Road Trip!

This weekend presented me with several things. Great things. And add if I may, it is remarkably fun to visit and spend time with those whom you haven't seen in a little while. First off, my mom flew into San Jose on Friday, so I drove my beat-up Explorer up to the airport to pick her up. I then left my car in the overnight/daily lot, which was quite the walk away from baggage claim, as to (hopefully) be as cheap as humanly possible. Not like it mattered, though. I still got there in plenty of time to see my mom coming down the escalator with suitcase, and things in hand. Side-note: hugging your mom after not seeing her for a good while is wayyyy up there on the best things in life. Just saying. Anyways, after the embrace, we headed over to grab our rental car, and then jammed back to Santa Cruz so I could show off my new digs. Before we even went to my new house, we dropped in on my new Starbucks store so that she could meet a handful of my new, and ever-so-brilliant co-workers. Mission accomplished. Next, we cruised to the S.C. wharf and pier, where I just had to show her the noisy sea lions. After that excursion, we trekked back to my new place, where my mom got the pleasure of meeting my three lovely new roommates. And not long after that, we set out on our second annual "Road Trip to Clovis," to watch my youngest sister race the Clovis cross-country Invitational at good ol' Woodward Park--where California hosts the cross-country State meet every year. After driving for what felt like all day, we finally found our hotel and settled into the evening with a nice bottle of wine and some De-licious food from Maggiano's (plus a few malt balls and swedish fish... give or take).

Saturday morning. 6:25 A.M.
Yes. The alarm came quick this morning. And it was about to be quite the day. By 6:45, I was out the hotel door, down the stairs, through the lobby, and out on the road in order to steal an hour of daylight by getting a good (for the most part) run in. I ended up running to the cross-country course which we were going to head over to later that morning to watch my sister race. I ran a few loops through around the course to relive the glory days and then turned back around to get back to the hotel in order to shower and pack up my belongings before we headed back out to Woodward park for the race. 9:20 A.M. was race time. Or at least when the gun was set to go off for my sister's race. Nerves were a-flowin', and everyone seemed to be feeling anxious about the race but me. My mom was feeling the butterfly syndrome (but that's normal), but I think I was too excited to simply be at Woodward park again, let alone being able to see AND cheer on my little sis. Without knowing it, I got hit from behind with a backwards bear-hug attack from my Katelyn--my younger, yet taller, little sister. I couldn't be mad for being blindsided though. Rather, I found myself turning around and hugging her with an uncontrollable smile on my face.
Regardless of her race finishing time or place, Katelana (that's her nick-name, in case you were wondering) did great in my eyes. For having had cross-trained her face off for the past how many weeks in order to regain health from some chronic running injury, she did just fine... regardless of what anyone could've said.
After Katelyn's team walked back to their gathering spot and met up with the coaches, it was time for my mom and I to hop back on the road, and get to the San Jose airport so she could catch her flight back home that afternoon. After our goodbye hug, I once again had the pleasure of walking that long leisurely walk back to that lot I had parked my car.

1:10 P.M.
Hopped in my car and sped off onto the 880 South and eventually the 17 towards Santa Cruz. Made it home just under 2 P.M. and literally vegged out until I had to get suited up for my closing shift at work. Mind you, we close at 11 P.M. on Fridays and Saturdays. That being said, I'm certain it's time for me to lower my eyelids. Longest day I've had in quite some time. A nineteen-hour day, in fact. But it was totally worth the 630+ miles on the road to a) spend time with my mom and b) see my sister. I'd give them the world if I could. Well, only about a month until I fly home to see them for Thanksgiving. Well, them AND my other sister, Coleen. Now that's going to involve some serious shenanigans.

Until next time, toodles!