Weekends are everything...........

So, it was a pretty great weekend. And not because we did something spectacular, but because of a lot of little things that added up to......everything.

Jeff was gone all week to San Diego for a conference and to visit his mom, grandma and aunt, plus other family members. He also did some "honey-do" stuff around his mom's house, managed to get in a little surfing, and visited a friend. So, having him come home Saturday night was highly anticipated. Except his plane was delayed and he arrived three hours late. At midnight. But, that paled in comparison to having him home, snuggled up next to me in our bed with clean sheets, talking till 3 a.m. That was pretty cool.

Harrison and Arlie had their state thespian festival this weekend. We always go to watch their performances, so, in anticipation, I booked an Airbnb place a few months back. Hotel rooms are hard to come by with that many visitors in a small college town, so I was being proactive. But then Jeff's trip came up and so I figured I'd take Hannah with me. But then Hannah had movie plans with friends so I asked Hayley to come. And she and Megan decided to take the time off work and come with me. I messaged the Airbnb to make sure they could accommodate the extra person and was assured they could.

When we arrived, Harrison's one-act play was about to start so we went to that first (it was great!) and then drove by the Airbnb place. It didn't have great curb appeal and was on a street with unkempt homes and yards, but I figured it was an older neighborhood so no big deal. But later, when we went to check in, the home was cluttered, not very clean and the basement bedroom was a little creepy. The host didn't seem ready for us at all, stopping to move clutter on our way through the house, and telling us the towels were still in the dryer - it was 5:30 p.m. so it seemed she just wasn't very together on the whole thing. She also remarked a couple of times that she "hasn't done this" before so we wondered if it was the first time she'd rented out a room - except her reviews were glowing and it appeared she'd been in the business quite some time. It was very confusing and her demeanor was odd - her pants were unzipped, her shirt was gaping and her belly was showing, and she appeared confused. I could tell the girls were horrified and I didn't feel comfortable sleeping there. We didn't check in, claiming we were going out for a while, and I started thinking up excuses of why we couldn't stay there. I could tell her one of the kids got sick and we had to go home. But, in the end, I decided to be honest and just tell her the truth. She didn't make any excuses and quickly offered a refund. I'm still scratching my head about the whole experience but since we had nothing but great experiences in our past Airbnb stays, I decided to just chalk this one up as our first bad experience. I'm glad we live only an hour and a half away and were able to drive home for the night.

Since Hayley and Megan were planning to be away overnight, they decided to spend the night at my house. We arrived home, made food, and watched a movie with Rylie and Hannah. We laughed and had a great time, capping the evening by singing old John Lithgow tunes from a kids' tape the girls used to listen to all the time when they were little. I'm sure Rylie and Megan thought we were nuts, but it was hilarious and we laughed and laughed. That was pretty cool.

Saturday morning Hayley made breakfast after we all slept in a ridiculously long time. I spent some time de-cluttering, giving tons of stuff away and cleaning in anticipation of Jeff's arrival home. It was great to get rid of things and get all the laundry done, even if my back was killing me for some reason. It was just nice to be home and have time to get things done so that next week doesn't feel overwhelming. Pretty cool.

Sunday morning, we slept in a ridiculously long time again. Jeff puttered around the house doing projects while I went shopping, both for food for the week and Easter bunny stuff since I won't be around later in the week to do that. I think I left my car lights on because I came out of a store to a dead battery, but thanks to my husband, I had a portable starter with me and jump-started the car by myself in just a few minutes. Instead of being in a bad mood because of the inconvenience, I was just happy I had this important tool at the ready and I didn't have to call and bother anyone to rescue me! I managed to get everything ready for Easter, and Jeff is going to cook a nice meal. Arlie had a "date" that she invited over for dinner and we had a taco bar and watched a movie, capped off by homemade peanut butter/chocolate bars. While I was making the dessert, the kids were talking. laughing, braiding each other's hair and it was just.......nice. I love being home and hanging out with my family. The previous week was SO busy - I was gone till 10 p.m. or later nearly every night and with Jeff out of town as well, I had to call on the kids to take care of some things like dinner - Hannah "adulted" quite well and made a couple of nice dinners and even bought treats for St. Patrick's day.

So, yeah. I love weekends. I don't care if we do anything special or fun, I just love being home, even if it means doing some chores, or cooking, because it's not rushed. The rest of the week is a blur of activity and rushing, and the weekend is the exact opposite. It's pretty cool. Weekends are everything!

November 7 and I've been in three states today.....

Remember yesterday's post where I was worrying about flying? Well, I had good reason to be worried because today I experienced terrifying turbulence in an airplane. I'm not talking a few bumps through the clouds. I'm talking so rough it was hard to read or hold my Kindle and it felt like a truck hit us midair. You know, if trucks flew. And went 600 miles an hour. My point is, I had to close my eyes, pray fervently, grip my jacket and take deep breaths, and I still could not quell my anxiety. When the plane landed I felt like my legs were jelly. Still taking deep breaths, I exited the plane but not before I heard the pilot say "Yeah, I'm new!" God help me.

