I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

And now I'll try to catch you up on my exciting past week. 

Last Thursday morning I was trying to get ready to head to Cabo Friday for the wedding.  I was just about to hop into the shower before our nail appointments when Tom called to catch me up-to-date on his horseback trip into the back country of Idaho to collect 'special' agate.  As soon as I got off of the phone with him, Louisa called to say that Nina would NOT be in until that afternoon, as usual for her ( FYI Nina chose the time for the appointments when I made them 6 weeks ago....) and could we come in that afternoon since she was short-handed that day.  

Not me... I had PT scheduled.  Long story shorter I had my mani/pedi done that morning by Louisa, but Mom had to go back in the afternoon for her manicure.  And when it was time to leave (I was going to drop Mom off on my way to PT and pick her up after) she was temporarily MIA.  So I was a little late to PT.

Let the stress begin...

After Jason called a few days earlier to let me know that he couldn't do irrigation on Friday after all (again, I set that up weeks ago!), and I scrambled to find replacements (Joy was going to do the gates, and Lisa Lane let the water go) I saw Joy and found out that her 63-year-old son, who lives in Albuquerque, had just had a heart attack.  She had thought they might have to take off for New Mexico, but he seemed to be doing okay after having a stent put in.  

Let the stress continue...

Then at 4:00 I got a text from Lisa who was flying in from Pittsburgh and scheduled to arrive around 8:00 that evening.  She had to change planes in Chicago, and the first flight left an hour late (mechanical issues with the plane) so she wasn't sure she was going to make her connection.  Since we were leaving for the airport at 7:30 the next morning, and I didn't know when the next flight in from Chicago was, that really stressed me out!  I, of course, had her ticket for Cabo.  

Let the stress increase...

The good news is that she did make the flight as they were closing the doors, getting the last available seat.

On the way to the airport that evening to pick her up, I-17 was shut down because of a jumper on the Indian School overpass.  

Let the stress continue...

There were wall-to-wall police cars and fire engines there, and the jumper was eluding their efforts to get him back over the railing.  But we got to the airport just as Lisa arrived at the curb.  She, of course, was hungry since she'd expected to get dinner during her layover, and was glad to find crockpot goulash waiting for her when we got home.

I hadn't been able to print up her boarding pass because I needed the passport info, so while she was eating dinner I did that.  Which is when she noticed that her name on the ticket was WRONG!  It said Lisa L. LEVY (Levy is her middle name) instead of Lisa L. Dodge.

Let the stress increase...

So of course I got right on the phone to Southwest Airlines to see what I could do about it.  The woman put all the info into the computer, but we were going to have to go to the ticket counter at the airport in the morning to get a new ticket.  Good thing I had told Alex 'no' when he called me from his meeting (while we were on the way to the airport) with a request.  Seems a friend of his (person A) was flying out on Friday morning, and person B was going to have to get up early and drive a long distance to pick up person A, and "could we swing by and pick up person A by the 101 and Thomas"?  NO!  And when he started to ask why not, I pretty much lost it.  

And that was my Thursday..... not at all relaxing!

Friday morning I got up and made sandwiches (I'd packed the rest of our 4 lunches on Thursday) and we headed to the airport on time.  Alex drove (which aged both Mom and me considerably) but when we got to our 'regular' car park it was out of business! (Do you see a pattern emerging here?)  

We did manage to find another one without too much difficulty and took their shuttle to the airport.  While Alex and Mom checked their bags at the curb  (we'd meet them at the gate) Lisa and I headed to the ticket counter to rectify her ticket situation.  Although it took a while, it was not really a problem <WHEW> and we headed to security, actually arriving there before Alex and Mom.  I had my half-empty bottle of special lotion confiscated (don't know why I didn't pack it in my suitcase) but we did make it to the gate on time, and the plane actually left a few minutes early!

It was an uneventful flight, and our bags were on the carousel when we got there.  Alex and Lisa had taster shots of tequila before we even reached Customs (which we zoomed right through) and then we found our ride to the resort: a van full of partiers.  The van was stocked with an ice chest of cerveza, and Alex (riding shotgun) passed a lot of bottles back to them.  I lost count, but Alex had at least 4 himself.

Lisa and Alex talked the entire drive to the resort (took about an hour because we had to make several stops at other hotels first) and decided they'd rather room with each other instead of Lisa with Mom and Alex with me ("since they were going to be keeping party hours")

When we got to the Riu Palace we discovered that all food AND ALCOHOL was included with the room.  In fact we even had a bar and and stocked frig in our room.  The younger generation certainly made good use of that perk.  The rehearsal dinner was good, although we were all wondering when (if?) I would get my steak.  Of course somebody had to be served last, but I think they grilled one-too-few and ended up starting mine after everyone else was already served.  One of Jeff's groomsmen (named Alex) was quite interested in my thermorest for use in his office, so he was glad to get the info from me.  Looks like I've made another convert.

Saturday morning I made the dolphin arrangements (!) after breakfast (which was quite the spread.)  Heading back to the room I ran into Lisa and went back and sat with her while she ate.  Then we hung out at the pool for an hour and watched the hunk lifeguards put on an exercise show.  It was very entertaining.

I got dressed for the wedding and then was able to get Lisa's boarding passes printed up in the lobby.  It wasn't until we were heading over to the ceremony that I realized I'd put on the outfit I was planning to wear to the reception that night, and dashed back to the room to change.  While waiting for the ceremony to start Alex noticed that my toe was all bloody.... the nail had ripped (vertically) ALL the way up!

