Friday, February 29, 2008
I'm Sick!
Okay, so as much as I don't want to admit it....I am sick! I think I have the flu! At first, I thought I wasn't feeling well because of my plane ride from Philadelphia and I caught germs from that. I thought it was just a quick bug...wrong! It is now Friday and I have not been to work since Tuesday. I alternate between sweating and freezing...I've hallucinated after waking up....and I've spent a lot of time on the couch watching bad daytime television and sleeping. I am hoping that it eases up this weekend, so I can feel like a human again. Sorry this is so short, but I'm going back to my couch for some more sleep!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Philadelphia Freedom...A Tale of Delays, Surprises and Family Weekend!
My cousin, Todd, turned 40 last Thursday and his wife, Christine, planned a surprise party for the weekend. When we got the invitation, D and I decided that we would not make the weekend trek to Philadelphia for the party. However, my mom asked me to go with her and my grandma who is 86 years young. So, the three women made reservations and headed east for the weekend.
Friday morning dawned windy and rainy in San Diego, but also with a winter storm hitting the Northeast. Mom and Meema came to our house and we headed to the airport following some breakfast. We check in and head to security for the first of many hiccups of the day! My grandma (aka Meema) has been having issues with her eyes, so she has no current license and as luck would have it, Meema's passport expired in January. TSA was nice about it, but Meema had to go SSSS (my mom and I called it her Super Secret Strip Search) where they frisked and patted her down (she sets off the alarms with her knees and hairpins) and went through her purse. Meema was quite the trooper with her arms and legs spread for the search! We head to our gate to find that our flight is delayed about 45 minutes....which later changed to us leaving 3 (yes 3) hours late. Apparently, the plane ran low on fuel and was diverted to LAX before coming to San Diego. We were a little concerned about the delay and its impact on our connection in Atlanta, but we were told that the delays were systemwide and we should be fine because there was a later flight to Philadelphia that we could make. Finally, after lots of airport walking and a hot dog, we leave for Atlanta.
We land in Atlanta to find that our flight has left, but are sent to the gate with the late flight to Philadelphia. The woman at the counter refuses to look at me and tells me that the flight is overbooked as are all the flights on Saturday. In a nice, but frustrated way, I tell her that we are late because the stupid plan ran out of gas. She then has the nerve to tell me that it's not her stupid plane and not her fault...basically, the big middle finger waving at me! She finally snatches our boarding passes and says she'll see what she can do. I left my mom at that gate to talk to the agent...she used Meema (who was perched on a bench with carryons, coats and her cane) as an excuse...basically, don't deny our 86 year old Meema...and went to wait in the massive "missed flight customer service" line. I pulled out my cell phone thinking that the phone agents might be able to help me quicker...wrong! After being on hold forever, I was told that my options were to be sent back to San Diego on Saturday night or to Philadelphia on Sunday night. Wrong options considering the surprise party was Saturday night! I start crying feeling overwhelmed and tired and like we'd made it this far, we weren't giving up that easily! My mom was doing that same thing...finally, I see her waving at me. The "overbooked" flight had room and we were able to get out! We board the flight and land in Philadelphia at 2:00 a.m. Our trek from plane to baggage claim (yes, we had luggage) to taxi stand (we took a town car) to hotel took over an hour. Mom and I were starving so we headed to Little Pete's in Center City Philly for some takeout. This place is iconic...a tiny place with the host who is reminiscent of the Seinfeld Soup Nazi full of drunk people (with half closed eyes) fresh from the bars eating big plates of breakfast and grease to stave off the hangover. Finally, with a full belly, we all crashed at 4:00 a.m.
