whose child created the interstate/road system in houston anyhoo?

wednesday morning, i had to get up early so that i could get some creamer for coffee. i spent the morning taking pictures of receipts and making some changes in plans...instead of staying in town-ish on friday, i was going to be flying to houston for a different training. that evening i messaged an old high school friend from HONDURAS, who now lives in houston to see if there might be a possibility of getting together...the response was overwhelmingly positive! once i arrived, i was going to meet up with her and friend/s for dinner, and then spend the night at her place. something to look forward to (apart from the training itself).

and now let me back up. that afternoon i was fortunate enough to participate in (and by participate, i mean listen in) on a live webinar. i'd listened to most of the recorded webinars, so it was especially fun to listen to one live! lori does a great job with these-very animated. in fact, i was thinking at one point that she would be a great d.j. and if she d.j.'d for a station that played music i enjoyed, i'd totally listen to the traffic-talk...but then of COURSE she'd be a d.j. for music i enjoy...right? and if not, i'd call in and say, "hey! play music i like, or i will have to switch stations!" 

so the plan was to get to houston around 7:05 and meet indi at the restaurant, but alas, my flight was cancelled and i rescheduled for the later flight. i didn't arrive until late, and they were done with dinner by that point, so i must made my way to her place, and when i arrived, it was a little dark, but i was pretty sure i was at the correct address, so i called, and she told me to meet her at her house. i told her i had arrived, but wasn't sure which house, or where to park, then turned the car lights back on. she said, "oh! it's you! i'm in the truck in the driveway, park under that tree!" (which is exactly where i was!) and before i knew it there was a figure running down the middle of the road, and i couldn't get out of the car fast enough!! good thing it was 11:20 and there were no cars in sight, because there was a huge embrace in the middle of the street! it was SOOOO great to finally get to see each other in person after all these years! we went in and i got to see the beautiful remodel, and i unofficially met her sleeping son-meaning: don't wake a sleeping football player who needs to get up early!

photo cred-indira selfies! has it really been so long??? 91 seems forever ago! but at the same time like just yesterday!

between her looking for a letter that she'd written, and grabbing some water, we got to talk and catch up before crashing on a most comfortable bed! i really wish we'd had more time because we barely got to the tip of the iceberg! i've missed this girl-nothing is quite as comfortable than being with friends that you've grown up with and known for ages-and that was exactly how i felt! thank you indi for just being you! can't wait to see you again!! the alarm didn't go off at 5:15, but i am light-sensitive and my body has this internal clock thing, so at 6:10-ish, i checked my clock because i could feel the sun coming up, and i jumped out of bed and was thankful that i had packed the way i did, because my outfit for the day was all rolled up and all i had to do was pull it out, put on some mascara and pee....then i threw everything into the carry-on and rushed downstairs, and gave indira a huge hug and goodbye, again,wishing i had more time! (never long enough)...and then i sped off to try to avoid traffic!

let me just say that i hate the routes in houston...i missed a turn and had to reroute more than once...it seemed to me as if some children had been asked to join the planning team and been given the task of drawing some roads and then the engineers looked and said, "it is good" and began to draw up construction designs...for real though. yikes.
         
and then some of the drivers...lets not even go there.

but i did make it to the training on schedule, and was thrilled when sabrina pulled up! this meant i was in the right place, and she hadn't given me a bogus address just to pull my leg! good way to start!

we chatted for awhile as we waited for the unlocking of the doors so that we could make our grand entrance. upon entering, we put our stuff down, i found the perfect place from which to observe and take notes. there was a spattering of participants settling in, so while she was working with the projector and sound system, sabrina asked me to pass out several handouts--my workout for the day. (working out my fingers-counting pages and meticulously maneuvering the phalanges as to not acquire any paper cuts-mission accomplished!) 

i thoroughly enjoyed observing sabrina, and seeing how she runs her training. it was very fitting. she did a great job keeping the crowd engaged and having them jump right in! very personable, and comfortable with the crowd. it really was a great group that showed up for the training, especially considering that it was the last friday of their summer break! the best part was hearing some of them say that it was so great to finally get training, as they have been using the program, but had never really had training, and it was more or less a compliance-thing.

