A visit with an old friend

Well, one always thinks that, after the New Year, we have an opportunity to slow down, clean up, and take a deep breath. Not so in my case. I took New Years Day and the 2 days following as my last vacation days before our fiscal year runs out because tonight and tomorrow night I have to do overnights for inventory prep, then we inventory, and THEN we have to try to finish all our resets on time. Also, in between all of this I have to try to get Ryan to give me a new team leader! Talk about being busy!
Anyway, surprise of all surprises when I Get a phone call from my friend Jason on New Year's Eve to let me know that he, his wife, and their son are vacationing in Florida for the week-spur of the moment and all. Come to find out, we were only 3 hours from where they were staying, which was perfect since I Had 3 days off...so we went to visit them! Keep in mind that Jason and I haven't seen each other for, like, 6 years! I've never met his wife Katy or their son Andrew, so I was totally excited if not a little bit nervous because Katy and I haven't had the greatest relationship over the phone.:)

So, it was a lovely little trip over to Florida-turns out they were staying just West of Destin, which is where my sister Holly used to live, so it was easy to find...and SO beautiful where they were staying-like a little community within a community. And seeing Jason was great...we're the type of friends who can not see each other for 6 years and then sit down like we last saw each other yesterday. And Katy is really great and nice and we got along really well, I think, which was a huge relief for me. And ANDREW! WHAT a sweetheart! Troublemaker, no doubt, but SO beautiful and adorable and sweet. He even hugged us when we were leaving!

Overall it was an awesome little mini trip to see a great old friend...and I got to cross off a "Things to do before I die" experience too! Jason had rented "scooters" for the day for him and Katy, so he suggested we take one and they take one when we went to lunch...now, these, to me, were not just scooters-they were crotch rockets bikes as far as I was concerned and I was scared SHITLESS the entire time we were trying to find a restaurant to eat at! SERIOUSLY! Yes, it only topped out at 40mph, but that was PLENTY For me! I swear I sweated through all the clothes I had on and I kept feeling like we were wobbling all over the road-which we were, but mostly because I was shaking and wobbling the bike MYSELF (Robert didn't have the heart to tell me that I was the one making us wobble)! Good LORD! So, my "Thing to do before I die" was to ride a motorcycle, but I think that a "Scooter" was enough for me! Still, it was a lovely day in Florida, it was awesome to see Jason, Katy, and Andrew and we had a really good time. Seeing Jason brought back so many fond memories of Maine...

Oh, and we saw this bus on the way down to Florida...I'm sorry, it just was so funny!