I couldn’t wait to get to Boston today! There were two wee tots who were excited to see me and I them!

Of course, I couldn’t wait to see my sister, it’s been too long since I’ve laid eyes on my baby sister and of course my brother in law. But…

I got off the plane, took a taxi, that my sister had arranged and got to the restaurant and there was my sister holding MG! she is so stinking cute and what? She was being shy! We walked into the restaurant and I had just enough time to drop my bag and have EJ jump in my arms, she is getting so big! I loved that when I texted my sister to wish EJ a happy birthday, she said, tell her yourself, meet us at the restaurant and that’s just what I did! I was there in the for dessert, got to sing happy birthday and then chase MG around the restaurant.

When we got home, it was time to get ready for bed, EJ is reading so well, she read me half of Ne Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, I’m so impressed. She also asks so many questions, I was reading from her Disney Princess book, Pocahontas and she has so many questions. Why…? What does that mean…?

Then, after everyone under 7, went to bed, I was summoned for an extra good night kiss, how lucky am I?

I’m so looking forward to 6 more days of this! Look out!

Ok, so what a day. I am going to tell you about UGH…[travel], Really? [Excuse, rude, much?] and Kudos…[GREAT customer service]

So, where to start? I started my day off by going to the DMV because I lost my license [I can now no longer say I have never lost my license] easy enough, $5 and 20 minutes later, walked out with a temporary. [Little did I know that I would need to take another picture, so you can imagine what I looked like, but they said I could go back and take another picture, for another $5].

Home in time to start work, normal, no surprises there except for being super busy.

Next, it was time to leave for the airport [As I mentioned last night, I packed last night and I am not a night before packer, but if I am going out of the country or on a long trip, I try, note, I said try to pack the night before] and I’m so glad I did pack last night because I had just enough time to take a shower and leave between all my calls.

There was bad weather expected in Toronto [guess where I am!] and the meetings I am going to be participating in tomorrow and Thursday might possibly not happen in person if everyone can’t get to Toronto [my boss emailed at 1:30 pm to say he was still in Connecticut and was supposed to leave at 11, haven’t heard any updates]. I got to the airport 2 hours early as instructed, flight showing leaving on time [3:15pm]. After an hour of sitting there waiting, the departure time jumps to 5:00pm, the flight from Bloomington, IL hadn’t left yet and was scheduled to leave about 4 something. Ok… time to grab something to eat. [By the way, went to the Fresh Market [i don’t remember the name] for Vegetable Soup and a Garden Salad – Y U M!]

A little while later, there was an announcement, “we are looking for anyone willing to volunteer their seat, $600 cash voucher on any Delta flight” what? Hello! Over here! So up to the counter I went because… the next flight was scheduled to depart at 5:30, so what’s 30 minutes for $600? not much! I get to the counter at the same time as another gentleman and we both volunteered…we flipped a coin and Queen Elizabeth was on my side [it was a $2 Canadian coin, pronounced two-ney]. So, off to the other gate I went.

Now, they had to “bust my bag” from the flight it was originally on for this flight because “bags must go with the passenger on international flights” ok… can you see where this might lead?

Now, it’s time to board and when I go up to the new gate counter, the people who had done the original “bump” hadn’t completed the process or given me my voucher. So, this very nice, but stressed woman in a red vest [with a NYY badge holder] helped me get my voucher, a seat and on the plane.

Ok, first UGH… There were several nasty people who were just not pleasant, trying to get on the flight and causing a stink. “I’m first class, I fly all over the world, I have over 125K miles, etc etc…” whatever! “You run the worst airport ever” ok, yeah, the guy who is helping you get on the plane and listening to you b**ch runs the airport… Then there was the guy who volunteered to get bumped like I did, who had gotten to the original gate after me, but thumbed his nose at me telling me I hadn’t been there as long as he had and didn’t know what he had gone through, ok, whatever. Then the guy who couldn’t find his baggage claim ticket, who’s fault is that? It’s generally on the back of your ticket. One thing I always hang on to… the baggage claim, especially when I travel internationally.

Ok, next UGH… I get on the plane and a family gets on and Preston, their very cute toddler, and his mom get on. As I am getting kicked in the back, I turn around and say something to mom, she gets Preston to stop, for about a minute… you can imagine what the rest of my flight is like. It gets better, we see her again [she gets a “really?!”]

Flight is mostly uneventful, we land, takes forever to get off the plane, but we did and off to get my luggage, or so I thought…

I get to the carousel, past the baggage and people coming in from Punta Cana [awe, SDL and Miss A and DJL, brings back memories]. And I see the original flight has come in about the same time as my new flight, but… Not my bag, I know you have already figured that out. Oh look, there is someone else who had gotten bumped looking for their luggage.