At 11:00 a.m., the hotel phone rings...it was Joel and Carol (also from SD, but they left early aka Todd's dad and stepmom) calling with muffins and coffee. While in our room, Christine called Carol...they all had dinner the night before, but Todd did not know we made the trek. They come up to the room and Todd is genuinely surprised! Then, what Todd thought was his last surprise was arrived...Jeffrey (his half brother) drove in from Cleveland. After some chit chat, Mom and I got ready (Meema was tired) and we all head into the city for some exploration and of course, a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich! Let me tell you...that sandwich was amazing and worth the walk and standing in line. We went to Jim's Steaks in Center City. I demolished my cheesesteak with Cheez Whiz, onions and mushrooms...so good! Following lunch, we headed back to our hotel for a quick nap before the last surprise for Todd...the party!
Todd was genuinely surprised with his party at Barclay Prime steakhouse. Christine did such a great job setting up our table...she has place cards with pictures of Todd throughout his life (mine was us with our grandparents) and she had napkins that had been silkscreened with more pictures of Todd. Dinner was so good...we had an appetizer choice (crab cocktail, tuna tartare or lettuce wedge salad...I had the tuna..yummy!) and dinner choice (filet, strip or salmon...I had the filet) and then sides of creamed spinach and lyonnaise potatoes topped with poached eggs. For dessert, Christine had gone on The Knot and searched for cake vendors. She had a cake made that looked like a bottle of wine in a box with shavings. It was soooo good! I will post pictures once I pull them off the camera. Following dinner and a near coat check fiasco, most of the group headed to Mahogany Cigar Bar. Let me tell you that after spending less than 30 minutes there, I felt (and smelled) like I had smoked several cigars!
Sunday morning, the family headed to the White Dog Cafe near the campus of University of Pennsylvania (Todd's alma mater, Christine's employer) for brunch. It was fun for us to all decompress and tell stories. After breakfast, we all headed to Todd and Christine's home in the suburbs. We all bonded and checked out the home of Baby E (due to arrive in the world in early April) until Jeffrey left to head back to Cleveland and Carol and Joel headed back to the city for the night. Mom, Meema and I stayed at the house for the night. Todd picked up some food from Buca di Beppo for dinner and we vegged on the couch watching the Academy Awards.
Monday morning, Christine took us to the airport. The trip home was relatively uneventful. We even got lucky to have a sparse flight to San Diego, so we could stretch out! And now I am home!
Friday morning dawned windy and rainy in San Diego, but also with a winter storm hitting the Northeast. Mom and Meema came to our house and we headed to the airport following some breakfast. We check in and head to security for the first of many hiccups of the day! My grandma (aka Meema) has been having issues with her eyes, so she has no current license and as luck would have it, Meema's passport expired in January. TSA was nice about it, but Meema had to go SSSS (my mom and I called it her Super Secret Strip Search) where they frisked and patted her down (she sets off the alarms with her knees and hairpins) and went through her purse. Meema was quite the trooper with her arms and legs spread for the search! We head to our gate to find that our flight is delayed about 45 minutes....which later changed to us leaving 3 (yes 3) hours late. Apparently, the plane ran low on fuel and was diverted to LAX before coming to San Diego. We were a little concerned about the delay and its impact on our connection in Atlanta, but we were told that the delays were systemwide and we should be fine because there was a later flight to Philadelphia that we could make. Finally, after lots of airport walking and a hot dog, we leave for Atlanta.
We land in Atlanta to find that our flight has left, but are sent to the gate with the late flight to Philadelphia. The woman at the counter refuses to look at me and tells me that the flight is overbooked as are all the flights on Saturday. In a nice, but frustrated way, I tell her that we are late because the stupid plan ran out of gas. She then has the nerve to tell me that it's not her stupid plane and not her fault...basically, the big middle finger waving at me! She finally snatches our boarding passes and says she'll see what she can do. I left my mom at that gate to talk to the agent...she used Meema (who was perched on a bench with carryons, coats and her cane) as an excuse...basically, don't deny our 86 year old Meema...and went to wait in the massive "missed flight customer service" line. I pulled out my cell phone thinking that the phone agents might be able to help me quicker...wrong! After being on hold forever, I was told that my options were to be sent back to San Diego on Saturday night or to Philadelphia on Sunday night. Wrong options considering the surprise party was Saturday night! I start crying feeling overwhelmed and tired and like we'd made it this far, we weren't giving up that easily! My mom was doing that same thing...finally, I see her waving at me. The "overbooked" flight had room and we were able to get out! We board the flight and land in Philadelphia at 2:00 a.m. Our trek from plane to baggage claim (yes, we had luggage) to taxi stand (we took a town car) to hotel took over an hour. Mom and I were starving so we headed to Little Pete's in Center City Philly for some takeout. This place is iconic...a tiny place with the host who is reminiscent of the Seinfeld Soup Nazi full of drunk people (with half closed eyes) fresh from the bars eating big plates of breakfast and grease to stave off the hangover. Finally, with a full belly, we all crashed at 4:00 a.m.
