Christmas Trip Supplemental ~ Waiting in SeaTac

This trip has been very good for me. I have learned a lot about myself while I was here.  I discovered many reasons for my unhappiness not only with myself, but with my relationship with Titan.  Inner searching revealed that I say "No" to many things that I have yet to try to see if I would even like them.  I am kind of like a 4-year-old who turns her nose up at broccoli just because it looks funny. (Which I actually did until my 20s when I finally tried it). 

I came to the realization that I am not happy in my relationship because I do not really WANT a relationship.  I see a lot of myself in my mom when it comes to dealing with my significant other and I cringe at the fact that I am so negative when doling out my opinion of the situation, whatever that may be.  And though I have not talked to Titan about our relationship stuff yet, I foresee a broken heart in my future. Not mine, perhaps, but his.  I simply refuse to put him through anymore grief and I refuse to continue to be in a relationship if I am not happy in it.  There are times when I can sense that my mother isn't happy with her marriage, and I do not want to feel like I'm stuck in something I can't get out of. (Not that I'm saying she's stuck, but I certainly don't want to be.)

I have decided that I will start saying yes to more new opportunities that present themselves.  Not unlike a healthier version of Jim Carrey's "Yes, Man" without as many bad choices.  I want to experience more things in this life other than the stuff I am comfortable with.

Another realization I made was that after the awesome discovery of Bonine, thanks, Bro!, I want to do more traveling.  I want to take a trip back to Seattle and spend more time seeing the sights.  There are many cities that I would love to see and although my preferred mode of transportation is still driving, getting to where I'm going faster is a good plus.

The New Year dawns, and this year I am going to make the same resolutions I make every year...eat healthy, lose weight, be kind to humanity.  This year I am also going to make a resolution to be kinder to myself.  I am really tough on myself.  When I make a mistake, I punish myself harshly, even if others don't.  We are always our own worst critics, but it doesn't have to be that way.  We can be more gentle with ourselves and still learn from our errors.

So, in conclusion, I'm making an effort to say yes to more opportunities, eat healthier, lose weight and travel more.  I'm also going to ensure that I am a happier me this year.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas from Austin, Texas ~ Final Part

It's been a really nice several days in a different environment.  The weather here has been cold, but nothing like is at home.  I do not really know what I will be coming home to.  Will it be snowing? Will it simply be freezing? Did snow fall while I was gone?  My phone isn't working right now so I can't just call home and find out. I suppose I could use this computer for something other than homework and look it up, but why do through all that trouble? LOL...

The day after Christmas was a good one.  My sister and nephew arrived on time and we all sat around the tree and opened gifts.  I really wish I had gotten Amy's family that game I wanted to get them.  Oh well, perhaps another year.

My mom is really creative and great at sewing.  Her house is filled with wall decorations all of which she has created on her sewing machine.  I'm sure she uses patterns, but who cares.  It's really good work. I have pictures on my phone that I'll upload and share in a supplemental blog entry once I'm home. We leave for Seattle in a few hours and from there we go to Reno in the morning.  I will be very glad to get home.  I just wish I had more time in Seattle to explore.  We are getting there just before 10pm, but we have to be up early to be on an early flight.

Anyway, back to my mom's creative sewing. She gave me a tray for Christmas that is small enough to fit on a desk.  She said it is for placing jewelry or perfume on..things like that.  She made mine with a Chinese dragon on it.  It's really nice.  I love it.  She said that the glass is removable so that if she makes other designs I can take it out.  She also made one for my sister and stepsister.  I'm hoping that one day she will make one with a unicorn or a fairy or something like that.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my trip to Austin, Texas with me.  Next year I am hoping to spend a nice quiet holiday at home with Raven.  I missed her this year.  I did call her yesterday.  She sounded a little sad, and I know she misses me, and I miss her.  I can't wait for her spring break. I am hoping to come get her as well as spend a few days in Boise to visit some friends.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Have Yourself a Merry Christmas From Austin, Texas ~ Parts 4 & 5

Trip Journal Day 4

Today was fun.  We started out making Christmas goodies. Most everything had walnuts in them, which I really don’t like at all. It’s okay. I don’t have to eat them.  I’ve gained so much weight while being here that I really should refrain from doing any extra eating.  I really do plan on making that same New Year’s resolution to lose weight and eat healthy again. 

