Mother was in a very good mood today, we talked on and off for hours.  I was really supposed to go spend a night over at Caleb's house, but it just wasn't working out that way. I was supposed to do other stuff as well, but again, just worked out the way it did.  I was glad I spent as much time with mom as I did tho. She;s up there in years and as my manager pointed out to me, you "never know".  A rather morbid warning but a necessary one. I got plenty of visiting in, but it was limited between my house, Caleb, my mom and the limited engagement yesterday with the rest of the family.

It was a good trip.  I'll simply state that now. It was worth the time coming out here, it was  worth whatever it cost me in money, it's something I should have done last year at the latest.  Somehow I'll have to find the motivation to do it again without letting more than a full year pass. Mom doesn't get a lot of company, I think she more prefers being alone excepting seeing family.  She did her best to get this Thanksgiving together, which she repeatedly thanked me for helping her.  She clearly did not have the wherewithal to do all that work by herself.

The jalapeno poppers were a true success once again. I've come up with a slightly different recipe using Cayenne pepper.  I've not seen one using it in the recipe but I can tell ya jalapeno poppers without extra added kick to it, at least to me? Bland.

Mom put on a cool looking cap at the moment before I loaded up into a Lyft car and left, I snapped a photo which I'll be putting onto Facebook later. Directly after that she started tearing up : ( Not a bad thing I guess but hard to leave like that. The Lyft driver was this cool lady that I had 25 minutes worth of interesting conversation with  At the end, she said she really only does Lyft to have social interaction with people, she didn't care about earning money.  That was a first! Hadn't heard that from anyone before. 

Well I"m at the airport. I showed up early, I had no idea what it was going to be like getting through security the day after Thanksgiving.  The line was short. The wait after I put my stuff into the containers to go through the xray machine was ridiculous. They just stopped everything.  We waited so long I finally asked them what the wait was for. They just stared at me. Louder: WHY ARE WE WAITING HERE? WHAT IS GOING ON?  Started at me again before dude operating the conveyor belt said there is something in a bag they have to check.

I just stood there and stared back at them. Not my bags, I have nothing illegitimate in them, why hold everyone else up? But the apparently thought it was my bag.  A police officer finally showed up and then they asked whose bag this is? ALL of them staring at me, simply because I had the audacity to ask them what the hell was going on.  The young girl next to me said it's mine.  I continued staring at them. Did they think a stare down was going to intimidate people?  Or that it's even necessary? I asked in a normal tone of voice at first, respectful as well. When they just gave me a look, that's when I upped the ante.

____________________

Weird.  I left the place I was sitting at and went to the gate area and they were already boarding.  it was more than half an hour before flight departure so I thought that strange.  The other thing I didn't know or didn't remember is you have to check in 24 hours in advance.   I was asking the ticket agent about why I kept getting basically the end slot of the entire boarding to get on the plane? 

Well whatever.  I ended up in a middle seat - again.  The only good thing that came out of that is that it was up near the front of the plane, getting off the plane was much faster.  Arriving in Dallas, I determined quickly that I was going to drive home and not waste another night of hotel money.  Grabbed a cuppa at Starbucks at the airport and drove 85 mph the entire way back.  I always find it interesting how you catch up to other vehicles and then suddenly they are speeding up and trying to get ahead of you - for what reason?  No freaking clue.  Just the games people play out there. 

And I'm home.  Interesting trip.  Not sure what the next trip is, but it's not going to be to Phoenix, don't suspect.

I got nothing from my manager for this weekend. That doesn't necessarily mean I won't, but at least I'm assured I"ll have nothing going out tomorrow.  I need a recoup day and just get my head back into being out here.  Dogs were happy to see me but were acting strange.  I've been gone a lot lately.  Maybe they start considering the other house their home?  I dunno, but they're here, Addler is on my bed, almost a pouting face. 

So, allegedly Cyber Monday is going to be as good as black friday.  I haven't seen the ads yet and I have looked.  I did not stop at any Walmart in Dallas as I had surmised I might do.  That because of what I saw at Walmart in Phoenix, everything that was "good" was gone before we got there, which was within an hour of the start of the big sale.  I just thought a waste of my time, I'll wait for Cyber Monday, if that doesn't produce anything, I'll just move along.

My room? Weird.  Someone clearly had been sleeping in here but just strange that all the sheets felt wet all over. Even the ones in my clothes hamper.  I think it was just very cold in here and the illusion of wet.  I switched my sheets back on it, I ain't sleeping in someone's else's stuff, whatever stuff that may be.  I also stepped on the scale. 213.  That's the end of the day, not the beginning.  I suspect my weight in the morning may be a pleasant surprise. Or at least no higher than when I left off.