I hope to never repeat this day.....

I know many of you are waiting to read about our next day of vacation and I promise that I'll try and get the rest finished this week.

I've never done this  before, but because last Wednesday was ONE of those days, I decided that you all may just want to hear about it, and if not...well, move along somewhere else because if you continue reading you're going to hear about it.  I wrote the bulk of this last Thursday while it was still fresh on my mind.

Hormones: Can't live with them, and I can't live without them!  I know that because of hormones or the lack of, I really don't know which, I awoke at 4:30 yesterday.  I also woke up feeling like an elephant was sitting on my chest and a squirrel had it's tail down my throat...basically...YUCKY!  I am resolved to have a great attitude because my husband has asked me to accompany him on a business trip and I want to go and enjoy my time with him.  He is my best friend and I LOVE to be with him.  After laying in bed and realizing that I wasn't going back to sleep, I got up and had a delicious bottle of kombucha, which sent the squirrel packing.  Now, how do you get rid of the elephant?  I'm still trying to figure out that one!  I was hoping that my Americano would do the trick, but the elephant has decided to take up residency I believe.

I wake the girls up a few minutes after 7:00 and told them that we had to leave the house in 45 minutes so that I could get them delivered to their adopted parents, and then have plenty of time to get back so that Brent and I can leave our house at 9:00.  We had a flight out of Love Field at 11:15, so all is well and we're in good shape.  Well, 50 minutes later..one of my daughters (I will not say which one) is still styling her hair into that perfect hairdo.  I tell her that I'm leaving and at 8:00 we're heading out the door and off.  I was successful in delivering them to their cozy nest for the next 5 days and I'm back home just a few minutes before 9:00. Perfect!  I walk in the door and my dear sweet husband is still packing his clothes.  We are going to be so late!  I decided to keep my cool, not say a word and make sure all my stuff was in the car and that he wasn't waiting on me.  I didn't even make sure everything was picked up and put away, I've never left my house in such disarray for a trip!  At 9:20 Brent brings me his expense reports and asks that I print a stamp so that he can get them in the mail before we leave.  My computer is packed, so I unpack the computer and turn it on.  Brent walks through in a panic and asks me what I'm doing on my computer.  I explained that he wanted to mail his reports, right?  He confirmed that he indeed want just that.  I packed my computer back up, loaded my bags and took his mail to the mailbox.  I decided the best course of action would be for me to just sit in the car.  I grabbed our breakfast to go and sat in the car for a few minutes until he was ready, which was just a few minutes later.  We were off at 9:30.  It's not really that big of a deal I thought, because we are flying Southwest and we'll still get there in plenty of time.

Did I mention that I still felt YUCKY?  Well, in case you've forgotten, I wanted to remind you again.

We were doing so good, traffic was wonderful, the sun was shining, and I was thinking about how nice it was going to be to be with Brent for 5 days....with him all to myself.  Then we hit I-30.  It was a parking lot.  Brent gets into "Brent panic mode" and keeps saying, "I don't need this this morning."  Since when did we ever need to have traffic anyway?  I choose to keep my lips sealed.  Instead I got out my awesome, trusty  phone and checked the traffic and it appeared that we were going to be sitting for quite some time.    An hour later, with Brent sweating from the abundance of nerves, we are through the traffic and moving on.  He started driving somewhat fast, and got honked at by a couple of people, but all was good because we were no longer "stuck".  We made it to Inwood, just a few blocks from I-35E and we hit traffic again!  They had several of the left lanes closed.  Not only is it bottle-necking, because of the lane closures, we also have to wait through three lights.  Brent is getting really antsy!  Time is a ticking and our plane is scheduled to leave in 15 minutes.  I'm glad our children weren't in the car to witness this next move, but Brent decides to cut in line by darting through the barrels, using the closed lanes to place himself in the front of the line.  Construction on Inwood is really crazy right now and when you're running late.......well, it's just completely unnecessary!

