My Week In Review

Week in review:

• I woke up early on Tuesday morning for a business trip to Oklahoma City.  If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you may have picked up on how much I hate going to OKC, though I have to go at least three times a year.
• Upon arriving in OKC, I crashed at my hotel.  On a whim, I posted on Facebook that I was in Oklahoma City on business, prompting my anti-government cousin to question why the government sent me to OKC.  He assumed it to be a boondoggle, which is what he expects all government-related business trips to be, since that's the only type of government-related business trip that seems to get reported in the news.  Within minutes, my dear mother decided to jump into the fray and posted how proud she was of me and my accomplishments as a public servant, which then brought on more questions from my cousin regarding the reason for my trip, and about how "corrupt" the present administration is and how much money he has to pay in taxes, and included his assumption that my trip was indeed a boondoggle costing taxpayers some outrageous sum.  Frustrated at what resulted from my little post about being in OKC, I deleted the whole thing. Thus began the latest family controversy that had my father, an aunt, several cousins, and a few of my friends who didn't even know my cousins, aunt, or even my father, arguing on FB about politics, economics, and United States history.  I found myself completely stressed out and I decided to go to sleep at 8:30 p.m., Central Time.
• I spent all day Wednesday in a very intense high-level organizational meeting with 16 colleagues.  This was not a boondoggle.
• After a nice meal at the Residence Inn (which didn't cost taxpayers a single cent), a colleague and I walked to the McDonald's across the street to get an ice cream cone.  Upon being told that the ice cream machine was out of order, we walked back across the street to get our rental car (and Toyonissonda economy car that barely had enough room for the two of us to fit into the front seats without bumping shoulders, and which needed a push just to get up to speed when pulling into traffic, AND is about the cheapest possible rental car available), which we drove about a mile down the road to the next McDs, where we found out that THEIR ice cream machine was out of order.  We drove across the street to the local Wal-Mart to check at the McDs inside the store, where, surprise!, the ice cream machine was out of order.  We decided to get frozen Popsicles, instead, and went back to crash at the hotel.  I was in bed by 9.
• Thursday was spent in another all-day very intense high-level organizational meeting with my colleagues.  Again, not a boondoggle.
• Friday morning was an early flight out of OKC, which got me to BWI at 12:30 p.m., and I quickly went home, changed clothes, repacked, then headed south to join my family in Williamsburg, VA, for our annual non-government-related vacation at Busch Gardens and Hall-O-Scream!  I decided that, instead of taking Route 5 south to US 301 through southern Maryland, and crossing the Potomac River into Virginia there, I instead assumed that I-95 through northern Virginia would be quicker.  I was wrong.  Very wrong.  What would normally have been a 3-hour drive became significantly longer due to terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad traffic, which was stop-and-go from the Washington Beltway all the way south to Fredericksburg.  I had hoped to join my family at Busch Gardens at 4 p.m., but instead I arrived at 6:30 p.m.  The entire day was pretty much a boondoggle, but it had nothing to do with the federal government.
• It was all worth it upon finally being reunited with my wonderful 10-year old daughter, who greeted me with a hug and kiss.  I love my girl, and my awesome family.  God is good.