Friday Night Photos #126

Finally! By the time this post goes live, I'll be getting ready to pick Jerry up from the airport. I haven't said anything about his being away because I didn't think it would be a good idea to announce on the internet that I'd be alone for two weeks. Well, not totally alone--I guess I can't say my 17- and 19-year old boys are kids anymore!

Jerry has only ever traveled for work once before, but he's been wanting to for a long time. He was all set to go to Mexico in 2020, but that was right when the pandemic started and he opted not to go. For the past two weeks, he's actually been in Texas--why they chose August to send him to Texas is beyond me, but the first thing he texted me was how hot it was, haha.

Maybe I'm just very codependent, but the past two weeks have been SO hard--emotionally, physically, mentally--because I've never spent more than about five days days away from Jerry in the last 20 years. It was very hard to get used to doing everything myself; I hadn't realized just how routine our marriage roles were. I had to write a list of things to remember to do!

The timing of this trip was bad for both of us--we've been having a hard time lately with all of the stuff we've been dealing with this year--but I really wanted him to enjoy himself (neither of us had ever been to Texas). Yes, he was there for work, but the days were short and he had long weekends to do what he wanted. (Also, he was very interested in actually learning from this other plant.) He was there with a co-worker/friend, so they had fun in their free time.

I haven't posted Friday Night Photos for a couple of weeks, so some of these are going way back. Some of them are also pictures that Jerry sent me. The first? He was expecting it to be hot, but he was still taken aback by just how hot it was when he got there.

Meanwhile at home, when I went to bed I felt something tickling my arm. If I even suspect a spider touching me or anywhere near me, I completely freak out--I am deathly afraid of spiders! So when I felt that tickle on my arm, I sat leaped up in bed, slapping my arm blindly over and over while fumbling to turn on the light and see if there was, in fact, a spider. Nope--it was worse. 

A tick!!! That thing was crawling on my arm. I had taken Joey for a walk and let him sleep on the bed, so I'm thinking one of us picked it up on our walk. Thankfully, it hadn't attached itself, but I was horrified at the thought of it being in bed with me. So, I actually used a piece of packing tape to pick it up--you can see all of the pet hairs I picked up as well, haha--because I wanted to make sure it was good and dead and could not come near me ever again.

Then I spent the next hour stripping my bed and changing the bedding, searching every square inch of Joey for ticks, taking a shower, and searching my own body as well. I didn't find any more. But now I'm meticulous about checking both Joey and myself when we are done walking.

In the morning, I got this text from Jerry:

He was curious about how easy or hard it was going to be trying to eat plant-based in Texas. I sent him this meme:

He said that they were really great about accommodating his diet, though. He certainly ate better than I did!

I've actually been on a big cherry kick ever since we went with Dave and Renee to Brian's party. Renee brought a bowl of sweet cherries that she'd pitted and sliced, and they were SO good. I bought some the next day and ate them for an evening snack for a few days. If they weren't so expensive, I would probably eat those as much as I used to eat grapes ;) 

This was from before Jerry left... I saw him take a photo of a photo and I told him he was doing it totally wrong. There was a glare from the window and you could see his phone's reflection (not super noticeable, but to me it was blindingly obvious of course). So then I walked around trying to get a good photo for him. He was amused, and took about 50 pictures of me doing this from every which angle, haha.

Luke and Riley were at Brian's again (I love that I've been able to see them several times since they moved to Minnesota) and my parents were going to take the kids to a party. My mom asked if I could braid Riley's hair, so I did two french braids. When I was leaving, I saw these flowers and tucked one behind her ear. She looked so sweet! I asked her if her dad knows how to do a french braid (knowing full well that he doesn't) and she said, "Dad doesn't even know how to do a REGULAR braid!"

I went into the mall for the first time in probably three years and this is what it looked like. So much empty space and zero people. (Noah had recently told me about a particular type of photography he likes, where everything is lined up a certain way. I forget what it's called. But basically, I tried to take the picture how he'd described and he said it was exactly what he was talking about.)

There was a very interesting store that *was* open. And I don't even think that "interesting" is the right word. Just have a look...

I chatted with the owner and learned that ALL of those bags on the wall (these pictures show only about half of them) were toys from kids' meals at various fast food restaurants. She said her mom started collecting them (I want to say in 1986?) all the way through 2006. It was SO nostalgic--I saw toys that I'd gotten on the rare occasion we went to McDonald's when I was kid.

Noah is super into Shrek, so I asked her if she had any Shrek toys. We both dug through boxes and boxes and only came up with a Fiona toy (which I bought for $1). But seriously, that store is like stepping into a time warp. I want to go back there with Jerry; he used to work at McDonald's when he was a teenager and I know he'd remember a lot of the toys.

Meanwhile in Texas, Jerry was getting ready to go to a Rangers baseball game. He asked what I was going to do that day and I said maybe I'd go to the Tigers game. I thought it would actually be kind of fun to go to a game by myself! But I knew I wasn't actually going to.

Still, Jerry kept bugging me about going, and wanted me to promise that I was going to go (or at least do something fun). I said I would. A little while later, he sent me this picture of himself at the Rangers game.

I was still at home, of course, but I had an idea. I quickly changed into a Detroit shirt (I don't have any Tigers shirts anymore, so this was the best I could do), put on a Tigers hat and sunglasses. Then I took some selfies with a Jerry face...

...and I used the iPhone feature where you can tap and hold a subject in a photo and it cuts them out instantly (soooo much faster and easier than photoshop). I pasted a selfie onto a screenshot of the Tigers game and sent him this picture. Hahaha!

In reality, though, whenever I had some time, I worked on refinishing this cabinet in the garage. It ended up being a huge pain--I was running VERY low on paint (the doors and shelves are removed, so there was a lot more surface area to cover than what you see in the photo--so I thinned out the paint with mineral spirits. I was still very unsure whether I'd have enough, and I thinned it too much; the thin paint caused drip spots while it dried. I ordered some more from Sherwin Williams, but it took four days before it was ready and I wanted to get it done.

Anyway, the cabinet is done and in my bedroom, and now it houses all of most of some of my craft stuff.

This picture was from Wednesday, when the boys and I went to see Meg 2 at the theater. Naturally, we had to take a Jerry-face selfie and send it to him. I have a lot of pictures of Jerry with the boys like this at the movies (they always go to the Marvel movies together) but I think this might be the first of just the kids and me.

I get a lot of VERY random thoughts that just pop into my head for no reason at all, and one day I thought, "I miss TiVo." That was the first DVR we owned and it makes me think of our very early marriage days. I still remember the "bloop!" noise that it made when fast forwarding. So I just sent "I miss TiVo" to Jerry. Poor Jerry thought it was a typo... BAHAHA. 

I'll end with that, because I really do miss him (if it's not obvious) and I'm excited to go pick him up from the airport and hear about his trip!