Busy Weekend and Bad Luck

Well, to start off---Friday night was a complete bust. I spend the entire latter half of the day totally mad and annoyed and rushing. I hate rushing. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm not late a lot. I hate being late. MLW things don't count cause I secretly like being late to those. It makes me feel superior to those that were foolish enough to arrive early. I'm sorry ahead of time to my team if we lose any competition that requires us to be the first full team at some event. We will never be that. Combine the styles of me and Charlie for this "on-time" thing and we'll for sure lose. FIFA baby. That is our theme. Love it and I'm so excited about it. We are going to get sweat suits. Don't hate. :)

Ok---so let's talk about how Friday went down. Since I live in New York and the rest of my team lives in Maryland I'm the catalyst into which things need to be planned around. Clearly, I can't come down during the week so I have to meet on the weekends. Which is getting a bit annoying since I have to come down all the time. I was originally really excited about not coming to MD this weekend but I actually have to. BUT---I'm only coming for the afternoon. Which is no big deal. The crappy part is like wasting a whole weekend at home and stuff. But we are having a team meeting and then I'm coming back. So NYC people, I'll be around Fri/Sat night and all of Sunday if people want to do something. Possibly Beth----Lindsay----Katie? Any takers? Oh oh...speaking of Katie---

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!

Anyway---I digress...it's just that my weekdays and nights are full of work (duh...) and then fun night activities that take up time, so the weekends I look "forward" to b/c I can "relax". No, seriously, I'm going to have a good weekend, and I'm actually excited about my team meeting, they are much more relaxed and fun than staff days. Anyway, so Friday night we had a planned team meeting at Denny's in Annapolis. The reason we picked Denny's was b/c it was the only reasonble place that was open late---I'm aware of it's ghetto status. Charlie was going to pick me up from the metro, get Emily, get Kelsey and then we'd hang out for a while and then everyone would go home---read: Charlie would drive them home. But---all of this was based on my arrival time and stuff from the airport. I leave work early and am like booking it uptown to catch the M60 to LGA. I safely get on the bus and even get a seat (which is quite remarkable) and then figure I'll be able to make the 6pm flight instead of the 6:30 flight, making our meeting a bit earlier, which is best for all. But---as soon as I change my reservation, we get onto the Triboro bridge and there is like MAD traffic. It was the slowest I've ever gotten to the airport. I have no idea why everything was so flipping slow. So---I literally make it to security check in with like 5 minutes to spare to get my plane. * I run up to the gate and I know something is weird when there are tons of people waiting outside the gate. I look up at the little sign thingie and it says that it's leaving 22 minutes late. Well---that's not TOO bad, it's the time of my original departure, and US Air is faster than Delta, so I'll still make up more time. All is well. We get on the plane, and it is 100% jam packed. We sit at the gate for an abnormal time and then pull away. I think we are going to get in "line" for take off. Then the effing captain or whatever he is gets on and is like, "there is a lot of traffic coming in and out of NYC and we'll be a while, like probably 40 minutes."

40 minutes?! Are you kidding me? I'm not going to be at the metro until like 10---and then this meeting isn't worth it. So I have a panic attack and almost start crying about how my team is going to suffer and that I want to just get off the plane and go back home and all this stuff. But I did it inside my head. Not outloud, don't worry. But one thing I have to ask is---what the hell is going on with New York Airports? Aren't there people in charge of scheduling?!? Like, isn't that the point of different flight times. I mean, it doesn't work like---you show up, randomly get on a plane and then random planes leave and random times. No, there are supposed to be ORGANIZED schedules. That's why I really don't understand when people are like---"there is a lot of traffic". That means that people aren't following the schedules and therefore are ruining everyone elses lives. Thanks life ruiners---thanks for everything.

