Before Germany

On a plane to NYC. This trip we're flying stand-by because my mom works for the airline. There is some risk involved flying this way (like we might not really get there or back on time), but it's sure a lot cheaper than buying a real ticket. So far so good, we got on our first plane. (Oh, and Ryan called to wish me a good trip right as I was boarding...very sweet.) Dallas to JFK in New York City. We're going to spend a good chunk of the day in the airport. Kevin is going to meet us at the airport in NYC so we can hang out for awhile. Looking forward to seeing him. Then board a flight to Brussels, Belgium around 6pm. We fly all night and get into Brussels on Friday morning. Karen will be picking us up at the airport and driving us to Brugge where we plan on spending the weekend. The Grants and Woodwards (old family friends...practically family) will be meeting us there for the weekend. Jason's going to meet us on Friday evening when he gets off work. I still don't know why Brugge was chosen, but I'm sure there's something fantastic to see there. Someone from work was telling me to be sure to eat waffles and chocolate in Belgium. I think I can handle that.

It finally fells like I'm going on vacation. The days/weeks leading up to this have been slight more chaotic than I care to handle. September has been a very busy month. Here's the run down of what I've been up to.

Wednesday & Thursday, September 8 & 9 were spent in Milwaukee visiting a client with my boss. The client is quite happy with the service we provide so the meeting was positive. Plus, it's always good to spend time with my boss in person since we work in different cities. After that trip, I was home for a couple days.

Sunday, September 12 through Friday, September 17 were spent in Scottsdale at corporate headquarters. The trip started off rather rough when I went to boot up my laptop on the plane and got a fatal Windows system error. Spent most of Sunday afternoon with an IT guy at the office. He was awesome, saved all my data, and got me a temporary computer while he fixed the main one. Monday I did an overview of the product line my group supports for some other employees in support. Things went fairly well, I think. It was fun to be up teaching again. Tuesday through Thursday, I attended planning meetings with all the other managers in support. The meetings were extremely productive and quite fun. I attribute that to a good leadership team who planned the meetings well and made sure we stuck to the plan. Plus, we had a good facilitator. For those types of meetings (over twenty people), you've got to have someone facilitating or things very quickly go to crap. The meetings were especially good for me, because I was able to reflect upon my own personal growth over the past year. I see myself thinking at a higher level, more strategically than I ever have before. I see myself progressing faster than some of my peers (and I got unsolicited feedback along the same lines). For the first time plain and clear, I was able to see the effects of my schooling on my job performance. It's been a long two years, but I'm so glad I'm doing it. Friday, I spent the morning in the office catching up with a few miscellaneous tasks and then I spent the afternoon travelling.

Friday, September 17 through Sunday, September 19 I visited Summer and Greg in Denver. I tied the Denver trip on to the Scottsdale trip because of the savings on the plane ticket. And it was just a great excuse to get to visit them. Summer is doing quite well with her new job and they're both enjoying their new house! It's situated in a new neighborhood planned around a golf course and is absolutely gorgeous. Their front porch has an incredible view of the mountains. Visiting Denver always makes me remember how much I love Colorado. While we didn't make it up into the mountains this trip, I just love them. Being there made me think that I should move there when I'm done with school. Definitely a possibility for work in that area since there's a lot of tech companies. Plus it would be absolutely wonderful to live near Summer again. Friday night we just took it easy and spent a quiet evening at the clubhouse. We sat around a fire pit and had a couple drinks. Saturday Summer and I bought some indoor plants for their house. We walked the neighborhood a little bit, went swimming at the neighborhood pool, and talked and talked and talked. It was perfect. Saturday night we went into Denver to Elliot's house (another Texas transplant) then on to a house party at someone else's house. It was a good night. Sunday we ate a huge Mexican food lunch and watched a movie in the afternoon. Then I said a very sad goodbye and headed back to Texas.

Spent September 20 - 22 at home for a very busy few days. I tried to catch up on all the work I put off while I was in Scottsdale and all the school work I put off too. It was a whirlwind, but I managed to take care of most of it. I'm a little unhappy about a couple things at work right now, but I'm trying to let it go. Besides, I'm on vacation. You're not supposed to think about work while you're on vacation! (Too bad I stayed up until 2:30 am working then dreamt about it both last night AND on the plane this morning.) I'm sure once I get some European beer in my system, I won't want to think about work anymore.

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