As some of you know, I went on vacation last week to see my mom for her 65th birthday. I started out on Wednesday and headed for NYC to meet up with my brother. The original idea was for me to use a companion ticket he had through his new AmEx card. I bought my roundtrip ticket to NYC before he found out he wasn’t going to get the ticket for some reason, but he used miles to still get me a free fare.

So Wednesday night and Thursday, we hung out in NYC. I got to see a high school friend who lives in the city and we had a nice chat, plus I got to meet her boyfriend’s dog and cats. You all know how crazy I am about animals, so that was a great little surprise.

On Friday, Brett and I flew to CA and mom met us at the airport. We immediately went to get lunch because American Airlines now charges $5 for wrap sandwiches, which is bad enough in itself, but they were also SOLD OUT by the time we wanted one. Anyway, we enjoyed some yummy mexican food at Enrique’s in Long Beach, a local favorite. Later we saw “The Assassination of Jesse James”, which I hadn’t even heard of until then. How did I miss that Brad Pitt did a movie about Jesse James?? Well, it was pretty good, told in an artistic way (maybe too artistic for some of the audience in Long Beach) and Casey Affleck was marvelous.

Saturday we headed up to Santa Barbara as a little “getaway” for my mom. As with most of my childhood, I don’t remember going there, but my mom assures me I’ve been there. That, of course, hurts her feelings because I remember so little of my childhood, even though it was pleasant and I was exposed to many wonderful things that most kids don’t get to see or do.  Oh well,  I can’t help that I don’t remember stuff! So anyway, we met up with one of my brother’s friends from Harvard who now lives in LA, and my aunt and uncle, who I haven’t seen in probably 6 years. We had drinks and chips on the beach, then headed back to our hotel to change for dinner. We ended up going to this amazing indian food restaurant on State Street. A good time was had by all.

Then on Sunday, Brett went golfing with his friend while mom and I walked up and down State Street. We found this cute dog/cat clothing/toy store and spent some time looking around. Cute stuff! I didn’t end up buying anything though. Later, we met up with Brett and his friend again, plus another aunt and uncle, and my cousin’s wife and daughter (I know, even I get confused about it). Two other friends joined us and we had a great meal at a mexican restaurant on State Street. This was the big celebration for my mother’s birthday. Everyone seemed to have a great time and me, Brett and mom went to a few bars afterwards to hear some live music. Everyone else was driving home so they hit the road.

On Monday, we drove back to Long Beach, after stopping at an outlet mall to do some quick shopping. Of course, I found some good deals at Ann Taylor, but had to mail the clothes to myself since I didn’t have room in my suitcase. I didn’t buy a ton but it was enough to make a difference. Monday night we saw “Eastern Promises” with Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. My advice? Save your $8.50 and see something else. It was overly gorey and the plot was a little muddy. Plus, the screenplay was really rushed towards the end.

Tuesday we flew back to NYC, which took 8 hours due to a delay on the ground in LA and then a delay in the air circling JFK. I guess the weather made the landings difficult; they even shut down Newark for a while. We eventually made it back to Brett’s apartment around 12:30am. I left the next day for Nashville and here I am, back at work.

Overall it was a nice visit with family. I wish I could’ve seen a few more friends while home, but with only a very short time actually at home, that made things difficult. Oh well!