A great day with a trying end

I'm tired.

For those of you who may not know, I drove to Albuquerque again today. I got to meet another blogging buddy! a couple or three years ago, I "met" Jennifer online. We have read each other's blogs for all this time, then both got onto Facebook and continued keeping up with each other there.

One of the things we found in common was New Mexico. She lived in Las Cruses as a child, so it was fun that we had some common links. A year or so ago, Jen's parents moved to my old home town here in NM. And when she planned a visit to see them, we began talking about possibly getting together for that face to face meeting that many of us wish for with our cyber-friends.

This has been a terribly busy and sometimes stressful few weeks for me. I vacillated about being able to find time to get to Albuquerque. But ultimately I realized that this is one of those events that a person needs to jump on, simply because you never know if the opportunity will present itself again.

So we planned to meet today. Her sister was bringing her from Farmington to Albuquerque to fly home. I drove up, about an equal distance, and we met for lunch. But first ....

There was another awesome sunrise this morning.

On the way to Albuquerque, I saw this bird on a limb up on a cliff beside the road, and it looked so cool. I turned around to go back to get a photo of it. I took this shot, and before I could zoom in for a closer look, it flew off. Now, why, after sitting there for at least 10 minutes did he decide to elope just then? Oh well. It was just an ol' crow, anyway. Still a cool picture.

 I got to Albuquerque earlier than I expected. I went ahead to the restaurant and planned to wait for Jennifer and Michele to arrive. I thought I'd just sit and read in a lobby area till they arrived, but the restaurant owner pointed out there was not a waiting area, and insisted on seating me. I felt awkward, tying up a table for 30 minutes at lunch time, but he said he tries to never have any customer have to wait. How nice! So I read and nibbled on a piece of hard bread with herbed oil to dip it in till Jennifer and Michele arrived.

And they did!

Jennifer & Michele

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and talked up a storm. Actually we ended up having appetizers (calamari and humus with pita bread) and desserts, and I'm still full after 10:00 PM this evening! We were there for about two hours, and I enjoyed chatting so very much.

Jen & me

Michele left to drive home, and Jen and I visited a few shops in the area. One was a hat store, which I love as there are hats of every variety, shape, size and color. It is just fascinating to me, and there are different hats each time I'm there. Then, down the street, Jen was drawn like a moth to a flame to another of my favorite places, a store that carries all kind of furniture, mostly Southwestern, antique in style. She found at least a half dozen pieces she wanted to take home, but traveling by air has its limits! I found a lampshade that I brought home. It will work very nicely with a lamp that I've been trying to refit for a long time.

It was fun to just stroll and visit. I found Jen very easy to talk with, and I sincerely enjoyed the time. She is every bit as sweet as I thought she would be. The hour before I needed to get her to the airport just flew past! For those of you who have not experienced it, meeting cyber friends is great fun!  I have now made four of my cyber friends into IRL friends, and I'm so glad. I hope one day to be able to visit somewhere in the area when Jen lives, in hopes that I will be able to get together with her, with Suzanne, and with Tammy and Bill. They all live close enough to make it possible that we could all be in one place at one time. Wow, what great fun that would be!

Thanks, Jen, for making this meeting possible!

On the way home, storms were building all around the area. In my rear view mirror, I saw this.

It was really pretty. The area at the center where the cloud meets the horizon is rain. It must have been coming down  really hard from the looks of it.

Two more things from today. On the way up this morning, I called my eye doctor in Kansas City. I sent my glasses to be repaired about two weeks ago. The lenses need to be replaced. I realized I hadn't heard anything, and wondered if they would be back before I leave for Hawaii. I'm sick over this .... they didn't receive the glasses! And wouldn't you know, I forgot to insure the damn things. When I got home, I looked for the receipt, and I haven't found it yet. I'm hoping I'm just overlooking them as I'm tired, as I usually keep that kind of receipt. I'll look again tomorrow. I'm really exasperated. I don't need this. My time is running out for getting ready to leave for Hawaii, and spending time looking for the receipt and getting a trace going is something I simply HAVE to do, but I DON'T HAVE TIME!! Arghhh!

The other thing .... my daughter, TL, texted me and she is flying out here to go with me to my sister's funeral. I'm really glad she is. My sis was god mother to my kids, and TL feels strongly about going. I'll be glad to have her with me. However, this means another trip to Albuquerque for me on Friday, then driving directly from there to Odessa, Texas. It's gonna be a loooong day.

As I said, I'm tired. Emotionally, physically, I'm about cooked. I was doing OK till the glasses thing came up, and it just sucked the energy out of me. Why, WHY did I not insure them? Replacing them is going to cost around $500. Damn. Oh, well, what's done is done.

Give me strength.