Little Bit of This and a Lot of That

Man, it feels like forever since I’ve been here. It was a crazy but a good week. Sometimes I wonder if my life is boring or if my life is really is as crazy as it feels to me. This will be a long post as I have lots to catch up on so bear with me or if you choose, stop reading and go do something productive with your time. LOL

So, let’s start with the road trip down South. The boys and I loaded up for a trip to the Rose City (Portland). It was one of those absolutely beautiful, gorgeous, picture perfect Pacific Northwest days. The mountains were out, the sky was blue, the wind was blowing, the water was sparkling, and the temperature was just right. What more can you ask for? Great company. A safe journey. Laughter. Tears of joy from laughing so hard. Life is good.

On the way down I asked the question about men wondering if they look fat or styling, do they fret over their hair, etc. Survey was a resounding NO. They all said they know when they gain weight but don’t stress about it. They just cut back on the beer and watch what they eat. If only it was that easy for a woman.

So, we arrive in P-Town but got turned around in downtown. I’m starting to wonder if I attract homeless people. Is there a lesson I am meant to learn? We were approached by two separate individuals as we figured out how to get back on track. This one woman asked if we had a dollar to spare. Answer no. She asked for fifty cents. The answer was still no. She was like no one in the car has even fifty cents. So our fearless driver says, “Lady, no. There’s a bunch of broke ass people in this car! We just put $55.00 in gas in this bad boy. We don't have any money.” She asks, “Then how about one of those beers in the back? Can you spare one of those?”

Ok, we felt a little guilty about not giving her even fifty cents but we did hook her up with a couple of warm beers. Sidebar – No drinking and driving. The beer and wine was for later, once we got to the hotel.

We finally arrived at the hotel where the meeting was being held only to be met with a 20 minute check in. Seems about 25 of us arrived at the same time. Oh what fun. The great part was my girl was checking in at the same time and we managed to get adjoining rooms. Mad shout out to Jo at the front desk. Thanks for hooking the girls up.

We proceeded to make a mad dash to the room. I mean come on; we had some drinking to do before the cocktail hour, dinner, and awards banquet. Is it bad when you and a friend down a bottle of wine in about 30 minutes? Another mad shout out to my boy Wink for putting my stuff on ice while I took care of some business. I work with some of the most wonderful and sincere humans in the universe. Seriously I do. And not just because they make sure my booze is cold. That's a bonus to what they all have to offer.

After a bottle of wine, a mini catch up session on the balcony overlooking the park, with hoots and hollers for those coming and going, it was time to shower and freshen up for the night’s activities. I go to get dressed and realize I have no pants. Yes, I have no pants to match my suit jacket. A moment of panic set in. We called to the concierge to see if my pants dropped off of the cart. I called my boys to see if they had my pants. No pants. Good thing I had packed black pants to wear the next day. Thankfully the blacks weren’t too off and remember I work with more men than women so they weren’t going to know any different. Crisis averted. I rocked the mismatched pants and jacket. (NOTE: my pants never even made it out of my car into the carpool car)

Cocktail hour, dinner, awards a success. When we all get together for these meetings it’s a throw back to college, to a spring break atmosphere almost. Hotel room = dorm room…Seeing co-workers and friends you haven’t seen in awhile with no need to go anywhere = party. I truly feel for the hotel guests that have the misfortune to be anywhere near the rooms we stay in that aren’t part of our company. We can get out of control, stay up late, be rowdy…ya’ know, act like a bunch of kids not knowing any better. My girl and a few other random people and I hit all of the room parties and then ended up in our room, back on the balcony again. Front row seats to see the action.

Unfortunately the action ended up being more than we bargained for. What’d we see? Someone getting shot (prayers for the family of the man who died the next day) and a knockdown, drag out, girl fight. Before you get to asking, neither one of these situations involved anyone we knew. People we knew were hopping on the train to destinations unknown.

