What I've Been Up To: Weekend #3

Well, I had every intension of getting this posted on Saturday, but that didn’t quite work. But hey, you guys still got three posts within five days, a new record for me!

February 13th-16th

I’m a little apprehensive to share what I did this last weekend, only because I have a feeling that it might make a few of you mad at me—but here it goes…I was in Dallas. Yes, I confess that I went to Texas over President’s Day weekend. Now, if you’re starting to think, “Why didn’t I know about this?! How could she be in town and not tell me?!” Well, take comfort in the fact that I REALLY did want to tell you and that nobody knew but my family. Here’s how it all happened:

Since I had President’s Day off from work, I wanted to take advantage of it and go somewhere for a “long weekend”. My original plan was to go to Chicago and visit Craig and Alyse Thompson, but someone (*cough* Danny *cough, cough*) stole my idea and had already booked a trip to visit them the very same weekend. I tried to come up with somewhere else to go, but I thought it would be fun to surprise my parents instead—after all, I did see them only 6 weeks beforehand, and they’d never suspect it!

My plans were all coming together. I found a really cheap ticket, and I told my sister when to pick me up from the airport, which was about 10:45pm on Thursday. She was then going to take me to our parent’s house for a late night surprise. Everything was going perfectly until we hit a few snags. Bethany found out that my dad had a work convention in Grapevine that started on the Sunday that I was supposed to be in town. My dad had been working a lot of overtime to get everything ready, and while I was already sad that he’d be busy for two of the days that I’d be there, we were also getting concerned that he’d be working late on Friday and all day Saturday as well. My sister helped take care of this by securing a Valentine’s Day dinner out with my parent’s Saturday night, "just the three of them." The rest of the time we would just have to hope for the best.

The other snag happened the day that I was supposed to fly to Dallas. I went to work with the intention of leaving a little early to make my 7:35pm flight. The weather was clear in New York, but the wind was fierce. I kept checking my flight time that afternoon, and sure enough the time kept getting pushed back. My flight eventually left NYC at 11:39pm, and arrived in Dallas at 2:30am. Needless to say, I didn’t end up surprising my parents that night—I thought it better to let them have a full night’s rest. My amazing sister still picked me up at the airport, and we caught a few hours of sleep at her new apartment.

Since she had to go teach a bunch of 2nd graders that day, she took me to my parent’s house at 6:30am. It was still dark when we arrived at my parent’s front door. My sister called my parents to tell them she “had an early Valentine’s Day present that she had to give them before going to work.” My dad answered the door, and it was clear that they had just woken up. It didn’t even register to him immediately that it was me walking in. Soon my mom came around the corner, saw me, and almost started crying. There were hugs all around, then my sister left for her school, and my parents started getting ready for work.

The rest of the weekend turned out pretty great. My dad didn’t work late on Friday or at all on Saturday, and I got to eat a lot. I had Red Hot & Blue with him for lunch on Friday, did a little shopping at Northpark mall, and then had El Fenix that night with the fam. By the way, I am so sorry to my GNO girls, I really wanted to make it to Gloria’s that night to surprise you all, but I thought it best that I stayed with the folks.

On Saturday, I got some Chick-Fil-A, went out to Frisco with the fam, and that evening had dinner at Houlihan’s with them and my aunt & her family. That dinner was the most fun I’ve had at a meal in a long time. We spent the second half of our time there making up stories about all of the couples eating dinner around our table of 8. After this, we went to my aunt’s house to play wii fit. A great Valentine’s Day if you ask me!

Sunday was spent going to Trinity Bible with my mother, getting my Taco Bueno fix, and then going out Grapevine to meet my dad for dinner. Sadly, I had to say goodbye to my dad that night, since he would be busy for all of the following day.

My last day was pretty uneventful. My mom took most of the day off work and we got to have lunch at the Blackeyed Pea, then she took me to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye again, but we tried to remember that it was only “goodbye for now”. My plane left on time, and I arrive to New York City early, but the joy of that was quickly erased by a Russian taxi driver who wasted $10 of my money, and got mad at me for not being able to tell him exactly how to get to my apartment. Jerk. Oh, and then I hit my head on the lid of the trunk as I was getting my bag out—I had a bump on my forehead for a week.

All, in all, I’m so glad I went to Dallas. I wish that I had been there long enough to see all of you friends, but the trip was just so short and there wasn’t much time. Hopefully my next visit will be longer.

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So there you go! That’s what I’ve been up to for the past 3 weekends. I’ll bet you’re sorry you asked me now after my long-winded posts!