Weekend Recap

Last weekend was fun!  Friday night I just went home and did some cleaning since the real fun was set to start on Saturday!  However, before the good part could start, I had to go to work.  I was there at 6:40 Saturday morning and left around noon.  That was just all I had in me and I was expecting my visitors to arrive before long.  Mom, Dad and Emma were coming to see me!  They ended up arriving much later than I originally planned for and we didn’t get to go to the nice dinner I had planned for us, but it was still a wonderful visit.  They came both to see me and to attend the Nashville Predators game—a NHL team. 

Soon after they arrived, we set out for Bridgestone Arena and the game.  I had been to hockey games in the past (UAH Chargers—a Division II team about an hour from my hometown), but this crowd was unreal.  We had tickets from my firm in the club level, so we joined hundreds of other people going up the escalator to our level.  We quickly found our seats and settled in for the game.  I had a coat on and found gloves in my purse, but I quickly got quite cold (everyone that knows me knows I’m already freakishly cold natured).  Luckily, I had my Daddy’s hand to hold on to and he made the cold much more bearable.  At the end of the first period, I decided that I couldn’t go without food any longer.  I got some yummy nachos and a soda (caffeine free—I’m doing my best) and the spicy nachos also helped to warm me up.  Mom and I ended up sharing, but unfortunately Dad was sick, so he couldn’t share our drink (our family has never had a problem sharing drinks with each other).  The Preds ended up winning the game 5-3, which resulted in our tickets being exchangeable for a free Frosty from Wendy’s.  Mom and Dad enjoyed theirs Sunday and I got mine Friday night.

Mom and Dad also brought me some really sweet Valentine’s presents since Valentine’s Day was this past Monday.  I had planned on taking pictures of each gift, but I’m too lazy to get out my camera and then edit the pictures.  Hopefully, I will be motivated enough for a picture post since soon since it seems like Spring is just around the corner!

My Valentine’s gifts included: a new wreath for the front door (Forsythia—such a pretty yellow!), cherry blow pops (you can buy all cherry ones for Valentine’s Day), a dozen glazed donuts (yummy), some much-needed groceries, some pictures from the NC in Arizona (I didn’t have any recent pictures of Mom and Dad), a DVD of the NC game and most importantly—a little stuffed Emma to keep me company!  I have a pink one, but it’s a little cartoonish and this one looks EXACTLY like her…just a little smaller.  The face looks so much like her.  It’s the funniest thing, but Emma really doesn’t like Little Emma.  She wants to chew on her or push her off the furniture onto the floor.  I really should have taken some pictures…maybe I can do that one day soon…the lighting is too bad during the few hours I’m actually home and awake.  I’m really spoiled, aren’t I?

Sunday we laid around for a little while and then watched a movie on Netflix.  We had a late lunch from Corky’s BBQ after driving around looking at a few areas with homes I’m interested in.  Before I knew it, it was time for my family to make the trip home.  I have to admit, I was quite lonely the rest of Sunday night and Monday morning while I was getting ready for work.  I’m hoping they can come back and visit in two weeks…maybe we can make it work!!

This weekend has been low key—work, finally getting my hair cut and highlighted and trying to catch up on sleep.  Actually, I just remembered that I must do a load of clothes tonight if I plan on being fully dressed for work tomorrow.  I can’t ever stay caught up on laundry! :(

That’s all for now.  I’ll try to work on a picture post for next time.  Maybe it will be pretty and I can get some cute pictures of Emma—my favorite subject!

A night I hope not to repeat

This is going to be long.  And pretty boring.  If you don’t want to hear about my drive during Snowpocalypse: Nashville, you might want to skip this one.

They had been predicting snow for last night for about a week, I think.  It’s happened so much this year that I was really hoping it would pass us by.  But no.  Around 3:00 it started.  By 3:15 it was sticking to our parking lot at work.  I left at 3:30.  That’s when the ordeal began.  It ended at 10:30.  Seven HOURS later.

First, it took over 1.5 hours to get to the Honda dealership within sight (in normal conditions) of the office.  Once I got there, I made the decision to forego the rest of  Rosa Parks (I wasn’t yet halfway down the length of road I needed to go) and try other side streets that connect to the interstate.  First, I tried Dominican Drive.  Actually, it connects back to Rosa Parks, just closer to the interstate.  Once I saw the line there, I knew that people weren’t letting others turn left and I’d never get on the road I needed to be on so I could turn right back on to Rosa Parks.  So I decided to turn right on that road and see where else it connected to the interstate.  I ended up on 9th Avenue, Arthur Avenue and 11th Avenue before Jefferson Street.  This eventually led to 12th Avenue and a road that intersected the interstate.  Unfortunately, this little detour was the fastest I drove for the rest of the night.  The on-ramp to the interstate had a line probably a mile long and just getting on the interstate probably took another hour and a half.  I finally got on 40, but it was crawling (what’s slower than crawling?) until I got to 65.  65 was moving a little faster, but my first exit of choice, Harding Place, had an accident, a fire truck, an ambulance and a very long line of waiting cars.  So I decided to proceed to Old Hickory Blvd. (my second exit of choice) to give it a try.  It couldn’t be worse than Harding Place, right?

