Marching along to March

48 days after today to go...and I am back with Nick! We're meeting in London on March 23rd, bright and shiny in the morning, for 8 nights of adventure (geesh I better do my vacation days when I get to work lol). We'll first head to Cardiff via train where we will, of course, stay at Ty Rosa. Just booked that. Plans are to tromp around, visit Nick's favorite beach, perhaps rent a car a couple of days and zoom around a bit (avoiding ALL C ROADS GOT THAT NICK?) and enjoy staying at Ty Rosa, and eating those marvelous breakfasts, seeing Stuart and Paul (and Keith) again, and playing with Max. Maybe they'll let us take him on a walk! If not, play with him for sure. Got the same room as last time--Caerphilly Castle--and hopefully we'll miss trash day. Hate trash day (evil seagulls, though the experience helped me later with a fic).

Then it is back to London for four nights. We're staying at the Chelsea House Hotel. It will be an experience! We refuse to pay the big bucks just to sleep--we know we'll get our best hotel (okay B&B) experience in Cardiff, but we're not going to London to stay in a fancy hotel room. We'd rather spend our money on having a good time doing things. So we got a good decent place with decent ratings, and will be headed out to tromp around like crazy every day.

We also plan to see a show or two. Probably Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Haven't bought those tickets yet, or the airline tickets, but that I'll get taken care of when I get my tax refund on the 12th. Probably flying Air Canada. Maybe. We'll see...

A little shorter trip this time, but packed full of fun. After last time, when we went to Germany and stayed at Nick's flat, I think we were both rather mopey and worn down. LOL. This will work much better and whee, London! I didn't see enough of it last time!

Okay better get to the shower!

48 days to go!

Falling off the Top of the World (it was nice while it lasted)

Okay I should say that everything IS going to be okay, no one was hurt...but just when life was settling down and I was starting to panic less about being a single mom of two with two in college (ok son not yet, but soon enough), of course Something Else Had to Happen to knock me off that, in the form of my son wrecking the car tonight. Fortunately, he hit a BMW SUV, it was a slick-road-because-of-rain type of accident (braking for a stoplight, on a hill), the BMW didn't have a single mark on it, the driver was nice about it. It happens. Kelly is not a crazy teenage driver believe it or not, and he started to brake, and slippy slid right into the BMW SUV. That thing is a tank! A sensor was knocked out--probably less than 100 to fix it. No problem. Gave him the insurance information and that was that.

But, sigh, my car. Mind you, this poor car has a big KICK ME sign on it or something. It's been hit twice on the passenger side (Nick was in it the second time), a stick took my driver's side mirror out, a recalled computer proved it indeed needed to be recalled (just when my daughter's car was in the shop from being hit), and now this. WHAM! *cries* I love my car and am tired of it being abused! It is a Sport Corolla, navy blue, and is a very nice looking car. I love it. I really do. So I am Very Very Sad it has a boo boo now. A big one. Sigh.

I will look on www.monsterparts.com tomorrow to replace the grill (dealer would probably cost 400 for a 40 dollar part, uh no thanks?), and I'll take it by the guy who did such a lovely job on Tiff's car, and get an estimate for what it would take to straighten the hood back out. I actually popped part of it back into place myself, and don't anticipate it will cost much. It won't open now though (which is okay--better than it not latching at all) so it isn't dangerous to keep driving it. Whew!

So, we'll deal with that part after the trips. Son feels terrible, he prides himself on his good driving, but slippery roads happen everywhere. It happens. I'm calling the insurance company tomorrow and putting full coverage back on my car. Of course, I'd just taken it off. Stupid. Cars oh cars, you eat me alive, but here we have to have them.

Otherwise--everything is great, really. The kids' trips are paid for (Tiff paid for her own), and they're getting way excited. They'll be gone ten days to Italy. The long wait for me to see Nick again is almost over too, and I can't express how much this means to us. I don't talk about it much, and we make it look easy I think, but it is so damn hard being apart all the time, and we have to jump through alot of hoops and plan a heck of a lot to be able to get our barely over a week or so every nine months thereabouts together. It is worth it though, it is worth giving up other things, and make sacrifices in order to spend those magical days together (and see really amazing places too I never, ever thought I would get to see--Berlin! Berlin again! Hamburg! Cardiff! London! and here in the States, San Francisco! Universal Studios in Florida! Austin! San Antonio!).

In order to chill, calm down, and stop myself from screaming, Nick and I watched Shark Attack 3 together. I have to admit for a terrible movie it is so very entertaining. It really is good for lifting the spirits and making one smile when smiling seems elusive. Oh JB, you crazy man, I am glad you did that movie. LOL. The dialogue was horrid, the audio sucked, the special effects? OY! But I laughed, and that's all that mattered.

Sigh--what a night. What a night.