After the baking we went out to the garage and played ping pong and threw darts.  I must say that I still got it when it comes to throwing darts.  I won most of the games, but I will say that my brother throws a really mean game of darts.  He also plays ping pong like a pro.  I’d love to say that we were evenly matched, but his return could be really hard to hit.  It’s okay, it’s all in good fun.

Eventually, our mom joined us for games.  She’d never played darts before, but I will admit that she did rather well.   She picked up the game rather quickly although we couldn’t talk her into a game of Cricket.  We did play a few 01 games and she did manage to win one.  It was great and she said she had a lot of fun.  She moves great for a woman who just turned 60.

Afterward we went upstairs and I forced myself to play some Star Wars Angry Birds.  I’ll admit that it was more fun that I thought it would be, but I try really hard to stay away from popular conventions such as ridiculous video games.  I suppose I should rethink about some of that, but I always seem to choose a different path for myself.  Regarding the game, I did pretty well.

All in all a decent day.

Trip Journal Day 5

Oh yay, it’s Christmas.  If you’re sensing my absolute sarcasm, you’d be correct.  Christmas actually really doesn’t hold much of a special place in my adult life.  When I was young I loved it just like every other child who celebrates it.  As I got older, though, it was just something to do because social convention dictated that if you didn’t then your kids would grow up to be unhappy….or something.  Actually, there was one year when Erika and I decided to join a charity organization.  That is how we found Soldiers’ Angels.  We did that for a full year, but had to stop because it was getting to be too expensive to send packages and write letters every month.  It was amazing while it lasted, though. 

The day was spent playing darts and ping pong and listening to the others play video games. We didn’t open presents because our mom wanted to wait until my sister and nephew got here.  They should be arriving in about an hour. 

I ate more food yesterday that should be legally allowed.  I know I’ve gained about five to ten pounds at least this last six days.  I swear that I’m going to get back into a more healthy routine when I get home.  And I’m going to do it with or without Titan’s help or encouragement.  That’s a whole other story for a different time though.

Not our table, but close enough.

Christmas dinner was really good.  There was a ham, a turkey, several side dishes and many pies for dessert.  I managed to pass up most of the pie as I am not a fan of pumpkin.  Thankfully, someone had the foresight to purchase an apple pie.  There wasn’t one at Thanksgiving and I was kind of saddened by that.  Conversation was good during dinner.  I had previously printed up twenty random questions in order to get to know my stepsister or her family whom I had not met before this trip.  I think that because I was already so old when my mom and Gary got together that it really didn’t feel like I had gained any extra siblings at all.  I also have a stepbrother whom I haven’t met and really don’t plan to anytime soon.

Overall, yesterday was rather blah.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas ~ In Austin, Texas ~ Part 3

Trip Journal Day 3

Today was fun.  We had quite an adventure taking the Metrorail.   My mom has never ridden one on any city she’s lived in and she really wanted to do so.  We got to the station and realized that we missed the last one for that station.  We raced to two stations ahead to barely make it in time to catch the metro to downtown.  *Phew!* The ride was actually rather nice.  It was a mostly smooth trip and the stops were not terribly frequent.  The Lightrail in Sacramento has way more stops.  

We get dropped off in the heart of downtown right next to the Austin Convention Center.  I didn’t notice that until we left, but we were busy taking in all the other sights.  We walked along 6^th street which has all sorts of shops and eateries and bars and music venues.  I can understand why my ex-coworker moved here to play music.  I took several pictures along the way which will be posted sometime soon on my Facebook page.  

