A weekend in the BIG CITY

I've had a long day, but I've been anxiously trying to sneak a few minutes in for the past few days, so I'm finally doing that, despite the fact that completing a sentence is a tad tough tonight. Not sure where all these appraisal orders are coming from, but I'm scheduling late November now and I'm still buried. In the "World of the Self-Employed", we all try to remind ourselves that it is better to be too busy, than to be twiddling our thumbs waiting for the phone to ring, but some days when the phone won't stop ringing, its hard to remember that. Am I rambling? I think I'm rambling. I have a tendency to do that when I'm tired and over-stimulated and a half hour ago the fax was still ringing with new incoming orders. I'm still doing it, aren't I?

Before I forget, I've posted a few new "Tiersten-isms" on that blog post from August, so for those of you that like to hang out and wait for my daughter to come up with her latest phrase, check it out!! And she has the "T-I-E-R" down in writing her name so I figure that in about a year, she can have her own blog. I'm still rambling, aren't I?

ANYHOW, Mike and I ran away this weekend to Seattle. (If there are any of you out there that think that its strange that people go to the CITY on the weekend instead of the other way around, you need to realize that if you live in Smalltown, USA it is NOT a treat to spend the weekend in Smalltown, USA. We can sit around and debate about which of three restaurants to eat at any old time we want. We want CHOICES when we run away...The rest of you can enjoy coming to the country when you want to escape the city. Not us.)

We stayed downtown in a high-rise hotel with a view of Elliott Bay, ate at a restaurant with authentic Cajun food and live jazz music, and....drumroll here.......a very first for me.....we rode in a TAXI....TWICE!!!! And for me, there is nothing quite like the helpless feeling of being from a small town, pulling up in front of a nice hotel, and having your car and luggage both removed from your possession in the first 60 seconds by a valet and a bellhop. It leaves you standing on the sidewalk feeling a little lost and out of control, but I think I could get used to the spoiling with a little bit of practice!!! Its just a very odd feeling when you are used to being self-serving in a rural area that doesn't have a single valet parking place in the ENTIRE COUNTY.

In any case, we laughed a lot while we were gone. Mostly at ourselves, but it sure felt good. It was nice to not have a restless toddler and preschooler tugging on our arms, and know that they were both in excellent care at home and enjoying some one-on-one time. (We split them up and sent them different places, so that they could have some "special" time, and they are such a handful together that you feel like you're burdening someone to hand them both off at once.) The boys were happily hanging out with their Dad and stepmom for a couple of extra days. We slept late, we enjoyed a variety of art, we ate, we strolled, and we enjoyed. (The Pottery Barn in downtown Seattle is to die for. I ended up not buying anything there because I couldn't narrow it down. I wanted the whole store!! Ohhhh.....the shopping!!!) It was so nice to have a concrete reminder that life DOES exist beyond our usual activities that absorb our daily lives. Ahhh.......culture.

Today, life was back to chaos as usual, but I feel a bit more rested than last week. Maybe not so much rested in a physical way, but definitely rested in a mental way. In the larger world, I'm just one little ant putting one foot in front of the other. Going to the city where there are so many ants put it in perspective.