Live With Passion: A Weekend with Nancy Lee in.......

This past weekend has been like my last hu-raah for this summer. I spent the weekend with one of my friends, Nancy Lee. (refer to Similar Faces to learn a little about her). On Thursday, June 21, 2012 Nancy and I had been talking about our day and different odds and ends. After a while she asked if I would hang out with her this upcoming weekend, knowing my foot surgery was in a week which would put me out of commission for the remainder of the summer; my life would then become the most dreaded summer I was awaiting for. She wanted me to come over on Friday night around 4:30 and stay until Sunday. The only problem was I had to work both Friday and Saturday! I told her I could come only and only if I could get someone to cover my shifts.

As a person who extremely rarely calls off work, this was really hard for me to deal with having someone take my shifts. Especially when Shelly, my boss gave me some hours right before my surgery, and I was giving them away after her hard work; I felt really bad, but I knew I would rather have a fun time before my surgery than work. I gave-in and told her I would try to get someone to cover for me. I called to work right away and asked our co-manager, Carmen if it was possible to get my shifts covered. I never got a complete answer.

When I got to work later that day, it was a mess. We had all these updates to complete and we had to get them done quickly, another girl called off for Friday, and it was hard trying to find someone for not only one, but both of our shifts! After trying to figure all this out, I was feeling stressed out and like I just didn’t want the hassle with this drama and would just work, and not take off.

However, I finally got someone to cover my shifts, but still felt bad. I finally told me self, if I want to have fun during this weekend I can’t let myself feel bad about having someone using my hours because I never do, but not to think about work, and enjoy this last weekend before my dreaded summer begins. After work I headed straight for home, and went straight to sleep; I had been so emotionally drained from the hard work earlier that day at work, I just didn't want anything on my mind to think about.

I woke up Friday and started packing my bags for exciting weekend ahead of me! Nancy told me we would be celebrating her paternal grandfather’s 75^th birthday Saturday night and to make sure I packed for that night. I was running around the house, looking for the certain clothes I wanted, asking Nancy question via. text, trying to contain my excitement. After an exciting six hours I was finally finished packing! I had a half-an-hour till I was supposed to be at Nancy’s; to use that time I ran to the Post Office to pick up the mail and library to return a few movies as well as check-out two more movies. I returned the mail to the house along with the newspaper and then finally left to Nancy’s house.

When I got there I had a delicious piece of pizza which had mushrooms, banana peppers, and pepperoni on it. We drove to her grandpa’s house, which seemed like it took forever! I slept and listened to my laptop, while she finished reading the book “Fifty Shades of Grey.” We finally got to his place around 10:30 p.m. I met her grandpa and then we set up our stuff,.Nancy and I slept in his basement, while her Grandpa and parents were in the upstairs bedrooms. We fell asleep while watching the movie “21,” a movie about a college student striving to get a full-ride schoolarship to Harvard Med School and counting cards to win big money in Las Vegas (which is illegal).

The next morning we woke up around 11 a.m. We ate breakfast; I had Honey Smacks cereal while she ate an ice cream Klondike bar. After breakfast we walked up and down some hills and around the a few corners and finally came to meet her parents and grandpa who were mowing the lawn; part of her grandpas 160 acre land; one-hundred acres full of hills, trees, barns, a pond (or as they say lake, since it’s deeper than 12 feet), and a cute little house on a hill.

After we all got back from our walk, we got ready to celebrate his birthday. We left early in order for her grandpa to see a car show they were having in his town. We saw many old and new cars, three cars that I will remember is seeing this grey vapor car, an old truck that could twist difference ways, and then an out of place red 2000 Ford Focus and thought “why in the world is THAT car here” I think all us girls had that same thought! After spending an hour looking at cars in the hot weather, we picked up Nancy’s Grandpa’s girlfriend, also named Nancy and went to an Italian restaurant of girlfriend Nancy’s choice. We had a delicious meal, and then went back to her place for a DELICIOUS desert.

A chocolate cake!! While I’m not a big fan of chocolate cake, this cake was THEE BOMB! It was sooooo nice and moist, the frosting was great, and to top it off, it had Hersey chocolate on top!!! Unfortunately, we had to leave shortly after due to someone forgetting their medication. We got back to his house. Nancy went downstairs to text, while I stayed upstairs to socialize with her dad and grandpa while we watched “Pawn Stars.” After a few hours, I finally found my way downstairs and to my bed.

The following morning, I woke up around 11:00 a.m. and shortly after we left to have lunch at their favorite restaurant called Luigi’s, another Italian restaurant. Afterwards, we returned to his house, packed up the van, and headed towards home again. As on the way there, they ride seemed long and I slept most of it, while listening to music or a movie playing on my laptop.

A few things I’ve learned about on this trip: Nancy’s dad will talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk until you get saved by someone, I’ve learned all about Jimmy Stewart from Nancy’s dad at the car show, that there is a statue of him at the court house, where he lived, what movie roles he played in, where he was raised, I’ve learned that if you have a trailer full of cows near Luigi’s they may all tumble out and walk around the street like nothing in the world matters, and I think I know now all the bones of the body and how they all function. It was a great and relaxing weekend to have right before my surgery, I’ve very glad I went with Nancy, her parents, and her doggies all the way to Pennsylvania without anybody knowing where I really was!!

A few pictures: