Friday: I left Nashville around 8 in the morning and got to my dad’s at 5 (I lost an hour due to the time zone being different).  It was a good drive, beautiful weather, breezy traffic, book on tape.  When I got there we hit up the Eaton Pub for some pizza and drinks, went to the Tasty Twist for some ice cream treats, and then headed back to the house, where I helped my dad prep his Indian Corn for his garden the next day by gluing the seeds onto strips of newspaper (the newspaper keeps the seeds evenly spaced when planting and biodegrades easily).  It was a mini-education in agricultural tricks.  He grows a bountiful garden every year, so I can’t wait to see the produce of my labors (get it, produce of my labors?).  My dad lives in Amish country in rural mid-Michigan, so when going to bed that night with the windows open, I fell asleep to the sound of bullfrogs.  It was beautiful.

Saturday: My step-mom has a home gym set up in their basement (lucky!), so I hit the treadmill in an effort to maintain my healthy lifestyle, then we had a photo shoot where I did my best to capture some pictures of Connie and my dad.  I’m not much of a photographer, but I think a few turned out well.  From their house I headed to the bridal shower for my cousin, Kristin.  The shower was a lot of fun (you never know what you’re going to get with showers), and then my mom, aunt, and her two kiddos took me to the Ox Roast & Carnival, which was going on in town over the weekend.  We rode a few rides, played a few games, and then parked ourselves at the pavilion, where we enjoyed adult beverages and danced along to the band.  Before the night was over my uncle and grandpa came out, and we had ourselves a grand old time.  There may have been a rather drunken conversation with my boyfriend at, oh, 9 o’clock?  Whoops.  When the band finished up we went back to my aunt’s house, where I ate probably 20 Totino’s Pizza Rolls in an effort to stave off a hangover the next day.

Sunday: I woke up maybe 20 times in a 3-hour span on Sunday morning, doing that panicky thing where I have something to do the morning after a night of drinking, and I’m so worried that I’ll be hungover that I wake myself up every 10-15 minutes to see whether I feel bad, when what would make me feel best (besides lots of H2O and Totinos Pizza Rolls) is to maximize the number of hours I get to sleep, not wake myself up every 20.  I swear, by the last hour before I had to get up, I was only sleeping in 4 minute bouts and checking the clock every six minutes.  Does this happen to anyone else?  Eventually I actually got up, and while a little less than stellar, felt significantly better than I had a right to, given the prior evening’s marathon drinking session.  

I drove out to Lansing to meet one of my favorite people from my college years.  Cathy was my boss when I worked at the Student Union, and to know her is to love her.  We had breakfast at this great Greek place, and then I hit the road.  Needless to say my drive did not go quite as well on the way home.  My bladder o’ beer required many bathroom stops, and my hangover lessened my will-power, demanding Mambas, Twix bars, and Corn Nuts.  One audio tape, five bathroom breaks (seriously, I stopped at 2 rest areas - I was so ashamed of myself), and 8 sweltering hours later, I arrived home, in possibly the worst mood ever.  It was an uncomfortable drive.  But a good trip overall, and the fun of the night was well worth the mild hangover.

To soothe our Sunday Blues Tony and I watched John Carter, which wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, and featured TimRiggins, so how was I going to say no to that?  Honestly, all I kept hearing about it was what a flop it was, but I didn’t think it was that bad.  Was it just the insane budget that made it such a huge failure?  It’s not any worse than other cheesy family action films I’ve seen.

Okay, okay.  Somehow it got to be Thursday without a Weekend Highlight Reel and tomorrow is Friday, so what is the point?  I agree with you.  Here are the important things about our weekend:

1) Tony kept getting shut down at the bars we tried to go to for dinner due to his expired driver’s license, so we ended up at Red Robin, where our burgers were so disgusting that even the delicious french fries couldn’t save them.  Also since I’m on this health kick life I couldn’t/didn’t even order a shake, which might have made up for the burger, but alas, it wasn’t to be.  We’ll never do that again.

2) We went to see The Avengers.  I liked it SO much.  It is really the summer blockbuster everyone keeps saying it is.  I think about halfway through the movie I though to myself, “Holy shit, this is awesome.”  Some of the dialogue (specifically between Ironman & Captain America) is ridiculously good; some of it is cheesy.  But even the cheese is pretty glorious.  This is another perfect example of low expectations = greater enjoyment of a film.

3) We had breakfast with Tony’s mom for Mother’s Day.  She made the breakfast so it makes our celebratory effort to get out there early seem inadequate.  But good lord, that woman can fry some potatoes like it’s her job.  No wonder I did not lose weight at our Biggest Loser Weigh-In this week…

Well, there, that’s the big stuff.  I took tomorrow off so that I can head to Michigan for my cousin’s bridal shower on Saturday.  In roughly 60 hours I will drive over 1,000 miles, spend time with my dad & stepmom, attend a bridal shower, do quality activities with my mom & brother, likely play cards and drink with my grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and then have breakfast with my old boss from college.  And maybe sleep a little.  The drive will be worth it though.  Sometimes the short trips where you pack a lot in are the best.

Then Tony and I will spend next week preparing for our camping trip (read: vacation) in Florida the following week.  I’m so excited.  We booked 5 days and 4 nights at a campsite at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park.  Did I already tell yall htis?  I can’t remember.  Time for my boyfriend to show off his  David-esque physique, and his camping abilities.  Should be awesome.