2014 Year in Review

I just finished reading my 2013 Year in Review and wow!  That was a great year.  2014 sucked donkey ass.  Seriously.   It was a hard year, and I'm glad it is over.  There were a few highlights along the way, though.

January/February - I spent the first two months of the year driving back and forth between Texas and Utah trying hard not to wear out my welcome in either place while applying for jobs in both.  Finally, within about 3 days in early February I was offered jobs in Utah, Texas, and surprise late-comer, Southern California.

March - I took the job in Southern California, despite having no actual desire to move to SoCal.  But, the job was a great opportunity, and, after getting my B.A,, I was trying to transition to a new career so I moved out to California.

April thru September - I was just struggling to hang on.  I hated SoCal, the new job came with a lot of intense challenges, and I was far away from any kind of support system.  I also had someone I considered a close friend do something that caused me to lose all trust and respect for her.  It was (and is) just donkey ass all around.


October - At the end of September beginning of October I managed my only vacation travel of the year.  I went on a cruise to the gulf of Mexico with Cort and some of her friends, and crossed Chichen Itza off my 1000 Places list.  It was so much fun, but the vacation ended sooner than expected when most of T3 had to travel back to Utah to say goodbye to Lexi.  I'm really glad they had the opportunity to visit with her one last time, and I feel pretty confident that she timed that on purpose during my supposed-to-be-visit.  Good one, Lexi, good one - the favorite aunt debate will continue.  :)

November - I surprised my folks and flew to Utah for Thanksgiving.  They were surprised and I had a wonderful visit.

December - A quick 3-day cruise to Mexico that was underwhelming, a bout of the something-I-thought-was-a-cold-but-maybe-was-the-flu (which resulted in me getting sent home from work), and another holiday surprise, Christmas in Texas with the nubbins I missed in October.

2014 was just a really, really difficult year, but a job location transfer is in the works to get me out of SoCal, and the job is (hopefully) smoothing out its rough edges, and maybe just maybe I will get to back to Europe in 2015.

Christmas in College Station

The nubbins were definitely surprised when I showed up on Christmas Eve and I had a blast visiting them over Christmas.  I miss them all so much, and it has been a particularly sad thought that Gretta might grow up without a "spoilin' aunt" nearby.  I was overjoyed that she warmed up so quickly and became my little buddy over the 10 days I was there.

We did all sorts of fun things, dates with the kids, pizza n' spoilin', playing lots of Mario Kart and Dumb Ways to Die, and just being happy to be with family.  I missed their cute faces the second I left!

Christmas Eve Nativity:

Opening their Christmas Eve present:

Kita got a book:

She started reading it immediately.  Totally reminded me of myself.

Gretta got a book:

What did she think of the book?

and Ryker got a blurry picture, but he also got Rescue Bots.

On Christmas morning they were tortured by their parents into taking pictures before opening gifts:

But then we got down to business:

Ryker opened his gifts in a weird place for me to get a good picture angle, but he did get this lumberjack jacket that he wore pretty constantly for the rest of my trip,

Kita likes to roll all her celebrating into one week a year so we celebrated her birthday on Saturday.

She likes her birthday presents to go under the tree as well, and Gretta had no problems bringing her gifts to open.

I tool Kita to Old Navy and let her pick out an outfit for her birthday.  She immediately picked out this dress and bought it.

*That is my kind of shopping....one and done.

And of course, there was cake.

Ryker is growing out his hair from a perpetual buzz cut.  It is now long enough to mohawk, and I love it.

And there was just a bunch of general cuteness that makes me miss these kids so darn much!

Try clicking this link  >>> Oops!  

I cannot stand how cute her oops! is.  I get major cuteness aggression every time I watch this.

And my visit was over all too soon.  I left this...

Flew back to this...

And hopefully will get to see a lot more of them in the near future!

The Wonderful World of (a) Beaver

Because I hadn't been able to see most of T3 while I was in Texas in October, KiLee suggested that I come for Christmas.  I thought that seemed like an excellent idea, and decided it should be a surprise for the kids.  I sent them a Christmas countdown chain and each link had a activity for them to complete (e.g., cleaning their room, including their little sister, writing Christmas cards), and told them if they completed all their tasks I would send them a surprise on Christmas Eve.

