Did you notice? I went away!

I packed up the girls and headed north for the weekend, where a few interesting things occurred. But first, a pic of the view where we stayed, a place called Lake Lawn Resort. I have to go back to this place some day. With a fishing pole, and a boat!

We arrived Saturday, noonish, and I met up with my hubby who took our children out to lunch and shopping so that I, full-time non-stop mom of 2 years doing it all by myself could have lunch with Lisa, by. myself. What fun!! I met Lisa last year through E.Webscapes (she runs the joint), and we’ve had some fun conversations through IM and on the phone. Meeting her in person was a blast though, we have one very important thing in common, the ability to find humor in anything. Yeah we have lots of other stuff in common, but that’s most important isn’t it?! I think so.

So we laughed. A lot. And we ate with chopsticks, and she’s an expert. Me, on the other hand, I preferred to stab my scallops with a single chopstick. Much easier. We shopped, found an amazing sweater at Coldwater Creek that we both had to have and only one of us walked out with (we’re going to timeshare, I think). She laughed at my escalator phobia, which isn’t too severe, I have more of an overly-cautious escalator boarding procedure. She poked and made fun. Guess what happened to her for making such fun? The escalator bit her. Yes, it did. Took a chunk right out of her leg. I’m guessing she may start using my boarding procedure, huh? hehehe! (She’s okay, it’s just a nip!)

It was really wonderful. I’ve only met a couple of people in person that I’ve met and gotten to know online, so there’s this period of paranoia for me when my brain says things like “well, if she never IM’s me again, I’ll know I’m a total freak in person, too.” There’s a little awkwardness, then you just kinda settle in like it’s just been a really long time since you’ve seen them. Only a really long time is never, and a lot of people think that these types of friendships are disposable since they’re online and you have to “go out of your way” to meet them in person. I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say neither of us are like that. 🙂

Having lunch with my girlfriend without having to tend to my children? Absolutely priceless. Thanks Mark for the bonus. I love my job, the perks are incredible! 😉

I met up with my hubby and kiddos and we headed toward the Lodge to check in. We walked along the lake, had dinner there, just enjoyed the peaceful surroundings. It’s a beautiful place. I took this neat-o picture of the seaweed growing from the retaining wall. It looks like carpet, huh?

Sunday morning we headed on up to the Zoo, cause we just love Zoo’s! I took s’more really fun pictures, so you’ll be seeing a few more “captionable” animals soon.

The really very strange part of the whole day was that I was thinking about my sperm-donor dad on the drive to the Zoo. He abandoned my brother and I, giving up his parental rights and allowed my stepdad to adopt us when I was around 5, I think. I knew I had been on the same road a hundred times on our weekends with “dad”, but it didn’t feel familiar. I remembered being daddy’s little girl though, and laying my head on his leg in the front seat, sleeping through the drive home and wishing I didn’t have to be away from him. So I was a little sentimental on the drive there, trying to recall things from my childhood that are almost gone from my memory.

While we were in the Primate house, I heard a voice, turned and looked, and there was my ex-sister in law, with her little girl (my niece) that I haven’t seen in a couple of years. (Long story short, my brother seems to think that if I talk to her or see my niece that I’m evil and he’ll disown me if I do it. I’ll probably get disowned just for saying that. Oh well.) Anyway she has to be there with someone, right? They’re pretty far away from home. Yep, they’re with my sperm-donor dad. Talk about rush of wierd feelings that I couldn’t identify if my life depended on it! I tried so hard to get back in touch with him in my late teens, and even early twenties. Our last conversation was a frustrated one though, I was tired of being the one to call him. I wanted him to call me, to show ME that he cared. To this day, he hasn’t. The saddest part about the whole thing, being in the same room with him? From a parent’s standpoint, if I were in the same room with my child and didn’t know it, couldn’t recognize them, would think they were a stranger if they came up and talked to me? I would feel like a schmuck. A big one. And here he was, completely oblivious (I’m guessing) to my existence, to the existence of his son-in-law and two grandchildren. Look at what he’s destroyed. I feel more sorry for him than sad for myself. I didn’t talk to them, I walked away. I felt bad. I wondered if I had been handed an opportunity to fix something and change our future, then I wondered if it was his opportunity, not mine. I wonder now how long I’ll wonder about that.

We had a great day there anyway, it’s a gorgeous Zoo!! We went back and took the girls swimming, we went out to dinner at Chili’s and my hubby tried getting me shnookered on Raspberry Margaritas, and we just had a very nice relaxing and fun weekend away. Gotta love those!

To end this whole rambly thing on a funny note, this was hanging on the door of the gift shop at the Zoo, and I laughed a big old belly laugh when I saw it!

I’ll be putting up some pics for you to caption in a little while!