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!