Before we get to that, though...

I flew out of Long Beach on Christmas Eve.  Have I mentioned how much I like the Long Beach airport? Another flight out on a notoriously busy travel day (Good Day L.A. had reporters at LAX reporting on long lines and reminding travelers to "pack your patience".), and LGB was an even easier experience than Thanksgiving.

My gate was 10 or 11, the far reaches of the Long Beach airport... you can see just how gigantic (not) LGB is when all the gates are lined up like this.


This hat was on my flight.


I had mentioned Buc-Ees to some of my friends; they did not believe me when I told them how fantastically awesome it is.  So I took pictures to illustrate my point:

First of all, there is the fact that Buc-Ee is a beaver,


And, all the stores have a statue of the beaver outside.


Then, there are the staggering number of gas pumps


And the price of gas


Also, the sheer size of the store, you cannot see the other end in this picture.

And we can't forget that someone welcomes you every time you come through the doors.

Not to mention the variety and selection of good you can buy at Buc-Ees:

Did you need a pea-shooter?

Got it.

Did you need a baby shower gift?

Buc-Ee has you covered.

A first book for your todler?

No problem.  Buc-Ee will teach your kid to read.

A stuffed beaver?


A Christmas (or any other themed) T-shirt?


Even one for the new baby,


A trailer hitch cover plate?


Gent's furnishings?


Cast iron cookware?


Pajamas?

Buc-Ees has you covered for all of that.

But wait, what if you're hungry?  Would you like some gourmet fudge?

Just choose from the 20-ish flavors, or buy a sampler box.

Jerky?

A gazillion flavors, not to mention multiple meats?

A full meal, hot dinner, with specialty Texas BBQ?


Popcorn...Got it.


Any type of snack, really.


Maybe you want something healthy, maybe fresh produce...


Smoked meat:


And a bakery complete with kolaches (both fruit and meat filled, but not together - Buc-Ee has his limits!)




And if you want to smoke your own meat...  you can definitely buy your own smoker.


I didn't take photos of the best part of Buc-Ees, the bathrooms.  Seriously folks, you have never seen clean restrooms until you see them at Buc-Ees.  I guarantee they are cleaner than yours.  GUARANTEED.

Anyhow, with a couple of kolaches and a soda, I made a right turn and headed 70 miles down Hwy 21 (passing my favorite landmarks like: Dime Box, the miniature donkey farm, the Whoop Stop, Elm Creek Cafe - I can never tell if they're open, Royalty Pecan Farms, and a million other little things) to the home of Kyle Field, the 12th man, and Gig 'Em - College Station, and my favorite Texans!

Impromptu Vacation

One of the perks of living in a cruise port city is that sometimes there are super cheap last minute cruise fares.  So immediately after returning from my Thanksgiving trip, I boarded the Carnival Inspiration for a long weekend in Mexico.

The only port was Ensenada and there wasn't really anything shore excursion-wise that peaked my interest, and I was pretty exhausted so after getting off the ship and walking around for approximately five minutes (turns out you need to take a bus into the city proper, and I was exhausted and looking for zero hassle), I re-boarded and hung out on the basically empty ship for the rest of the day.

I can say that I had a good time, and paid a really low price, but I would't recommend a 3 day cruise to anyone, basically ever.  It felt like the process of boarding and disembarking was too cumbersome for such a short vacation.  The bar service was far inferior to any cruise (although my cabin steward, and dining staff were awesome), the bar people always made it seem like it was an inconvenience to fill my drink order, and the food was terrible.  Really.  Terrible*.

The ship was decorated for Christmas so I did take photos of the ship.







The red thing in the bottom right corner was a Santa's Mailbox.  I thought it was cute, and I wonder if the Camp Carnival folks wrote letters or had Santa answer letters.





The book I read on the ship:


And 2 of the 3 towel animals.  Apparently,  I dinna fash meself, and take a picture of the 3rd.






Oh, and also I basically threw stuff in a suitcase, and took this totally matching pair of sandals on the cruise.  Needles to say, I didn't wear sandals on this trip.



*exception:  warm chocolate melting cake