I'm Back & Ready to Make 2005 a Great Year! :)

I know you all have missed me! ;) Ha! Actually, the only person I know missed me is Jes because she kept commenting on my old blog trying to figure out how things went and when I was coming back. But I know the rest of you were secretly missing me too! LOL!

My vacation was good - never ever long enough though and there were a few bumps along the road. All in all, it was good to see my parents and spend time with family and all that fun stuff. Here are some highlights (and lowlights!):

1) We got to the airport after nearly roasting in the taxi cab (not sure why the taxi driver felt the need to blast the heat at full blast - it was really cold outside but I thought Austin & I were going to pass out by the time we got to the airport from heat exhaustion!). Got through check-in and security no problem. Got to our gate and it was already noted as delayed. Ugh! Lovely start! Austin's parents who had left earlier that day and his aunt who had traveled the day before had all had problems with delays and postponements, etc. so I had to have guessed our trip would be the same. We were to have like a 50 minute layover in Atlanta so when our plane left Dallas about 40 minutes late waiting for our plane to come in from whereever it was previously, I was sure we were going to miss our flight and face the nightmare that is trying to get your flight changed. However, as we landed the flight attendant said that we still had a little time because they had made up some time in the air, they asked that people stay seated if they had a long connection or if Atlanta was their final destination. So we scooted up to the front of the plane (well actually only about 5 rows of people actually were nice enough to let us by) and headed out the door. We checked the monitor and set off running full speed because while we lucked out that our gate was on the same concourse, it was of course from the far end of the terminal to the directly opposite end. So here we are running (literally) from one end of the concourse to the other fearing that we were going to miss our flight. As we stop breathless in front of our gate, fear strikes further since our flight is not listed up on the board and as I'm about to go crazy because I believe we have missed our flight or the gate changed or whatever, two guys are standing there and ask us if we're looking for Melbourne which we were. They said that was the right gate but that they were waiting to see what was going on because the information wasn't up yet.
So we had just run at top speed like maniacs for nothing as they finally put our flight up on the board for an hour later with delay. So I grab a seat because there were more people in that airport than I have ever seen in my life. I've flown through there a lot and NEVER seen that many people. I swear half of America must have been in there and I was ducking in and out of them as I was running down the concourse earlier. They were everywhere - leaning and sitting up against walls, sleeping in the vending machine areas, sprawled everywhere the eye could see. It was insane! So Austin goes to the bathroom and I sit and wait. Then I go to get food and he sits and waits. And we sit and we sit and it's like 10 minutes before our new posted time and they postpone it another hour. So we sit some more and people are getting annoyed. We find out the delay is not our plane - it is sitting there waiting for us - but FAA rules require 3 flight attendants on a plane of our size. And we only have 2. The Cincinnatti airport (another Delta's hubs) had been closed due to weather, and the flight attendants that were supposed to come in from there for our flight and others had not arrived. So they were short 1 flight attendant for our flight and we were waiting until her plane came in so we could leave. Not a very good excuse in my opinion (they should have some on-call or something for situations like this) but at least we knew what was going on now. So we wait some more. At about 11:30 when the flight attendant was already supposed to have been there and our 3rd flight time had been delayed (the plane was supposed to have left at 9:15), we see something change on the board. The flight that was supposed to go out of that gate after us to St. Louis or Kansas or Kentucky or somewhere like that had been moved to gate XLD. Like I said earlier, I've flown through the Atlanta airport on numerous occasions and there is no such gate that I'm aware of. And it dawns on me. These people who have been sitting there with us for two hours (they were supposed to leave at like 9:30 or 9:45) have now had their flight CANCELLED. As they try to figure out what is going on, the guy gets on the loudspeaker and says, "The flight to ___ has been cancelled. And all the flights to ___ tomorrow are completely full. And they MIGHT try to set up an extra flight for tomorrow but we can't guarantee that because of crews and planes and stuff so you're going to have to try to make other arrangements. But I'm not going to deal with you because it's been a long day and I'm not even going to deal with you. So walk on down to the service agents at gate A15 because they will deal with you, not me. I'm not even going to talk to you about it." People are now either extremely irate at this guy's rudeness or bursting into tears because here it is almost midnight on December 23rd and they have just been told basically that there is nothing they can do but good luck trying to get whereever you are trying to go. So now I'm panicking.....what if they do that to our flight. And we find out that there is some sort of aviation rule (except for international flights) that a flight of shorter length can't fly between the hours of 2 and 5 am. Our flight is about 1 hour and 15 minutes. It's almost midnight - if we don't get out of here 12:45 or so, we will be cancelled too. Great - we are going to be stuck in Atlanta with no way to get there and I'm sure all the rental cars are booked. Blah!
Luckily at about 12:15, the last flight attendant shows up. We all clap - she is angry looking and grumpy on the plane but I don't care - at least we are going to Florida. We finally leave about 12:35 or so and are on our way. By the time our dad's pick us up from the airport in Melbourne and we get back to our house, it's a little after 3 am. Nice starting to Christmas Eve!

