Let Me Catch You Up!

Friday morning Katie and I woke up at 4 am to get to the airport for my 6 am flight (thanks again mom for scheduling that flight). I was amazed I even got Katie out of bed! Though I wanted to sleep more than anything on the flight, I had to start writing up my note cards for my History of Recording Industry test Monday. You always sit next to a talker when you really don't want to talk. The man next to me on the United Express (which was about half the size of any other plane I've ever flown in) was intrigued by the fact that I was making note cards about Elvis, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan. He just HAD to talk to me about it, then about himself. That was a good 30 minutes I could have been studying!
I get off the flight 20 minutes later than expected due to a delay at take-off and proceeded to navigate through the Dulles airport, which if you haven't flown into is rather tricky. When mom picked me up we went shopping for a dress for the birthday party Mommak had been planning for weeks for my brother-in-law. I'm sure my mother thought this would be a two hour trip, little did she know I would drag her to every damn store in that mall. Four hours later we found a great black dress, painful but great black heels, and jewelry to match.
Then we headed back to the airport to pick up my uncle. We finally were ready to go around 6:15 and we were, of course, the first people to arrive at the Ritz Carlton for the big surprise. My brother-in-law would have been surprised if he didn't walk into the elevator with our cousin Tom and his girlfriend Jamie! But that was just fine, he was in the elevator and wasn't going anywhere.
We had a wonderful evening drinking wine, playing black jack and catching up with family and friends. I was so happy I was able to come home and share the evening with the birthday boy. I did, unfortunately, miss singing "Happy Birthday." A few of us were still in the "casino" room listening to the DJ and talking and never knew there were people giving speaks and enjoying cake until halfway through! Oh well!
Needless to say, we all had a GREAT time, thanks Mommak for throwing such a great party and for helping me get there!
Since I didn't have a car I was at the mercy of my family and friends. Saturday morning I hitched a ride up to Baltimore with AM and her boyfriend Jason. Later my best friend Amy picked me up from AM so I could spend the night with her. We spent the day finding the perfect shirt to wear and calling everyone I knew to tell them I was in town. Our plan was to kind of hop around a few spots, but we just stayed at one little bar where all my friends from work hung out.
I was a little disappointed that I didn't see Jessi who was in town from North Carolina, we just couldn't work out a way for me to see her and everyone else.
Sunday morning came very fast and by 11 am I was back at AM's house. I was going to ride down to DC with her for her boyfriend's Rugby game and Mom was going to meet us there to watch the game and to take me back with her to VA. It's crazy not having a car!
I learned a lot about Rugby. We first watched a girls game and saw a huge difference once the guys got on the field. The women were rough, but the guys were throwing punches and taking hits sometimes worst than football players! Mom was next to me making all kinds of noises when the men went down! It was entertaining.
Finally the two 40 minute halves were over and New Zealand bet our Washington team 16-12. Mom and I then went out for dinner at a little Italian restaurant that was employed by Spanish speaking servers! Mom had a battle for over 3 minutes about the last bite of her salad. Mom wanted to keep it and the server kept trying to take it away! We assume that the poor server just didn't know enough English to understand what Mom wanted. Finally Mom won and it wasn't 5 minutes later when the buser came by and took the salad bowl before Mom could finish her last bite! We laughed and laughed over that one!
We only had time for a cup of tea before I was off to the Dulles airport again. I got there really early since Mom had a choir rehearsal, but that was fine I had to study any way. The plane arrived on time and I was in Nashville by 11pm.
My first weekend home had flown by so fast and I was on such a schedule that I couldn't relish is the fact that I was HOME. I'll be back in a week and will hopefully have a little more time then.