carolina cup in the rain

so, today holly and i packed up the car in our pretty dresses and gorgeous hats (hoping and praying) for the rain to hold off... no such luck. we drive down to camden, sc for the carolina cup, a horserace, which is held every year in a big field - and the weather forecast had predicted terrible weather. we arrived there before our friends from raleigh. they had all taken a party bus from raleigh (14 of them) and while holly and i sat there waiting, it started to rain.... let the fun begin. luckily for us, the nice people beside of us had a tent already set up with a full food spread, and they offered shelter for us! so, after about an hour, we see zach and charlie coming down the pathway, carrying a tent. by this time, it is absolutely pouring. charlie looks at holly and i for help in setting up the tent, but there was no way, i felt horrible - but we wanted to stay dry. so, they set up this tent, it smelled like death, and then will brings another one - problem is, it leaked. someone did have a good idea to bring an extra tarp, but it collected lots of water, so that provided lots of pockets of water, and many times when will had to take an umbrella and poke the water off the side of the tent. everyone brought their own food, but holly and i drove trough deliverence to get there.... in other words, we didn't pass anywhere to get food. if i am going to tailgate and be somewhere all day, i would like to truly tailgate. i would like to set up a full spread. hopefully, next year if we go, we will do that. when the thunder/lightening started, i looked at holly and said, "i'm done." she agreed, so we left. we walked back to the car in the rain, by the time we got there - our legs and flip flops were covered in mud/grass, but luckily (most important for us) our dresses didn't get any mud on them, woohoo. we were soaked from head to toe it seemed, but we managed to save our dresses, haha. we drove back to charlotte, and i slept most of the evening, but at least i was dry, haha. the rest of the gang stayed, they said the rain let up for a couple hours, but the bottom fell out of the sky again when they were leaving. hopefully next year, if we go, will be a better turnout.

huey p bridge, construction worker has a heart attack, and what?

so, i'm sorry i have been kind of slack lately on my blog entries... i'll do better, for the few of you that actually read about my travel adventures.

last week i was in new orleans for a site visit, i was on my way back to the airport, and i was a little pushed for time. i entered this old, old bridge (the huey p) and was traveling along. (sidenote: the bridge is so not nice, it is shakey and old, and no lanes for emergency vehicles.) you are probably thinking, why would i point out the issue about emergency vehicles... and the fun begins. a lady two cars in front of me wrecks. we all slam on brakes.... the lady directly in front of me gets out to help, and i think... well, i can either sit here and think about how i am going to miss my flight or i can get out and help. i see the lady who has wrecked her car flipping out and getting her baby out of the car. anyone who knows me, knows that as soon as i saw the baby, i thought... i have to get out and help. so, i called us air to tell them that i was going to miss my flight. they informed me that my flight had been delayed by two hours... for once, i told the representative, that was "great news." she laughed. we hung up, and i got out of the rental car to help the lady and young baby.

i walked up to the van (the lady who was directly in front of me, had let the lady who wrecked her car sit in the van along with her baby (mia was her name)) - so i just wanted to try and talk to her and calm her down. i told her about how i wasn't even going to miss my flight that it had been delayed, she laughed. then she kept looking back at the miles of backed up traffic, i told her not to stress, that they had all done something before...been in an accident or caused one, so they could wait. then they needed pictures of the vehicles, so they asked me to go take the pictures, i was happy to do so. once again, anyone who knows me, knows that this was great for me, i love taking pictures, i took about 10, when they probably only need two or three, haha. one thing is for sure, the insurance adjuster/company has plenty of pictures along with the police. then i went back to the van, and we all continued to talk. i went over to little, precious mia... she was sleeping for a little, then i talked to her and continued to try and help calm the mom. it helped me not stress about the fact that we were indeed stuck on a bridge.

the police finally arrived. once the police arrived (by reversing up the other side of the bridge), he informed us that the reason it took so long is because a construction worker on part 2 of the bridge (we were all headed) had a heart attack. so, we not going anywhere, anyway. what are the chances? i thought i am going to be stuck on this bridge FOREVER. after they towed the two vehicles, they were totaled... a truck had to bring sand/dirt to put over the oil that had spilled on the bridge... another 15 minutes. yikes.

i finally arrived at the airport in just enough time to make it home on the original flight i was scheduled for... what a day!

how does an entire airport run out of rental cars

so, here we go again... sunday, i flew to ft. lauderdale, after searching for more than 45 minutes for my hotel (it was only 15 miles from the airport)... seriously, i hate the navigation system on my blackberry sometimes.... i didn't get much sleep that night, i had an early morning on monday co-monitoring with a coworker. i flew from florida to charlotte. once i got to charlotte, i only had about 20 minutes to get to my next gate. i was walking as fast as possible, but still trying to be careful in my ankle brace... this lady on one of those sky cap things, says... "hey, where you going with that limp?" i turn around and say, "D9." i was at B12. the charlotte airport is not designed for the quick connections, at all. she says, "hop on honey, i'll get you there." meanwhile, the drivers of these skycaps are dangerous. i had to hold on for dear life. i mean, i wonder if i wouldn't be safer walking with my bum ankle, haha. she would honk the horn and scream at people to get out of her way. i seriously thought that she was going to take out quite a few people on our way. good thing though, when she dropped me off, they were boarding my flight.

