Moments Worth Mentioning

1. Driving through the night is not very fun. The four of us were troopers though… drove non-stop and arrived in New Orleans around 6:30am (central time).

9. Those beads are super heavy-we all have chiropractic appointments scheduled to realign our necks.

14. We all threw away the shoes that we had worn all weekend. They were ruined.

20. Toilet paper might as well have been worth its weight in gold.

3-The number of friends that will be joining me for Mardi Gras this weekend.
4-The number of days I will be in New Orleans.
20(ish)-The number of strands of beads I have in my car right now.
2-The number of days that I am taking off from work!!!
8-The amount of hours that it will take us to drive to Louisiana.
12am-The time when we plan to leave Georgia tonight.
2-The number of blocks away from Bourbon Street that we will be staying.
0-The amount of money I am spending to stay there.
1-The number of generous LA Fireman/Friends Brother that allowed us to take over his house.
1-The number of boas that I brought to work today… ya know… just to brag. =)

T-minus 2 days.

Just for today I want to be in elementary school. Back when all you had to do was give a cute boy a note with a place to check yes or no. In that situation there is no time to build any expectations, allow yourself to get excited or allow someone the opportunity to hurt you. It was just a simple yes or no. Everyone got to walk away with their heart intact.

I’m not really sure when love got so complicated. I imagine it was sometime in the high school years. Things start to get a little more convoluted and people start to label every ones “status”. That status now follows you…. right down to your paperwork you fill out at a doctors office. The world has to know where you stand in the love life o’ meter.

Along with the need to know status, we all come with a certain amount of baggage. Some more than others. I am a firm believer that every past relationship dictates your next. Whether that be a good thing or a bad, it is a reality.

I really want to understand and offer support to him as he realizes hes not quite over her. I also have the urge to run (not walk) in the other direction in fear that my own heart is in jeopardy. Today I am sad and just very disappointed that he is choosing to walk away. All the while I am honored to have been given the chance to feel the butterflies again.

This weekend I discovered that even with a handy dandy GPS I can still get lost. (Slightly embarrassing, yet true.)

Sunday morning I woke up on my favorite red couch, jumped in the shower and hit the road with a destination of Buckhead Church. I left extra early in hopes of getting a little Starbucks yumminess and still leaving enough time to beat the crowd and find a seat. Although the trip to the church is only about a 15-minute drive from LeAnn’s apartment, it does require one to get onto GA-400. Which, for you non-Atlantans, is a toll road. And, under normal circumstances, is not a big deal.

BUT, imagine my panic as I approached the toll plaza and made the realization that I didn’t have one penny in my possession.

You see, the night before a group of us had pulled together every last crumb of our money to order a few pizzas (quarters and all). The pizza was great. The feeling of panic at 10am was not so great.

In my panic I jumped off the last exit before the toll plaza. At this point, I am in downtown Atlanta with NO clue where I am. No biggy, I have a GPS. WRONG! Unfortunately, you are not able to tell the GPS that you don’t have 50 cents, and therefore don’t want to get back onto the highway. My GPS and I had some strong words. And I am here to tell you that the Georgia Department of Transportation did an amazing job at making sure you can’t just “bypass” the toll. It takes you 3 years to pave a road, but you made darn sure we couldn’t skip your tollbooth. Good job guys.

I made a few phone calls, did lots of U-turns and finally managed to get to church around 11:15 with a blood pressure and anxiety level that we won’t discuss. (An hour after I had left LeAnns and 15 minutes late to the service.)

And just for kicks, I made the same mistake last night as I was heading back north. It was late; I had an amazing day with friends and was way too tired to think about the need to borrow some change…. The nice guy in the booth assured me that they would be happy to mail me a bill. Great, now I can send them a 42-cent envelope with 50 cents in it. Perfect.

This morning I went online and purchased a cruise card (eliminating the need for change). Lesson learned.

My weekend in one word: Fantastic.

