Returned!!!

I'm back! And now I shall update you on my less than exciting business trip.

I flew into Oakland on Wednesday morning. The travel was early and uneventful except for the ever exciting BART ride. I was taking public transport while traveling and I traveled the BART (subway) from Oakland to SanFran. BART shouldn't be that confusing, but because I don't know stuff, I did accidentally get on the wrong BART once. But, I just got off at the next stop and hopped on a BART going the other direction and I was fine. BART is not as scary as I thought it would be, but I definitely would not use it alone at night (which was my original travel plan).

I got into the city, walked half a mile to my hotel, dropped off my bags (without seeing my room) and then headed to the office. I had to walk .7 miles to my office, but luckily it was down hill. There are a whole lot of hills in San Fran and I had to do a whole lot of walking. Walking isn't entirely my thing. Especially when I am lugging around a laptop bag.

San Francisco is a whole lot more city than I am used to. There are buildings and streets and nothing in between. Buildings are just smacked right up against each other and all the buildings are enormously tall. But, there are places to eat like every 30 feet or so. It was all a little intimidating because I'm a Utah girl. But, the walk to my work was uneventful, so I guess the city can be safe even when it is intimidating.

I got into the office, which is a mighty tall building with a lot of security. And, I worked, which is not entertaining at all. Unless you find research entertaining. Everyone there was very nice and very helpful and I was able to get the stuff done that I needed to do. And we will leave it at that.

By about 5pm (pacific) I was exhausted! Probably because I had been going since 5am (mountain). So, I trecked up the hill to my hotel and missed my babies and cried and watched tv and fell asleep. I get emotional when I'm super tired.

The next day I woke up (at 4am) feeling less than good. I woke up a LOT during the night because I'm used to getting up 2 or 3 times a night with Daniel (I really need to sleep train that boy). And, then I just woke up super early and couldn't get back to sleep. Maybe I had pushed myself a little too hard the day before with the long day and the travel and the excessive walking. But, I went into work, did my thing, and cut out early. Even though I was only in the office for two days, I still cut out early because I'm awesome and had gotten everything that I needed in a short amount of time. That is just how awesome I am.

I went back to my hotel (another .7 miles when not feeling good) and took a little nap. Then, I headed down to the lobby to meet my brother David. David took me to Castro for dinner with his husband Eric. Luckily, I was feeling a little less exhausted by this time because I had gotten my awesome nap.

We ate at this comfort food sort of restaurant and it was really yummy. I tried Okra for the first time (and didn't care for it) and I tried Gumbo for the fist time (and didn't care for it). But, Eric was kind enough to swap his pot roast for my gumbo and the pot roast was super yummy! It was so fun to catch up and spend time with David and Eric, who I rarely see. This was definitely the highlight of my trip. And, it got my mind off of missing my babies so much. Even though I talked about them an awful lot during dinner.

David and Eric drove me back to my hotel (yay, no walking!) and I crashed not long after getting there. I woke up at 5am the next morning and retraced my steps back to Oakland airport (walking, bart, shuttle, walking). I got home around 3pm and spent the rest of the night kissing my kids cheeks. I missed those kids so much! I would rather be home with them than anywhere else, but I survived the trip, they survived the trip and, most importantly, Matt survived three days alone with them (which is not an easy task).

Many of you mommies out there have husbands who travel and you know that it is not easy watching the kids alone, with no break, for many days. But, Matt was a champ and took good care of those kiddos. Special thanks to my Mom and Momma Kimball who helped with the kids while Matt was in class. Grandmas are awesome.