If someone told me this morning I would fly a plane today, I'd think they were nuts!

At about 3:45, Jon came over and said "Hey, I know this is short notice, but I have a plane rented for 5:00 today if you want to go."

How could I say no? He took some of our other co-workers for a ride before and I had seen a video, so I had told him I was interested in flying sometime.

I met him at the airport and we went outside to the plane to do all of the pre-flight checks. This took about ten minutes. We got in and he briefed me on some safety stuff and other general things I'd need to know. We also filled up with some gas, but next thing I knew, the control tower cleared us for takeoff!

We flew west and passed over Armstrong. I was able to spot my building and the baseball stadium from up there. We kept heading west toward the Susquehanna River and Jon asked me if I'd be interested in taking the control. Why the heck not? So he quickly told me how to go up, down, right and left. I took over figuring that it would be sort of like riding a bike -- I'd get a feel for it. I was totally wrong, as soon as my hands were the only ones on the controls, I nearly panicked. I immediately tensed up completely and wanted to do nothing but maintain the height and direction of the plane. Despite my efforts, I dipped and rose, and swayed right to left. I was so freaked out I barely moved until Jon coached, "pull back... tilt right." I was able to successfully pull off a 10 degree turn over the river before I told him I was ready for him to take over.

The rest of the time I enjoyed the amazing view. We did "touch and go" landings where we'd land and take off again immediately. We did about 4 until we landed for good.

Definitely an unexpected but amazing adventure!

This is the model of the plane we were in:

This weekend I drove up to Jersey City so that Kris could diagnose the rattling sound the Jetta is making. We didn't do much on Friday night since Kris had to get up early to check out my car. I had my first piece of pizza in 10 weeks though.. mmm delish.

I just chilled out on Saturday while Kris was at work. He called to let me know that the catalytic converter is partially blown out and that it is over $1,000 to replace. Its not hurting anything, so I can keep driving it. He also let me know his parents were going down to Atlantic City and that we could go.

So we showered and got dressed and headed to Toms River. We piled in Kris's parents car with them and their friends for the ride down.

We went to the Taj Mahal and played the slot machines for a bit and had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe. After that we had a few drinks and met up with a few of Kris's friends. We went to Harrah's Pool Bar. Basically they close out the whole indoor pool area and turn it into a club. Not only was it an insane $20 to get in, but it was hot and humid. We had a decent time though dancing and trying not to fall into the pool in our clothes haha.

We got a ride home from the friends and we actually got back before Kris's parents!!

Sunday was relaxing, until I had to drive home through tornado conditions. It sunny and got extremely dark in a matter of seconds. You could see it getting darker. Then all the sudden it absolutely poured. It only lasted about 10 or 15 minutes. Apparently some places were hit pretty hard and tornados and hail hit. I didn't even realize that the weather was supposed to be so bad!

Now I'm back to a crazy work week. I hardly got up from my desk today :(

I wish I could banish people from the gym. There is nothing more irritating than having to stare at a really annoying person when you are sweaty and uncomfortable.

First, I'd banish

The Hunchback - this lady must have early onset osteoporosis, either that, or she is just really frumpy and depressed. Let's go with the latter. So, this lady is ALWAYS hunched over as she incorrectly does every exercise possible. She does hunchback lifting, spinning, even hunchback Zumba!

The Grouch - another lady. She doesn't really annoy me that much, other than that she isn't even grouchy, she just looks that way. Oh, and she wears high tops. You know what kind of socks you wear with high tops? REALLY high socks that top even the high top.

Lazy Butt - i think she thinks that her high-back, angled hair cut detracts from her protruding behind. Ahhhh, I don't think so. You'll find her moseying her way on the elliptical. She's fixated on the latest issue of OK! or People and lazily flips the pages as she even lazierly steps the machine. One would think, "At least she's doing something..." I say..."Banished!!!"

Miss Perky - this chick is just sooo cute. She comes in, in her perfectly coordinated work out outfit and does some complicated stretching that looks sooo perfect. She doesn't even sweat!