Fast forward to the next day. Nothing too big going on here in a day of meetings. Bad news came my way when my girl told me what I suspected. She’s leaving the company and moving to Alaska. Her husband has recently been promoted and he needs to be there versus here so off they go. My work world just got turned upside down. We travel together, we train people together, we vent to one another, and we get each other. She has the best ideas of how to keep things fresh and fun. She’s a woman of integrity and character. She’s someone I love dearly and wholeheartedly trust down to the inner core of my being. And now she is leaving. I am happy for her but would be remiss if I didn’t say it breaks my heart. Saving grace? Alaska is part of my area so our paths will cross again.

After this night’s dinner and activity, I hung with a group of guys I don’t get to spend a lot of time with and don’t know too well. I upset Sunshine (more on this on another day’s post) by going with these guys but a girl’s gotta’ get to know all of her team right? This group of guys are new to our area and I am glad I took the chance and hung with them. We laughed so hard (can you tell laughter is big in my world?) that my head hurt and at one point I almost peed my pants. Damn Corona goes right through a girl.

After 2.5 hours of sleep, I hit the executive center so my team and I could get our meeting room ready for our presentations. We were a huge success by taking what could have been a bunch of dry slides and making it into a learning session via a game of Jeopardy with some Family Feud action thrown in. Nothing like a little bit of competition to get tired, hung over men engaged right?

I drove back North with another one of my favorite boys. It’d been 8 months since we’ve been able to spend any time together so it was a great drive with him. Neither one of us had anywhere we had to go so we decided to do dinner. Not only was it food for the body but it was a food for the soul. Again, I work with the best people and honestly can say I think of these folks as a family, not just co-workers. From this dinner I can now say I have eaten in the oldest seafood restaurant in the state of Washington. Great halibut by the way. Great fish, phenomenal company. Life is good.

Nothing too exciting going on the next day. Being out of the office for three days meant lots of catch up so I worked my arse off and drug myself home around 8:30 PM and was in bed by midnight. Woo Wee look at the exciting Friday night Mo had. I’m such a party animal.

Saturday was treat day for me. I got cracked and had a philosophical conversation with my chiropractor to boot. Headed off from there to get a hour and a half massage. Boy, it felt good. I embarrassed myself by falling asleep and drooling on the floor and snoring. Ever have those moments in time when you know you are asleep and you fight to stay awake and just can’t force yourself to wake up? That was me. I got up from that massage feeling like a brand new woman. It’s amazing the healing properties a crack-a-lack and rub down session can do for me.

From there I hit the spray tan action, ran some errands and got shit on by a rat bird in my car. Yes, you read that right. Shit on. That means lots of good luck right? So, let me paint the scene for you. Here sits Mo on another gorgeous Pacific Northwest day at a traffic light, jamming to some tunes, minding her own business while making eye contact with the super hot guy next to her. Enter right. Rat bird flying pretty low but on its way somewhere. I feel something wet whoosh by. I reach up to my neck and wipe. The wipe yields nothing. I think to myself cool, the rat bird didn’t poop on me. Light changes and I head on down the road to continue my errands.

I do a little bit of shopping at the mall and when I am getting back in my car I notice on the inside of my car the rat bird poop. It’s on my headrest, the side of the seat, and inside the window frame. It’s all brown and white and crusty. The damn bird did shit on me. Nice. Thankfully I carry armor all, a towel, and anti bacterial wipes in my car. But I’ve been walking around for hours with rat bird shit on me. I better get some good luck out of this. You hear me universe? Good luck. Send it my way.

Saturday night I did pretty much nothing but hang with my kitties and thought out scrapbook pages I need and want to do. It was nice to be home, to be quiet and just co chill with myself. This week’s going to be crazy so a quiet night at home was just what the doctor would be ordering.

I’m off to enjoy the day. The sun is shining, I’ve got new cd’s to jam on, and some creating to get to later on. I see a walk along the pier in my very near future.

Peace and Love to All, especially if you made it all the way to the end of this.