Ok---I call Charlie and other team members and tell them the meeting is off--- no harm done though I still feel like a complete failure becuase of this. I was also just overall annoyed becuase since the meeting was off I could have gotten away with like staying in NYC one night, and then leaving to come to MD on Saturday morning. Maybe have gone to happy hour with co-workers or something...but I'm not bitter anymore. I land. Go to metro---I had called and told mom and pop that they would be needing to pick me up at Takoma. I get up to the platform and look at that electronic sign that tells you when the next trains are coming. Ok, so both the blue and the yellow lines connect with the red line, but the yellow line cuts right to the chase, versus the stupid blue line that goes into VA and then winds all around before getting to Metro Center. Of COURSE---the yellow line is nowhere to be found on that screen and everytying was like either blue line or "no passenger" clearly not helping me at all. I got on the blue line. I sit next to these KIND-OF cute southerners who have no idea about where they are going. Normally I would have helped them, but I was in a bad mood and secretly wanted them to get lost or get off at the wrong station. Misery loves company right?? So I get to Takoma and walk to the parking lot to see my dad in the green truck. But he's not there. OK, again people----my parents are also never late. But as I was about to spaz out about it---I realized something. It's just part of my zen circle. Every piece of transportation that I took that day was delayed, slow, or horrible and broken, so----it was just the last piece of the zen circle. In fact, if he been on time, who knows what awful things would have happened to me. I came home, pigged out on some lasagna and then went to sleep. It was glorious. Oh, I was (am) still sick.

Saturday was also busy as hell. I tried to sleep in. But I woke up at 9. I ate breakfast and effed around for a while. Then my mom and I decided to walk to CVS---I had to get some stuff for my team and I wanted to take a walk. So---we did. On the way home, my mom says---"I hope you have your key" I was like, "um...no, i don't live at the house anymore, it's not my responsiblity to take the key. You don't have a key?" She said no. My dad was up in Baltimore at choir practice so no one was home. We were locked out until he got home at 1, which was a few hours away. I was totally annoyed. At least it was nice out. We get home and check out all the doors to maybe see if one was left unlocked. Nope. Then my mom has a brilliant plan---"I'll just go in through the crawlspace, into the basement and then upstairs to unlock the door!" She was so excited about her innovative idea.

There were a few problems with this plan:

1. the crawlspace is disgusting and dirty and who knows that the eff is down there.
2. the crawlspace is boarded up with nails and wood and stuff
3. problem #1 is actually not a real one since it wasn't ME that was going in, it was my mom

We pryed the board off with a shovel and then my mom crawled in and saved the day. Thanks mom! Once my dad came home---my mom and I set out for our slew of errands...but first to the batting cages.

I drove up to Rocky Gorge and batted a lot. I did well I think. Though---I got the most nasty blister halfway through and then my batting started to suck. I made my mom hit some rounds b/c my hand hurt to badly. It sucked. But it was good time and I'm glad I got a chance to practice. Then we drove to Giant and got a buttload of food for the MLW BBQ---that took a while. Then we came home, prepared for it, cleaned and stuff. I was mad tired, but there was too much to do to take a nap. I was going over to the Druhans for Julia's graduation party.

The party was so nice and chill. Fun people were there and I had a good time. Leah and CK eventually showed up but then I was mad tired and went home to sleep. It was like a fun little Blair reunion. Jeff bought a condo and moved in with Leslie and I thought that was cool. Biggs and Jason were there and duh Alexi and Jim. Also---fun-friend Stephanie and Justin too.

I came home, did a really bad parking job and then passed out.

I think that when you live close to a place you need to be, you end up being late because you don't give yourself enough time to get there and then you are late. That's what happened to me. Though I wasn't that late----staff day was fun. Again, I love my team.

BBQ went really well. Lots of good food and food fun. :)

I had to wake up at the butt crack of dawn this morning to take a flight back to NYC to get to work on time. I wasn't even that late. I took the 6am shuttle back and pretty much now I'm exhausted. I don't know how I'm going to survive the rest of the night----I have BCG and then hanging out with Jess. Which is going to be fun, but I have to get to be RELATIVELY early or I might die.

I think this is long enough, I rambled a ton.

Happy Monday!

Love,

Lauren

*I'm going to act like I was all calm on the bus and not worried about missing my flight but what I was really doing was cursing under my breath and frantically looking at my watch and making like huffing sounds every two seconds indicating frustration.