We walked by the Capitol building after lunch.  We found a Chipotle which was reasonably priced.  We were going to try the Roaring Fork, but it was too expensive.  I imagine that a lot of the restaurants in downtown are that way.  There were also several pizzerias and Italian food places.  I also noticed several Mexican restaurants other than Chipotle.  During lunch my brother chided me into trying the hot Chipotle sauce.  I dropped a bit onto my burrito and ate it.  It wasn’t that hot. Sheesh.  Oh, says he.  Well let me go ahead and pour some for you…lol… I went ahead and let him and my mouth burned for about an hour after that!  Ouch!

We stopped by Buffalo Billiards which had pool tables, dart boards and those mini shuffle boards you find in bars with the sand on them.  I would have loved to have stopped and play some pool, but my brother didn’t want to stop.  Even our mom wanted to play some pool.  That’s rare.

We did walk into a shop that we passed up when we first got there. I’m glad I asked to go in.  It was an amazing shop called Aaron’s Rock and Roll. It had band t-shirts from bands I haven’t thought of in a long time.  I was going to get a Depeche Mode “Violator” shirt, but they didn’t have my size.  I really need to lose some weight.  My brother bought a Tool shirt and I bought a few patches.  They were buy 2 get 1 free.  They had life-size replicas of Gremlins in the front window.  I would have LOVED to have one for my villains collection.  They also   had a massive selection of Nightmare Before Christmas stuff.  They had Lock, Shock, and Barrel in a collector’s box that I would have loved to have, but wasn’t willing to fork over $65 that I really don’t have to spend anyway.  It was a great store.

The best part of the day was going into the Smoking Caterpillar.  We didn’t stay for very long, but most people would rather get what the store was going to be before going in.  We managed to get our mom to go into the store.  She freely admits to be naïve.  But, we got her in even if only for a moment.  We had a chuckle about that.  There really wasn’t anything in there that we wanted anyway.  Not even incense.  

When we got done in downtown we took the Metrorail back to the station where we left the truck and headed to the Hobby Lobby.  I used to get most of my ribbon from this place when I lived in Boise.  Reno doesn’t have a Hobby Lobby, to my knowledge, so I was hoping that the ribbon would be half off.  It is every other week.  Unfortunately, this was an off week for the sale so I left without ribbon.  Oh well.  Next time perhaps.

After Hobby Lobby we headed to Freddy’s for ice cream.  Actually, they don’t serve ice cream.  They serve frozen custard, which to me sounds really nasty.  However, it was actually really good.  This place is like a really fancy Dairy Queen.  The ice cream … I mean custard… is WAY better than Dairy Queen though, and the food looks way better, too.  We didn’t have food as we had just eaten while we were downtown.  I don’t think I could have eaten another bite anyway.  The custard I ordered was a Dirt ‘n Worms which is basically vanilla custard with Oreo cookies and gummy worms on top with a generous helping of whipped cream.  Left the cherry off.

We headed back to mom’s house after that and I’ve been on the computer attempting to relax ever since.  I played some online games, answered some emails, and now my brother and I are upstairs listening to my Christmas station on Pandora which is supposed to be playing “twisted” carols although it is playing some rather “normal” sounding ones.  I try to go over those, but I already used up my allotted skips per hour.  Oh well.  

I was going to try to get together with a friend and ex-coworker, but it just wasn’t in the cards.  The Metrorail didn’t run as late as we had hoped due to it being a weekday and he didn’t get off work until 7pm.  No matter, perhaps we will meet up next time.  It is difficult especially during the holidays when everyone is so busy.  I think a visit during off holiday time is in order for the spring perhaps.  Actually, there is so much to do here and such a low unemployment rate that I am considering moving down here.  I doubt that might actually happen, but one never knows.

I know that my mom has a lot of stuff planned for tomorrow. I know I’ll be in the kitchen helping to make all sorts of baked goodies.  I am hoping to stay away from most of them as I really need to put a stop to all this pointless eating.  Sure, it’s the holidays, but that doesn’t mean that I get to gain ten pounds and not feel bad about it. 

