NC - Day 2 & Day 3

This weekend was a blast & it makes me sad that I am flying home tomorrow!
Now that this weekend is just about over, I have finally found some time to catch up & post an additional blog about my weekend here in North Carolina.
Saturday was all about seeing the surrounding area where Matt & Rachael live. It is a suburb outside of the Raleigh area called Holly Springs. We all pretty much just drove around stopping at several places for the kids to stretch their legs for a bit & play for a while. Matt & Ben went go-cart racing at "Adventureland."After stopping there, we all went to a playground that was set up like a fort & watched the kids play around while Rachael walked Josh around and gave him a ride on the swing set.

Later that night, Matt & I had a few hours to catch up with each other. It wass the first time we have had a chance to hang out & talk since Xmas of 2006. We went out to a bar for a few drinks, but spent most of the night just hanging out at the house after the rest of the family had gone to bed.
Sunday, after Matt & I had recovered from the previous night (bud light gives me headaches!), we all went out to lunch and then off to the North Carolina Natural Science Museum in downtown Raleigh. It was the kind of place I would have gone to even if I was sightseeing this town all by myself. I do have to admit though, having the kids around made it a perfect experience. They were both sooo damn cute and by now, little Josh has begun to want me to hold him, which was so much fun!

I found out this weekend that going to a science museum with a four year old is like seeing a museum for the very first time. I paid so much attention to everything that I felt like a kid again too. There was this dinosaur exhibit where you can step into a dino footprint & compare shoe sizes, and 4 year old Ben could fit his entire self into it, it was so cute!
Outside the museum there were a few statues that I saw & immediately decided to have my picture taken in front of. It really made Ben laugh to see me goofing around like this! When he found out that I was leaving on Monday, he got upset and asked me to move to Raleigh.
Anyways, my trip is pretty much at it's end here. Tomorrow, I wake up and take the kids to daycare with Rachael in the morning. My plane leaves from Raleigh at 2pm, so by this time tomorrow night, I will be back in LA. Kinda makes me sad. I am so glad I took this trip & even though I haven't left yet, I am already beginning to try & plan my next visit here.

NC - Day 1

Today was a long day!
I left LA last night at 10pm and arrived in Raleigh, NC around 9am this morning. It was a flight well worth taking just to have Rachael there greeting me at the airport! I flew out this weekend so I could see Rachael, her husband Matt & their 2 kids Ben (4yrs old) and Josh (10 months old). I got to hang out with Rachael for a few hours as she drove me around the Raleigh area and took me to lunch. In the afternoon, we picked up Ben & Josh from daycare. It was amazing to see how much Josh has grown in the past 8 months! Rachael had told me that Ben was looking forward to my arrival, but I was still very touched when I walked in the room with Rachael & he raced past her to give me a huge hug! It was pretty awesome. It is times like this that I wish I was around a whole lot more than I can be.
The rest of the night was taking the kids to a park they like to play in and watching some cartoons. Matt is off working a job and flies into town later tonight. I am really looking forward to spending the rest of my weekend with them & just catching up on the past events from the previous 8 months. I will be posting a few pictures tomorrow.

Trip Time

Who-Hoo!
It's time for me to take to the skies & go on another trip to the eastern time zone. Tomorrow night I hop a red-eye to Raleigh, North Carolina. I am going there to visit some great friends of mine. Matt & Rachael as well as their 2 kids: Ben & Josh. This past summer they moved from my former neck of the woods in Ohio to NC. Rachael will be picking me up at the airport and then I get to spend all day Friday through Monday afternoon with them. This will be the second longest amount to time I have be able to spend with them since I moved out here to Los Angeles over 9 years ago! They came out to visit me in January 2006 (feels like such a long time ago!) for a week and a half. I will be trying to post a few blogs from NC and throw up some pictures as well.

Friend Vs. Enemy

So, today was a pretty crappy day. It got me wondering about something: I was wondering, what kind of people I have in my life?
The following definitions are from Webster's Dictionary..

A Friend:
-: one attached to another by affection or esteem
-: one that is not hostile
-: a favored companion

A Enemy:
-: One that is antagonistic to another; especially one seeking to injure, overthrow or confound an opponent
-: something harmful or deadly
-: a hostile unit or force

I consider myself blessed in the friend category. I have numerous friends who are there for me when I need them. My brother said it best when he said "friends are those that are there for you, or at least TRY to be there for you." To all my friends out there who have my back -"I love you guys!" Truly!

Unfortunately, I still have people who I suppose by definition are "enemies." They are the ones who let you down, give you no respect. People who laugh at you when you are down and generally are there to provide negative input into your lives. Now these are the sort of people who "insist" that they are not negative. They are the ones who tell you that if you misconstrued anything they said it would be "your fault" not theirs. I have decided to make a month-late new years resolution... I am going to start cutting out negative people in my life. The ones who complain about everything and kick you when you are down. Life is too short to have those people in your life! I have a few of these who need to be cut out!
Overall, I believe this is a major breakthrough on my behalf. I tend to hold back and not tell people what I really feel. I like the idea of being liked. I always tend to strive to have as many people like me as possible. Well, I am done with it. I have my good friends, the new & the old. The ones who have recently defined for me the word "Friend." My new goal is to focus on those, the friends, so that they know how much I value them in return.
As for the others? I really don't care anymore!