More Words, Less Pictures

Over the weekend I had the great pleasure of observing my dear friend Jennifer wed her best friend Mike. The festivities brought together old friends from Ohio, Texas, Missouri, Georgia, Wisconsin and China. My friend Sarah mentioned that while she enjoys the pictures…she wanted more words from my blog. So here is goes…

For the month of March I traveled and enjoyed a few great events…

We started the month with a trip to Keystone, CO with Sam's sweet cousin Carrie and her husband Wes. These two are great FUN to share a weekend. (I'm still waiting on the pictures from Carrie so I don't have any to include.) Carrie had the best line of the weekend which she delivered after just four hours on the mountain. "I left it ALL on the mountain." See Wes and I were trying to convince Sam and Carrie to night ski but we ended up eating some good Mexican food instead. The snow was great! Keystone is one of my favorite resorts because of its great night skiing (which we never did).

Mid-March I volunteered to serve crawfish at our Maintenance Crawfish Boil sponsored by Boeing. I use the term volunteered loosely as in reality my friend Katie and I got an up-close tour of our Dallas Maintenance Base. (I'm including pictures for this one.) Southwest has a high commitment to safety so we take our maintenance very seriously. A few pictures are from the interior of the plane in what we call a 'D' check. In a 'D' check we take everything (seats, floor, side panels, lavs, etc) and inspect it all. It was super cool as I got to see all the wiring, cabling, fuel tanks, water tanks, etc.

For St. Patrick's Day, I ran in the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Day 5K with some friends from work. In true Southwest Airlines style, another co-worker suggested that we wear the TJ (our airplane costume) while we raced. I volunteered to run mile two carrying TJ on my waist. After about fifteen minutes my friend Kelly and I started to wonder why we hadn't reached the two mile marker. We actually weren't running as slow as we feared rather, we missed the two mile marker. Kelly with her unlimited Southwest SPIRIT ran the whole 5K with TJ (saving me from wearing it). Following the race, we watched the Greenville St. Patrick's Day parade. (I believe I heard over 60,000 people participated in the parade…either way I was a lot of green!)

The weekend following St. Patrick's Day, I left Dallas for greener pastures…to Phoenix. My dear friend Katie asked me to be her plus one for a weekend with WGN and the Chicago Cubs. WOW…what a weekend. We had great food, great massages, great manis and pedis and great company. Being the HUGE sports fan that I am, I was super excited to met Ernie Banks, Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee…just to name a few. By far our favorite was Matt Murton, who we loved for his red hair and the close resemblance to my two younger brothers. I also added two new ballparks to my list…Hohokam Stadium (the Mesa, AZ home for the Cubs) and Tempe Diablo Stadium (the Tempa, AZ home of the Angels).

As I mentioned at the first, this weekend I traveled to Nashville to reunite with my Lipscomb girlfriends. I was also able to meet many new baby Bisons and they are all beautiful.

As I scan my April calendar, I don't foresee as many great events in the coming month. I may get to take a trip to Washington, DC for the Cherry Blossom festival. This would be a great year to go as my brother Chad is also enjoying the Cherry Blossoms in Japan. For those who aren't aware the Cherry Blossom festival in DC is a celebration of the gift of the trees from Japan. (This isn't a picture I took but it gives you an idea of the beauty of the Cherry Blossoms.)

Next Saturday is the Fort Worth Race of the Cure. I'm running or walking with a group from my church and not in the SWA TJ costume.

Last night the Dallas Mavericks just won there division for the first time in like twenty-five years. We are getting excited for another great playoff season.

Also many of my more creative and somewhat random thoughts are being posted on Southwest Airlines' blog Nuts About Southwest. (I've even got a bio!) Check it out!

Sarah...enough words? (sorry but I had to include pictures...a picture is worth a 1,000 words right?)