adjoining rooms are the best, so long as you know the people on the other side (and like them!)

oh, my. let's see...so the drive back to albuquerque seemed faster than the drive to farmington (not sure why...) although, most times once you've arrived somewhere, and are vaguely familiar, it goes more quickly...but let's face it, it was mostly because julie k was intent on breaking the speed barrier (surely i jest). it wasn't a bad drive, not even when she was trying to drive by braille-even though she wasn't 'snoozing' (as one of my other colleagues so hilariously put it) conversation and music-

once we arrived to the abq area, we found a little restaurant-mimi's cafe, and the food was delectable. they had some specials, but the brie...and sabrina's brie and turkey sandwich-i'm pretty sure my mouth was watering! and then sharing the creme brulee cheesecake 3-ways was about right. yum. cute little place to share the comedy with! yes, ma'am! add to it julie k's whistle at certain intervals ( not sure if the audio worked or not, but if it did, you will gather that she was on the spot, and i couldn't figure out how to edit that part out! oops) but every time she does her whistle, it makes me laugh- it kind of reminds me of old kamp days with erin, and when that particular group used whistles to keep track of each other in the dark; path-lighting can be dangerous, even if it is your spiritual gifting...(what?) 

but back to the matter at hand, we finished dinner, and went to check in at the hotel. upon check-in, we asked for an adjoining room, and the gal was like, "oh, we don't have any, they're all assigned." but we'll try to get you close, and they proceeded to talk in some crazy lingo, like 'front-desk-robot-talk' and it was so fast and ping-ponging back and forth, look up, look down, "6th floor?" "no, fifth floor" "oh, wait, i DO have an adjoining room! put them in 511 and 513!" pretty sure we almost wet ourselves (at least me, i shouldn't speak for these two dignified ladies, who would never do anything like potty humor in public). remind me, that brought up something i almost forgot-look for it in a minute. anyhoo, the gal had to take us up to the rooms to unlock the middle doors, but when we got upstairs, the key to the other room wasn't working, so she unlocked one middle door, and had to go back downstairs to retrieve new key cards. it took a minute, but she was excited to do it. (and by excited, i mean at least she did it with a smile!)

so back to the wet myself thing...when we were in the training the previous day, i had gotten to coughing so hard at one point (from something that was said, perhaps), and i'd been drinking lots of water, so you can infer the situation, i made my way toward the restroom with none other than a mini-bottle of water in my hand and i started to guzzle it on the way down the hall, when something hard hit my tooth! WHAT IN THE WORLD, i was thinking about the worm in the bottom of tequila bottles, and thought, 'what nasty thing did the bottlers allow in this bottle! and more to the point, why hadn't i noticed it?!' then i tasted it, halls. yes, i accidentally took the bottle that sabrina had just dropped a halls into. good thing, because i was about to do a spit-take...

ok, and back to our regularly scheduled post, sorry about that, i was just reminded of it...so the door was finally opened, and we got our stuff settled, and then went out to their balcony. no hot tub this night, as it would take too long for bathing suits to dry, and i think sabrina might have gotten a little case of altitude sickness as we were leaving the restaurant. thankfully the meds began to kick in, and by this time she was feeling a bit better. traveling can do a number on you when you're all over the place! anyhoo, we were pulling up stupid videos and laughing and one of my favorite comedians, brian regan-HAHA! so funny! some of the things he comes up with just leave you thinking, "i know who he was talking about!" because we all have those someones in our lives! charlie, a redneck video, muffins, we ranged the gamut!

sleep was good, and we were off to the airport, with a quick detour to starbucks. it got long again...tomorrow i finish with the airport story (which i can finally talk about), and move into the week! sorry 'bout the lack of pics, but deal with it, we're all adults here, and this is not a story-book...

for now, enjoy what's left of the evening, as i prepare for another 'adventure in training'!
julie

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