Aim For Spare Time

A week in the life of a mother, a flight attendant, and a girlfriend…

Mini Vacations:  Brought to you by a Delta Regional Carrier

Ashville, NC…

Ashville is a cute artsy town set among soft rolling hills with a backdrop of evergreens. 

In a lot of ways this town reminds me of a town near where I grew up... Santa Cruz, CA. Lots of ‘free spirits’ wandering around. Tourists and local drunks walking through the squares. Music playing on every corner by both good musicians and bad.

Art pops up everywhere. From statues in surprise places to the grates on the ground.

My hotel is right next to the Thomas Wolfe house...   Gorgeous home, that'd I kill to live in... Love the wrap around porch and the old oak tree...

"Is this not the true romantic feeling, not to desire to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping you..."  Thomas Wolfe

Isn't that why I have the job I have?  People travel to see places they haven't seen before, to see friends and family they miss, and to prevent life from escaping them.  Carpe Diem!  Grab hold of life and LIVE!

I'm inspired to do a long run... I ran through the town for an hour, changed and went back.  Seeing the architecture on my run had me itching to take photos...

I spend 2.5 hours walking through town taking pictures and looking for chocolate shops.  I found two of the six I’d heard about – my favorite being “The Chocolate Fetish”… heaven on earth for the chocolate lover.  From artsy shoes to just plain amazing chocolate orange peels. Mmmm….  As one shirt on the wall said “Dip me in chocolate and call me desert!”

I find beautiful small old churches and one grand dame... the Basilica.  Whoever does the grand dames gardening, gets an A+...

The buildings downtown are all old and quaint.  I grinned as I walked by the old Woolworth store... Can't find a much better American Icon as the Five and Dime Woolworths...

The depression of the 1920’s-30’s put the town in so much debt they were unable to “modernize” it in the 1960’s-70’s when everywhere else in the US was… Now they embrace their historic charm.  Everything DOES happen for a reason… I’m sure you’ll agree touching these buildings would have been a sin.

Everywhere you look... you can see the deco designs, I keep snapping pictures, knowing I'm going to bore people but I LOVE deco... and the few bits of gothic remnants too.  I'm loathe to leave, but it's time to pack up and start my day... Two bags of chocolate in my hand, I walk back to the hotel to get ready.

Later that day, as I was stuck in Detroit due to weather, I sat around in the airport doing one of my favorite home past times… feeding fat birdies… Detroit airport is home to lots of cute little fat birdies that hoover up the crumbs from messy passengers.  These lil babies killed a good hour from the five I sat there.

I finished my four day trip without any major flaws and rushed back home to two of my loves… My boo and my daughter…  my son was away at Space Camp all week.

The three of us did dinner and a Madagascar 3 on Wednesday.  Cute movie but not nearly the standard of the other two.  It’s definitely time to put this series to bed.  L



Thursday, I gave my daughter the girl day she wanted while her brother was away.  Donuts in the morning and pedicure at noon.  Perfect life to a tweener!  Dropped my baby girl off at my fathers so she wouldn’t have to do the long drive to Huntsville to pick up her brother the next day.

Later that night I went to a DetermineNation meeting… which is the BIG news for the week.  I signed up with American Cancer Society for another fundraising event.  DetermineNation baby.  I’ll be aiming to raise $3000 while getting back in shape to run a half marathon in November.  Helping people have another birthday, while I check off another ‘to do’ from my bucket list.  I’m sooo excited about this.  This will be the subject of many blogs to come.

And Then There's Space!

Huntsville, AL

My father reported to me Friday that my spoiled darling baby daughter likes breakfast in bed… Apparently she slept in, was treated like a princess and then spent the afternoon swimming… Much better than 9 hours of driving, which my wonderful boo volunteered to join me for.  I soo suck at long drives.

I couldn’t risk using my benefits and not making a flight home since CJ had a flight (with a paid ticket) to CA the next day…  My sweetpea and I had fun checking out all the rockets and engines at Huntsville Space Center. 

My son got to shake Hoot Gibson’s hand, which he took casually and I thought was ubercool. 

The ride back was painless as CJ filled out Mad Libs while my sweetie and I desperately pulled adjectives, verbs, nouns and adverbs out of our heads.  It's been a LONG time since I had to think about parts of speech lol.