Well, the radio said that 74A, my exit was closed and it looked extremely backed up which seemed to confirm that something was wrong at this exit, so I took 74B with the intentions of turning around and heading the right way down Old Hickory.   Well, nothing is ever easy.  Taking the wrong exit probably added 1.5 more hours to my drive.  The traffic lights at Old Hickory and Franklin Road are a disaster! 

Hours later, after a crying fit and a screaming fit, I was finally making some progress.  Thankfully, no slipping and no lights indicating Automatic Skid Control came on like earlier in the day.  I also felt my brakes pump several times earlier in the day…aren’t those the anti-lock brakes?  As I finally got to my side of Old Hickory, I started to notice many abandoned cars.  It was bad, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if I would have actually abandoned my car.  In addition to worrying about what would happen to it, where would I have gone?  My next challenge was getting up the hill close to a neighborhood I really would love to live in.  There was a long line of cars basically not moving.  I could see that there weren’t any cars in front of the first ones and I couldn’t tell why they weren’t trying to go.  I was really afraid of starting up the hill and then being forced to stop and then not being able to get going again.  I realized that, in this situation, slow and steady wins the race.  Thankfully, some other drivers recognized this as well and we started up the middle lane of the road (just as bad as the regular lanes) and slowly climbed the hill.  I didn’t have any trouble climbing it, but I really just let the car go without using much gas.  I didn’t want to risk a fast acceleration.  I still don’t know why these people had parked their cars and gotten out.  I would have thought they had an accident, but there was no visible damage and the cars were spread out pretty far.  Maybe they just gave up and decided to play in the road?

Then comes the fun at Edmondson Pike.  Anyway, there are two 18 wheelers at the intersection of Old Hickory and Edmondson Pike.  One is partially in the fast lane to continue on Old HIckory and partially in the slow lane to turn left on to Edmondson.  The other is in the slow lane to continue down Old Hickory.  I was pretty far behind all this, but I eventually noticed that these same trucks were still there and no cars had been able to go except for those turning left onto Edmondson in the fast lane.  Well, these two trucks were apparently stuck on this itty bitty incline that I’d honestly never noticed before.  Thankfully, someone finally figured out that there was barely enough clearance between the trucks for cars to continue down Old Hickory.

Once I got through here, it was basically smooth sailing.  One more small hill, but I didn’t have any more trouble that I had at previous hills.  I finally get to Nolensville and there is the traffic again.  My heart sank.  There were so many abandoned cars going to my apartment and this made the tiny, two lane road even more hazardous.

I have never been so happy to see my building.  I walked in the house and went to bed.  Well, after a quick trip to the restroom.  It had been nearly seven hours at this point and I don’t know how much longer I could have made it!

I’m working from home today since Nolensville has not been plowed or salted, apparently.  I’ve been going out to the big picture window in the building’s common space and there’s absolutely no traffic when it would usually be bumper to bumper.  Thankfully I brought several things home to work on so I don’t have to risk a repeat of last night.  I’m still completely exhausted.  It’s amazing how hard driving (sitting) can be physically and mentally.

Thank you to everyone who saw my Facebook comments and rants.  I was not in a very good mood for a good bit of the journey, so I probably said more than I should have and not in the best tone.  For that, I apologize.  A special thank you to everyone who tried to make the drive easier for me…those who sent me texts, called, FB messaged me and especially those who prayed for my safety.  I love you all.

Please, Mother Nature, can we finally be done with snow for the winter?  Phil said we’d have an early Spring and I’m oh so ready!

A Day I Wish Would Go Away

I was trying to write something meaningful to pay tribute to someone I love very much.  But it’s just too hard, even eight years later.  There just aren’t words to express how I feel.

I hate February 8th.  I always will.  I wish I could take it off the calendar.

One Saturday down, many to go…

Today was the first Saturday I had to work during Busy Season.  I got up at my usual time and arrived at work a little before 7:15.  I got a fair amount done and I left around noon.  Unfortunately, I still have more that needs to be finished, so I’ll be working from home this afternoon and evening.  Really, it’s okay though because I’ll be able to get some things off my calendar and get some laundry done in between!  Trust me, the laundry situation seems to get out of control without warning!

Mom and Dad (and most importantly, Emma) are coming next Saturday after work to go to the Nashville Predators (NHL) and I know I won’t have much time next week to get the house ship-shape, so I’m planning on getting things in order before Monday and trying to keep it clean until Saturday.

Instead of writing out a list of what I want to get done before Monday, why don’t I go knock a couple of things off the list instead?

Until next time…