I give it the appropriate amount of time, when there are maybe 3 bags left on the carousel and head to the Lost Luggage Help Desk. Oh joy…

Guess who’s there too? Yup, Preston and his family. “Preston, get off the floor, Preston, Get off the floor. Preston, pick up your bag, Preston…”

We are all waiting on line, I get the form to fill out [you have to give one half to customs so that when the bag comes in, they can match it up]. The man behind the counter looks at me finally and says Ok, please come up, I go up and Preston’s mom pitches a fit… She had just finished filling out the form [she was actually at the counter for about 3 more minutes than i was] “I was here first”, “sorry ma’am, she was here and I’m going to help her” “I was here first, waiting longer than you” giving me looks of death as if I had just stepped on her foot. Then started complaining to the guy behind the counter. I said it’s fine, he kept objecting and trying to help me, I said it’s fine, it’s not worth it and stepped back out of line. She still had a sour look on her face, maybe she had stepped in something… Ah… the life of the privileged. [BIG REALLY?]

Then it was my turn and I handed my form to the woman at the other counter and she was incredibly pleasant and nice and i made her laugh a few times [she did tell me to stop because she was laughing too hard to concentrate!] but she was smiling, so that’s all that matters. I did tell her she was going to be up against some unpleasant people, like the guy who had been bumped, so she looked directly at him and offered him a form, smooth the way. She asked me if the bag was a rush and I did tell her that there were  birthday presents for my niece in there! which were more important than anything else, but also my jammies and my clothes for work and if I don’t get my bag, I will have to wear the same things I had on to work [sorry guys!] she said ewweee… so yes, it needs to be a rush [score and hope for the best!].

Then she did the nicest thing [here’s the Kudos] she got a special key and then gave me a Delta Skyteam kit [has a t-shirt [A TSHIRT! wink wink, stop rolling your eyes CKM and DCM!] and toiletries, all the essentials!] BIG SCORE!!! I was trying to find her name on her badge, but she was incredibly busy and I knew she needed to help the next person.

I go outside, get a taxi and finally get to the hotel. I really like Hilton properties, I am at gold level, next is platinum..I’m getting there… At gold level, there is always a bottle of water and a snack either in the room or at check in. I get to the room and there is a bag of pretzels [yeah, no cookies or chocolate] and a bottle of water. But the coolest part… the bottle has my name on it! “Thank you for staying at the Hampton Inn… We Love Having You Here” and my name, how cool is that? I’m still tickled when i see my name on stuff!

So, as you can see, dear friends, it has been one heck of a day and no, as of 11:56pm EST, I do not have my luggage, but I have all my electronics and I can brush my teeth in the morning, lucky for my co-workers.

As they always say, there’s always tomorrow.

Today started off earlier than I had wanted it to, but it was a good and full day.

I’m so glad SDL called me yesterday to ask about the craft show today! So, SDL, her sister, DJL and of course, Miss A! met at the Cobb Galleria for the American Craft Council show, not what we thought it was going to be. We were thinking it would be crafts to buy, learn, new ideas, stuff like that crafts for normal people, like us. It was very high end hand made items, very nice, but waaaaayyy too expensive, not things that normal people would be buying. Very little for under $100 if that tells you anything.
http://shows.craftcouncil.org/atlanta

We weren’t there as long as planned, maybe 2.5 hours, so off to lunch we went. Good friends, good food, what could be better?

We parted company, I went to Mecca, well, ok, Michael’s for some supplies for my tooth fairy pillow.

I got home about 5, decided it was time to cut the grass, couldn’t find my gas can, so I went to Walmart, bought a gas can and an x-acto knife, headed home and cut the grass, got the entire front and part of the back done.

Annie (the beetle bug) needed a bath and that was the next project (one of the advantages of daylight savings, still light for so long!) and does she look great! Shiny and new, she’s not as mad at me now. Next I have to tackle the inside, give her a really really good cleaning.

Finished washing the car, went inside and started pulling up the carpet in the dining room. Bella, the newest cat, Bella, has taken to using that room as her litter box, she uses the one in the garage, but I think her way of telling me she’s not happy is using the dining room. She does use the litter box in the garage, she also uses the floor in the garage, whatever, as long as its there and not the dining room!

I did something I never thought I would do…there is a garbage can (like the kind you put at the curb) in my dining room! It’s going out tomorrow!

Then I went out to dinner with a great friend, TS, she brought me my Pampered Chef order, she’s a great consultant that I met years ago at a show and we’ve been friends ever since! It was so great to catch up, we don’t get to see each other too often and it’s like no time has passed and we can talk for hours! Shocked? I know!

