What was more disappointing was that my parents had planned on flying to Texas for her preseason tournament at Texas A&M. The draw here was that Troy of course attends Baylor in Waco, TX – which is only about an hour away from College Station. So, he too could attend the weekend tournament and everyone was looking forward to getting together as Troy has been gone all summer in China and not very accessible to communicate with.
I tried to figure out a way for the weekend to work – but with it being the first weekend of the fall for Women’s Soccer and Volleyball I just couldn’t figure out a way to miss – I remember my boss, Nick, agreeing with me when we originally discussed this.
Well – a week before her tournament, our staff was all sitting in our marketing meeting discussing upcoming events. It was at this time I realized that we only had two events (for some reason, I had thought 3) Friday night – and also we had restructured and Jessica was now covering all those sports. The issue we had to figure out was training – because while interns run all these sports that were going on, it was their first weekend so we had to be there to train them and make sure things ran smoothly.
So, after our marketing meeting I headed back to my office and instantly visited Southwest.com (one of my favs, lol) and looked up the price of a flight from Baltimore to Texas – Houston, Waco and College Station were pretty much my options. Low and behold – the flight from BWI to Houston was wayyyyyyyy too reasonable considering it was only a week away. I typed an email to Nick – pleading for him to cover one of the 2 events that weekend (knowing Jessica would be covering the other). I offered to buy him lunch, to give him money, to work a crappy event that might come up…ANYTHING. I took a deep breath and hit “SEND”. The waiting began.
We are pretty busy at work right now – so luckily time flew by pretty fast. However, every time I would go into Nick’s office for something I would think “Has he read the email? Is he mad?”…no indication from him. Mid-afternoon I received a reply that simply said “This should be fine.”
Yes!!
I booked the flight, which would depart at 6:15am Friday morning (yikes) – connect through St. Louis, and land in Houston at 10:00am. I then booked a rental car (Got a great rate – only $35 total – quite a change from what it would’ve cost last minute to book in San Diego!). If my plans worked out right, I should be pulling into the gym right at gametime. Last on the list was making sure I was okay in terms of sleeping arrangements.
It was, of course, not unusual for me to ask my mom about her plans for the trip. Honestly, I would’ve been asking those questions anyways. But, when I asked where they would be staying Thursday and Friday night in College Station – she responded with “We have a room with two double beds…so it looks like your dad and I will squeeze into a bed and your brother will have a bed all to himself.” Hahahaha – orrrrrrrr so he thinks ;) Last item on the agenda was figuring out Saturday night. My mom was toying with the idea of getting a hotel room in Waco (Ellie would fly home Saturday night – and my parents would go back to Waco with Troy to see his campus, place, etc. Mom had helped him move in so had seen it before – but Dad hadn’t seen it yet). She was also considering maybe just staying at Troy’s one bedroom loft. I tried to convince her to book the hotel room (she could always cancel)…but good ole’ economical Troy convinced her that her and dad could just sleep in his bed and he’d stay on the couch. Crap. Where was I going to sleep? Lol. I did a little research, booked a reasonably priced room at the Clarion about 2 blocks from campus and ensured I would be able to cancel on Saturday if my thinking was incorrect and the family still wanted to get cozy in Troy’s apartment. Let me just say, however, if that involves someone sleeping on the floor – it will NOT be me…based on the fact that the week leading up to the trip Troy had a slight rodent issue and nabbed 4 mice before maintenance closed up a hole in his wall. I am NOT taking any chance.
On a side note, Shawn said his sister and niece had a mouse in their place recently – and at first his niece was terrified. However, they asked her, “Have you seen Ratatouille?” She did a compete 180 – and then wanted to find the little mouse so she could be friends with it. HA!
Anyway, early Friday morning I drove to the airport and caught my flight to St. Louis. I decided to not change my work voicemail to indicate I was out of the office, in case they called. It worked out perfect, as my mom texted me at 7:30amCST, which fell during my layover. They were at breakfast. I responded to the text and also mentioned that I would be busy all morning, so would plan on checking in with her after the first game (12:30pm vs. Virginia). 
