Happy Birthday To Me

6-11-10

Happy Birthday to, well, me! LOL!

I am zoned out here at work since I have no boss, and let’s face it, no boss plus Friday plus birthday equals Gena will be browsing Wikipedia all day. LOL!!

I went to dinner with Brandy last night which was cool! We went to P F Changs which was YUMMY! I had lettuce wraps with tofu and I tried some of Brandy’s tofu dish. I even had a snow pea! YAY ME! I was trying things. All was pretty damn good. The lettuce wraps were exactly the same as the ones with chicken. I had some Dan Dan which rocks.

After dinner, we went to a couple of shops and were able to visit and hang out, which was something we don’t always have a lot of time to do. I was glad I could get out.

I want to go home. Just so I can sleep.

Maryann brought me a beautiful pink scarf from Turkey! It is so cool! I may need to see about wearing it tomorrow night. We are going to a benefit show with Doug and Elizabeth for my birthday. Joel Mcchale will be there, so yay!

Is it wrong to be a little bummed that they didn’t get me a cake at work?

I am eating lunch early today. I was starving. I am also considering the whole sneaking out at noon thing. I don’t think I will, though. It isn’t like going home needs to happen. Besides, the afternoon is even easier to goof off.

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Thursday morning we packed up and were out of the room early. We wanted to get in as much site seeing as possible before we had to go. We jetted around the historic district and looked for more placement of where their shops and homes were.

We bid farewell to Marietta and went on towards the airport, but not before a quick stop at a courthouse and library in one of the smaller towns. We had to move quickly since we still had to get to the airport.

At the library, we walked in and you could smell the rain wanting to come down. We were inside all of 10 minutes when it started to pour. Thunder and lightning, all kinds of cool, so Andy and I ran outside to film what we could.

We got to the airport with plenty of time. Turns out, when you fly out of anywhere aside from LAX, it is easy to do security. LOL! Holly was on a different airline, but luckily, we were all leaving around the same time and there was a common ground between the terminals that we could hang out in before we went through security.

I picked up the boys some Ohio bears and Holly got her kids a couple of stuffed cows adorned in shirts that said “no tipping!” I would have got those for Bobby and Dax, but I don’t think the humor would have worked for their age. Oh well.

Holly left first, and so we said our goodbyes and headed towards our gate.

The flight was yicky.

I hate flying, but man, this one sucked. Quite a bit of turbulence. Some bad enough the flight attendants had to sit down. It was tolerable, but unfun. I slept a good chunk in the beginning, and then ended up reading a quick book. If it was a good book, I wanted to give it to Andy to read, so I needed it done before the flight was over since he and Papa Brenan would be going from Vegas to Sacramento, whereas I was in route to LA.

It was not a good book, but I finished it anyway.

We touched down in Vegas, and even got in a smidge early. There was to be a quick turnaround for all of us, and our gates were even next to each other. I was only a couple hours out of home. Then came the dreaded news.

I had no plane.

The plane that was to be taking me on to Los Angeles was still in route, having been delayed due to weather for 90 minutes. Crud. I would be leaving an hour later than planned. Not a huge deal, but annoying nonetheless.

Andy and Papa Brenan were lucky and did not get delayed, so I said goodbye to them and hung out in the airport reading my second book, anxiously waiting to get home.

Luckily, the flight home was quick and painless. I played solitaire on iTty, which makes time fly by. I got off the plane and headed to baggage.

I came down the escalator to see my three smiling boys, all holding signs that said “Mom”. Awesomeness! I am telling you, this is why people should be allowed to be at the gate. I would have loved to see someone get that kind of surprise.

After being home now for a week, and having time to reflect on the trip, I will say I really had a lot of fun. Sure, there were some boring points in which I was spent, but overall, just having time to sit in the back of a car, with no agenda and to be able to see some cool sights and bond with inlaws, it was all kinds of good. It was good for me to get away from my comfort zone. It was good for me to help out on genealogy. It was good for me to leave all the schedules and planning up to other folks. I was pretty free while there, and although it was strange, I really enjoyed it.

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Ok, I have spent too much time dinking around and it still is only noon. Grrr.