At 11:00 a.m., the hotel phone rings...it was Joel and Carol (also from SD, but they left early aka Todd's dad and stepmom) calling with muffins and coffee. While in our room, Christine called Carol...they all had dinner the night before, but Todd did not know we made the trek. They come up to the room and Todd is genuinely surprised! Then, what Todd thought was his last surprise was arrived...Jeffrey (his half brother) drove in from Cleveland. After some chit chat, Mom and I got ready (Meema was tired) and we all head into the city for some exploration and of course, a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich! Let me tell you...that sandwich was amazing and worth the walk and standing in line. We went to Jim's Steaks in Center City. I demolished my cheesesteak with Cheez Whiz, onions and mushrooms...so good! Following lunch, we headed back to our hotel for a quick nap before the last surprise for Todd...the party!
Todd was genuinely surprised with his party at Barclay Prime steakhouse. Christine did such a great job setting up our table...she has place cards with pictures of Todd throughout his life (mine was us with our grandparents) and she had napkins that had been silkscreened with more pictures of Todd. Dinner was so good...we had an appetizer choice (crab cocktail, tuna tartare or lettuce wedge salad...I had the tuna..yummy!) and dinner choice (filet, strip or salmon...I had the filet) and then sides of creamed spinach and lyonnaise potatoes topped with poached eggs. For dessert, Christine had gone on The Knot and searched for cake vendors. She had a cake made that looked like a bottle of wine in a box with shavings. It was soooo good! I will post pictures once I pull them off the camera. Following dinner and a near coat check fiasco, most of the group headed to Mahogany Cigar Bar. Let me tell you that after spending less than 30 minutes there, I felt (and smelled) like I had smoked several cigars!
Sunday morning, the family headed to the White Dog Cafe near the campus of University of Pennsylvania (Todd's alma mater, Christine's employer) for brunch. It was fun for us to all decompress and tell stories. After breakfast, we all headed to Todd and Christine's home in the suburbs. We all bonded and checked out the home of Baby E (due to arrive in the world in early April) until Jeffrey left to head back to Cleveland and Carol and Joel headed back to the city for the night. Mom, Meema and I stayed at the house for the night. Todd picked up some food from Buca di Beppo for dinner and we vegged on the couch watching the Academy Awards.
Monday morning, Christine took us to the airport. The trip home was relatively uneventful. We even got lucky to have a sparse flight to San Diego, so we could stretch out! And now I am home!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Headbanger...For a Night!
Last night, I was a headbanger...at least, I was for 2 hours. D and I went to see Iron Maiden at The Forum in Inglewood (up to no good...according to Dr Dre). First of all, the drive to LA on a Tuesday during rush hour...sucks! After a stop at Costco in Poway for gas, we got on the 15 at 2:45 p.m. and headed north...6 (yes 6!) freeways and 2 1/2 hours later we arrived in Inglewood. There was a nasty single car fatality accident on the 5 near San Clemente which closed two lanes of the freeway...only for the lookieloos to see what was once a Jeep Wrangler crumpled and 6 CHP cars on the side of the road. Once we got past that, it was relatively smooth sailing without incident. About 5:20, we finally made it to Inglewood and went on a search for dinner. There was nothing near the Forum, so we ended up at Denny's Diner (classy, huh?!?) not too far from LAX. For a Denny's, it was pretty good.