Got the kids ot their dads and started my first of 9 days without them.  Sooo quiet!  Spent a lazy morning sleeping in, then we went for a nice run in Windermere Park...  Left around 3pm to head for the city for a beer festival... OMG beautiful day, and fun 5 hours making new friends... I bonded with another cancer survivor while sitting on a lawn and listening to music.... my boo bonded with her husband over being ex military...  You know you're "happy" when  you let a total stranger feel your breast to see how it compares to her new reconstructed ones... I think her doctor did a good job lol!

I'm back at work, day 3 of 4 before I have 10 days off again... I'm looking forward to cleaning my house without my babies messing it up behind me... and I'm looking forward to a couple days spent with my sweetheart, before we both run away in July... Gotta put love dollars in the love bank...  Ours is overflowing now... but I'll find a few more ways to stuff a few more dollars in for safe keeping...

Life is good... It's time for me to do a long run in Springfield, MO.

Peace out!

Aim For Panicky Mothers

My mother hadn't heard from me in ooooh 5 days so she started to panic...  She called and left a voice mail.. Out of sheer desperation she went looking for my blog to ensure I was still alive...  but I hadn't posted in a bit...  "OMG I know she's dead, or injured somewhere, in some small plane town"!!!

When I called her on the way home from work on Wednesday, she was quite relieved and pointed out I hadn't blogged recently...  "Mother, I was working.  Hard...." but it was more than that... I am simply.  Happy.  I don't have anything that I'm chewing on in my head that I need to write about to work through and let go of.

Today, I'm going to post a recap of the past week... So when Mom comes looking she'll see I still lived as of July 17 at 10:49 am eastern time lol...

Sunday June 10-Wednesday June 13

I flew 8122 miles in 4 days.  Averaging 15 hours a day at work, and a total of 30:17 flight time.  Anyone that knows the industry is reading this and feeling tired in empathy.

Day 3, a 15:47 duty day due to maintenance and weather... I'm still in DTW waiting to finally leave for DFW.  I love standing at the door and watching sunrises and sunsets...  Tonight's view I shouldn't be seeing...  I take a deep breath and enjoy the sky.

The morning of Day 4 I take a shower in my 'handicapped accessible" hotel room that I was given at 1am... and the shower seat falls down on my thigh... AHHHHHHH!  How is this supposed to help people in wheelchairs?  That's like adding insult to injury!  Or perhaps, this is how they secretly got there?  Hotels inflicting pain and suffering?

It's simply not my day, as I somehow hurt my shoulder blade too... I think it's just the exhaustion of this 4 day trip that has accidents happening around me that might not normally.  Thank god I'm flying with a mad man who's making me laugh hysterically the whole time.

Thursday June 14-Saturday June 16

Home again!  Avery attacks me immediately and demands time... I'd tell you more but he says it's private kitty business and the camera needs to be put down NOW.  "MEOW! BIOTCH it's MY time!"

With Avery happily settled in with me and his dogs, the kids finally come over to join us.  I need fresh air as I've been stuck in a metal tube, hurtling myself across the states at 275mph for 4 days... I declare it's pool time.  The kids ask me if I'm getting in... I give them my typical response... "It's not July, I don't get in pools til July"...  there's two reasons for this... one, southern pools aren't heated... and two, I'm more the read the book poolside with a drink gal, and this gives me the excuse to rotisserie my body in peace...

I spend the next two days either outside in my garden, at the pool, or inside bidding for next months flying schedule... The house cleaning will be done next week... really... Thank God I did it last week, because it's still looking... ok... (what dog hair where?  Each human has clean underwear in this house, so it's all good!)

Flowers are blooming... but I see signs of critters.  They eat and leave poop everywhere... I really need a fence lol.

My poor veggie garden is being decimated by deer this year... the beans were looking soooo nice... now look at them!

On a positive note, I ate blueberries, nectarines, strawberries, and a banana pepper during these two days.... OMG straight off the vine almost everything is perfection!

I do always like to end my blogs on positive notes... So let me start the end with the flowers that thrive despite the elements, the critters, and my lack of watering....  These flowers make me smile each time I come home... A little nature welcoming committee that never fails to lift my tired spirits.  I love wandering through the garden and finding spots to take pictures of to share with those I love.

This blue guy... He was on clearance for $5 (from $30)...  I knew he was a perennial so I took him home to find a place for him to love and live in my garden....  I wasn't sure he'd bloom this year, but bloom he did... even after I divided his root bound bottom... Half of him is on either side of my bird bath.

