And The Rest...

That is me. I went blonde on top with red on bottom. Just in case you were wondering who that woman was up there.

The rest of the vacation was normal. I spent time with family and friends and in general had a total blast. The only stress I had was with my ex-husband. I drive over 900 miles and the ASS won't even meet me at a convienant location to pick up his son. His excuse was that he didn't want to use the gas up. My response was to tell him, "If you want to see your son, you will drive your lazy ass to this location at 3 P.M. or not see him at all." Then I hung up on him. Every time I see my ex now, I look at him and wonder what the hell happened to him. Seriously. He used to be a great guy. Honest. Now he is rude, lazy and self absorbed. Such is life I suppose. Some of us get smarter with age, the others grow more ignorant.

Enough about losers. Time for a winner.

I had the great pleasure of spending extra time with my best friend. He is awesome. He just bought a historical hotel. In this quaint, historical town, no less. We went there to see the wonderful Christmas lights and shops. Here is the link. If you ever get to Indiana, check this place out. Or you can just look at the site right now and see some of the wonderful sites I saw.

Click Me!

Of course I just had to see National Treasure Book of Secrets! Loved it! So pretty much normal vacation.

I ended up leaving Indiana a day later then I had planned. I was visiting a friend of mine and I just didn't want to leave her. We had so much fun. Playing a silly video game with her husband and a couple of their friends. I tell you, the Wii is WOW!

Until my next drama filled event.

Day 3.. ummm yeah..this is real

So, the day begins normal enough. As normal as it can be with two boys trapped in a car with their mother on a long journey. Let me just say, getting a five year old up at 6 am, is the best thing in the world. Nothing like a grouchy monster to brighten your day.

We hit the road. We make it to the end of the road and I notice that something is wrong with my car. Yep, you read right. I try not to panic. I mean I am only five blocks from the house. I take a deep breath and pull into the gas station. I pop the hood. Luckily, only the plug to the alternator popped out. Even luckier, it is a good thing I know how to do some basic auto mechanics. I fix my car. Use my jumper box to start it and Hallelujah we are really on the road.

The day progresses normally, a quick stop for breakfast and car games on the interstate.

UNTIL......My car starts making a funny noise about four hours down the road. In Georgia. So I do the smart thing, pull over. I do some standard things. Fill the oil, check the transmission fluid and top off the antifreeze. The car is still making the noise, but everything looks normal, so I hit the road again. About fifteen minutes down the road, in the middle of nowhere, antifreeze starts hitting the window. OOPS!!

Stranded on the side of the interstate.

That is, until a very nice elderly lady, stops and helps us. She gave us a ride into town, took me to get another alternator (since the pulley fell off of the other one) and insisted on feeding us snacks and drinks. She also insisted on finding a man to go back to the interstate with me and help me change the alternator. Even though I told her I could do it, she just kept patting my shoulder and saying "Just in case you need help, dear. Just in case."

I seriously must have on stressed out Angel looking over me. She is probably fluttering around playing Dodge the Drama ball. But, she makes sure I get out of the drama.

The car gets fixed. But I was freaking the whole time I was away from my car. I thought for sure someone would vandalize it. I had made up my mind. If one thing was touched on my car, I was turning around and going back to Florida. Since I made it to Indiana, you can be assured, the car was untouched. God forbid someone steal the piece of shit so I can buy a new one. LOL

Uh oh.. Day 2

Well, first off, I think I want to go back on vacation. The real world sucks.

So I proceed to get up the next day. I have a few errands to run, post office, grocery, bank, the norm.

First stop, the bank, after all that is were all that lovely green stuff is housed. I don't have a checkbook, I either use my debit card or cash. I have a terrible tendency to bounce checks. Not on purpose, sheesh LOL. So therefore I do not know my account number. So I go to the teller and say I am going to make a deposit, proceed to hand them my debit card so they can access my account, but what I pull out of my pocket is a Visa gift card. I immediately know what I did wrong. See, I cleaned out my pockets the night before, the gift card is empty. I had meant to throw it away, instead I throw away my only means of accessing my travel money while I am on the road. I am a bright crayon. The brightest one in the box. The color black.

I take a deep breath and try not to have a meltdown. I ask how long it will take to get a new card, because I am leaving at 5 am in the morning. They politely tell me 7 to 10 days. My whole body tenses and I ask, is there any other way I can get a new card quicker. The teller calls over the manager. Thank God, this woman knows her stuff. She says that one of the banks in town makes the cards and if the machine isn't broke they can get me one today. My luck changes and I have to drive about 25 minutes, but I get a new card. Whew!!

I am just about done with my day. I have one more stop to make before I can go home and get ready for work. I never make it to work. My forth brand new alternator decides that it doesn't like the pulley. Yep.. the car broke down again. When I finally make it home, it is a mad rush of, feed the kids and pack. Not my favorite game.

Alas, I finally made it to bed around Midnight. Needless to say, I left at 7 am not 5 am.

In cave woman queen voice, " Tired Wooo man need sleep."

Shockingly Enough Day 1

I say shocking, because what I did shocked even me. I took a legitimate vacation. I seriously have never had a vacation before. I am the person that goes to work sick and consistently picks up extra shifts. When I threw everything to the wind and took ten days off, I think my boss went into shock. He did ask me if I knew I was taking ten days off in a row. I just looked at him like he was crazy.

Now, what did I do for my vacation? Well, I drove 19 hours from Florida to Indiana for Christmas with my remaining family. Now that you know what I did, shall I tell you the drama I went through to get to go.

Day 1

I have a day off. I plan on using this day to pack, clean, tidy up the car and use my coupon for a free oil change.

I drive into the mechanics. Thankfully I have a very honest one. They take my car and put it on the lift. The nice man asks me what I would like for him to do to it.

"Well, besides the oil change, just make sure it can handle a drive to Indiana. Oh, and check out the tires."

I forgot to mention to the mechanic that I had a tire that wobbles. Sure enough, he found out what was causing it. I had a broken tire rod. That tire rod had managed to throw my alignment completely off, which then ruined the tires. Basically, I fix it or don't go.

I had him price out everything. Tires, tire rod, alignment, the works. $400.00.

There goes half my travel money I had saved up. I almost cried. Really I did. But I know that a broken tire rod, if not taken care of, could cause a tire to come off and possibly cause an accident. Protect my kids? or take a chance? I protected my children, but let me tell you I cussed out the car.

I don't really think the car cared what I thought of it, but damn it made me feel better.

I never managed to get packed that night. By the time I ended up leaving the mechanic, it was time to cook dinner. And those of you with children know, after dinner time just flies away.

But I promise, Day 2.....coming soon.

I'm So Sorry

I guess I should warn you that my absence is due to much drama. Go figure, huh? Of course I wouldn't have earned my name fair and square if I did not have drama in my life. I put the computer in the shop, it is still there. Yep. I got stood up by my date. No joke. On the plus side, he came into my work the next day to apologize. He said his son had to have surgery. I understood that. So I proceeded to ask him how old his son was. To which he informed me, "My son is one and he was getting tubes put in his ears." I made the standard so sorry to hear about that. And we continued on with a normal conversation. All the while in the back of my head I am thinking, "This man is married!!!!" I mean major alarms are going off in my head.

Here is why I came to that conclusion.

1. He lives in Georgia and I am in Florida.

2. He travels because of his job.

3. His child is under the age of five.

Just to suspicious to my mind. But if you think I was too rash, please let me know.

Anyway, I still am without a computer, but I now have the ability to borrow one when needed. So I am officially back! I promise to write more either tomorrow of the day after at the latest.

Hugs and Misses to All!!