when i arrived in richmond, i get my bag. then, i go to the gold booth for hertz, and it is was closed. so i go to the regular counter, and the line is very long... like at least 10 people are in front of me...that is abnormal. usually for gold members, they have our reservations lined up and we just show our IDs and go on out to get our cars... problem... after standing in line for about 45 minutes, i get to the counter to hear the following words (at 12:15 am)... "i am sorry for the inconvenience ma'am, but we are out of cars, even though you have a reservation." i cannot believe it. there are like some 17 people behind me. i say to the lady, can you at least make an announcement for the people behind me... so they do, which causes chaos. they tell us that they are going to reimburse us for cab fares to our destinations for monday night, then deliver cars to us by noon on tuesday, ha. so, i give them my cell number, and they tell me the manager will call me in the morning to arrange the delivery of my rental car... so by 11:30 am i still have not heard from arya (the manager) of hertz, so i call her. she tells me that she couldn't read some of the handwriting of the numbers, and i tell her that i regret to inform her, but i have some of the neatest handwriting she has probably ever seen, so there is no way that my cell number was hard to read. she then says, "i apologize, i just haven't had a chance to call all the numbers on the list." busted. so, they finally bring my rental car to me at 2:30pm. it was still ridiculous, so the manager gives me a $50 waiver or certificate to upgrade a rental car to something i would like...i'm thinking mercedes... my dream car.

now i'm home for one night this week, tomorrow morning i'm off to biloxi, mississippi then to allentown, pa - then home for the weekend, i'm truly exhausted and ready for the weekend. i hope everyone has a great week. hopefully no crazy stories for the next two days, but let's be real, i probably won't be that lucky... by the time friday hits, i will have been on 11 flights in 6 days, whew.

snow, de-icing fun, stomach bugs, no surgery

so, i'm summarizing last week's adventures, because this week should be full of exciting tales. i have a visit every single day. sunday, charlotte got 4-6 inches of snow - don't worry i sat on a plane and watched the pretty white stuff fall. i didn't get to play in it. i couldn't believe the faa let us take off during the "snowstorm." the pilot later tells us that we were one of the last flights to get to leave charlotte, can we say nightmare. it was so turbulent, and so not safe. i prayed, and i feel 100 % confident that God was the pilot on the plane that night. i made it to johnson city, tennessee. on monday, i returned to charlotte (just to connect through) to fly to nashville, all to find out my flight had been cancelled. the later flight was completely booked/oversold, so they tried to give me a hotel voucher (us air = dumb) i live in charlotte, why would i need a hotel voucher? so i head home, oh wait... without a bag, because they refused to pull our bags, "they had to go to the final destination." which in my case was nashville. so annoying. i finally got to nashville tuesday morning, then flew to memphis on tuesday afternoon.... i returned to the hotel where i had the fall and had to go to the ER... i was a little nervous. so, i finished my visits for my other study on wednesday, returned home, and went to bible study. all seemed good...

thursday morning i had my doctor's appointment to find out the results of my MRI. i wake up around 6:45am all to realize that i have a stomach virus/bug = no fun. i called orthocarolina, my doctor to see if i could possibly just talk to my orthopedist over the phone but of course they say no, so i somehow managed to get it together long enough to make it through the appointment. i did, however, find out some great news... i do not have to have surgery, woohoo. they said i have strained ligaments.... the doc thinks with home therapy i can strengthen the ligaments for now... so i pray that it will work. he said, obviously, that if i continue to have major issues or fall again, then surgery will probably have to be looked at as what will have to happen. luckily, i live closer to home now so my moma brought me some meds and gatorade the day i was sick, so i survived, i slept from 6pm on thursday to 10 am on friday morning. whew, what a day.

friday night, crystal, nicole, holly, and i went to texas roadhouse for dinner - it was a great meal to replenish me, haha - great excuse to get my friends to go there, right, haha. saturday, holly and i went shopping for dresses for carolina cup - we had success. we actually had a blast shopping all day. i think holly bought enough sunglasses to last for the next two years, haha. i think her and crystal could rival each other, haha with their sunglasses obsession. saturday night, i went to church with kasey (since we knew we would not enjoy the time change) and then we went to wham and then to rankin's to watch a movie. i have been so blessed to meet such a great lifegroup leader (and friend now) because i have met so many new people. i always have such a great time hanging out with everyone from forest hill. i love my church! God is so good.

oh, and last bit of information, for this blog.... my friend hayley called to tell me that she is expecting. she and her husband are due october 10, 2009 - i am so excited to be an aunt - i cannot wait. i am going to spoil this kid rotten. so today we watched the carolina/dook game at their house. i wanted to take them something for the baby, carolina of course, and my grandmother said i should take two onsies instead of one, just in case (because hayley is a twin) - so i took two carolina onsies for them, haha. guess what... CAROLINA WON!!! 79-71, and we are regular season acc champs, great way to end the weekend.

countdown til lindsey comes home: 56 days!!!! i cannot wait.