I spent most of Sunday (8/15) and all day Monday(8/16) getting all of my stuff together and packed as much as I could so I could fully go out Monday and really enjoy myself and not have to worry about everything I needed to do before I left in the morning.
For my last night in Omaha, I knew I wanted to go into Blue because I knew that would be the only way I’d get to see my cousin Brandon one last time. I had such a fun night! I was so surprised who was able to make it out considering it was a Monday night. Thank you all so much for coming!!
(8/17) Tuesday morning was a wee bit rough, but a girls got to do, what a girls got to do when she’s got her sights set on the Big Apple! I puled myself out of bed and finished packing up my car to head off to St. Louis, MO to pick up Emily. I made it to STL in pretty good time, considering I left about 2 hours after I had originally wanted to...
It was so good to finally see Emily! We haven’t seen each other since high school! I love friendships like ours that can still remain in tack even when 7+ years have gone by without seeing or really even talking to each other. That night Alaina and Emily had really wanted to see this jazz singer, Kim Massie who was playing in down town STL. Unfortunately that night, I only took Holga/film shots- so there’s hope that eventually I’ll do another post someday... but if you know me, it probably won’t happen. Listening to Kim sing was a BLAST! I had so much fun with my roomies that night! I can’t wait for us all to be together under one roof again soon!
(8/18)Wednesday morning was another early morning so that we could make it to Columbus, OH by 3 or 4 o’clock so Emily could get in as much time as possible with her boyfriend, Brian. A couple of weeks ago, I was at B&N to pick up a book for NYC when something caught my eye: “Drive and learn French”!! It was only $10 and I had JUST told Emily and Alaina a week before how I really wanted to learn how to speak french. It was too perfect to pass up. Emily and I had a good time learning how to say “what time is it?”, “it’s over there”, “it’s hot”, and a variety of different colors. When we first got in, Emily and I both were feeling a little sticky, so we went for a dip in Brian’s pool- it was such a perfect August afternoon!
Originally Emily had said that Brian had big dinner plans for us, but by the time dinner came around, we were all too pooped to go anywhere. Emily and Brian had remembered about a time they’d made their own pizza, and how good it was with a bit of egg as the protein- so we decided we’d make pizza for dinner! It was soooo delicious! That night, we made two pizza’s, 1: whole wheat crust with olive oil, spinach, broccoli, red bell pepper, onion, egg, and of course, cheese. 2: regular crust (Boboli) red sauce, grilled chicken, broccoli, red bell pepper, onion, and cheese. We washed it all down with a beer, or two (or three...) or in my case, wine :)
(8/19) Brian and his roommate Chris Hall both work for Honda so since our time in OH was limited, Emily and I met them at Honda for lunch that day. Honda does a VERY good job of keeping everything top secret, so I wasn’t able to take any pictures inside- but I thought it was only fair that my little baby got to take a picture with her momma!
After lunch, Emily and I went for a walk around Antrim Park. Half way along the path, we found a few little paths that led closer to the water so we decided to follow them and see where they went! The water was a little dirty... but the paths were really neat. Emily and I both agreed that certain spots reminded us of our high school days spent at the creek.
Since the pizza was so delicious the first night, and we still had one crust and plenty of veggies left, we decided to do pizza again. Another whole wheat with olive oil, broccoli, red bell pepper, spinach, egg and cheese.
The night prior Brian had introduced me to his friend Yousuf. Yousuf celebrates Ramadan is and fasting for the month where he can only eat and drink after sunset and before sunrise. Wednesday night he had invited us over to his house for tea and coffee the following night, so we left down town Columbus and headed back to Yousuf’s. Yousuf made me the most delicious mint tea I’ve ever had! We had to cut the tea a little short because all of us were planning on being up and out the door before 6AM the following morning.
