5200 weekends....

When I was in college I had a roommate who counted life in weekends. She would say, only two weekends until fall break, or some other milestone. It sure made the school year fly by, but it also made us think about what we had going on for the weekend.
When I started at my job, a mentor told me that you get a maximum of 5200 weekends, if you live to be 100, so then if you throw away all the ones that you couldn't walk or talk for, and the fact that you really won't live to be 100, you might have 4000 weekends. So you should make them count.
This weekend was packed with activities.

Friday

IBM has a mentoring program at NCSU, and my boss asked me if I wanted to be one of the mentors. So Friday was the first meeting where we get introduced to our student. They started the meeting with a get to know you game. People kept asking me what my major was. I would say, I am a Chief Programmer at IBM, I am not a student, I am a mentor. They would look at me in disbelief and walk away. I finally found my student, and she looked at me in disbelief. Part of me wanted to be wearing a badge that said: "Yes, I am turning 30 this month, and I really am the Chief Programmer" :)
This reminds me of another story. I was working at Wal-Mart after I graduated high school. I was sitting in the break room eating lunch and a woman walks in. She says, you can't be back here. I say, excuse me? She says, where is your mother? I said... I work here. She says, no you don't, you can't be older than 12. I said, I am almost 18, and I do work here. She really didn't believe me.
People have always told me I will be grateful some day for looking young. I can tell you, at work functions, I am never grateful I look young. It makes it really hard to be taken seriously. I am sure in other parts of my life it is good. But not at work.

Friday night a group of friends went to the corn maze. This is the one I used to run by during my triathlon training. It was a lot of fun, and I was pleased with the turnout.  You had to find stations and get a stamp throughout the maze.  After the corn maze, we all headed down to Goodberry's because some people were new to North Carolina and had never had Concrete. Yum. I remember when we first moved here, we went to Goodberry's and they hand you the concrete upside down, spoon stuck in it, and it doesn't fall out of the bowl.  Amazing!  And then everyone was like, wow, only 10 PM, now what?! And I was thinking... uh.... bedtime. But we went to a movie, The Invention of Lying. It was entertaining. However, as Saturday morning rolled around a bit too early, I realized that I am getting too old to stay out until midnight every night of the weekend!

Saturday

Saturday morning was a bridal shower for a friend. It was fun to go and chat with people, and the food was good. Then the sessions of conference, which were wonderful. It was a typical North Carolina fall day, gorgeously sunny skies and 75 degrees. I got to eat lunch outside in between sessions. Immediately following the session, some friends and I went to the U2 concert. My friends are amazed at my knowledge of backroads, and my ability to avoid huge traffic jams. We arrived at the concert right before 7, which is when it was scheduled to start. Of course, it started a bit late, but that was perfect. Carter Finley was an outdoor venue, and the weather could not have been better. The stage was huge and was described by Bono as a space ship. It had a screen that moved and expanded, fog machines, lights, and a disco ball. It was a great show.

Sunday

Sunday started out with pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, which were very tasty. Then I enjoyed conference again, and my boyfriend met my parents and sister over dinner. Mom always makes a good Sunday dinner, and this time she made apple crisp, which was fantastic. Mom tasted all the apples in the farmers market to find the perfect ones, and they were great. Every time I go to Mom's house, and she shares food from the farmers market, I think... gosh, I should head out to the farmers market!!! It is too bad that my mom's house is not on my way to work this morning, otherwise I would have grabbed another piece for breakfast. I think I am too used to having daylight savings time on Conference Weekend, because by 7:30 I was ready for bed! Or it could be too much partying going on.