I'm BAAAAck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I survived a couple of days away from my family. Though I wouldn't call late nights and early mornings relaxing, having just myself to take care of for 48 hours was somewhat of a nice break. Along with the staff from my office, I arrived safe and sound in Charlotte on Thursday evening around 9pm. Though I would've chosen bedtime, our boss wanted to give us a little tour of the hotel and have a drink in the bar. It was hillarious when his wife, Karen, discovered that due to packing out of the closet without turning on a LIGHT, he had on two similar looking but different shoes on his feet and no other options for the weekend. So, the five of us headed out, following our fearless, mismatched shoe wearing "leader" to walk around this fabulous five star resort where we were told senior tennis pro's and professional football players would be staying this weekend. We then stopped off for a night cap and chatted til midnight in the hotel's bar. We were up at 6:30 am for a l-o-n-g day of lecturing to listen to. Our speaker was dynamic and we learned a lot, finished at 5:30 but stayed to chat til after 6 where we then headed to a wonderful italian restaurant for a three plus hour dinner. After returning to the hotel, I showered and planned to hit the hay while the other ladies went for a swim, but ended up nauseated from my very rich dinner of scallops and spinach, and didn't fall asleep til the girls were back from their time in the pool. We had the lights out (three of us shared a room) and said goodnight when Ann opened her cell to read a text message. She has naturally curly hair that in the dark, with only the light of a cell phone, cast a shadow that looked very much like Marge Simpson. Allie made this observation, alerting all of us to it, and hysterical laughter ensued for the next half hour. I'm talking (almost) pee your pants, choke on your tonisls laughter. By the time we settled back down and composed ourselves, it was after midnight.
Waking again at 6:30 on Saturday was a bit harder than day 1. I'm not a six and a half hours of sleep kindof girl...I'm an 8 or 9 hours of sleep kindof girl. But, we did it (with the help of plenty of coffee) and went another day in class from 8:30-5. Due to the delicious catered lunch they brought in for us, we decided to skip another dinner and head home instead. Allie, Ann and I drove seperately and planned to fill up the tank and drive on home. Except we couldn't find any gas!! Charlotte has been in a terrible shortage and pumps were roped off. We were riding on fumes when we finally found a BP station 30 miles north of town and so, waited nearly 30 minutes in line for our turn to fill up. I thought we might be sleeping on the side of the road that night...Keith was home watching FSU and I figured he wouldn't be willing to leave his game to come save us if need be; Allie had a fight with her boyfriend and he wasn't even answering his phone; and poor Ann, has no husband and her daughter was home with her mom and had been vomiting all day. But, alas, none of plan B was necessary since we found gas!
The last hour and a half drive was spent playing the "famous names game". Someone gives a famous name (i.e. Tori Spelling) the next person has to chose a name that begins with the first letter of the previous last name (i.e. Susan Sarandon). A double, such as S.S. for Susan Sarandon, would reverse the order we were going in and we had some true battles: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Manson, Might Mouse, Mickey Mantle, etc. When I had the letter "R" to work with, my tired mind wanted to say Wynona Judd and Wynona Rider that came out Rinona Rider...and more of that laughter (we now call it Ugly Face Laughter) ensued. Guess that is what tired bodies and overworked little minds will get you, because I realize that unless you were in the car with us, most would not see that as particularly funny. You'd need to understand the level of exhaustion we were feeling.
Anywhoo, we made it home safe and sound, my family appeared very happy to see me and I got a good nights sleep back in my own bed. Without Marge Simpson!