And you know, yes, flying can be beautiful, like when you see the sun streaming over the clouds like this:

Or you see cool jet streams in the sky like this:

Or you see an awesome river reflecting the sun like this: 

But that turbulence will ruin it every time. It's like a bumpy car ride only when you reach for something to hold on to, you realize you are IN THE AIR and there's nothing between you and the ground, except AIR, and the whole reason you're feeling all these horrible, lurching, tipping, shaking, dropping moves is because of AIR. This is why I hate air travel. 

It was already dark by the time we got our rental car and headed to York, PA. Hey, did you know that York Peppermint Patties were first manufactured in York, PA in 1940? That's what it says on the placard in our bed and breakfast. And there are York Peppermint Patties lying in little dishes all over our rooms. Here's a little Wiki background for you: York Peppermint Patties were first manufactured by Henry Kessler of the York Cone Co. in York, PA. Many similar peppermint chocolate candies were in existence before the York Peppermint Pattie but what made these unique was that while others had a soft and gooey center, the York had a firm and crisp center. According to a former employee of the company, if the pattie didn't snap clean in half during test sampling, it was considered a second. And that's how you "Get the Sensation"!

Let's just talk about how weird this whole Airbnb thing is. Anyone can rent a room in their house to anyone else for whatever amount they want and they make all the rules. So, I found this place online and these people live in a regular neighborhood. We just drove up, found the house number, and knocked on the door. A nice lady answered, asked us to take off our shoes (and offered up house slippers which "are washed between each guest" - I declined). She showed us to our upstairs quarters. There's a main bedroom with a queen bed that looks like this:

Hi Jeff! 

Plus, there's an extra room for just spreading out or lounging in that looks like this: 

And it has these super cool built-in bunkbeds so if you were traveling with kids, it would be so fun! 

And we don't know these people AT ALL. They are perfect strangers and we're just sleeping in their house. We took showers in their house! We are going to eat breakfast in their house! How weird is that? Plus, I've seen enough episodes of "Criminal Minds" to know that this could be the perfect scenario to lure unsuspecting people to your house just to murder them and make them into mincemeat pies or something. I mean, except for the paper trail, it would be the perfect crime! At least there's a lock on the door so I guess I'll be able to sleep. The last Airbnb place we stayed in had its own separate entrance and was its own little apartment. This place is right inside this couple's home. What if WE are the murderers? These people are crazy to let complete strangers into their home. And yet, here I am. 

So, we asked for a suggestion for a dinner restaurant and they highly recommended a Mexican/Peruvian place nearby. I was already starving when the plane landed, and then it took an hour to get the rental car and another hour to get to York, so that by the time we arrived at the restaurant, I was beyond hangry. Not a typo. And can you believe THREE people cut in front of us in line to get their name on the list? I mean, I'm trying to be polite.....I'm a guest in Pennsylvania after all, but....HOW RUDE! So, the wait was 20-25 minutes. You can imagine how hungry I was by the time we got our table. It took forever for them to bring us chips and salsa. The chips were warm and freshly-cooked but the salsa was watery and disappointing. Not to worry, though, my margarita was divine! I was SO looking forward to trying a Peruvian dish but nearly every dish had tilapia (ew, disgusting fish), salmon (in PA? I don't think so - how fresh can that be?!) or shrimp (again, the coast is too far away - I only trust seafood when I'm actually close to the water). So, I went with Mexican. Mexican is easy, right? Hard to screw up. Wrong. I had the worst "vegetarian burrito" ever. It was a cold flour tortilla filled with beans and about half a bag of shredded lettuce. I think they forgot the cheese completely. I had a quarter-size dollop of sour cream on top with an olive slice for garnish. The "pico de gallo" it was to be served with was another mound of bagged lettuce with a few tomato dices in it. It had no flavor, except for that nasty "bagged lettuce" taste. I HATE bagged lettuce. Plus, they forgot the side of rice and beans. When I asked for it, I was given a flavorless sauce-sized plate of ick. Jeff had a decent Peruvian dish, but overall the dinner was horribly disappointing and I was mad because I was starving for hours and was really looking forward to a good dinner. Jeff tried to make up for it by taking me to Dairy Queen after but I was already full from the little I did eat of the nasty burrito, so I only ate a few bites of my treat. Bleh. 

Now it's 10:10 here and Jeff is snoring. Never mind it's 7:10 our time. I guess we'll get an early start tomorrow, which is good because it's pitch black here by 5 p.m. and we have a big agenda. 

P.S. I'm totally calling my doctor to have her call in a prescription for Xanax or something for the flight home. Seriously. I'm not kidding. I'm considering driving home. I hate airplanes. Please don't make me get on another one.