Trip is still going just fine.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, in Austin, Texas ~ Part 2

Journal Day 2

Today was rather interesting.  We went to the Circuit of the Americas.  It’s a new race track for Formula 1 racing among others.  I am not a race fan, but my brother is.  He really enjoyed the view from the observation tower.  I have a rather irrational fear of heights, but I went up to the top anyway. I did get quite a few pictures (coming later to Facebook).  I will admit that the track looked really good.  There were all sorts of curves and different elevations.  

The guide was a young guy named Cameron.  My guess is that he was the son of one of the other guides.  He was rather knowledgeable about racing and the track in general.  He said that the track was built in under a year and had a price tag of $400-500 million dollars.  That seems like a lot to me, but then I know nothing about that sort of thing.  Cameron stated that this track is the best in the world according to many of the racers who have raced there.

There is an amphitheater at the base of the observation tower.  The red bars that come off of it serve several purposes.  The first one is to give stability to the tower itself.  During concerts there are different colored LEDs that can be set to the rhythm of the music or just glow steadily.  The bars are also a representation of a race car’s lights racing on a track at night.  

The tower itself is rather tall.  I forget how tall, but there are 420 steps.  Thankfully, an elevator was installed as well.  During races people can buy passes to go to the top to observe the race for ten minutes or so.  It isn’t limited to V.I.P.s which is really nice. During the last race several thousand people went up to the observation tower.  At the top part of the floor is made of glass that one can see down to the bottom.  I wasn’t thrilled about that, but I attribute that to the fear of heights.  Actually, I was getting dizzy and at one point I thought I would throw up over the side.  I could feel the building swaying in the wind.  Not a fun feeling for sure!  I did get several pictures from the top of the tower. The track is impressive and also massive.

Afterward we went home for lunch and I took a nap for a bit. I didn’t get very much sleep last night. I never seem to sleep very well.  I toss and turn all night long.  I’m not quite sure why that is, but I know at home it has a lot to do with the mattress I sleep on.  When I lived in Boise, my sleeping issues had a lot to do with the small twin size bed I slept on.  I am sleeping on a twin sized bed here, but it seems to be a bit longer as my feet don’t hit the footboard.  

Mom and I went grocery shopping after lunch.  I would really hate to be the one to count the grocery store we went to.  It was some place called H-E-B.  Needless to say we don’t have them in Reno.  The closest I could compare it to would be is Harmon’s in Salt Lake City only not as nice.  They had food tasting stations which reminded me of a Costco.  They also had a huge health and beauty section which reminded me of Walgreen’s.  

When we got home, I took a nap.  After a nap we went to the County Line, which is a barbeque place.  There will actually be a full review on my review blog, but suffice it to say that the food was good, but they lacked several key dishes that my mom and I thought should be there…like mashed potatoes and a green salad.  Perhaps that isn’t standard or traditional BBQ food, but it sure would have been nice.  I’m not a fan of potato salad or coleslaw. 

Mom had done a search of karaoke bars in the area in case I wanted to go singing.  After dinner we stopped by one to see what it was like.  She is not a fan of smoky bars which is not surprising although her disgust for cigarettes goes a little overboard in my opinion.   Texas has yet to outlaw smoking in bars so of course any karaoke bar we went to would be smoky.  If I had my own car I would have totally gone even though she offered the use of the truck for my brother and me.  

I decided against going because heaven forbid I come home smelling like cigarette smoke.  She even told me that if I did go that I would have to get undressed in the garage and put my clothes directly in to the washing machine.  Yeah.  Not really worth all that trouble just to go singing. I’ll save that for when I’m at home, on my own time.  In all honesty, the bar wasn’t even THAT smoky.  Believe me; I’ve been in much worse.

The rest of the week looks like it is going to be rather busy.  We are doing a lot of baking on Tuesday and riding on the metro tomorrow to downtown. I might even get to visit with an old coworker of mine from my days at Peterbilt.  That should be fun. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him.  He moved here before I left Peterbilt.  He plays in a band; in fact, the entire band moved their families down to Austin to play music.  It seemed strange at the time, but from what I can tell, they are doing well.  He plays extremely well.  I asked him about shows he might be doing this week, but the only one was in Houston which is about three hours away.

