminal – too funny)

The weekend was great – I already miss my friends, my sisters. The time goes by much too quickly.  Soon it will be back home, back to my family, back to reality… it’s nice to have a few days where all of that is suspended for a bit & I can soak in the moments & memories of time spent with my wonderful friends.

Waiting 365 days for all of us to be together again will be tough… but totally worth it.  

I could not be more excited!

I get to spend a weekend with these amazing women! (plus Jo – who is missing from this photo)

I. Cannot. Wait.

Morbid Curiosity

Was anyone else curious about Britney’s performance on the VMAs?

Anyone else hugely disappointed? I watched it hoping that she’d prove me wrong – that maybe she’d surprise me and it would be really awesome… yeah, it wasn’t.

It was bad. Bad. *sigh* I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed someone phone-in a performance like she did tonight. She looked lost on stage and it didn’t seem like she really wanted to be there.

Oh well.

We could be kid-selling gypsies or something!

Yesterday my son gets a call from a boy in his class. We make plans for the little boy to come over today. I go out to get a haircut this morning and when I get back the boy is here. My husband tells me that he’ll be here for a “couple of hours.” Okay, fine.

Three and a half hours later, the Mom calls and says (doesn’t say ‘hello’ btw) she’ll be over in fifteen minutes. She drives up and honks the horn. The little boy leaves.

The Mom never says thank you… never stops in to meet the people who she left her son with for three and a half hours… nothing. I had no way to get a hold of this person if anything happened – no cell phone number – no nothing.

I think that’s weird. I mean, I’m not going to be dropping my kids off at anyone’s house who I haven’t met. I don’t care if the kid is in my son’s class. I don’t know who these people are! I’m not going to leave my precious children in the hands of strangers! I don’t care how good of a school my kids go to or how good of a neighborhood I live in. That’s just plain crazy, IMO.

“I gave birth to 18 puppies and all of them had peanuts in their mouths.”

We only spent about three hours together on Friday night during the Hootie and the Blowfish concert, and this is what I learned:

• Marti and I never get tired spoofing our favorite SNL skits.
• Paper fans make useful and stylish accessories when stuck in the rain.
• Jen doesn’t like getting rained on.
• Once that fan breaks, the wooden handle can be used to play fun party games.
• Lew can’t improvise with props. (re: party game)
• Just because you drink beer – doesn’t mean that you can dance. (but thank you for the extra entertainment)
• Marti cracks me up. Period.
• The Sam Bush Band rocks a banjo & fiddle like no other. (Um, I think it was a fiddle and a banjo, we weren’t really listening.)
• I really do live in Georgia. (see above fiddle and banjo comment)
• Foster’s is Australian for bee-ah.
• Next time we attend a concert at Chastain – we WILL bring wine. And food. And wine… did I mention the wine? (and an umbrella would probably be a good idea too)
• The guy behind us in the photo – his name is Brian. We don’t know him.
• I laughed harder in those three hours than I had in the past three weeks.

(and yes… more of my ginormous forehead – please quiet the gasps of horror.)

Four Finger Forehead

I remember being in the Astro van on the way to my grandparents house in NY – we were on the NJ turnpike and I put my bangs up in a barrette – my Mom said, “Don’t wear your hair like that, your forehead is too big!”

It’s a lesson I’ve never learned. Oh well. At least I’m not alone.

Another trip to Florida… except this was for fun. A weekend with my family was perfect; just what I needed. We spent a night in Orlando – all together – and hung out. It actually felt somewhat “normal” & I think it was good for all of us.

And you can clearly see… the apples don’t fall far from the tree.