driving, hoteling and hot tubbing...none of these things should be for children...

so...let us continue. i arrived at the airport and met julie k prior to the flight-going through security was a beast-dfw was terrible at this particular time, and add to it, the tsa agent made everyone go to one lane, but then people started getting in the other line---so i was watching people who were like 5 or 6 behind me going through the scanner, and i was not happy. jerks. so i muttered under my breath...and made it know to my inner imaginary friend that i was indeed pissed.

when i finally got through, ju had already gone to the bathroom, taken a nap, played a game of scrabble with another traveler...okay, maybe she just went to the bathroom, but still... we grabbed a snack for lunch, and then it wasn't long until we boarded.

on the plane, i had an aisle and an empty middle seat-which was pleasant. once we arrived, sabrina was waiting with the car. thankfully she was feeling a smidge better (kinda ?) than on saturday. and we were off on our drive to farmington-about 3 plus hour drive. and while it was quite a drive, the entertainment was priceless. albuquerque is endlessly brown. 1001 shades of brown and rather depressing. and that's not including the buildings and homes-which i was informed were brown due to city ordinance-to blend in with the surroundings. i mean, i never really thought brown was a beautiful color before albuquerque...come to think of it, i still don't! so there you have it, blending in is highly over-rated!

there were patches of 'pretty' as we got closer to farmington, but we weren't really holding our breath. what can i say about the actual travel to farmington that would be of interest and not censored...hmm...entertaining would be way too simple. these two and their stories and reenactments! some great songs-black velvet is always better when you have your own set of lyrics...and then there was the platypus song-a little more of a nursery rhyme-ish meets hip hop meets 8th grade....yup. but seriously, what kind of animal is this strange ball of fur with webbed feet and a bill? and i've yet to see the dance, as dancing in the car is hazardous to everyone's health. somehow julie had burned her hand (that's a story for her to tell), but for whatever reason, she blamed me-and kept pointing it out at various points throughout the trip-stopped feeling bad for her about the 918th time. own it, ju2.

when we actually arrived (sabrina got us there safely-thanks for driving!) with the navigation of julie k, we stopped first at the outback, as it was right in front of the hotel. i got out, and cursed my sweater-that one is going to have to either be worn with jeans, or donated to goodwill, because it sheds fuzzies all over my leggings-no bueno. i felt like a lamb. back to the outback, we were seated, and the server had the personality of a carrot. no eye contact-probably intimidated by our beauty (usually the case).  the food was great- salmon, chicken, soups- haven't been to an outback since heartlight! we then stopped at the store to grab some water and what-not, and ju amused herself at the checkout with the amazing sensor at the end-had we not had places to be (namely the hotel hot tub), she might have stayed there all night volunteering to bag, just in order to play with the sensor! silly charlie, you could lose a kidney like that, too close to the candy mountain aisle!

woah! ya'll check this out!! 

we were warmly welcomed- they even knew our code name:

and they are child-friendly which we would really 'appreciate' later...they even have a play area; apparently miley inspired...curious as to how many came in like a wrecking ball...

proximity of quarters were not in the cards-fortunately it was a relatively small hotel. so i dropped my stuff off, and made my way back to the gals' room and we gathered up the hot tub necessities. that was when i heard the finished rendition of black velvet-with passion. it was impressive-these two...like i said before: lyrical geniuses. we took our stuff outside, because we were welcomed by the screaming yelps of over a dozen children with a few parental figures in sight. so we took a minute to get ready, then went toward the hot tub, and there was someone in there at first (a lady with three kiddos), so we asked if she minded if we turned on the jets-okay. so it was and we got in! and they got out. good, good...i'm pretty sure ju was reading the rules out loud- no children under 16... so yes, we were in for awhile-more laughing, more re-enacting, more stories, sabrina putting on a little show with her suit-which neither ju nor i were able to duplicate...there was envy. but of primary importance-relaxing. after a bit, it was time to get out and cool off for a few minutes, so we went back to our area and relaxed-leaving the door cracked with a boulder. the towels to dry off were about big enough for a five year old to be comfortable with. ju and sabrina were smart-they tied theirs together and got more coverage-which was nice for outside, as the temps had dropped a bit. while outside, we tried to think of different ways to help thin the number of obnoxious children...

we returned to the hot tub once more for a few minutes before heading back up. one of the topics we broached was the online dating-and would i think about it...hmm. i've been asked this before, so i may be at the point of giving in-these people are breaking me. it was a really sweet and thoughtful way to approach it. i'm not saying never-it's just not how i ever imagined that i would meet 'the' right guy.

we went back up with our belongings, and then sabrina called it a night (she had some rest to catch up on, if you remember, saturday she wasn't great, well, still not a hundred percent), so julie and i went downstairs and before i knew it-life story (mine); it was actually a good conversation, but it was soon time to shut down shop and get sleep. i actually slept fairly well-the air-conditioner fan stayed on all night-life was good! i went to sleep flattered that these two were willing to allow me to appreciate the seldom-seen-by-outsiders fun that they have together.

black velvet-make your own lyrics!
julie