Living it and Loving it

Whew! I must admit I am more than a little tired this morning! I don’t feel like I had a very restful weekend (but then again, who ever does???). It seemed like I didn’t have a moment to rest, but I had a lot of fun! I won’t bore you with the details of Saturday daytime, but Saturday night, I went to the Improv at the Yucca in downtown Midland and laughed until my sides hurt. It was about a 2 1/2 show with an intermission between acts (which I needed to recouperate from the first act). It was an amazing show. I really admire the actors for getting on stage and performing with no preparation. I don’t think that I could do something like that. On top of the performance, one special lady got the surprise of a lifetime. Justin, one of the performers, proposed in the middle of a skit to his “leading lady”. It was a very touching moment. After the proposal, and things settled back down, the show continued on and I continued to laugh my butt off. (Can I put “butt” in my blog???). If you ever have the opportunity to attend the Improv at the Yucca, I HIGHLY recommend it. You will really enjoy yourself (bring a change of clothes in case you laugh so hard you pee in your pants).

Sunday, was just as busy. After church, I had my first flight instruction and I must say, I LOVED IT!!! Good news, I didn’t crash (obviously). We flew over to Stanton and I got to take pictures of the air turbines. My instructor recommended that we not fly over them because the wind would be especially turbulent.

Another good thing, I didn’t get sick… Not that I get air sick, but you never know…

We practiced turns, slow flights, playing with the throttle to simulate a stall. I let the instructor do that. Knowing my luck, the plane really would have stalled and we would have crashed… I was kind of sad when we had to land. The instructor wanted me to do the landing but I just knew that my kind of landing probably would not have been the kind you could recover from, so I asked him to land the plane.

I must admit, I was probably walking about 3 feet off the ground for the rest of the day. Even today, I am still giddy with excitement. (Don’t tell my parents, but I am looking at buying an airplane just so I can fly anytime =) I don’t think they would like it) 

Hmmmm. After a weekend like this, I really need to rest. I look forward to telling you about my next flight. Hopefully it will go as well as the first one!

I remember a famous comedian, Jeff Foxworthy, commenting on when he was a kid growing up they would yell, “The President’s On!!!” and how it interefered with that night’s regular programming. I must admit, I used to share that sentiment, however, now that I have seen George W. Bush speak in person, I regret not taking more time and pay more attention when he was on TV.

It was a real treat that he visited the Tall City on Tuesday. He even asked the pilot to fly over the crowd as he flew into Midland. You could feel the excitement and anticipation build once the crowd saw the plane fly overhead. Everyone was already excited about the opportunity to see the former President but you could sense that their patience was wearing a little thin. The gates opened at 2 and I was right there in the mix of it. Normally, I am NOT a crowd person but I put my phobia aside for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The local high school bands were playing for a bit. Then the crowd was entertained with mini-movie’s about George W. Bush. As the time grew closer to his arrival, we heard music from Lee Greenwood, The Gaitlin Brothers (sorry if I misspelled that), and Rodney Atkins (again, sorry if I misspelled his name).

We were all packed in there like sardines in a can. (For those who know me, know that I have a HARD time dealing with crowds and people being in my personal space) But I made it. No scars, just hurt toes because everyone kept stepping on them. I took pictures but unfortunately, the person in front of me was taller than me so most of my pictures are of the back of their head. There was NO moving to a better location because, again, we were packed in there. Everytime someone needed by, I am sure that I gave them a look like, “Where do you think I can move to get out of the way???”

After his speech, and I made my way back to my car, all traffic (motor & pedestrian) was stopped so that the former President’s motorcade could go by…. After waiting 30 minutes, the motorcade finally passed. It was really something to see! Mr. Bush was waving as he passed by where I was standing. Darn…I didn’t have my camera out…