Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Planes

whew. I have been a travelling fool for the past month. First, we took a trip to Alaska for a glorious 18 days, which was awesome by the way, and I will hopefully be blogging quite a bit about it soon. Next, I went to Denver for work 2 weeks in a row. This is the first week that I will actually be at home all week in over a month. Man, I'm exhausted just thinking about it again. I mean, I love Denver and all, but 2 quick work trips with barely any breathing time in between? It's not all that.

But, a few good things did come out of these couple work trips. First, for the first time in my life, I am now actually a Premier flyer on United. What does that mean, exactly? Well for one, I can sit in the "Economy Plus" section of the plane - basically in the front, with a few more inches of leg room. So for someone short like me, it doesn't really make a big difference, except that I feel so much more special sitting there hehe. I can also check a bag for free, although when travelling for work that fee would get reimbursed anyway. So really, there's not much change, but somehow I feel like my life is more complete now. Or something like that. Maybe I have a problem...

Second, this last trip earned me enough miles to get a free ticket. That is a pretty self explanatory yay! Our goal is to use that to fly Darren out to CA in December when I am out there for (you guessed it) work. Unfortunately it is so hard to plan ahead because the launch could get delayed by a few days, or even months, you just never know. But still, free flights always make me happy :)

Trains

Yeah I don't really have anything to say about trains. My husband has an unhealthy obsession with them. That's about it.

Automobiles

My car was acting up recently. I don't know how to say it other than while driving, I would randomly loose the power to accelerate. The engine would still be on, but it was like the car was in idle, and would just coast along, no matter how hard I pushed on the gas pedal. So I'd pull over, turn the car off, turn it back on, and everything was fine in the world again, until of course it decided to do a repeat performance every few miles down the road.

But this was my 2006 Toyota! not my cringe-inducing Saturn (*worst car ever*). I was distraught, to say the least. But what I discovered is that having car problems is not nearly as bad when you are married. Especially when your husband works at the same place as you. There's no more worrying about getting rides everywhere. No more worrying about how long it will be in the shop. I was fully prepared to drop it off for a week or more, cause you know, I kinda like having Darren drive me around everywhere. :)

So I dropped it off at the dealership Sunday afternoon, a little nervous about the cost. I got a call about an hour later saying they had found the problem, and I could come pick it up. errm, what? What about fixing it, how much is this going to cost me? Do I need to put back all these nice plants I have in my cart because I'm now broke due to car repairs? No! apparently it was just a computer problem that is covered under my warranty! What, I have a warranty? Um, I mean of course I do. (I had no idea, really. I bought the car used, after all.)

So now my car is fixed and my bank account is completely unaffected! Except, of course, for all the lovely plants we bought for the front yard. once we get the mulch in i'll take some pictures!

No it is not it is a space shuttle

I remember back when I first started working, I couldn't get over how cool it was to travel for work. I mean, they pay for my airfare, they put me up in a fancy hotel, they give me a rental car, and then they even give me money for food. what could be better, right? Well I think I am finally reaching the point where I am getting tired of it like everyone else in my office. In the past month I have been to Denver twice, Atlanta, and El Paso. And I just found out I'm going to CA next week. I am so sick of planes. My body aches a little even thinking about sitting on that flight. I miss homecooked food. I miss spending time with my husband and friends.

The one bright side is the reason I am going. Most work trips are for incredibly boring meetings. This one will also involve some snooze-inducing meetings, but the primary purpose is to work our next launch. Which is cool. It's one of the few things I actually like about this job.

just another day at work

The picture's not the best, but this was my view Tuesday morning. And when I say morning, I mean early morning! My alarm was set for midnight, in order to be at work by about 1:30am, to see the launch at 2:30am. Not something I could do very often, but it was totally worth it. We were about 3.5 miles away, they don't really let you get any closer than that. It lights up the entire sky like it's the middle of the day, and the sound is just amazing. my pant legs were definitely vibrating. After it was over I decided to just stay at work, so I put in my 8 hours between 3 am and 11 am haha. It was crazy, and I was pretty delirious by the end of the day.