The fantastic(ness) started last Thursday with my weekly Mexican food dinner and Grey’s Anatomy viewing party. The four of us girls had a marvelous time with our strawberry margaritas and thoroughly enjoyed the much anticipated “Crossover Event” that ABC has really

Friday evening I met up with my BFF Kristy for a (fantastic) dinner at PF Changs. She was than off to see a movie with some girl friends, I was off to… you guessed it… Atlanta.

I had plans to meet up with my normal partners in crime to hear a live band play some good ol’ 80s music. For the next several hours our eardrums where blasted out to “Jesse’s Girl”, “Burning Down the House” and “Love Shack”. Other than not being able to hear for the rest of the weekend, much fun was had! And, there may have been a certain boy in the crowd… that may have asked me to join him for a movie the following afternoon…. (insert giggle here).

Saturday morning my dad and I went on a little bit of a mission. We wanted to see if you would be able to survive on an abandoned island… actually we just wanted to rescue a half sunk canoe that had floated into our cove. For the next hour the two of us walked out to the abandoned canoe, attempted to flip in over and than search the cove for a make-shift shovel to dig it out of the sand. (Please keep in mind that the lake temperature is about 45 degrees…. and… I had flip flops on.) Long story short, the canoe is now tied securely to the dock. My step-moms reaction when the two of us showed up at the house covered in mud… “What do we need a canoe for?”. My thoughts exactly.

But enough about the canoe story… I had a date to get ready for. =)

Our plan was to catch a 3:30 movie. But, as the afternoon approached, we decided the 70 degree weather was way to nice to spend cooped up in a dark theater. What happened next was something that will go down in the record books. My date for the afternoon told me he had a motorcycle… and he asked if I cared to join him for a ride. As I was picking up my jaw off the floor I suppose I nodded my head and willingly
jumped on the back of his bike. This doctors daughter who for the last 26 years has sworn to never even look at a motorcycle spent the next several hours cruising through the tree lined streets of suburban Atlanta. And I am here to tell you… it was fantastic!

After a stop at Starbucks and a fantastic hour of sitting outside chatting we jumped back on the bike and headed home. I’m fairly certain that neither one of us was quite ready to end the “date” so we grabbed some dinner and met some of his friends for a birthday party/game night. And even after all of that we decided to watch a movie before finally calling it a day. I made my way to my favorite red couch at LeAnns apartment for the night and fell asleep with a giant smile on my face.

Sunday I had an appointment with a new friend for a haircut which I must say is phenomenal! She is amazing! And therefore, now is my hair! Ms. Erica even did my makeup to top off the new look. Nothing like a new look to make you feel like a million bucks. When I was done being pampered, I had about three hours to kill before the 6 o’clock church service. So… off I was to a local park to throw a Frisbee with my new friend. (Insert giggle here… again.)

This past weekend my dad and step mom were out of town. Actually, out of the country to be precise. From Thursday afternoon until Monday night I had the house to myself. And let me tell you… it was fantastic!

Don’t misinterpret my enthusiasm. My parents are wonderful, and living with them has been a piece of cake. We co-habitat surprisingly well. But in all honesty, I hadn’t realized how much I had missed the Independence that can only come from living by yourself. For 4 days, I was able to come and go, do laundry, cook dinner and watch TV without sharing, explaining, or offering to include them. Its the simple things in life… truly.

Coming back to Georgia has been an eye opening experience all in itself. I have been able to enjoy and appreciate the time spent with friends with a kind of enthusiasm that comes from living in near solitude for 18 months. I am now able to embrace my “single hood” in a way that is healthy and fun thanks to the time I spent away from the hurt that existed down here. I am able to find the perfect balance of family, friends and (sigh) new love interests with amazing ease. Honestly, I think all of these things come with that thing we call Growing Up. =)

I will be the first to tell you that I couldn’t have cared less about the “big game” this past weekend. But I was more than willing to use it as an excuse to spend the day with some new friends.

After church we found a Mexican restaurant for lunch (yummy) and than a park (yes a park-in January) to spend our afternoon. We spent several hours throwing a Frisbee, taking a long walk and even playing a little catchphrase. It was pretty much the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.

After the park, we went to a gigantic superbowl party. Complete with Varsity food, huge TVs and 1000ish singles ready to mingle. =)