Boomer Chick Has a New Face!

Okay, whatcha think. The header, silly. I finally did it! I have been going crazy trying to figure out how to put up a banner and no one else seemed to know, but guess what? I did it all by myself. Does this little boomer chick proud!

There's a story behind the banner. If you look in between the crazy psychedelic letters, there's a field of poppies. And this field of poppies is in the state I'm getting ready to go back to (thank you M!) in August. I think. BF and I had planned on going when he gets his vacation the last week of July, but guess what?

It's the same freaking week as Pony Penning. For those who don't know what Pony Penning is, it's the week a million and a half tourists decide to all go to a tiny island called Chincoteague to watch wild ponies swim through the inlet, and run down main street on their way to the carnival grounds where they are penned until the auction which is held the day after.

I'm not quite sure a million and a half people feel they need to travel a million and a half miles to see this event which comes once a year, but for whatever reason, they do.

Which means the restaurant I work in is going to filled with these million and a half tourists and God help us all if it rains that day. This is the reason I can't get off.

It did rain one year. I thought I was going to die. Lines were at the door and I was at that point where I didn't care if they sat down or not. This year is going to be even harder because we basically have a staff of...uh...moi.

Well, there's a lady that works day shift by herself all week and me and this other waitress work at night, but not together. Those days I'm not working, she is, and vice versa. So, if we did our math right, that leaves one waitress per shift, per day and per night. Not a good thing during Pony Penning Week.

Anyway, the picture. I told BF that the boss says no way, Jose, am I getting off that week, so we're planning for August now, that is, if he can get off. It seems the odds of making this trip a simple one just gets harder and harder...but anyway, we're going.

TO CALIFORNIA.

Actually, we're going to stay over in Vegas and drive a rental to California. Just to the sign I need to take a picture of. And then we're going back to Vegas.

I know you're wondering what sign I'm talking about...there's a story about it in the archives here but for the sake of you looking for it and me having to search for it, I'll be brief.

There's a "Welcome to California" sign that I must get my picture taken standing in front of. If that made any sense.

It's a long story and making it brief is going to be hard, but the sign represents to me something inside me that I need to figure out. Now I'm really confusing you for sure.

Cutting to the chase, I need that picture. By "needing," I mean there's something that picture will signify. Perhaps it's something I need to clear up about my past or perhaps it'll just be a sign to mean no matter the odds, I can do anything.

I have longed to go back to California all my life and I never thought I'd ever make that dream come true. After all, I'm 3,000 miles away and, well, it involves a lot of stuff before you can do something like that. Money. Time. Drive.

Thanks to my dear friend, M, she's making it possible for me to fulfill this dream. As for time, I've got all the time in the world. As for drive, I've got it, baby.

So, I guess I'm going. I mean, I AM GOING.

I can hear my mother's, aunt's and sister's voices as they joined me in a rendition of "California, here we come...right back where we started from...." as we made that trip forty-five years ago.

I'm getting goosebumps!