I got home and finished pulling up the carpet and padding, I will tell you, I got end helluva workout today!!!

Now, I am watching Mama Mia and working on a tooth fairy pillow, EJs birthday is this week! I can’t believe she’s going to be six!!!

Happy Sunday!

Why do people have to mess with their faces? Ok, so I am going to wax on plastic surgery.

Why do people have to mess with what they have? Ok, I’ll admit, in my battle with my weight, there are times I have said if I had the money, I would get a tummy tuck as the tummy/middle are my problem areas, I won’t lie and say I haven’t thought about it, but it’s not something I am going to do it. I’m going to keep working out and running/walking, watching what I eat and juicing to get where I need/want to be.

There are people who legitimately need the help that plastic surgery can do for them. The extra skin from major weight loss, an injury, possibly something that happened at birth, reconstruction, possibly augmentation when you weren’t blessed, as they say, but within reason. I mostly get when there are things you might want/need based on age, but that still makes me nervous.

Plastic surgery is not something that is always within reach financially, so it’s not the average Joe or Jane who can go out each week and get something done. The people I wonder about are those that go crazy with it. Joan Rivers, I still remember her original face! I’m not sure she does, but she says the same thing. I remember watching Death Race and I had to do multiple takes and look up on imdb.com to be sure that was Joan Allen! I was watching something with Olivia Newton John, what happened? Dolly Patron, aside from her obvious “attributes” I always thought she was a good looking woman, now, it’s plastic. Meg Ryan was one of the first to set off Hollywood in recent years, she was so sweet looking, I can’t tell you how many times I went to get a hair cut with her picture as inspiration, then she had her lips done and its like they precede her everywhere she goes!

The thing that made me think of this was I was watching Once Upon A Time and Rose McGowan was on it, it took me a minute to realize who it was and then I looked at pictures of her, um..not so much.

There are also the people who have money who are obsessed with plastic surgery, the human Barbie doll wanna be’s, it frightens me. Don’t they know that if Barbie was a real woman, she’d tip over?

One of the things that got me a while back was the movie, The Women. It was a remake of The Opposite Sex, which was a remake of The Women. The original and then this one had only women in the cast, from the main characters, service industry to the animals. The Opposite Sex had men and women in the movie. The original is my favorite, with Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford, the story is all about the dichotomy of women. So, here is my point, I know, finally… At the end of the latest version, there was an interview with the actresses in the movie. They were all talking about how naturally beautiful women are and all but maybe one or two had had work done.

I agree, we are all beautiful just the way we are, I know, I should listen to myself and if you want to change something, change something, but you still have to start with loving and like who you are.

aren’t dreams a funny thing? they can affect us so strongly. Have you ever had a dream where someone you cared about did something stupid or really bad and you woke up very angry at them? when you woke up you told them that you needed some space, you need to stay away from them, because you knew if you said something you would probably regret it. and how could you really be mad at them for something they did in a dream? Comedians talk about that all the time, especially guy comedians, they talk about how their wives wake up and hit them because they had a dream that their husbands did something wrong. There are good dreams, there bad dreams, exciting dreams, there are hopeful dreams; there are invigorating dreams, scary dreams, sad dreams, some to make you think and dreams that make you go… what!?! there are books written about dreams, if you dream about water it means something, if you dream about fire it means something. I don’t know about you, but I don’t always remember my dreams. but last night I had a weird one! did you ever see the movie Uncle Buck? it stars John Candy; his brother and wife need to go out of town and there is no one to watch their 3 kids on short notice. they’re down to Uncle Buck and the sister in law is not a happy camper. everything worked out in the end and it was a cute movie. I know you’re wondering why I mentioned Uncle Buck while telling you about dreams. well I’ll tell you, I had an Uncle Buck type of dream. I dreamt that there is no one to watch my nieces and my sister and brother-in-law were hesitant about asking me to babysit so they ran a background check on me! to be honest, the only thing you would find in a background check about me, is my lead foot! that being beside the point, they ran a background check on me! okay for the those dream decipherers out there… what did that mean? nighty night and sweet dreams…

I love the phrase absolute twaddle and here goes, tonight’s post could be considered absolute twaddle and I’m ok with that!

For those of you who might not know, twaddle means foolish speech or writing…hello! Twaddle sounds much nicer than rambling, so here you go.

