The Trip

A couple months ago I booked time off from work. November 11th. A Thursday. So then I thought that I would take off Friday as well.

An extra long weekend. A treat. I would spend the extra time with John.

And then life overwhelmed me.

I thought maybe we could all take a weekend getaway. A little family time.

And then work stressed me.

I thought maybe we could do something special as a family.

And then the realization that November was killing me.

So Steven suggested that I go away by myself. To treat myself to some "me" time.

I thought of three places where I wanted to go:

Victoria, to visit my friend Alaysha

Trail, to visit my sister-in-law Barb
Minneapolis, to visit my sister Dawna

I sucked it up and paid for an airline ticket and emailed Dawna.

At the airport

On the way to her condo

The view from her balcony

She lives in a great neighborhood. She had to go back to work for the afternoon so I walked around and poked around the shops and grabbed some lunch. There's a bookstore that I would kill to have in my city. There's a tiny door cut into the regular door so kids can open/shut it. And there's chickens. Yes, chickens. Walking around. Loose. CHICKENS. John would have loved it.

Her Royal Highness, Abbott

This is where the geese go in the winter. Dumb asses. You'd think they would fly somewhere warm.

Other people ask to go to The Mall of America. Or museums. Or even the place where Mary Tyler Moore threw her hat in the air.

But no. I wanted to go to Victoria's Secret, Target and White Castle.

I'm so white trash. Or perhaps in my case, yellow trash.

Would I go there again? Probably not.

And then, holy mother of God, it snowed. I cursed. I mean, c'mon. I actually prepared for the trip, I checked the weather network for the long term forecast. I packed a friggin rain jacket because they forecast RAIN. NOT SNOW. The bus is sucked right up on that power pole. But later in the day we got motivated and went to Psycho Suzi's. The only other thing that I wanted to do. I saw it featured on the TV show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. But wow, the snow was incredible. I didn't realize how much it had actually snowed. Check it out! The snow was so wet & heavy that there were trees down everywhere. Yipee!

For the record, only two drinks were mine. But truth be told, at the end of the afternoon I did have 4 drinks total.

I'm so glad I was able to get away. It was a wonderful stress reliever. It was awesome to visit Dawna and see her condo. I missed John & Steven but I really needed the mini-vacation. Next time the whole family will go.