We arrive at the airport at 11:02 and Brent decides to use the more expensive parking since it is so much closer...you know, so we can save some time.  Well, not sure if that worked for us or not, because we drove what seemed like an eternity.  I jumped out grabbed my bags and took off running.  We made it to the elevator and Brent pushed down...nothing!  We waited for at least 10 seconds , which seemed like 10 minutes and then I spotted the stairs.  I asked Brent if he could handle the stairs with his bags (he has more than me) because if he could, I would too.  Off we went down the stairs and took off running as soon as we hit the bottom.  We checked our bags at 11:06 (so very thankful that not one single person was in line) and I again took off running.  Brent's suitcase was overweight, so he had to rearrange things in his bag.  I ran to the the security and told the man in front of me that I REALLY needed to hurry because my plane was getting ready to take off and would he please let me in front of him.  He was so gracious and allowed me to go through.  I was such a mess at this point.  I had my coat, scarf, purse, drivers license, boarding pass all loose, threw it in the tub to go through the scanner, pull out my laptop and I start to charge through the metal detector with my shoes on.  I have to back up, take my boots off, throw them on the conveyor belt and then through the detector.  Phew!  As I get to the other side I pull my tub and it makes a tub ahead of mine fall on the floor...and it has the man's laptop that just allowed me to go ahead of him. I really didn't know what to do or even how to act.  It wasn't my fault, it just so happened that when his tub came through on the conveyor that it didn't come out square and it was riding on the edge.  Of course you'd have thought the the two security officers just standing there would have seen it and corrected the problem before it really became a problem.  Anyhow, I'm in a hurry.....one of the security guards sees my distress and he picks up my coat, scarf and boarding pass and has them ready for me as soon as I have my boots on.  What a sweetheart!  I leave security and take off running.  Did I bother to check my boarding pass to see what gate I needed to be at?  Of course not!  So, I ran to the wrong gate.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, or maybe I wasn't thinking at all, but it only cost me a few seconds of time.  When I rounded the corner to the right gate, the gentleman asks me if I'm a Roy.  "Yes.", I proudly say.  I turn around to search for Brent and he is no where to be found, but when I  look the second time I see him running towards the gate. We hand off our boarding passes and run down the gangway.  BINGO! It's a fairly empty flight so we were able to score exit row seats...and together!  Brent and I both are sweating pretty good at this point and are so extremely grateful that we made our flight.  Good 'ol Southwest wastes no time at all; we just clicked our seat belts and we pulled away from the gate.

And then I started coughing.

As soon as we were hit 10,000 feet I made a mad dash to the bathroom.  I notice an older gentleman had just used it and I should have put two and two together and used the other toilet.  I won't go into detail because I don't want to gross you out, but let's just say that accuracy wasn't his strong point.  The good part was that he didn't even hit to bowl, so at least that part was clean. :)

