And away we go... part 259039(?)

So I ended up spending 36 hours in McAllen. It was kind of random. I got to LaGuardia last weekend and realized that *every single flight* to DFW was cancelled except for mine. And I almost cried a little - if mine had cancelled, I would've just gone home and hung out with Blondie. It turns out that checking the weather report is a good idea, and if I had done that, I would've seen that TX was getting nailed with a massive storm - a massive storm that was headed straight towards NYC. Anyway, my coworker showed up then and told me that our flight to McAllen was already cancelled out of DFW but we decided to go ahead and fly down and see what we could come up with when we got to DFW.

Flight was nice - very turbulent, but on time and fast-ish. When we got to DFW, we went to the rebooking desk and they put us on a flight to San Antonio, and we figured we could drive from there (4 hours). We plopped down at a mexican restaurant in the airport and then got pinged by 2 other coworkers who were flying in from FL. They had been on our McAllen flight too and then switched to a Corpus Christi flight- I ran back down to rebooking desk and got me and my NY coworker on the last 2 seats to Corpus. A shit ton of margaritas then ensued at the mexican restaurant (since I knew I wouldn't have to drive) before we all met up and got on our flight together. It was a 2.5 hour drive after we landed in Corpus, putting us into McAllen at 2 am (11 hours of traveling).

Work was okay - what we had gone down for had not been cleared by the "higher ups" with all appropriate parties - so while some people knew we were coming, others didn't - and the bulk of our work was cancelled. We did spend Monday doing what we could - and I also got my flight on Tuesday moved extremely early so that I would miss the bulk of the storm hitting NYC. Monday night we hit up an awesome restaurant for food before moving onto a bar and playing Jenga and drinking beers until midnight. And Tuesday it was a 6 am flight to DFW before catching my flight home to NYC. I got to my apartment at 2:30 pm ish, and just collapsed from exhaustion.

*** The good news is I fell in love with McAllen. I lived in TX for 8 years and I thought I knew border towns - I had been to enough of them - and I typically don't like them. But McAllen, something about it. My coworkers all agreed too - and as a matter of fact, some of them beg for the McAllen site when it's time to do work down there they love it so much.

Tuesday night I was asleep by 7:30 pm and Wednesday I got to WFH. I did some wine shopping in the morning and then stopped at the pet store for new cat food to try and keep our cat eating something (Fussie Kittie cat food FTW!) My bar friend and I were going to meet up for lunch and beers at 2 pm ish, but she had to bail so instead I walked up and met some coworkers for beers and burritos. After that, we started bar hopping our way around the area - hitting up a bar in Times Square, followed by Pony Bar, followed by a bourbon bar down the street from Pony, followed by dinner at a new food court area by my apartment, followed by my local bar. Ugh. Many shots ensued at my local bar...

Which leads to Thurs being BLAH. I was dozing/nauseous until about 3 pm, and then finally got in the shower. We then headed over to my bar friends' apartment where we started drinking and eating again. We were joined by their roommates along with one of the other regulars from the bar. We had a great night - the food was amazing, the company was excellent, the Cards Against Humanity was hysterical, and the dog was farty (their bulldog was eating everything he could get his teeth on which led to some horrible gas).

Friday we took it easy - I went and bought more cat food (my cat won't eat straight tuna anymore but give him tuna and shrimps with gravy cat food and he eats it like he's never eaten a meal before in his life) and some stuff to make bran muffins for Blondie. I actually baked the bran muffins on Friday and then we snacked on them all day. And we ended our night by hitting up our local bar, doing yet more shots with everyone, before heading home to order pizza, eat junk food and watch TV.

Yesterday we celebrated by doing NOTHING. Literally. I watched The Conjuring (good movie) and napped. Blondie worked and then played video games. And today we're headed to lunch soon and then I have to pack because I'm off to NJ/PA border for the rest of the week. I'm meeting some coworkers at 6 pm and we're driving out to spend the week there. The good news is I don't have to fly. The bad news is I'm tired.

What I'm thankful for this year:
1) Blondie and Tigga - a shout out to my family. Love them both so much. My favorite part of any day is when Blondie and I curl up in bed together and then the cat forces his way somewhere in between - my heart smiles when this happens.
2) NYC!!!!!! Always and forever.
3) Broadway!!! Always and forever and forever.
4) My extended family - KY, WI, AK, IN, WA, PA - love you all! Glad I got to see so many of you this year!
5) Travel - thank god I like to travel, because I've spent most of my year on the road.
6) My friends - from my bar friends to my work friends to my friend friends - glad you all are in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!
--K