Sat. October 20, 2018 

Off… 

It is Saturday and I should have been working. Instead I took off to spend time with the family. It was a special day that I was not going to miss. But before the fun began there was a whirlwind of activity to get through. 

Starting off my day I woke up woke up early and put on my good clothes. Being off on a Saturday morning meant I could be at the office by 9am. It had been a month, maybe even longer, since I had time to get training in and mingle with my office friends. There was a lot of love regarding my return as if I had been away on vacation and never planned on going back. The people who used to see me often had not in a while and had big smiles when they did. It was a nice warm welcome that left me in awe. 

Then I got home where things got busy.  

The rest of the day consisted of helping prepare for my nephew’s birthday party this evening. He turned 1 on the 6th and it was time to have a nice big party for him. I would gone with more of a barbeque style, close family party but my sister wanted it to be a little more interesting.  

I began by helping cup the cupcakes. Folding pieces of Bubble Guppies cardboard around the bottoms of the little cakes. Moving on to the next project I helping punch holes in the party favor tags. The last thing I helped with was drying little toy buckets my sister wanted to put the table snacks in. It sounds like a little but it took 3 and half hours to do.  

Around 4:25pm I jumped in the shower and got ready to leave. I had errands to run before the actual party started that had a time stamp on them.  

On the road. 

The most important task was done first. I had to pick up my necklace from the jewelers before 6pm. I had been waiting for it to be repaired for about 2 weeks and more excited than ever to get it. Lucky me I made it with 15 minutes to space. Running in and out I was back in my car and on the way to complete my next task, picking up pork roast. I also had to be there before 6. With my driving skills and knowledge of the area I made right on the dot.  

Crazy part is the ladies who work there tried calling the number that was left, the house phone. I honestly do not even know if that number is connected to a functioning phone. I do not even remember the last time I heard it ring. Poor lady might have been calling a phone that has been out of commission for at least a year. 

Enter a caption

Anyway, with food in the car I was ready to head towards the lounge where the party was being held. At that moment in time I realized I had no idea where said lounge was. I forgot to get the address for place and of course no one answered their phones. Quick thinking, I make a call to my girlfriend. She was going to be at the party with her parents so I knew I could get the address from her. Boy did I call at the right time. The place was a mere 9 minutes from where I was when I made the phone call. Any later and I might have missed it. 

Party trouble. 

At the lounge everything was hunky-dory until we realized that some materials, we needed to finish setting up with ran out. Having need it I left with a distant relative to get them.  

We began our journey at Dollar Tree for the little burners that are used to keep food warm in the aluminum trays. From there we took a failed trip to Target for twine. Every color except for pink was sold out. Then straight back to finish helping. It was a quick go around that took a lot of time to do.  

By 9pm the official party started. Everyone was supposed to arrive at 7 but hey, late families. I must say, it was a great party. My only issue was being too focused on making sure that things were taken care of that I did not really enjoy it. Being part host is not party friendly. For me anyway. 

Our time was up. 

Around 10:30pm we started to clean up. An hour later we were packing our cars and leaving shortly after. Once home we unloaded and by the time we finished cleaning and organizing it was 1am.  

In bed by 1:30 to wake up at 7am. Good luck! 

Sun. October 14, 2018

Lovely morning!

I woke up on my own accord today. Not for work or anything related to it. Just because of my internal alarm at 8am. Once I realized what time it was, I laid back down and went right back to sleep. That is until 8:55 hit and I remembered I forgot to click “publish” on today’s article post. Whoops.

Back to bed I went until around 11:15 when I woke up to feed the rumbling monster I call a stomach. I was starving for some reason. I guess sleeping can be a work out at times. 

For breakfast I sat at the table with the family. I was off today and I wanted to have my face present a little. I do not get everyone around often. But since I was a bit late it was mainly my nephew and I eating. He had small squares of French toast on his plate while I had 2 big pancakes on mine.

Productivity with every minute.

From 1 – 3pm I worked on bolding out a few graphics for the new business. I have been playing around with our logo and products trying to see what best fits where. After a few trial and errors, over the past couple of days, I was finally able to get the images the way I liked them for the product they will be going on. It was truly a challenge trying to get them in a way where it did not differ to much from the original design.

15 minutes later I was in the shower preparing myself to leave. I had plans to spend the rest of the day with my girlfriend. It had been months since the two of us had a day off together. All I had to do was wait for her to finish whatever project she was in the middle of.

TEASER!

Rushing to leave I was told to wait a little longer. She needed more time to iron out a few details before being ready to go. I was more than happy to take that time to get in another hour of work. I need to prepare one more item but I have been going back and forth on which one. Decisions, decisions.  

By 4:35pm I was walking out of the door to my car in what seemed to be 55 degree weather. What happened to summer?  

She listens well.

Making to my girlfriend’s house I went from my car to hers. We had an hour to make it to the mall before it closed. On the 12th, our monthly anniversary, she decided to go out of her to bring me joy. Not realizing that I had been talking about the iPad Pro so frequently, she went out and bought. It was a complete surprise to me. I even cried my butt off. (FYI: I can be very emotional at times.)

It was her way of saying how proud she was of me for working so hard lately. She said I deserved it and hoped it would help in the future of my new business with my Texas buddy. I believe it will, thank you love.  

But even though I was happy it was not the exact one I wanted. I did not want to seem ungrateful, because I was grateful, extremely, but it was the Wi-Fi version and I needed the cellular version to replace my current iPad Air 2. I planned on passing it on to my mother for further use when I got the Pro. No need to have two.

(photo found on Google images)

This was the reason for our rush to the mall. To exchange it for the cellular version at my cost of course. She spent enough as it was especially since she bought the pencil with it.

The trip.

Getting to the mall we realized we actually had more time than we expected. Instead of it closing at 6 they closed at 7pm. It work out great with our wait time being 20 minutes. Plus we had a reservation for dinner to get to.

Even though the Apple store was packed with people we were taken care of pretty quickly. By 6:20 we had paid the difference and done the exchange. It was very easy. Easier than I could have imagined it would be.

From the mall we made our way to the restaurant. We were 15 minutes early which gave us plenty of time to grab a bottle of wine from up the street. Walking to the door of the store, it was close. Not noticing at first I yanked on the door with brute force to enter. Walking away the owner rushed to let us in. He was a great man for that. Normally owners would not have thought twice about it. He even helped us pick out a bottle and had a conversation with us before heading back the restaurant, Casserole Bistro.

The best ending.

Our night was great. Smiles, laughs, wine, appetizers, entrees and dessert. For an hour and a half, we enjoyed each other’s company. We made up for the past couple of busy months not going out and just enjoying our time. It was truly needed.  

Back at her place by 9:30pm we cuddled up on the couch to keep warm on this cold Autumn night.

Beautiful ending.