My stepdad and brother are playing video games again and I’m not a fan so I’m left to my computer.  I am SO glad that I brought it with me otherwise I might be totally bored.  I brought a few books to read.  I haven’t really touched them yet. I read one page of the Brad Thor novel that I brought.  My mom and I don’t have very much in common.  Not like she and my sister do, but we both like to read.  I believe we are going to find a bookstore tomorrow.  I turned her onto the Thor novels.  She read the first one.  I hope she looks for the second one if we go to the bookstore tomorrow.  It’s a used place, so hopefully they have a copy or two.  I am missing some books out of the collection although I don’t remember which ones. I really need to make a list in case I get the chance to look.  

So far this trip is going well.

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas ~ in Austin, Texas Part 1

Trip Journal Day 1

I hate to fly.  Flying makes me absolutely nauseous.  There are few pros  that outweigh the cons for flying.  The best thing about flying is that one gets to where they are going a lot quicker.  Big deal.  I would rather take two day to travel this beautiful country by car and see all that I could in the time I have.  Granted, the scenery between Reno, NV and Austin, TX is not the best, but I have taken many car trips where the scenery was definitely worth the drive.  

The only other pro about this trip was the fact that I didn’t have to pay for it.   That’s certainly a plus.  It probably would have cost around $500 in gas money to get from here to there.  Even though that is cheaper than flying, I couldn’t have come up with that kind of money.  Thank you, Mom.

I really don’t like to fly.  My stomach gets queasy and I feel dizzy long after the plane lands.  I never get that way when I’m driving.  Sometimes I do if I’m a passenger, but otherwise I fair really well in cars.  

This trip has been interesting so far.  My brother and I checked in more than a few hours early and the check in gate person said that the flight we were supposed to be on was delayed which meant that we would have missed our connecting flight to Austin.  They booked us on an earilier flight although we lost our really sweet boarding numbers for this first flight.  We were among the last to board so we both got stuck in middle seats.  The saving grace is that this flight is less than an hour long.  And, the ladies I’m sitting with are quiet and that’s good for an introvert like me.  I don’t like having conversations with people I don’t know.  They are probably wondering what I’m doing.  

It’s hot and stuffy in here.  I’d really like to roll down one of the windows right now.  The air from the above head area is okay, but it isn’t cooling me down any at all. 

I’ll be glad when we land in Vegas.  Since we are going to be there early, we have more time to spend doing whatever.  Perhaps we’ll win some money at a slot machine.  I ended up seventy-five cents ahead just before we left.  That’s not bad for an airport slot machine.

Are we there yet?       

***********************************************************************************

Phew!  We made it to Las Vegas.  When we got off the plane we checked the arrival/departure screens and found that our connecting plane was going to be delayed about 50 minutes.  Okay, no problem.  We went to find some food. I don’t think I’ve ever paid over $10 for a small combo meal from any place.  The airport is definitely not the place to eat lunch, but what did we know.  Even after that we found a few other places as we were walking toward the gate where we were to catch our fight…later than we hoped.  

Instead, we decided to take a walk out of the airport to see what we could see.  We were on the side of the airport that was lined with not taxis, but LIMOS and shuttles.  I’d never seen that before, and here I was joking with my brother about commandeering a limo for a ride.  One could actually pay for the driver to take them to the strip or to the airport.  If I ever visit Vegas for a trip, I would totally do that!  

My brother had the idea of going to the hotel that had the roller coaster, the New York New York.  We got some information from one of the shuttle services who told us that we should only get a one way ticket (knowing that we were only here for a few hour layover) and that we could catch a free shuttle from any of the hotels back to the airport.  We got to the New York New York at 2:30. I didn’t realize that it was already that late.  We arrived at the roller coaster area only to find that there was about a 20 minute wait, which probably would have been more like a half hour, and then the time for the ride itself.  I advised that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to stay because we needed to go through airport security again once we got back to the airport.  My brother was disappointed, but also didn’t want to pay the $14 for the roller coaster ride. 

