4th of July in Florida

WHAT an eventful week! As I have already stated, Dan left on Monday (have I beaten that dead horse enough yet?) and the rest of the week was filled with sheer anticipation to get to Florida and see my family and my nephew! The flight in was nice. I have come to realize that the Charlotte airport and me are bff. I swear, I’ve had more connecting flights in that airport than anywhere else, I practically have it memorized!
I was SO happy to fly into my beautiful state, see my family and hold my massive nephew (15 lbs!). from the airport we headed to my condo, to empty my stuff out of the attic and out of the storage shed, to give my tenants full usage of the unit. I was really happy to get all my stuff out of there, and to have all of my stuff in one place (at moms house- my stuff has taken over!) it was a great 4th of July.
The next day the family came to moms house and we celebrated the 4th. It was so nice because I got to see Pam and Greg (Janets in-laws) and I also got to meet moms friend Laurie (who is in town fixing up her rental unit- I understand what she is going through) who is SO cool, AND by the way, made me my birthday cake! It was here that I opened my gift from Dan (the one he had shipped to FL so I could open it on my birthday). Once again, Dan hit the nail on the head. He gave me, not only a beautiful ring, but one I have never seen anything like. Everyone was taken aback by it. Here is a similar ring, mine has a much prettier stone in it though. Yup- hes amazing- I know :).
That night I went to see my good friend Joel and his boyfriend Jason at the Southwest Florida Gay Supper Club. Let me tell you, I had such a good time; I ended up meeting up with my friend Kandis and her friend Kelly as well. There was a slight mis-communication when the “organizer” thought Kelly and Kandis were “together”, but that ended up being the joke of the night, and all 3 of us girls were from then on referred to as “the non-lesbians”. It was pretty hysterical. I was SO happy to spend time with Joel, Jason and Kandis. We all had a great time.

Then on Sunday I joined my cousins Samantha and Patricia for breakfast and first watch. We mainly caught up with each other and really had a nice time. I think we’ll make a habit out of that. I spent the rest of the Day with Janet, Scott and Noah. We hit up one of my favorite sushi restaurants and headed home. Sunday night Janet made a lamb dish that was TO-DIE-FOR! Just thinking about it makes me want more.
Monday- My birthday- started out with packing, and organizing. See the original plan was for me to come down, pack up all my stuff that was left at moms house, and when I was ready to move to Maryland, then I would rent a POD, mom, Janet, Scott and whoever else would pack it up and send it to MD. So I wanted to get everything in order, so that when the POD came, mom wouldn’t have any problems with packing it. Now, my wonderful sister, brother-in-law and mother have volunteered to drive my stuff up to MD if I pay for gas, which will cost less than half of what a POD would cost. I HAVE THE BEST FAMILY!!!! I truly do. Then I met up with Mike and Dori for lunch at Red Lobster (our old stomping grounds). It was so nice to see them and catch up on everything, there’s no one else I would like to spend my birthday lunch with! Thanks again for lunch guys! Then I was off to see my Aunt Donna at the Gomez’s (her place of employment). It was so cool to see all the renovations. I also got a chance to play with (my neice-puppy?) Lexi, she loves to go swimming. Then at night, , I got together with a bunch of friends at Momma Mias Pizza. It was SO great, some of the people that came, I hadn’t seen in years! We all laughed, and caught up with each other and was really a GREAT birthday. We dominated Momma Mias that night! And the pizza Nazi ACTUALLY smiled at me! Ha! Go figure. Janet and Noah dropped me off at the airport on Tuesday, it was really hard to say goodbye to Noah, but everyone tells me it’ll get easier, I certainly hope so. I was shocked to find out that; when you fly, if you check baggage, it costs $15 a piece! To off set the price of gas. Either I’m only packing carry on items from now on- or I’m getting one really big suitcase. Oh man.
Once again, I found myself with 10 minutes to make my connecting flight, but it’s ok, I really enjoy running through the Charlotte airport with my heavy computer bag. At least this time it wasn’t an irate Chihuahua.