Is this Lubbock?

Cops was on TV and the opening scene was two police officers in a police pickup truck.

I said, "Where is this? Lubbock?"

At that moment, "Lubbock Police Department" appeared on the screen.

Ahahaaaaaaa!!

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Mama, This Surely is a Dream

Y'all.

I have to tell you about a song I've misunderstood for almost 20 years. Since 1997, in fact.

I was listening to Maroon 5's new cover of Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy" and came to the very sudden and jarring realization that "Mama" isn't this kid's MOTHER. It's a grown man's wife/girlfriend.

Yes. It's true!

(I know. You knew.)

I've always found it to be a weird song, with this child coming home to a house that smells like sex and candy. And some creeper guy is sitting in the kid's chair, staring at him.

See, this is why I've always hated any and all versions of "mama" as a term of endearment for a girlfriend. Ick.

So we went to Dallas for Christmas and had a big afternoon of fun on Christmas day with the in-laws and several of their neighbors. One of the neighbors is getting his sommelier certification (for funzies), and he wowed us all with his knowledge of wines and wine trivia! He brought a couple of bottles of great wine and his own glass.

I got Kendra Scott jewelry and a movie theater-style popcorn popper!

Then we went to Johnson City with Scott-n-Julie this weekend to see the lights. Soooooo pretty!

And lastly... Patrick of Patrick's Saturday Six has a new meme- The Big Question- which he's doing every Saturday now. Here's my first stab at it.

The Big Question

With another year almost over, we look back at the notable deaths we suffered in 2014. Take a few moments to look through this slideshow. If you could have a meal with up to 5 of the notable people we lost in 2014, who would you choose and why?

Robin Williams- Oh to spend a couple of hours with this genius, one of the best entertainers of all time, and such a gifted actor and complex man.
Maya Angelou- She would have great stories and insight, should we get into any meaningful discussions.
Joan Rivers- She would keep things lively and everyone laughing.
Steven Nagel - I would always love to chat with an astronaut!
Casey Kasem- Listened to him every weekend growing up. Would love to talk about music with him.

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Home Again

Whirlwind trip to the UK!

We had a great time at the meeting. My presentation went very well. The only bad part of the weekend was at the Friday night cocktail/dinner event. Our group was made up of people from all over Europe, who spoke just about every western European language. When we sat down for dinner, I began chatting with two of my Spanish colleagues at a table. Suddenly it became a table full of people from Spain, speaking Spanish.

I really hoped I wasn't taking up a seat that someone else from Spain would love to take. I didn't want to ask, because I couldn't figure out how to sound like I was trying to make an escape. At the same time, while I wasn't dying to get out, I was definitely bummed that I wouldn't be able to talk with everyone for the next two hours. It was UBER-awkward.

I asked Elena if there was anyone she thought might like to take my seat, and she laughed. She said no, but everyone would completely understand if I wanted to switch tables. I just didn't think I could smoothly manage that without offending everyone.

After about ten minutes, one of the meeting attendees said they really should speak English, since I was at the table. I was all, "Nooooo, it's fine. Please don't worry about me. But... really I would love that. THANK YOU!"

(Americans. Embarrassingly uni-lingual.)

The conversation was very interesting and I'm glad I was sitting there in the end. I felt bad about them having to speak English, but I'm sure they preferred it to translating every other conversation for me.

I was very happy to meet my awesome German coworker who helped me take notes through the meeting. I also hung out a lot with our site monitor from the Switzerland office. It's always good to put names with faces.

We did eventually make it out of our hotel area on Saturday evening. Several of us headed to the insanely crowded, but always  Harrods. Christmastime Saturday at Harrods. Just don't, unless it's your only shot to hit a tourist attraction before you leave the country.

One of our client peeps- the very petite, supercute, sweet one I mentioned a while back - led the adventure to the famous department store. While we were in the Egyptian museum section, she was talking and tripped over the base of a giant metal statue. I mean, she totally fell to the ground. She was okay, thank goodness. One of the museum staff came over to make sure she was alright.

She asked him, "How much is this statue? I want to know how much I would have had to pay, had I broken it."

"£175,000." (That's about $275,000.)

Oh man, So funny! We teased her about it for the rest of the night.

In March, I head to Berlin. I've never been to Berlin, so it should be supercool!

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Jet Lagged in the UK

Sitting here watching the BBC Music Awards live from London... in London! Trying to stay awake until 10 or so. I had some English tea, which is helping.

The first class ride over here (business trip!) was amazing. British Airways calls it business class, but they are first class seats on the 787. (They call the typical business class seats World Travelers Club.) We got all sorts of additional perks for being in Club World, including hanging out in the Admiral's Club at the airport. Supercool. We also got express immigration, which was nice.

I was supposed to sleep on the flight overnight- at least for a few hours- but the turbulence was incredible, so hardly any of us slept. Gah. Other than that though, it was really quite an experience. Lying down flat is GREAT overnight (even if you can't sleep). Your own private TV. Full run of the first class galley. Thank you, British Airways. You rock.

Tips for BA Dreamliner Club World flights- row J is fine to take the window, but the other window seats have to crawl over the aisle seat to get out, if the aisle person has their feet up. Unless you like cozy quarters, avoid the middle seat in the middle row. It faces backwards, flanked by two forward-facing seats with walls on both sides. AND you also have to crawl out over the feet of you neighbor if they have their feet up. SAY YES TO THE EYE MASK AND EAR PLUGS for the overnight flight. You'd be surprised how much light and noise there is.

The blankets are supernice. The tray table is moveable and can fold in half or fold into the wall altogether.  Plug the deluxe headphones into the plug to get noise cancelling when you're trying to sleep. Whatever you do, don't listen to the "Sleep for Long Flights" album if you want to sleep. I thought it would be ocean sounds or rain or something, but it was very modern, loud music. Hilarious at 2 a.m. Don't laugh and wake your neighbor though.

The food is good, but the bread and butter is exceptional, so take two rolls/croissants/whatever-carb-they're-offering. There is a lot of chocolate and alcohol available. Take advantage of that. We didn't on the way, but watch out on the way back, when we're not trying to sleep.

I finally watched the locally filmed movie Boyhood... which I hate to say I didn't like. I did see my house twice though. So boo-yah! It was interesting following everyone in real time through 12 years, but the story was very simplistic and the acting wasn't great. I wanted to like it!

Leslie and I hung out this afternoon to stay awake. Bus tour tickets were sold out, shockingly for a Thursday. We were going to go to Buckingham Palace, just to go somewhere, but her mom went into ICU shortly after we left Austin yesterday and she is keeping up with all that and it was just going to be too much for her. So we walked around the local area for a while and stopped for a wonderful lunch at Mimos Cafe. OMG. SO great.

Ed Sheerhan is currently singing one of my fave songs of his- "Sing." Very JT. I think I wrote a whole post about that one day a while back. Ha!

That is the second time Timberlake has come up in conversations today. Is he coming out with new music or something? Maybe it's just JT on the brain.

Anyhoo... Pharrell won International Artist of the Year on the BBC Awards a bit ago. We had talked about him at work just Tuesday. We decided he straddles a thin line between supreme coolness and ultimate dork. I mean, really. If he weren't "cool," he would be ridiculous. He's a musical genius, so I have a ton of respect for him. Y'all know what I mean about the line though. Yes?

Leslie warned me not to log into work while jet lagged, because I will not function well enough to handle anything and may write rambling emails, etc. So instead, evidently, I am here, writing rambling commentary in the blog. But you guys expect it, so it's all good.

This is me on 2.5 hours sleep in 2 days. Signing off! Happy Thursday!

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