As we started down Quincy (the street we stayed on), we passed a police station next to a basketball court. It wasn't even 7:45 in the morning (this was a school day) and the court was packed with kids and teens playing ball. I saw people walking towards the train station; I saw kids around my son's age (7 years old) walking down the block to school. I saw families walking their kids to school and, whereas rush hour in urban areas of Texas starts around 6:30am and ends around 8:30am, rush hour hadn't even started there yet because I'm guessing places open a little bit later and close later (that's what the driver told me). If I had known that, I wouldn't have had him pick me up so early! :p
Before we got onto the freeway, I saw this and felt right at home!
"BIG BOX" STORES/STRIP MALLS DO EXIST IN NYC!
(lol)
Then we got onto the freeway and this was my view :) I couldn't have been happier.
MY MORNING COMMUTE
(Is this real life?)
At the airport, well over three hours before my flight left, I decided to have a birthday treat. They don't have Dunkin Donuts in Midland (or any famous donut chain actually....don't get me started) so when I saw it, I heard angels singing in my head...
THINK I WILL :)
After this, I waited...and waited...and waited. The TSA at LaGuardia were AMAZING though and treated people so nicely, and so patiently (because people have a tendency to NOT READ THE SIGNS! Then we wonder why, as teachers, our kids don't know how to follow directions....Lord, I could go off for hours on that, but I digress.
It did give me time to recharge my phone and take another selfie for my kids to let 'em know I was comin' home ;)
I was not so lucky with my seat on the flight from NYC to DFW and had my knees pressed into the seat in front of me the entire 3 and a half hours. Not fun.
I had a 90 minute layover so I went to the Fuddrucker's inside the airport to grab a turkey burger. The line was about 15 people deep, and when I turned around to make sure there would be a place to sit, this guy around my age saw my shirt and asked if I was a big X-Files fan.
And, all I could think at that moment was: I just traveled to NYC from west Texas in the middle of the busiest time of the school year to watch an actress from this TV show perform in person, stayed with a bunch of fans, and have 2 sets of DVD's of every single episode, plus all of them backed up on my computer.............HOW MUCH DOES THIS PERSON REALLY WANT TO KNOW?
So, I smiled shyly and just said "Yeah, I enjoy it."
He then proceeded to tell me that he and his wife were on season 4 and was trying to think of the episode name, so he described what happened and I'm all like "Leonard Betts!" He laughed, and said, "OH! So you are a BIG fan then." Busted.....lol. We talked for several more minutes and then it was my turn to order and parted ways after that. That is legitimately the first time anything like that has ever happened, and for it to have happened then and there (on what was essentially "an X-Files trip") was really bizarre.
Anyways, after my meal, my 90min layover turned into 3 and a half hours because DFW had to hold our plane to Midland for 2 hours because of an international flight that had to be inspected or some such nonsense. My husband and kids were not too happy with my lateness because they had a special welcome planned when I got home.
Below are pics of the (oh so lovely) west Texas landscape which, to be honest, is greener than usual from the rainy April and May the region has had.
FINALLY BACK
SEE THE MIDLAND SKYLINE?
(No, really, it's there in the back...)
We landed, and I quickly got in my (RIDICULOUSLY HOT) Explorer, and headed home. The craziest thing I have ever seen happen on the road, happened right in front of me at the intersection of the Loop and Andrews Hwy. I was turning left when the Highway Patrol car in front of me slammed on their brakes as we turned left on a green arrow to get on the service road. All 5 cars around me slammed on their brakes, too in what was nearly a bad collision. The trooper jumped out of his car and ran around in front of it. I was like "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON????" Is someone lying on the ground? And then all of a sudden, he reappears and is carrying a big turtle!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL! He rescued the turtle and put it into the greenbelt area before getting back in his car and going on his way.
C-R-A-Z-Y!!!!!!
I finally, FINALLY get to my house at around 7:15pm and my kids and husband had made me birthday cards, and bought a cake from my favorite bakery (Nothing Bundt Cakes). I gave them their souvenirs: a pink "I <3 NY" keychain for L with a matching teddy bear, and a mini Statue of Liberty for B with a blue "I <3 NY" keychain.
It was literally the perfect ending to a perfect birthday.
H-O-M-E
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