Over the past year, I have used some of my PTO (Paid Time Off) at work, but I still have 8 days of PTO remaining to use before the end of the year. We don't get the day after Thanksgiving off at work, so I took off Wednesday, Friday, and Monday. But my new job still requires me to be on-call, even when I am off. This isn't so bad. On Wednesday, I worked a little bit from home, but did relax and watched bad TV for most of the day. Jimmy was at work, but got to my place about 11 PM, so we stayed up and chatted a little bit. I was scheduled to fly out to Boise at 8 AM on Thanksgiving Day, so I packed and washed clothes as well Wednesday night.

Thanksgiving morning came and I woke up just fine. Jimmy drove me to the airport. I arrived about 6 AM, because I didn’t know how much of a madhouse it was going to be. Luckily, it was still fairly quiet, so I checked in (thank God for self-check-in kiosks!), and stood in line to get through security. As luck would have it, I was behind about 15 old people who haven’t traveled since the Titanic sank. It was Thanksgiving, so I practiced some patience and waited to get through the metal detectors. And of course I was off to Starbucks to treat myself to a Grande Latte! Yummy! And I needed it at that time of the morning. I had such a nice experience at Starbucks, that I had to text-message a friend of mine who works for HMSHost which manages a lot of the airport Starbucks.

My flight to Minneapolis was fairly uneventful on this plane which smelled strongly of B.O. Although I was moved at the last moment to a new seat which was in the aisle. As a geographer, I love sitting by the window and peering out at the cities below while I fly, so I hate… HATE.. sitting in the aisle seat. I kindly asked the guy next to me to switch, and he did (which was nice of him). He slept all the way to Minneapolis, so I didn't have to chat with someone on the plane either (another thing I don't care for too much). Although as we were landing in Minneapolis, we struck up a conversation and even had a beer at the gate after we de-boarded the plane. It helped that I thought he was cute. We traded numbers and email addresses so we could get in touch after the holiday and have a drink. I am sure he is straight though, but I am not homo-centric by any means.

I had to drink my beer fast as my layover in Minneapolis was pretty short. I slept most of the way to Boise, but I did manage to sneak a peak out of the window at the mountains far below. Next to me was a little kid (about 5 or 6 I guess), and he watched movies on his DVD player and would chat with me about his horses back home. He wasn't a screaming jumping kid, so that was a blessing. Although I did feel awkward when I had to have him, his father and his little brother move to I could pee. I had to go BAD! That beer and latte finally took its toll.

We arrived in Boise right on time, and my family was waiting there for me. Because it was Thanksgiving, Mom wanted to head to a restaurant to ea, and she loves the Cracker Barrel, so I knew we would end up there. I know the news surrounding the Cracker Barrel and gays is not good, but I was not about to bring it up right there. I would have been looked at very funny by my family. So I quietly ate a good meal of turkey, ham, stuffing, pumpkin pie, etc. It was nice, but not my preference. I still like a good home cooked meal on Thanksgiving. After dinner we headed to my brother's house so he could pack. We were all going to pile into a suburban and drive up to the small mountain town of McCall for the weekend. My parents had rented a cabin there (something I didn't know about until I got to Boise). It was fairly overcast in Boise, so I didn't expect to much in the mountains. It took us a good 2 1/2 hours to get to the cabin from my brother's house. I was cramped in the back seat in the middle between my nephew's car seat and my sister. I was not comfortable in the least.

So… you may be asking why all of us flew up to Idaho. My parents live in New Mexico, and my sister's family lives just across the state line in Texas. And then I am way out here in North Carolina. You *would* think that my brother and I would fly into New Mexico (it would have been cheaper I am sure), but that would not have worked. You see, my brother's daughter lives in Idaho. A few years ago, my brother had an affair with this woman. I believe they were in love, but I am not sure. However when she found out she was pregnant, she went back to the ex-husband. After a few paternal tests, it was finally proven that my brother was the father. But by the time all this was done, my niece had already grown close to her "father" the ex-husband. To make matter worse, my brother had to move to Idaho from the Oregon coast to even be close to his daughter. As far as my niece is concerned, my brother (her father) is just a good friend of the family. This of course is not by my brother's choice at this moment in time, although I am sure that will change at some point in the future.

Anyway, the weekend proceeded with my teasing and playing with the kids, and taking photos when and where I could (I will post them soon). I got back home on Sunday pretty early (4 PM) so I missed a lot of delays and long lines that I have heard other people had. All in all it was a great weekend!