My hibiscus is the only true perennial hibiscus in the south... and it seems to thrive on the deer trimmings it gets each year... This is it's most glorious year yet... My boo always says "First year they sleep, second they creep, third they leap..."  My hibiscus is definitely on target year 3...

Day lilies are all over my garden... all shapes and sizes... tick weed is creeping.... cat mint is going to town...

All in all, my home is in it's normal state of controlled chaos, inside and out... Nothing is perfect, but nothing is horrid either... That's what life is all about... perfection would be boring, and you wouldn't see the beauty if you didn't notice the lil chips around the edges...

Speaking of seeing the beauty, almost every time I sleep at my boo's place I wake up early as the sun is rising and stare out at the amazing view as the city wakes up.  He sleeps happily through it... he barely notices that I've come and returned with the exception of a "grmmphiwuvugrmmph" his hand flings over my hip, pulls me closer and then, when all is right again in his sleepy lil world, back to the puffs of sleep I am used to from his lips...  I smile and hope that at least one of the pictures I've taken will begin to show the beauty I just saw... They never do... I need a good camera... but snuggle, sigh, eyes start to close again... I've got a great man... "grmmmpphhhiwuvu2sweethearrrrrgrrmmmph" zzzzzz

Now, most of y'all know my sense of humor... As I was waiting for my 4th flight yesterday I saw this poster and just started giggling... My boo and I have had this conversation many times... Bigger is not better... in fact, it's overrated in SOOO many ways...  I love the size of the planes I fly, and I always give great service... and boo... as you know, you're the perfect size for me.  :D

Mom, I love you... Tell Prof Happy Father's Day... Love him too... He's the best Step dad a girl could ask for.

It's 10:58 a.m. EST... I'm going for a run... I'll call you when I'm driving Tuesday... I promise.  :)

Aim For Flight

Drama comes when people fight for or against change... especially when one person wants change and the other doesn't... or one is actively involved in change and the other is completely submersed in denial...

Drama comes when others watch people fighting for/against change and try to give those people advice from lessons they have learned... Trying to save loved ones from making the mistakes they made in the past.  People riding the change train don't always welcome or want advice... 

Drama comes when control freaks like me don't know how to let someone they love stumble and fall on their own.

Drama comes when neither person know how and when to really... finally... let go... to let the change train stop at their junction and face the future.

"It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die, 'cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky.  It's been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will..." - Sam Cook


Over the years, I've had to face down a serious fight or flight reflex.  Historically, before this man, I've flown the coop every time drama hits.  The only child in me has little patience for drama.   Like everyone else, I want my life to be clear skies all the time.  I have finally matured enough in my life to know that life isn't always perfect, and what you want doesn't always come in the time that you block for it. 

I've also learned that if you really love someone, you fight.  You stare down the need to fly and say "Screw you devil on my shoulder.  Flying will not get me to my dreams.  Flying will hurt this relationship, and there is very little in my life more important than him."  So I stay and plant my ass on a sofa and fight the war within. 

(Let me interject now, because I know my boo will read this and think flight=break up or run to someone else... That's not what I'm talking about... There are some mornings where I wake up just 'icky' and I want to sneak out of the house and go home and fall apart... to 'go eat worms' in my garden... to hide under a blanket... to find my peace of mind again.)

I know if I run out that it will cause a rift bigger than what I'm fighting... I can't run from icky... but I don't know how to reach out and run back to him either... and he watches me fight this fight with a raised eyebrow and kid gloves and periodically asks if I'm ok... and I don't know how to answer without falling apart... and I hate falling apart... I HATE feeling icky...  We both know I'll find peace sooner or later, and come back to him with all the love I have in my heart and try to explain what I was feeling and why... because I don't bury icky... I analyze it, face it, and work through it til I can tie a bow around it and send it to another country.

I know that he doesn't always understand why I feel the way I feel... or believe that I should feel the way I do... I fought my instincts to run this morning, so we made it through icky and back to happy.  Which is a very good thing indeed... Because we love each other beyond reason...

I'm sitting here now, thinking about the almost perfect weekend we had, and I'm trying to come up with tools to help him, help me get through the "icky" processing quicker...  I'm thinking maybe there's an answer... but I can't promise it's THE one...  Don't let me spin.  Get me to come sit down next to you... not near to, NEXT to... and hold me.  Tell me you love me.... and keep holding me... til I spill the shizzle out.  I can't be mad or icky in his arms.  Because I do love him, 100% without a doubt, beyond reason... He is... my one.