After dinner, we headed to The Forum and paid $22 (ouch!) to park and get in a chaotic line at 6:45 that wrapped a portion of the Forum. We met 3 guys from Phoenix who made the trip to see the band...they even got their picture taken by the Iron Maiden photographer because they were wearing their shirts. We finally got into the venue about 8:00 and found our seats. The bass player's daughter was the opening act...she is on MySpace (Lauren Harris UK) and was good. It reminded me a little of a slightly (not much) more edgy version of Ashley Simpson.
Then, about 9:00, the chanting "Maiden Maiden" began from the restless (and probably drunk) crowd. The lights went out and the band came out. The lead singer, Brian, has become a full fledged pilot and is flying the band in an airliner, so we got to see some footage of that before they started playing. I had a great time people watching...I would equate last night's experience to watching a live Guitar Hero/Drum Hero competition. Grown men were drumming their air drums and playing their air guitars like there was no tomorrow...they were giving it their all! Also, there was a lot of headbanging...I even think the man across from us may have woken up this morning with a concussion or at the least, a serious headache! It was fun...I like some of their music (The Trooper, Run to the Hills...kick my butt on the iPod while I'm at the gym), but I am not a big fan like D. I liked watching my husband rock out like he was 13 again.
We bailed the show early to avoid the sold out crowd and traffic. We made the drive back home in good time...we got in the car around 11:00 and hit home just before 1:00. We had fun driving home...talking about the concert and life, rocking out to the iPod (Justin Timberlake, Duran Duran, John Legend, Maroon 5, Keyshia Cole, The Jets and Iron Maiden all helped us make it home safely). And, about 10 minutes after walking in the door, D and I were crashed out! It a rockstar life we live...Rock On!
After dinner, we headed to The Forum and paid $22 (ouch!) to park and get in a chaotic line at 6:45 that wrapped a portion of the Forum. We met 3 guys from Phoenix who made the trip to see the band...they even got their picture taken by the Iron Maiden photographer because they were wearing their shirts. We finally got into the venue about 8:00 and found our seats. The bass player's daughter was the opening act...she is on MySpace (Lauren Harris UK) and was good. It reminded me a little of a slightly (not much) more edgy version of Ashley Simpson.
Then, about 9:00, the chanting "Maiden Maiden" began from the restless (and probably drunk) crowd. The lights went out and the band came out. The lead singer, Brian, has become a full fledged pilot and is flying the band in an airliner, so we got to see some footage of that before they started playing. I had a great time people watching...I would equate last night's experience to watching a live Guitar Hero/Drum Hero competition. Grown men were drumming their air drums and playing their air guitars like there was no tomorrow...they were giving it their all! Also, there was a lot of headbanging...I even think the man across from us may have woken up this morning with a concussion or at the least, a serious headache! It was fun...I like some of their music (The Trooper, Run to the Hills...kick my butt on the iPod while I'm at the gym), but I am not a big fan like D. I liked watching my husband rock out like he was 13 again.
We bailed the show early to avoid the sold out crowd and traffic. We made the drive back home in good time...we got in the car around 11:00 and hit home just before 1:00. We had fun driving home...talking about the concert and life, rocking out to the iPod (Justin Timberlake, Duran Duran, John Legend, Maroon 5, Keyshia Cole, The Jets and Iron Maiden all helped us make it home safely). And, about 10 minutes after walking in the door, D and I were crashed out! It a rockstar life we live...Rock On!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Weekend and Near Death Experience...Life is Great!