Do you ever get a taste for something and then don’t get it and then you’re like, hmmm…(yes, I just said like)

This morning, MM and I got up, got ready and headed out for breakfast, M & R recommended Big Daddy’s Burger Bar, said they had great breakfast. We get there about 11:30 on a Sunday and there is no breakfast on the menu, not serving it anymore, what? We were hungry, so we settled in and ordered lunch. I had an edemame burger with tzazitki sauce and sweet potato fries, MM had a chicken burger (he did point out that we could get fried egg on our burgers, thanks, but no thanks!) and the burgers were quite good, but we both had egg on the brain, so it just wasn’t there.

Then on the way home, I wanted a drink, it took forever to find a QT or a Race Track and when I did, I got the drink I thought I wanted, same thing. Oh well.

All I can say is…sometimes you feel like a nut…

I told you, absolute twaddle!

Ok, so there was an article tonight on yahoo.com about Ricky Schroeder directing his 16 year old daughter in a movie. WHAT?

The reason I am so incredulous, I know that we all have to grow up, but my memories of Ricky Schroeder, like so many of you, Silver Spoons. I know he also did Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Champ and there were a lot of things after that and of course, as Rick Schroeder on NYPD Blue, but who doesn’t remember him as Ricky Stratton? Alfonso Robirio and Jason Bateman, ah memories.

So, Ricky Schroeder was born about a hear and a half before me, so even though he is older than me, he is immortalized as Ricky Stratton, the eleven year old rich boy. Now, I see that he has been married for 22 years, wow! And very nice to hear about any couple. [1992 for those of you trying to do the math] And they have FOUR children! 21, 19, 16 and 11.

My question is, why does a person who is older than me make me feel old? Isn’t it odd the way that works? I have friends who have kids who are growing  up and in high school, college even, how is that possible? But that makes sense to make us feel old, but an actor who is older than me? Does that mean my childhood is over? No, I am not whining, just wondering.

And yes, I am a big kid, so there.

2 things that made me go grrrrr today and are just so frustrating.

It took me 2 hours to get to work today, which is 40 miles from my house and… I put 5 gallons of gas in my car and spent $20!!!! I paid 3 dollars and 95 cents a gallon for gas. what?!?

One of the things I love about my job is that I get to work from home. I go in to the office once a month to have lunch with the ladies and see my coworkers. If they need me to come into the office, they let me know and I make plans to do that. The traffic is so bad in Atlanta that I actually need to leave my house at 6 to make it by 7, if I leave after 7 it takes anywhere from an hour and a half to 2 hours to go to 40 miles to the office. My work day is 9-5, see the problem?

I don’t know what I would do if I had to go into the office everyday, I know how lucky I am. I have had jobs that required me to go into the office and it took me 45 minutes to go door to door, 29 miles, that was fine. I had 1 job that was 29 miles door to door and it took me 1 hour there and 2-4 hours home, suicide is not an option!

I have a good friend JT, who was traveling for her job, and is now based out of Atlanta as she requested. Now it is taking her an hour to 2 hours to get everywhere and home everyday and she’s incredibly frustrated but, she asked to be placed in Georgia, hmm.

Welcome to Atlanta…

The next thing that made me go grrr today…I was needing gas and having to pay 3 dollars and 95 cents a gallon! I only put in 5 gallons which netted me $20, what?!?

I know that gas is rising, it sucks big wampum and this is what we have to deal with. Near my house there is a gas station that normally has less expensive gas but it is steadily rising. 2 weeks ago I left the house it was $3.66 a gallon the next day it was $3.77 a gallon the next day it was back down to $3.66 a gallon, that I can handle, mostly. I knew I would need gas today going to work, but, I was thinking that I could make it to work and back, fingers crossed without having to get gas, I was so wrong. So now I need gas and I’m on my way to meet CKM and what should have taken 30 minutes to go 15 miles and it took me 45 minutes to go 15 miles so I need to stop for gas, I’m in Sandy Springs, one of the higher end suburbs of Atlanta. This is where I ended up paying $3.95 a gallon for gas, getting me 5 gallons for $20 which got me just under half a tank. One of the things I love about my beetle is that it has a nice size gas tank for a small car. I remember is when I first started looking for a car years ago I wanted a $10 gas tank, that’s when gas was cheap. Now my little 12 gallon tank cost me $40, WTH? Now, I know I pay a lot less than someone with a bigger tank, like say….a tank, I mean SUV, but this is what I have chosen to drive.

I am now back in the suburbs where I was outside and gas is at a more reasonable, ha ha, $3.65 a gallon.

so all in all even though there was good news to be had in different places, I got to see my coworkers, had a wonderful lunch with the ladies, I had several annoying moments with the traffic in Atlanta and the gas prices… when will it end?

Happy hump day everyone!