"When you find the one you truly love, you understand why no one else ever worked out before..."

The one I love had a birthday this weekend... so we spent a rare, glorious, 3 days together.  I cooked his favorite meal... Cioppino... mmm it's this tomato and wine based seafood stew... bloody amazing.  Wine, food, and great conversation... the perfect evening for two...  Romance at it best, with a view that's out of this world!  Well, two views... his baby blues and the Atlanta sky...

After dinner, we had the cheesecake I made him for his birthday cake.  (We've been eating it every night since)... OMG to die for... not that I say so myself... but I AM a great baker... A slice of this with a small glass of my favorite bourbon... it was just a feast of flavors on the tongue... Both of us looked liked we were having mini O's... and he's still giving me grief on the pounds he's going to gain... I told him I'd work them off of him... I'm such a giver always... ;-p

Saturday we had a lazy morning then drove down to Callaway Gardens... It's been on both of our ATL 'to do' lists... Perfect day for this drive... blue skies and warm weather... The gardens are larger than I expected... but they also aren't as pristine as both of us expected.  We were somewhat disappointed in the actual upkeep of parts of the gardens... Wandering the paths together hand in hand was wonderful though... and we had fun feeding the turtles in the lake.  

The best part of Callaway, was the Raptor show... 30 minutes of 'DUCK ITS COMING!"... one bird after another is brought out, and talked about while it's buzzing back and forth RIGHT above your head.  Totally cool!

We left the gardens and went back to the small town we drove through right before we reached Callaway... We'd seen a small pit stop BBQ place filled with bikers in front, and we were determined to go find the perfect 'que'...  We were not disappointed... 3 Lil Pigs... OMG!  The amount of food they give... one plate would have been enough for us... we sat there slurping BBQ sauce off our fingers and chowing down happily outside in the warm summer evening.  HEAVEN!

A long drive back filled with talks of childhood recollections...  and when we return, round two of cheesecake and a glass of bourbon...  Are you getting the picture yet?  Food.  Sun.  Walk.  Food.  Sleep.  Food.  Sun.  Walk...

Yesterday we had another lazy day... we meant to get up early and drive up to Allatoona and go canoeing with a picnic... but never quite made it out early enough... so I filled him up with one of my omelets and we took off for Lil Five Points to wander the Inman Park neighborhood and find a place to have a cold beer outside...

Another beautiful Atlanta day... the shops were cool to wander by... the old homes made me drool... and we found the perfect place to sit outside and people watch... I joke that we are plants... that sunlight makes us grow...  when we sit in the sun we both just close our eyes and arch our necks and purr.  We watch police pull people over... the eclectic denizens of the area walk by... all the while sipping good beer... wait I WAS sipping good beer... he was sipping PBR... which is perhaps the only flaw I can find in him... who drinks PBR?  lol

On the way back we stop at this park, swing on swings and play on other kiddie structures...  We fight to see who can stay on this one thing... and I laugh hysterically as he gets thrown off... He was a bit braver on it than I was, I'll give him that... "Come here baby let me get the tan bark off your back"...

Drama finally got her way when we were back at the house... I grabbed a drink, and walked out and talked with my 'girl' at the security desk... She has a way with words and I knew she'd make me laugh instead of me sitting somewhere wanting to punch something...  He comes and collects me a half hour later... because he knows when I disappear I'm downstairs lmao...  Thank god for the sisterhood of women...

Today I left after all the drama was spent... We're good, I'm happy, and I miss him already.

"I woke up one day to find you’d taken me by surprise; that you’d built a home in the base of my heart and your laugh was an echo filling all the corners of my head. I woke up one day to find that things made sense; that you were where goodness began and ended and that I was happier than I could ever fathom being. I woke up one day and knew your kiss as a cure; your smell was a luxury and your eyes were a gift. I woke up one day and saw that you had stolen me, and that I was hoping you’d never set me free."

As I walked into my own house and back into my garden... I again had to look at my life... It's so segmented... I have my work... my home... and my man... I'm three different people...  yet I'm one.  Each part of my life makes me happy... and each part of my life makes me want to pull my hair out at times...

As I put my face up to the sun that's finally appearing, I close my eyes and breathe in... and know I am a very lucky woman indeed.

"...and she will be loved"... Maroon 5