It's nice to be away from the cold of SF and in the sunny warmth of Southern Cal!  Work has been EXTREMELY busy lately, working until 8-9 pm every night and on weekends also, so I took some time this afternoon to have lunch at the beach in San Diego before driving up to LA. SF just doesn't have good Mexican food so I was really excited about coming to San Diego to get the "real stuff." Found this ghetto, cash only tacqueria on the way to the beach.  Yummy fish tacos and a carne asada torta...delicious!  With my tummy full and satisfied and my brain relaxed from staring at the waves, I headed up the Pacific Coast highway to LA. Of course they had to give me a mustang covertible for the drive up this week.  I feel soo blessed to have a job that allows me so much flexibility and freedom. Please remind me of that if (when) I start complaining later in the year.

 I was supposed to leave Memphis at 11 am CST this morning, but a meeting got canceled so I decided to take the first flight out of Memphis 7 am CST, spend 3 hours in Dallas with Julia and Jason, and then fly back to SF at 1 pm CST. The weather forecast looked good, until we landed in Dallas. One look outside the window dashed my hopes of seeing them after noticing the piles of snow lining the runways. Due to unsafe driving conditions, Julia and Jason couldn't make it. This is what I looked like on the plane.

I decided to take the next flight to SF, which was leaving at 9:40 am CST. There was plenty of room on the flight, but I barely made it running through the airport and the Skylink tram.  Ready to get going back to SF, it was a pleasant surprise to hear that we had to wait for the plane to get defrosted before we could take off.  Therefore, we spent 2.5 hours sitting on the runway at DFW waiting in line.  There were 16 planes in front of us at 10 am.  HAHA

Anyway, we didn't end up leaving DFW until around 12:30 pm CST, which just got me home to SF at 4 pm CST/2 pm PST.  Despite the flight/weather troubles, there were some simple pleasures I found during this trip back to the South: sweet tea, BBQ, Chick Fil A, Sonic strawberry limeades, tons of country music radio stations to choose from, Texas hoodies at DFW, and an entire row to stretch my legs out on the plane. I guess it was a blessing too because if I had taken the 1 pm flight from DFW to SF like I originally was going to do, I probably wouldn't have made it home until late tonight.  Oh travel woes...hehe  glad to be home in SF now, but I miss you Julia and Jason!

Content...

But ready to get back to work now...

 It's Christmas time!  I love the buzz and hum in the air this time of the year...Christmas lights, Christmas music, holiday parties, cool weather, vacation, wrapping presents, Christmas cards, decorations, people trying church who normally wouldn't, lotsa good volunteering opportunities, Christmas cheer ....the list continues. I'm a little sad because I won't be coming back to TX this year.   We've gone on vacation during the holidays before, but this time, it feels a little different. Some things I miss about Christmas in TX...can anyone guess what they are?

Although, one of the best things about the holidays is family. I don't know what I would do if these guys weren't coming to visit SF this Christmas. I miss them.