2) Christmas Eve & day it rained a lot which sucked. And it was chilly which was weird for Florida. But we had a really good time and I got lots of awesome presents. :)

3) Sunday our fishing trip got cancelled because it was cold & windy. I went shopping at the outlets instead! ;) More clothes for me at good prices!

4) Monday & Tuesday were a little rough - I guess no matter the fact that I'm 25 years old, on my own, married, etc., my parents still think of me as their little girl and want me to do what they say and spend time with just them. But I have a husband now that likes to be included too and that causes adjustment for them. It wasn't horrible, just difficult for a little while. My mother is a difficult person to be around sometimes, and she chose these two days to be miserable to herself, my dad, me, and the rest of us. It was embarrassing to me because my in-laws were there, but I was very happy because it made me realize at least how much they love and care for me. Everything turned out okay - we had an overall good time in Orlando, did the Epcot thing on Tuesday, and went to downtown Disney on Wednesday and by the time we got home on Wednesday afternoon, everything was back to normal. Just took some time........

5) My dad had a great time last week because he got to go golfing more in that week than I think he had all year long. And that's good for him - he's much more relaxed and has fun with Austin & his brother & dad. I'm not much for golf but they enjoy it so that works! ;)

6) The weather was beautiful from Thursday until we left Sunday morning. Got to hang out outside, meet some of my parents neighbors, do some more shopping at the sales! ;) Gotta love going shopping in Florida because they put all the winter clothes on super sale because they can't really wear them that long or often and I love it because we have our hardest part of winter in January and February so I have plenty of time to wear them still. We had a great dinner for New Year's Eve and then came back to watch the ball drop. I got to cook some good desserts and good food and my mom cooked for us and overall it was great! :)

7) I am determined that 2005 will be a GREAT year. Last year was wonderful because Austin & I got married, I got a new car, a new apartment, etc. But this year I want to tackle even more. I want to try to figure out what I want to do with my life from here - whether it be to go back to school, to get a new job, to work harder at my current job, to study for a CLA. I want to be happy and figure out how to do that. I also want to explore some extracurricular options - still going to take my dance class but might also look into the occasional cooking class, set up a more regular time to see my wonderful friends that I don't get to see very often, and look into stopping by a church I've been wanting to visit and check out. I want to have a happy & healthy & even better 2005! And I wish all the same to you! And I'm going to try my hardest to stay POSITIVE this year because I know that the negativity I was feeling was really getting me down before and that was doing no good. Got to try to stay motivated, get things accomplished at work and at home, and just be happy!

That is all for now - gotta get back to some more work. They just decided to try to push 2 of my big cases through to trial for April so that should be interesting if that actually happens! I got through my 100+ e-mails this morning pretty quickly, just working on mail now that came in last week while I was gone! Good Monday times! ;)