Erie Trip, Part 1

Well, last weekend I spent 5 days in Erie/Cleveland (mostly in Erie), and it was great! The weather was warm enough for me to wear shorts if I felt like it, or jeans if I didn't, and I wasn't freakishly overheated like I am in the south. I mean, I was able to sit outside on my parents' deck and enjoy the sun!


Any way, this post starts with my flight North from Nashville to Cleveland, and ends when I get tired of writing any more :-).


Date: Thursday evening, August 28, 2008
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I was excited to be heading north to see my husband, especially since the last time I had seen him was over the 4th of July. I got in line to board the plane (I always fly Southwest), and ended up getting a window seat (my favorite). These two guys sat next to me, and apparently they had been drinking in one of the lounges for a few hours beforehand, but they weren't annoying drunk, they were funny drunk. Right off the bat, they started talking to each other about one of the flight attendants that looked like the transvestite Lucy from Rat Race (but with YELLOW hair):
I could tell they were betting on whether the FA was a heshe or just a very manly woman, and I started snickering. They realized I knew what they were talking about, and we started talking.

The one guy apparently flies a lot, and he had a bunch of complimentary drink tickets. He asked me if I drank and I got all confused. I answered, "Yes," but then I had to amend it and said, "oh, but I can't." He figured it out, so I told them the story about our situation, and when the non-Lucy FA came by, he asked her if they had anything for "baby's first flight." I ended up getting a set of plastic wings, a certificate, and a luggage tag. :-) Towards the end of the flight, the FA asked me what my name was, and I was a bit leary, but gave it to her any way. Right before we got off the flight, she came over the loudspeaker, made me raise my hand, and told the entire plane that I was newly pregnant and on my way to tell my husband. Talk about embarassing!

I met Justin (and the puppies!) outside of the airport, and we went to Applebee's in Steelyard Commons. Since it was relatively late on a weeknight, it wasn't all that busy, and we got a big booth. We sat down and just ordered appetizers, since I wasn't all that hungry. We chatted for a bit, then I got up and sat next to him with my camera. I started looking at some pics on the screen, and started showing him some (the network room at work, my messy office, etc). When I got to the last 2 pics on the camera, I just showed him the first one (see previous post), then the second one. Justin's eyes kind of glazed over, and I just looked at him and waited for a response. He just kind of looked at me and said something about us not having a house in Erie yet (so?!?) But, that's my husband - he always looks at things in the most negative manner first. It's probably due to his job, where he has to look at machines for failures and stress points, etc (he's a Mechanical Engineer). He doesn't even like looking at roller coasters, because he just sees them breaking apart, etc.

Shortly afterward, I sent him my crappy cell phone pic of my test and he forwarded it to all of his family that has cell phones, plus two of his friends. Immediately he got a text back from his one friend, Paul, who said, "you better not be f-ing with me, because it's late." He then hit his head on the table he was under (why was he under a table? I have no idea - I'm sure he'll leave a comment and let us all know :-) ).

We finished eating, then went home for the night. I'll continue with the rest of the weekend (a shorter version than this, I hope) in my next post.