We went down to the airport shuttle area outside the hotel to wait for a shuttle.  One pulled up.  It was a different company than the one that dropped us off.  The driver was really nice, but informed us that there was only one hotel in Vegas that actually had a free shuttle.  We ended up paying full price for a trip back to the airport.  At first, it was disappointing.  The driver made it better.  Elmer was his name and he was awesome.  He told us a story of a time when he and his wife visited friends in Reno and he got totally plowed.  He was funny.

We arrived back to the airport at 3:01.  I remember clearly because my brother said that if we got back to the airport by 3:00, he’d be really upset.  It was a minute later, so I told him he wasn’t allowed to be that upset.  We walked into the terminal and when we looked at the arrival/departure screen, we were in for a shock.  The flight that by the time we had left the airport was over an hour delayed was scheduled to leave now at 3:20!  How cruddy was that?!  

We raced through airport security.  I made sure to take my laptop out of my bag this time so that we weren’t delayed going through.  I didn’t know about that and it took forever to get through security in Reno.  After we finished with that we hoofed it for what seemed like forever to make it to our gate in time.  We were at C24.  We needed to be at C9.  Ugh!  My brother is a really fast walker, but I’m out of shape and I could barely keep up with him.  We made it with only five minutes to spare.  Our bad ass boarding numbers went to waste AGAIN!!!  We were of the last to board the plane and ended up sitting in the middle seats again.  Ugh!  

It’s a good thing that we didn’t pay for round trip tickets from the airport to the hotel.  We would not have gotten to ride back with the same company and ended up having to pay more just to get back.  The Universe works in mysterious ways.

When we got off the plane in Vegas I had nearly thrown up.  My stomach was really nauseated, so we went and tried to find a place that sold Dramamine.  I couldn’t believe how much it cost!  I wasn’t about to fork over $11 for a small bottle just so that I wouldn’t feel the need to puke when we landed in Austin.  I ended up paying $8 for Bonine, which worked just as well.  Although my head was dizzy when we landed in Austin, I didn’t feel the need to puke. 

 While in flight to Austin I broke out my laptop and tried to watch some free Dish TV that they had available.  It was making me dizzy so I decided to turn it off and listen to music instead.  That really helped me focus on the fact that the ground was several thousand feet below us.  I sat in between two averaged aged gentlemen.  The one on my left was not much of a talker at all.  The one on my right spoke a bit, but mostly it was to complain about the guy behind us who didn’t shut up the entire trip.  We both complained to each other about that. I made a reference to duct tape or something and we both chuckled. 

We finally arrived in Austin just as I was changing my music set list to stuff I hadn’t listened to in a while.  I was very happy to be on the ground.  I borrowed Titan’s duffle bag because the stuff I was bringing for my mom didn’t fit in my Adidas bag. I didn’t recognize it as it was coming off the luggage wheel.  

My mom and Gary picked us up and we took the trip 50 minutes to their house.  It seemed like a long trip.  My right knee got cramped on the way, but then it has been acting up again due to the last time I worked.  I hurt it and had to wrap it the next day.  But the drive to their house was well worth it.  It is a beautiful brand new home that they waited a long time for.  It has several rooms including 4 bedrooms, a magnificent kitchen and formal dining room, living room, upstairs area they call the playroom.  It has a television that my brother is currently playing video games on.  It’s a really amazing house.   

I gave my mom her birthday gift after the house tour and before we ate dinner.  It is a butterfly stylus that I had engraved from Things Remembered.  She really loved it.  I showed her what it was used for.  She really liked it a lot.  I told her that I wasn’t going to let her celebrate her 60^th birthday without a gift from at least one of her children.  

So far the trip is really good.  The plan is to go to some race track tomorrow.  Big deal for me really, I’m not all that interested, but my brother really enjoys racing and he is looking forward to it.  I tried to see if there were any karaoke bars in the area, but since I don’t have my own car it doesn’t really make sense for me to even ponder that. 

 

We’ll see what tomorrow holds.  For now, it’s getting late and I’m rather tired.  Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day.  

To be continued....