I landed in Houston on time, picked up my rental car, hooked up my GPS that I brought with me (best Xmas gift ever) and hit the road – wearing jeans, flip flops and my black Northern Iowa t-shirt. I was ready to walk right into the gym and put my gameface on! 
I wound up arriving in College Station around Noon – and via text message knew my mom hadn’t arrived at the facility yet. Troy and my dad apparently drove separate from her as she went to the mall for a makeover at Macy’s. (Parents rented a car in College Station when they flew in, Troy drove his own vehicle from Waco). I didn’t want to beat them there…so I stopped at Quiznos and grabbed a bite to eat. Around 12:25pm, I pulled up to the arena and went inside. I ducked into the back of the seating area, spotted my parents and Troy. Mom was sitting up a little higher than them because she likes the view better up there. Time to go about my plan. I took a picture of the court (see on left) and then sent it to all three of them via text with the following message (or close to): Flight to Houston: $265. Rental Car: $35. Surprising my family in College Station so we can spend the weekend together…priceless. So I’m sitting back there …. The game is about to start… and no one is checking their phones. In fact, my mom was holding her phone in her lap until literally the moment I sent the text message. She then set it into her purse. Sigh. Troy was the winner – I saw him pull out his phone, open it up, and read it. He was confused for a moment – even showed Dad (who was sitting next to him). He then, after a few moments, turned around and looked up. He spotted me – gave a grin and wave, and motioned me down. Via gestures, I indicated I wanted to stop at mom’s location first. She had her back to me, oblivious as to what was going on. I climbed over some seats, until I was right behind her…then tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and the look on her face was priceless. Complete surprise and somehow got the words out “What are you doing here?” Tears followed, which of course made me tear up…and…there went that makeover from Macys….hahaha.
I watched the first 2 games sitting with Troy and my Dad and then the third with mom (they won all three – against Virginia). Troy and I had a bet going as to when Ellie realized I was there. He thought before the game. I thought it wasn’t until game two when Ellie was on the bench for a timeout and looked up and saw me – she gave me a “what in the world are you doing here” expression. After the game, she confirmed I won the bet :)
Match 2 of the day was against Iona, which Northern Iowa also defeated 3-0. After the second match, Mom, Dad and I went to the mall to walk around a bit (Ellie had to stay for the following match to watch A&M for awhile and Troy stayed with her). Mom and I did a little shopping at a boutique and the PET STORE (awwww puppies!) and my dad wound up getting lost in an Army surplus store. He was in heaven. Around 8pm we headed home (an hour later than expected), dropped Dad off in the room (he rented another room for the night for Troy and I to stay in – right next to my parents room), picked Troy up and headed across the street to a Mexican restaurant named Abuelos. After dinner, Ellie joined us all in my parent’s room where we hung out for awhile.
Saturday, we ate breakfast together and then Ellie stayed with her team and the rest of us headed back to the mall. Troy got his first pedicure (while reading an enthralling book about finance), Mom got a manicure and I got a fill. Well mine wound up taking forever because we soaked my previous acrylics off instead of ripping them off (haha), so after Dad was done in the Army surplus store (yes he went back for more), he, my mom and my brother took off for the arena. I couldn’t really abandon the nail job in the middle of it – so I was stuck 30 more minutes at 4 Tip 2 Toe (what a name) and then raced to the arena. I missed the first few points of Ellie’s game, which was annoying…but so did my mom because she had purchased me a ticket (any game Texas A&M played in was actually ticketed…and there was an error on the pass list. My dad and brother were listed twice and my mom wasn’t there at all. I wouldn’t have been because when Ellie submitted the lists she didn’t know I was going to be there). Thanks for waiting for me mom :)
The crowd was ridiculous – Texas A&M has more organized school spirit and chants than I have ever seen. (see matching overalls to the left) They have 5 student male “yell leaders” who attend every home athletic events and lead the students constantly in chants, cheers and overall craziness. I must admit, it was pretty cool. Ellie’s team simply couldn’t put the ball away in her match. It was frustrating – and they wound up losing 1-3. However, I must say my sister played so awesome. She is really good – and I definitely felt like “proud sister”. Both her and her setter made the all-tournament team so that was neat. We were able to hang out briefly after the game but then Ellie and her team had to hit the road back to Houston to catch their flight.