The wedding on the beach was LOVELY.  The weather cooperated (the backup plan B was to have it in the ballroom) and Priscilla made a beautiful bride.  Virtually all of my pix came out great.  More pix tomorrow, but here's a teaser:

Alex talked me into walking down to the water and getting my feet wet afterward, and the waves almost knocked me over.  I did get fairly wet, and sat around soggy for the rest of the afternoon.  I felt much better after I changed into dry clothes for the poolside reception, which was also lovely.

Sunday while the guys were out deep-sea fishing for marlin (one of the guys landed a 260-pound marlin - I'm waiting for Alex to send me the picture) Lisa and I swam with the dolphins!  That's been on my Bucket List for years, and I think on hers also.  It was quite an experience.  There were 8 people in our group, which had sprung for the deluxe package. It was well worth it; we got 'a deal' where it cost $200 for the two of us, and we were in the water with the dolphins for almost 90 minutes. Of course I ended up tipping our photographer (who had a motorized shutter and got wonderful shots) and our trainer Angel who was very personable and called us each by name, and (no surprise!) bought the disk of all the pix of the two of us.) 

We got back to the resort an hour later than I expected, but still in plenty of time for Lisa to catch her shuttle to the airport.

For dinner that night the resort cooked up some of the fish the guys caught (it was delicious!)  They'd also had some cooked up for their lunch when they landed at the marina.  There was still plenty left over, which we gifted to the chef and staff at the resort.  I hope they were allowed to take it home to their families.

Monday morning we were in the lobby at 10:30 to check out, and then wait for our 11:05 ride to the airport.  The attendant took our luggage and said he'd call us when they arrived.  I was able to thank Rafael for setting up the dolphin experience (he wasn't at the desk when we got back Sunday) and steering us toward the one he did.  He seemed surprised by my thanks (maybe no one else has thanked him???) and the timing was perfect: a couple was there looking at the dolphin swims and deciding whether or not to do it.  After they heard what I had to say, they signed up.

When our ride hadn't appeared by 11:30 I went to check.  The Cabo Transport guy wasn't at his desk in the back, but one of the other companies called for us.  He was afraid I'd 'shoot the messenger', but the upshot was that they said they arrived on time, waited 10 minutes, and then left.  Since we were sitting only 10 yards from the 'door' (it's all open) and they had our names on their list, I have no idea what happened.  Of course then we were scrambling for another ride, and it was getting later by the minute.

 Naturally we had to pay that 'new' driver (although we'd pre-paid $25 for each of us) but we made it to the airport, where there were no lines to check our luggage or go through security.  Our flight was overbooked (we were offered serious financial compensation and a motel room if we would take the next flight the next day) so I was glad to be at the gate before they started boarding.  Alex, however, wanted to wander the airport 'shopping', and didn't get back to the gate until 1:30 for a 1:42 flight.  More stress for me.

Our luggage arrived, we breezed through customs (although were the last ones in line) and then walked a long way from the international terminal to the the main area to catch the shuttle back to the car.  Mom was pretty worn out.  I was too!  We had dinner at the Wildflower (I ordered soup because I was almost too tired to chew!) Once back home I only made it until 8:00 before I crashed, and then slept until 8:00 the next morning!

Tuesday I had PT, and after lunch took Mom shopping at Charming Charlie.  She had fun there, and made several purchases.  I finally made it to the library to pick up my books on Hold, picked up the mail/newspapers from Joy, and also popped over to Jeannie's for a viewing of the current 'must see' quilt on her frame.  (It is beautiful!)  That night for dinner we had some of the leftover goulash I'd thawed from the freezer.

Wednesday after I'd cropped the pix from the trip Mom chose the ones of which she wanted prints made.  She was 'worried' about choosing so many (42) but I convinced her to pick whatever she wanted.  It only came to $9 at Walgreen's, and she'll be able to share the trip with friends/family back in Maryland.  We had planned to do the MIM, but the day was getting away from us and I didn't think she was up for all that walking.  Cabo really wore her out.  We made a few other stops instead (Target to pick up a small photo album, Charming Charlie again for a gift she wanted to bring back with her, etc.) and then relaxed the rest of the afternoon playing Rummikub.  I was going to run to the store and pick up something for dinner but she convinced me to go out for dinner at the Claim Jumper.  Our dinner may not have been the most healthy of choices, but we don't eat fried food that often.

This morning I was up before 4:00, and Mom was also up before 6:00, so there was no problem heading to the airport at 6:45.  I was home before 8:00, and checked the post office hours on the web because I wanted to get Lisa's package in the mail.  It said they opened at 8:00, so I headed over and was happy to see just a few cars in parking lot.  I figured that meant a short line.  What it meant was that they weren't open yet (they had a 9:00 sticker on top of their old sign) so I had to use the machine in the lobby after I helped the woman there who was having great difficulty.  I hope the envelope goes through and isn't a fraction over the 3/4" limit.

Tom had left a message on the answering machine Saturday that he and Carlo were heading up to the cabin (where there is no cell coverage) and that he planned to leave from there either Monday or Tuesday, so he'd be home either Tuesday or Wednesday.  He has not yet arrived, and calls to his (and Carlo's) cell phone go right to voice mail.  So I don't know if they stayed at the cabin longer (maybe the hunting was extra good?) but it is worrisome.  And I'm ready to be done with stress....

I'm not even proof-reading this, so excuse any errors.  Off to PT.