Shim - i'm pretty sure this is a woman. "She" changes in the women's locker room. She is addicted to working out. She must do over an hour of cardio every day. She is very particular about her work out environment. She repositions the television and puts on the news, even though she is really reading the newspaper. She also has her CD player, not an iPod or other MP3 player, but an old school CD player. I heard that she used to be married and that she would go on bike rides at like 8am and come back at night.

I feel like I forgot some people, so there might be a part 2 to this.

OK so, also, this creepy guy at work randomly said to me "What do you call a cow with no legs?" I was like "....????" And he said, "ground beef." Does this sort of thing happen to anyone else?

Well today was pretty relaxing. Sandy came to the gym today so I mostly just walked on the treadmill next to her and interjected spurts of jogging. It was really hot in there so I was glad to not be going crazy on the elliptical.

I was out of there by 10:30 to get back home and showered for my 12pm pedicure. I found a coupon and its the beginning of spring so I thought I'd go for it. Luckily, the place was nice and the employees spoke pretty good English. The massage chair made the pulled muscle in my back feel better too.

When I got home I cleaned my whole house. I especially needed to get laundry done so that I'd be ready to pack tomorrow. I need to plan extra in advance since most of my clothes don't fit anymore. I'm excited about going to New York. I've jam-packed our time there with meetings and also decided which sessions at the conference my bosses should go to. It's all detailed on a color coded spreadsheet. I think I have Tina-tendencies.

So now that I have all the important stuff out of the way, I will be spending the rest of the evening reading David Sedaris and watching Rock of Love Bus. Mmmm white trash :)

Yesterday was the final weigh-in day for the Armstrong Biggest Loser Contest. My final weight came down 10.75 pounds and my BMI is no longer in the "overweight" zone, but in the "healthy weight" zone!

My partner and I came in 4th place as far as percent of body weight lost. Too bad only 1 - 3 got the cash prizes -- my t-shirt is on its way.

Anyways, I'm definitely going to keep it going, even without the contest. My friend Liz has some weight to lose and we're going to work out together.

I don't really have anything exciting planned for the weekend except maybe a pedicure :)

Today I worked on my development plan with my boss. He's meeting with our GM and HR tomorrow to discuss my "promotion." I feel lucky that my boss is really good. All my bosses have been, actually.

It was so gorgeous today I decided it was time to take a cruise down the street and get a Lancaster County library card! The teeny-tiny Mountville Branch is basically in the basement of an office building. It had really low ceilings with drop tiles that were like 4" x 4" instead of the standard 12" x 12" (yes I'm a nerd not only for noticing this, but also for knowing the standard size and for the confusion this caused me).

Anyways it was sort of dingy there and I had to pee so I didn't feel like hanging out there long. I was hunting for David Sedaris, but couldn't find it or anything else remotely appealing. THEN I realized that David Sedaris writes non-fiction so I had to go get the dewey-decimal number and got the only, abused copy of the book.

I throughly abused my body at the gym yesterday. Our normal instructor for Body Works is on vacation in Ireland. So we had Dawn who is extremely energetic and hilarious. She kept calling the class "Body Pump" which was appropriate because what she made us do is in no way related to what we do in Body Works. So, I'm really sore today, especially in my abs and chest. Abs and spin is on Wednesdays, but I skipped them and did a 45-min interval course on the elliptical instead.

I wanted to get home early enough to do some laundry. Now I'm just waiting for American Idol to start soon. PS I'm in love w/ Anoop-Dogg :)

Oh and I keep having these really bizarre dreams. Last night, I drempt that the dry cleaner lost my clothes and I was so upset that I started hysterical crying and I was standing outside the house that I lived in with Mom and Dad and there were blinds hanging over a sliding door and I ripped them down until Dad hugged me and made me calm down. Then I got an email that a girl somwhere far away got my clothes in the mail and was shipping them back. Weird!