(8/20) I got the idea to pick a bouquet of wild flowers off the side of the road, because there are some really beautiful flowers all along the highway. Emily and I wanted to have something to give to Andrea (my step mom) when we got into North Carolina so we got busy picking flowers on the side of the road before we even left Ohio. When I used to work for Cheer Ltd., it became a tradition to stop at every state sign as we drove... Emily and I were only able to stop at two signs :(
By the time we got closer and closer to NC, Emily and I were both getting really excited and we kind of stopped paying attention to our directions. The plan was originally to get into NC early enough to have plenty of time to hit the Greensboro water park- but Emily and I went almost 100 miles out of our way; so by the time we back tracked and finally made it to the house, there wasn’t really enough time to make the water park worth the money. We ended up going to the country club that my family belongs to, let me tell you... a dip in the pool has never felt sooooo good! We finished the night off with some good ol’ BBQ for dinner (I’d been craving a pulled pork sandwich for a long time!)
(8/21) It felt really nice to be able to really sleep in, and in a bed! We woke up and went to the farmers market where Andrea had a groupon to use. It was the cutest little shop I’d ever been to, and not at all like a “normal” farmers market. Since the water park idea had gone out the window the day before, we decided to try to make it happen again... only to fail... again... Turns out my families passes are not good on Saturdays, so for all 6 of us to go, it would have cost over $200 (maybe even $300) so we scratched that idea. When all else fails, go to the country club :) After swimming at the CC, I told everyone that we HAD to stop at Bojangles so everyone could try their french fries. I’m glad Boja’s didn’t let me down. Everyone loved them! They are seriously the most amazing french fries, EVER. Shortly after we got home, Emily and I went for a run. There is a pretty cool little trail that goes along my parents neighborhood. Holy bucket, I am out of shape!!! After a post run shower, we were told to meet down at the dock right behind my parents house (they live on a man-made lake) for a surprise put together by my brother, Noah and my dad. Neither Emily or I had any idea what to expect, but was thrilled to find them floating up on a big pontoon boat with a chilled bottle of wine waiting for us!
After the boat ride, we ate a delicious dinner out on the back patio. The weather, and evening was perfect.
(8/22) Was pretty boring, spent most of our day either at the AT&T store, or packing.
For dinner we went to Natty Greene’s Brewery- YUM!! After dinner Emily and I showed down town Greensboro a good time at their (I would assume, only) gay bar and made some new friends!
(8/23) I went with the fam to drop the boys off for their first day of school. It was pretty cute seeing them so nervous for their first day of high school (for Noah) and at at a new school. It brought me back to my first day of high school, I surprised myself with how clearly I remembered it!! After a little nap, Emily and I were a little hungover, so we stopped at a Chick-fil-A for a little fast food - hangover cure. It did the trick. Following lunch, we picked up Gabriel from school (Noah was already off on a camping trip with his class) and headed over to the Apple store to get my iPhone. Now, if you’re a facebook friend of mine, or if you regularly read my blog... you know that the “Vote for Melanie” champagne was still going strong. You better believe that Gabriel, Emily, and I took our roles very serious and went to every single computer in the apple store and voted. After a long day of waiting on my iPhone, and packing, we ended the night with a Grasshoppers game (Greensboro’s AAA baseball team). I even drank my OWN beer!
Emily and I were leaving the following morning at 4AM so we decided not to go to sleep so we would get some good sleep on the train.
(8/24) When we arrived at the train station, we were positive we were there in plenty of time, but the Amtrak agents let us know otherwise. Emily and I each had the maximum amount of bags allowed (for free) plus one or two extra. I knew we had a lot of stuff, but don’t think I realized HOW much that really added up to be. At last we got onto our train and settled into our seats. It was kind of a bummer at it was so early in the morning because everyone was sleeping and all we wanted to do was scream and giggle with excitement that we were finally on our way to NYC! After one or two little “night caps”
Emily and I finally tried to get some sleep. I say “tried” because the two men sitting directly across from me were snoring SOOOOO loud! I wanted to punch them. I think I maybe got a total of 2 possibly 3 hours of sleep before pulling into Penn Station around 3:30PM...
Check back soon to continue reading all about my crazy journey....
shot pack!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteshots to go!!!!!! LOL fun times