We land at 11:50 and proceed to baggage claim.  Of course we know that it's not going to be there, but we needed to find out when our luggage was going to make it in.  The lady was so sweet and said that she thought it would on the 3:20 flight.  We hop on the shuttle and ride the bus to the car rental.  Brent has an appointment at 12:30; he wastes no time at all either, no wonder he loves Southwest.  I could tell you about the Brent's appointments, but that would make you dizzy....... I promise.  We were here and there for the next 3 hours and then we stopped to have lunch with one of Brent's customers at the Flying Star Cafe, which I highly recommend if you're in New Mexico.  Brent and I then head back to Albuquerque where he is to get a bus and he has asked me to take the car and go back to the airport to pick up our luggage.  No big deal, I have my awesome phone with a trusty little GPS.  WRONG!  I tell it to navigate to the airport and off I go.  10 minutes down the road there is a guard shack in the street.  I roll up to the shack and ask  the man if I was in the wrong place.  He laughs and tells me that if I don't know where I am, that yes indeed I'm in the wrong place.  I then tell him that I was just following the GPS and was trying to get to the airport.  He laughs at me and tells me that this happens all the time; for some reason the GPS doesn't know that even though the street appears to go the airport, you have to go through the Kirkland Air Force Base, which is impossible for this civilian.  The guard gives me fairly decent instructions on how to get to the airport, so I do a Uey and carry on.  I turn where the guard tells me to turn and all's good.  My GPS then tells me to turn again and by this time I've already forgotten the second street that the gurad told me to turn on, but I know in times past when you miss your turn or decide to go an alternate route the GPS will just reroute itself.  Having way too much confidence in this neat little phone, I follow it's commands.  Where do I end up? On the other side of the air force base. I've done a complete circle.  At this point I'm not feeling well, it's getting dark, I'm in a HORRIBLE part of town, and I'm completely lost. In the mean time I get a phone call from our neighbor.  She is asking about Maggie, our dog, and wondering where Maggie is.  The neighbor has agreed to take care of her while we are gone.  Blair delivered the food the night before we left and said she would bring Maggie over in the morning.  I don't know where Maggie is!  When I came back home this morning after dropping the girls off I don't ever remember seeing Maggie.  I call Blair to ask her if she knows where Maggie is and Blair tells me that Maggie must be locked up in the house, because she never took her over to Dee's like she said she would.  When I asked her why, she simply said she forgot.   I pull into a convenient store and start crying.  I'm not sure what I should do,  and feeling a little bit overwhelmed at the moment.  I call Brent who patiently and loving tells me that it's all going to be okay and that he'll figure out how to get the neighbor in the house.  He also gives me directions on how to get to the airport.  I dry my tears and with new resolve tell myself that I can do this.  Off to the airport I go and I'm there within minutes.  When I pulled up to the "loading and unloading area ONLY, but no parking allowed area", there were two security officers patrolling the area.  I'm sure I must of appeared to be emotionally distraught, which I clearly was, because when I asked if I could park there so that I could retrieve my luggage, they graciously agreed that that would be fine, but I had to be quick.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel!  I took off running and found our bags.  What was Brent thinking when he sent sickly me to retrieve this luggage.  We have two huge suitcases and one smaller one.  How does one pull three suitcases?  I stack the smaller of three on top on of one of the larger ones and walk very slowly.  My purse is sliding off my shoulder, the smaller suitcase starts to slide and within seconds it crashes to the floor.  Persistent me, I rearrange again only to walk another 20 yards and have this repeated over again.  This happened about 4 times and I'm nearing tears again. I thought I saw a light???  I guess it was a train instead!  I finally make it to the car and I'm so fatigue from not feeling well that I can hardly lift the bags in the car.  (Remember, Brent's WAS overweight!)  Not only does it take ever bit of effort that my body can possibly muster, it also changed my khaki skirt I was wearing into more of a black and khaki marbled looking affair.   I truly was a mess, but I had the luggage in the car and I was headed to meet my man.

Brent is in another town and he decides that he will direct me instead of me using the GPS...I wonder why??  It just so happens that I'm in rush hour traffic and it takes me forever to get to where Brent is, but I finally  manage.  When I get there he tells me that now I only have to follow him to his next stop, which is a mere two hours away.  Tired and not feeling well we are off to our next destination, the Taos Inn.  While on the road Brent calls the neighbor and gives her instructions on how to find the hide-a-key on his truck and use the garage door opener to get in.  Oh, my...the first and only time I've left my house a wreck and my neighbor needs to break in to retrieve our dog.  How completely embarrassing!

We arrive in Taos and Brent insists that we stop at Wal-Mart to buy a humidifier, which I believe is an excellent idea.  I remember at this point that I'd made a huge mistake this morning because I didn't put that last load of laundry in the dryer before I left with the girls, so when I get home I still have wet clothes in the washer. And now in my suitcase are my pj's, which are wet.  Could anything else go wrong today?

When we finally make it to the hotel I'm so relieved.  It's freezing cold and Brent shows me to way to our room, yes this seems really silly, but I would have never found it on my own because this property is like a maze! The Taos Inn is SO old and while our room is very nice and cozy, it is also very drafty.  But the best part is that it has a kiva fireplace in the room with some wood.  Brent immediately starts a fire and within minutes the room is toasty warm.  Well, that is as long as you didn't stand in front of the door and have the cold draft blowing on you.  Brent has the awesome idea to use the extra pillows and shove them around the base of the door to block the draft.

Even though we are both hungry, we decide to go to bed instead of heading back out to find something to eat.  Getting in bed I hurt by leg on something sharp.  When I looked to find out what it was I discover the bed isn't sitting square on the frame and the frame is sticking out.  Brent helps me fix that and we crawl in bed only to discover that we are going downhill.  We both start laughing....this is just getting too comical.  Brent then tells me that he TRIED to bring me to a romantic place.  We laugh some more.  I go to sleep only to wake up a few hours later with that elephant still hanging out.  I don't know if it was the dry air or what, but it hurts so badly that I start to cry.  So, what do you do in the middle of the night when you cannot sleep?  You pray...and pray...and pray.  That's exactly what I did and I told the Lord that I was thankful for all my blessings, but I really hoped that He had something better in store for me tomorrow.