lunch was lovely- due to the fact that we were pretty 'out-there' and we weren't sure what was going to be available, we looked on 'aroundme' and found a denny's--but it started to seem very far, and sabrina was cool with whatever, so at one point i said, "how 'bout we stop at the second restaurant we see from here?!" she was game, so we ended up at sonic-when in doubt, a route 44 goes a long way #comfortdrinks

i loved the drive because it was 'get-to-know-you-better' time. i love that she is so tight with her family and loves them so much! proud mama, with every reason!

great trainer-i see friendship in our future!

sporting the hawaiian shirt she purchased for her son-which i really think she might have to rethink and keep for herself-it's totally her color! 

the after-lunch crowd is always a doozy-same crowd, carb-loaded...snoozy.(as after-lunch p.d. always is because no one builds naptime into the agenda these days...) so it took some work to get past that initial after-lunch zombie-state, but once she got to the goal-setting, people started to perk up because this is something they were really interested in...well, most people...of course there is always that one table (there was at my school too!) and yes, this was no exception-the "we-didn't-go-over-that" table...and of course i looked at my notes and, yep, verbatim, we had gone over that...and of course that table gets the looks from everyone else, nodding their heads and saying, um..yes..we did..i know. sometimes it's hard to listen and multi-task at the same time, and it was ok, because they already knew the information; they were just doing their job of being the reminders to make sure that we went over it.

once all was said and done, i'd gotten answers to my questions, and after getting a couple of pictures, we parted ways. i loved observing sabrina, and i'm sure i'd pick up something new each time. i had to take off to make sure that i arrived at the airport in time to return my rental.

on the way back, part of the route was toll. i wasn't sure exactly how to do this, i should've asked prior to departure...when i saw the sign that said: LAST EXIT BEFORE TOLL, EZTAG ONLY/VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED...what does that even mean? prosecuted? sounds awfully harsh! water boarding... bamboo shoots/fingernails...why can't they just say you'll get a bill in the mail? (?) so i got on the service road and the lady in my phone maps kept trying to get me prosecuted! so i pulled over to a gas station, worrying about my time, and finally called the car rental to ask them about all of this toll-shenanigans...they set me straight, and basically said i was equipped  my car was equipped with tags on the plates, and to just roll on through, they'd send a bill...and i'm sure they will. so i did just that, and please let me tell you that the trip from our training site to the airport was where my child-map theory came from. i mean...it was ri-di-cu-lous!! puh-lease. but eventually i did make it to the airport and realized that my flight was actually an hour later than what i thought...this was good, because it meant i had time to grab some grub-thank you, peppercorn ranch burger, you blessed me more than you know. (burrgers, burgers-i think my life is about finding the perfect burger).

once i landed in dallas, i was driving home at 9 pm, thinking, "welp, everyone else is just leaving home to enjoy their friday night, and here i am ready to go home and settle in!" also in my thoughts was that my friend b.mayes was at the dixie chicks concert in dallas! (jealous) and i later saw on facebook that my boss was there as well, enjoying the festivities! (hope she doesn't mind the reference as boss, it's just so much shorter than the vice president of professional development...lookin' at you, lori!) and then of course i thought what if they were sitting near each other...then i saw something about hatin' on the karaoke-ers and immediately hoped they were nowhere near each other. not that i think bmayes would've involved herself in too much crazy loudness...or would she?

it's good to get home to the boys-i'm certain they were sad while i was gone, but they were immediately excited to see me when i walked in the door...too bad i couldn't say the same for the flowers...

up early-ish for breakfast at breadwinners at northpark, because that's what you do when friends are in town! it was great to meet sarah and her friend as well. it's always good to catch up, and there was a lot of catching up to do! something fun- b and sarah stayed at the double tree, and saw the istation building! (i mean, not as fun as like..a ferris wheel, or pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey fun, but it's all relative!) on the way home, i found myself behind this car, and i couldn't help but think that it looked like a character in a video game that lost a life//game over...

note the Xs in the eyes...

the rest of the day was somewhat productive...wait that was today...i meant for today to be much more productive! the most productive thing i did today was finish another letter and receive a call from sheryl who had just received a letter! (we never know how long it's going to take for international mail to reach its destination!) and talks with sheryl are always animated-touching base with her is always enlightening, and they change quickly, especially when you have teenagers! love the real friends who never change, just the circumstances...the love is always there #thosefriends

so tomorrow i will wake up early, as i am going to be taking off on the 1:00...so i need to get to bed!

sleep with the angels (many of you probably already are)
julie