The siblings :) Check out all those Panthers Shirts!
For those of you that don't know, this is Troy's vest...and Ellie and I being stupid. LOL.
I LOVE THIS PICTURE of Troy and I! :)
Obviously this is a pose...because Troy would NEVER block me ;)
Awesome sunset on campus!The meal was served. At some point apparently another huge flying cricket hit the window blinds right next to me and fell down. Troy shot me a look and said, Carrie, get out of the booth. So, having seen nothing, but knowing by his tone and look that I needed to slide out, I pushed my mom out of the booth and escaped. Sure enough, in the seat right behind me, there was a huge cricket sitting on the bench. Gross. A guy bussing tables happened to be nearby and my mom grabbed him and he tracked down the cricket and napped it with his wet washcloth. This was getting ridiculous.
Troy was speaking to the waitress at another point later and was nailed in the arm by another flying black beast. He jerked is arm back, looked down on the ground beside the booth and the waitress came to the rescue, stomping on the critter. Of course, most refreshing (sarcasm) was that there were already 2 dead crickets on the floor next to it. Apparently this was a problem?
The waitress told us that they couldn’t figure out why they were so bad. It wasn’t a hole in the building necessarily, they were just finding ways to get in. She said it was so bad in the parking lot that sometimes she’ll come in with 3 just sitting on her shirt. Gross. I didn’t recall the parking lot being that bad but admittedly was now not sure what I’d see when we went back out to the car.
The final straw for me was as we were getting our bill. There was a stealth bomber cricket who dive bombed in a beeline toward my head. I yelped, ducked and said “ok, I’m outta here.” As dad tallied up the bill, the rest of us were headed to the car. Cautiously stepping outside and speed walking to the car. Inside the car, I kinda shrugged it off – yeah, there were probably a few crickets outside, but nothing that bad.
Once we had all piled in, we backed out and headed around the restaurant driveway to get back to the freeway. What we saw I don’t think I ever could have imagined. Around the other side of the restaurant there were hundreds, THOUSANDS of crickets. It was like a horror movie. Just covering the parking lot, flying around all the lights, crawling in armies on the side of the building. We kind of just sat there in amazement, car stopped in its tracks.
Not sure if you can tell - but every black speck you see...is a cricket.On the way back to the hotel, once we exited the freeway, we noticed that it was not just that restaurant (although that was definitely one of the worst cases we saw). Many businesses, gas stations, etc. were littered with the crickets. We dropped my parents off at the hotel, I said my goodbyes (I planned on leaving from Troy’s apartment early the next morning, although I may have stopped at the hotel to say goodbye on my way out), and Troy and I took off. We stopped at the grocery store and Walmart before going home and I must say, crickets were there too. In fact, the grocery store had many flying around as it was obviously pretty easy for them to fly in the large main automatic sliding doors to the building.
Troy and I hung out a bit at his house before going to bed. Early Sunday morning, I got up, said goodbye to Troy, stopped at the hotel to say goodbye to my mom and dad (and grabbed a few items off the free continental breakfast) and hit the road for my 3 hour drive to Houston. About an hour into the drive, the tire pressure warning light came on – so stopped at some tiny town about 10 miles up the road to find an air hose at a gas station. I must admit, I had to connect a piece the cashier loaned me to the air hose to use it…and couldn’t figure it out at first. I was just not strong enough to fit the two pieces together…hitting it on the ground, grunting and shoving….I wound up trying to improvise and instead let most of the air OUT of the tire …I then realized a latch that made the pieces fit together so easily a 3 year old could’ve done it. Filled up the tire with no pressure gauge to go off of (guessed – I’m alive to type this so at least you know it worked out)…and wa la. Back on the road to Houston.
Dropped the rental car off, was at the airport gate in plenty of time and then boarded my nonstop flight back to Baltimore.
Such a wonderful weekend and so nice to have the rare opportunity for all of us to spend some time together. I am so lucky to have such a great family!
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