Keep her in your thoughts, please.

One of my very dear friends, a fellow HR Director, lost all of her belongings along with her beloved beagle, Emily.

Any thoughts or prayers are greatly appreciated.

The Best News.

Here: Team Matt

(if the news isn’t posted yet – it will be soon – keep checking, its worth it)

Team Matt

My dear friend Jo asked me to start a blog (and teach her how to use it) so she can chronicle the journey of recovery they’re on for her son Matt. (I mentioned him a couple of posts down)

And since I’d do anything for her, I created it here: www.teammatt.wordpress.com

I also added it to my blog list over there —–>

Stop by and read her touching (and funny) entries. You’ll be glad you did. Matt will also be checking into the blog & would love to read some comments… if you feel so inclined.

I thought that a beautiful and hopeful picture would be appropriate on Jo’s blog about Matt. I found a really sweet painting by an artist from Wisconsin (where Jo lives) showing some sunflowers and a barn in the distance. Matt was absolutely horrified at such a girlie picture on top of a blog about HIM, so he sent the photo of himself to be added instead.

Really… I only did it for the orange “Team Matt” t-shirt.

Please pray.

I just found out that the son of one of my best friends is in the hospital. He was in a skiing accident and his injuries are from the neck up. He’s currently in Intensive Care.

Any thoughts and prayers would be so appreciated.

How’d you snort wine up your nose this time?

This week has been a freakin’ whirlwind of activity for me. And I’m not a whirlwind-of-activity-kind-of-gal. So it’s taken a lot out of me and I’m still recovering from my week.

I had to travel again. This time I went to Virginia – right outside of Washington D.C. I had to attend the training classes so that I could be certified to become a Regional Trainer for the company. Here’s how my trip went:

• 3:36pm flight on Monday, December 3rd. Get to the airport at 1:45 and am told that my flight is delayed.
• Jen falls asleep while listening to her ipod.
• Flight is canceled due to high winds in D.C. and a closed runway at Dulles airport. Crap.
• Next flight is 9:15pm.
• Crap-crappity-crap-crap.
• Walk through Terminal C at the airport for hours and hours while waiting for flight.
• Flight is smooth except for the landing. And the women next to me gasping each time the plane dipped way more than any of us were used to. (I wanted to smack those women, btw)
• I stand up once the plane lands (so that I can be the first one to kiss the ground) and the dude in front of me decides to open the overhead compartment without looking back so the overhead compartment knocks me in the head.
• My luggage? It was waiting for me. (somehow *it* was able to get on the earlier flight)
• I call the hotel to find out where the shuttle is going to pick me up. Some confusion here… apparently the people giving me the directions to the shuttle at the Dulles airport have never actually BEEN to the Dulles airport.
• In the FREEZING cold weather I hike over to the shuttle (after 15 minutes of discussion with the hotel) while dragging my suitcase and walking in boots.
• The dude at the front desk (who has never been to the Dulles) airport was completely perplexed by my method of payment (a check) and looked down at his computer screen for a full five minutes without saying a word to me. Not. One. Word.
• I get into my room at 12:30am. My meeting started at 8am the next morning.

The rest of the week was spent in class – seriously tedious and intense training class. Being evaluated by the company whose certification we were seeking. *gulp*

And I felt like crap the entire time. Sore throat, congestion, sinus pain. Stinkin’ crap.

The next night I got to enjoy dinner with two dear sweet, funny, beautiful, lovely friends. And I also enjoyed a delicious Cosmo as well. My stomach hurt from laughing so hard and I spent way more time with them instead of preparing for my next day’s class. Totally worth it.

I didn’t sleep well that night and tossed and turned with all kinds of icky symptoms. I woke up feeling like I had just been scraped off the bottom of my boots.

BUT – when I looked out the window…there was SNOW.

I discovered that there is one thing that can make me forget about the lack of sleep, intense training, headache from the overhead compartment, and sinus pain. That would be SNOW. It snowed. Snowflakes falling on my gloves.

I was the idiot standing outside the hotel in the freezing weather looking up at the sky so the snowflakes could land on my face. It was marvelous!

It’s been about nineteen years since I saw snow… and almost thirty years since I remember seeing a snowfall. I was absolutely gleeful!

The six of us in the class successfully passed and became certified! Yayyy! There’s more work for us to do before the program rolls out and some logistical stuff to figure out… but we did it.

The plane ride home was much less eventful. Thank goodness.

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.