Randomness with Rachel: What I'm Loving!

I'm loving...

THAT BASEBALL SEASON IS FIVE DAYS AWAY!!! CAN YOU TELL HOW EXCITED I AM?? Lol. On Monday I'll be at the Ballpark in Arlington (don't make me call it Globe Life Park) watching my Rangers play! **happy dance**

I'm loving...

That I can cross another state off my list of states to visit. I had to fly to Pennsylvania last week on a business trip (I ended up in Lancaster, to be more specific). For those who have missed the map at the bottom of my blog (and on the sidebar), here is an update on the states I have visited.

We flew out of Dallas to Philadelphia, where we caught a connecting flight to Harrisburg, PA. THIS WAS THE PLANE I HAD TO GET ON IN PHILLY (I'm not a good flyer). It was so small that I thought that Tim Daly was flying it (bonus points if you caught that Wings reference).

There was still snow on the ground from the blizzard two weeks ago

The first night we were so tired we opted to stay in our rooms (we each had our own room) and order room service. The chicken on this Caesar salad was amazing. The dressing wasn't that great, but the ice cream made up for the whole meal. Lol. Oh, and I tried sparkling water for the first time. Not a fan, reminds me too much of Alka Seltzer.

Despite having to work hard the majority of the trip, I did have fun. I enjoyed the team that I worked with, and I met some new friends (even though we all work for the same company, we are in different departments, and some of us even different building locations), so this gives us a chance to meet and work together. We got together twice for a team dinner.

My awesome team!

Me and my friend Jan. We actually met on a business trip last year. She lives in Delaware so it had been a year since we had seen each other.

After our conference one night, we went out for karaoke and I made new friends there (yes, I make friends wherever I go). Lol. It was a great little pub. I would totally go there all the time if I lived in Lancaster. Oh, and I should mention that they were showing the Texas Rangers spring training game on the TV (granted it was on ESPN, but still). Lol.

New friend Tony

New friend Ed

I'm loving...

That even while I'm out of state on business, I find time to find SOMETHING historical in the town I'm visiting. We had about two hours to walk around Lancaster before our meeting on Wednesday so I did the best that I could. Despite being in "Amish Country" I didn't see ONE Amish person or buggy. I was kind of disappointed. Lol.

This Methodist church was built in 1890

This is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Penn Square in Lancaster. It was originally dedicated on July 4, 1874 to pay tribute to soldiers killed during the Civil War. But today it also represents those who have served in subsequent American military conflicts

It was FREEZING on Wednesday (like 25 degrees). And it was super windy. We visited a few of the shops (just to get out of the cold) and also had an amazing cup of hot chocolate at some place called Cafe Onions, which was a Korean and American food cafe. We didn't try the food, but I'm serious that the hot chocolate was on point. We had lunch at a little French restaurant. The food was great. And for dessert they had these donut hole type pastries sprinkled with cinnamon. And it came with chocolate or raspberry dipping sauce. It. Was. AMAZING.

I'm loving...

Flight delays. Okay, I'm SO NOT loving those. On Sunday morning we had JUST sat down on the plane to leave when the pilot told us there was a mechanical issue so we had to get back off the plane. I ended up having a SEVEN HOUR flight delay in Pennsylvania. We all couldn't get on the same flight, so we were divided up. I ended up being the only one on the latest flight out. My flight was supposed to have left at 9am and I didn't leave until 3:15pm. I had a connecting flight in Charlotte (I had 20 minutes to get off the plane from Harrisburg and two terminals over to catch my flight to Dallas). As we were getting on THAT plane, we were told of bad weather in the Dallas area and to be prepared for a possible delay. Can I just say that flying during a thunderstorm was NOT SOMETHING I wanted to cross off my bucket list. Not long after my flight finally landed in Dallas (at 8pm) DFW airport was shut down for almost an hour due to horrible storms. I'm SO glad we landed when we did.

Ho-hum. Flight delays.

Flying into the storm over Dallas. There was a lot of lightning, but of course, I couldn't get a picture of it. The flight got bumpy about this point and my prayer life increased. Lol.

I'm loving...

Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett. Last week I sent out a tweet asking people to take a picture wishing my mom a happy birthday (she turned 80 on Sunday). He responded with this picture. He is the GOAT.