Birthday Celebrations

Another year has gone by and Matthew is now 14 years old. He'll be starting high school in the fall and it never ceases to blow my mind how quickly time has passed. As usual, he had the celebratory dinners to fete his birthday. He had a goal to save up enough money to purchase the iPad2. He was very lucky. He was able to attain his goal due to the generosity of all our loved ones. He was able to order the iPad2 and will now have to wait about 4-6 weeks before delivery.

We had our first celebration with May and the kids, the second celebration with Tony and Gus and the third celebration with Justin. It's an annual ritual to celebrate with Justin since Justin and Matthew entered the world together as cousins and friends as well.It's weird not celebrating with Justin and it's something that Matthew looks forward to. They are going through the same rites of passage together and have common interests. Hard to believe that they will be starting high school this fall and will both be off to college at the same time. Time has passed too quickly and it makes me realize how much older I have gotten. Sigh.

Brutual

I returned home from Budapest only to have to turn around and head down to Atlanta, GA for a week filled with meetings. I got a lot done while I was there. Bonding with colleagues, met with vendors and am pleased to say that I fulfilled a lot of my goals.
While I was there, Tony's father was still in the hospital and waiting to get the date and time for his triple bypass surgery. He was still being treated for sepsis and was getting tired of being at the hospital. Can't say that I blame him. I would have probably been climbing the walls myself if I had been there for that long.

We got the word that the surgery was going to be on Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. I was scheduled to return home on Friday afternoon. My boss insisted that I leave on Thursday evening and return home to be with my family. Pulled some strings and got me on a flight out of Atlanta scheduled at 7:40 p.m. Thursday evening. I was supposed to land in LaGuardia in New York at 10:15 p.m. That would be great. It would allow me to get home and be there in the morning so Tony could leave for the hospital and I would be there for Matthew. Mother Nature on the other hand, had other plans. It was pouring rain all day in New York with high winds. Atlanta had a funky weather day as well. Clouds then breaks of sunshine. I got to the airport, dropped off the car, went through security and decided just hang out by the gate. Then the announcement. Due to high winds, the flights to and from New York have been grounded. WTF*(_!!*$)#(*.....does this mean I am sleeping in the airport? I gave up my hotel room.....uh oh.

Miraculously, my flight was called at 9 p.m. and then we were on our way. Landed at LaGuardia around midnight, waited for my luggage and was greeted by 65 mph winds, driving rain and just sheer flooding. My car had to take a diversion and go up I95 for me to get home. All the parkways leading to the house were all shut down. I rolled into the house around 2:30 a.m. Long day at work topped by long travels to get home but at least I was finally home.

Tony headed down to the hospital first thing Friday and was diverted all over the place. We still had rains and the roads were flooded. He got to to the hospital. My father in laws surgery was a success. He had one artery replaced and the surgeons were able to get the artery from the chest versus the leg. Unfortunately, the surgeons had to go through the top of the chest to do the surgery instead of the side as we had hoped.

He's doing well and will have a long recovery ahead of him. I'm planning to stay put for a couple of weeks before I have to take off again.

Heading Home

Day Two of the conference consisted of intense workshops that took up the entire day and I was feeling it. I was up late on Monday night working on the proxy, getting little sleep and then had to be downstair. It was painful. I looked around and all my colleagues were feeling it. After the conference, we had dinner at a local Italian restaurant and rolled back to the hotel at 11 p.m. Of course, I was up late again until 2:30 a.m. working on changes to the proxy statement.

Today was Day Three and the end of our conference. Thank goodness, it was relatively light. We finished up and stampeded out of the hotel for a guided tour of Budapest. Mind you, we had to work on this tour. Throughout the conference, we had designated seats. We were rotated and had to sit with different people for meals and at the conference workshops. I understood the reason was to have you get to know your colleagues and meet everyone. It reminded me of being at a wedding. You didn't know who you were going to get and you weren't allowed to switch seats. To do so, you got called out and then chastised. Ouch.

For the tour, we were put into groups and we had to search for clues throughout the city. Sort of a Survivor game against all the teams. It was cold and it was windy. Two of the teams dropped out. My team and I finished everything. It was nice to see the city during the day, we did a lot of walking and we even took the train. I wished we had more time to explore the city. Part of the assignment, we had to learn a nursery rhyme and repeat it in Hungarian and recite it to all our colleagues. OK- we all learned what we needed to learn and was constantly repeating it under our breaths. The locals thought we were insane.

Afterwards, we had our farewell dinner to close out the conference at Spoons,a floating restaurant. My team and I were able to repeat the nursery rhyme in Hungarian. We did OK. Twenty seconds after it was over, I couldn't recite it even if you paid me. My colleagues and I have spent an awful lot of time together the last few days and we have definitely bonded. Three intense days locked in a conference room, team building exercises and three meals together...you either have to accept the fact that you have to like them or throw in the towel. Luckily, I like them all and we had a great time tonight at our farewell dinner.

So, I have decided not to sleep since I will be leaving for the airport in about an hour. I packed my bags and decided to take a last look at the proxy and sit by the window and watch the snowfall. It is quite pretty to see the snow blanketing Budapest. My last image of the town before I head out. I figure when I get on the plane, I'm probably going to pass out. It will be nice to be home in time for dinner tomorrow and spend some time with the boys. I'll be packing up and leaving again on Monday...this time for Atlanta.