Finally Made it to NJ

It's important to note that it is 8am on Thursday. I had no intention on being up at this hour. In fact, I was hoping for 10am, if the truth needs to be told. But my mom has to go to work EARLY. I'm right back in the swing of things... She gets up, lets the dog out for me, lets him back in to my room, and then he doesn't want to sleep anymore. He finally settled down until I made the ill advised mistake of rolling over. That was the end of that.

I drove to NJ yesterday. It was a nightmarish drive, but not the worst I've ever had. It took me about 8 1/2 hours and it rained almost the entire trip.

It's interesting to note that ever since I graduated from HS and went to college in SC, it has rained EVERY SINGLE TIME I drove home. It's true! It's rained every trip for 18 years. EVERY TRIP. No lie. Ask anyone.

The drive over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel was sickening. It was so wet and windy, and the waves were HUGE. It was so bad that I had to try not to look at it! Then I tried to take a picture of it to prove how bad it was, but it really didn't do it justice. I toyed with the idea of trying to take a short video, but then I saw this scene play out: Me, smashing into the guardrail. "Officer, I was trying to shoot a video for my blog..." I abandoned that thought immediately. See?! Sometimes I do make good choices! :-)

I'm grateful that Riley slept most of the trip and didn't get too bent our of shape as the trucks whizzed by. He hates that "Phssssssssssht" noise when they hit the brakes.

We were stopped in traffic on the NJ Turnpike from Exit 6 to 7A. In NJ terms, that's about 20 miles. Thank goodness for cell phones and my many friends that want to keep me company. My favorite call was from my husband's mother. "You know Col, driving alone is not good." "No, it's not fun, but I have Riley & my Ipod." "Well, next time I'll go with you." Um... please no.

Anyway, I got home and spent some time with my mom and watched my dad fiddle with his new GPS, comparing mine to his. He's mad that the device that my brother picked-up is already discontinued. He put in days of research, and it's discontinued. All that time and he didn't catch that little tidbit of info?

Carol invited me over for dinner, or I invited myself, I can't remember. Sue dropped by with Val & Katherine. Cassidy, Carol's niece was there, too. We had yummy ravioli (& spaghetti for the kids) and told what were supposedly very funny stories. "Aunt Colleen, you tell funny stories!" "Yeah, well, I'm a funny girl."

PS- Katherine is now a very good spaghetti-twirler. Good job, K.