Another weekend has passed and we are now firmly into the new week. It was a good, but relatively mellow weekend. Friday was a mellow evening at home catching up on the DVR after I made dinner (crab and angel hair pasta). Saturday, D had to work for most of the day. So, I ran most of the errands we normally do together and some others. Included in the multiple errands were stops at Bed Bath and Beyond (gift for a cooking exchange), stop at another place (cannot mention for fear of surprise ruining) for D's valentine gift, Borders (another cooking exchange gift), Sam's Club (different than Costco for a change), my aunt and uncle's in Hillcrest (to pick up my mom's crockpot they had borrowed) and finally, Massage Envy (for a massage). I got home to find D calling to tell me he was on his way home. He and I had been invited to a party that evening, but decided to do our own thing and relax. We did run out to Fashion Valley for some more quick errands...D had to drop something off and I needed my eyebrows done. Aside...if you need your eyebrows done, go see Ryan at the Benefit Brow Bar in Macy's. It's the best $18 I spend...she does an amazing job and makes me look good! Saturday night dinner was stroganoff, rice and salad. We watched The Queen on DVD and spent good quality time together. Sunday was the total lazy day...neither D nor I had any motivation to move from the couch after breakfast. Our excuse...Vijay Singh....we had to see if Vijay was going to pull off a win at Pebble Beach (he didn't and prolonged the agony into a playoff hole). We finally ended our love affair with the couch to head to WalMart for necessities and random things that hopped in our cart ;) We were supposed to have dinner at home, but D was craving Sam Woo Chinese and who am I to deny him?!? It was yummy!
Monday was another day...I almost died...I choked (to the point of wheezing for air) on a piece of apple and it kicked my butt for the rest of the day! I was supposed to go to Chapter last night, but could not muster the energy to drive to San Marcos for a long meeting to get home after 11. So, I called and made excuses and headed home. D came home for a bit before softball. He was so sweet and called me to see if I needed him to come home instead of going to the gym. I was okay with the couch and tv, so told him to go, but he had not taken his iPod. So, I got to spend the rest of the night snuggled with him on the couch. I feel much better today, but still have the messed-up throat. It sounds stupid, but it puts things into perspective...life is pretty short and I really have to take/make the time to savor the cuddles on the couch and the fact that I have someone who really cares about me...Life is great and I am a lucky woman!
Monday was another day...I almost died...I choked (to the point of wheezing for air) on a piece of apple and it kicked my butt for the rest of the day! I was supposed to go to Chapter last night, but could not muster the energy to drive to San Marcos for a long meeting to get home after 11. So, I called and made excuses and headed home. D came home for a bit before softball. He was so sweet and called me to see if I needed him to come home instead of going to the gym. I was okay with the couch and tv, so told him to go, but he had not taken his iPod. So, I got to spend the rest of the night snuggled with him on the couch. I feel much better today, but still have the messed-up throat. It sounds stupid, but it puts things into perspective...life is pretty short and I really have to take/make the time to savor the cuddles on the couch and the fact that I have someone who really cares about me...Life is great and I am a lucky woman!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Weekend Update and Back To Work!
Happy Monday (night)! The weekend always goes so fast...if only the work week went as fast. We had a good one...not too exciting, but still good. Friday night after work, we went to a Joe Thatcher (SD Padres) player signing. Joe was pretty cute and looked ready to heady out on the town after the signing. Our night on the town, however, was a Costco run for the essentials and food for Super Bowl. We had dinner at this really good little restaurant called Bay Park Fish Company. It is a great restaurant located next door to Seisel's Meats. D and I hhad a nice dinner and allowed us to destress from the week. Saturday, D and I did some things around the house before running errands...storage, Fashion Valley, Seisels (to pick up their special hot wings), and other random places. Sunday was spent eating good junk food. Our friends, Jill and Michelle, came over and we had a fun afternoon. We kept ourselves entertained by picking out terms used by the commentators that aren't dirty, but sound like it! Included in our list were: Man coverage, he likes to split the gap and many more. We all gorged ourselves into oblivion and each headed to an early night of sleep.
Monday has come and almost gone...it's been a productive evening since we got home. Dinner, thank you notes, catching up, watching TV and now some much needed relaxation. Tomorrow is another day...hip hop is tomorrow night...yeah! Hope all is well...be good to the world!
Monday has come and almost gone...it's been a productive evening since we got home. Dinner, thank you notes, catching up, watching TV and now some much needed relaxation. Tomorrow is another day...hip hop is tomorrow night...yeah! Hope all is well...be good to the world!
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