business or pleasure?

when spending countless hours milling around an airport people often ask if your travel is for business or for pleasure?  ok so no one asked me that this time but if they had...well i'd have to say this was pretty much both. while i wouldn't be able to go on adventures if it weren't for work, it is the perfect opportunity to hangout & have fun halfway across the country too with my dear friend, jules.  since she lives about 3 hours away it isn't often that we get to see each other but since we're coworkers we do get to talk...a lot.

the past few days we've been out in colorado meeting with young life [the ministry we both love & lead] for work.  it was a blast and i think that things went well.  i think it is extra special fun because the women that we meet with have the same mission as us [in life] so even though we may be doing something silly, like selling clothes, being together is more special than that.

as i packed for this trip i was a little frantic, and last minute [as usual].  we had 400 loads of laundry to do and waited until the day before i left to do them, of course.  i had no clean clothes.  i'm not exaggerating.  so after 24 hours spent in the laundry room i started making my stacks and planning outfits.  i was actually quite proud of myself because i felt like for a super-fast-pack-up i had put together some pretty sweet fits.  on my flights in and out i thought of how i'd be the most comfy.  leggings.  duh...no brainer.  so i packed leggings for the ride in and out, a black long-sleeve tee for the way out and a black tank for the way back and long sweaters for both ways.  seemed pretty fool-proof to me.

that is until i get to security and they call my sweaters 'jackets' and make me strip down to my all black skin tight outfit that could easily be mistaken for a black unitard.  so i have to walk through security like that.  and the shoes...oh gosh the shoes. i wore my boots, tall socks and leg warmers.  i forgot i had to take off my shoes.  so there i am [twice] in my black unitard, socks and legwarmers hustling through security hoping that no one will see my rear end or bra straps.  i'd show you a picture of the madness but then there would just be more strangers out there witnessing my public indecency.  lets say, lesson learned.

and in case you were wondering..

some other eventful tid bits were that i am seriously allergic.  maybe to planes.  maybe to the person behind me with a cat secretly stashed up their shirt.  i have no idea.  but my nose was a faucet and i went through an entire pack on mini tissues from ky to dallas.  disgusting evidence below.  you can't just put something like this in the flight attendant's trash bag.  how embarrassing.

jules and i met up in dallas to finish the last leg of the trip to colorado springs together.  its always good to be with friends.  could you imagine wheeling all this through an airport alone?  i wish you could see how ridiculous we looked.  i'm sure a room full of security folks had a blast viewing our luggage struggle.

our rental car was super phatty, just like last year and even had one of those handy dandy reverse cameras so you don't run over things.  julie's response "forget everything you were ever taught about backing up!"

 we were really excited to make it to town, pumped about our meeting and hanging out, mountains & having multiple chins!

 view leaving the airport...

we organized, and practiced and ate.  a lot.  maybe we were silly.  and maybe we were drank too much pop.

here's jules and i on the big day.  its a big ol' presentation for us.  kind of like a first day of school pic.  if my mom was there we could have gone out on the back porch and put our backpacks on.

one last anecdote: in dallas i found cow mannequins wearing leather jackets...i thought "now that doesn't make a bit of sense, or does it?"