New Year's Eve Weekend

I hope that y'all had an excellent New Year's Eve weekend!  I had a very full weekend & as I type this at 8 pm on Sunday I am on the verge of passing out.  While today is only a work day & there are no kids, I am starting a full time teaching position today & I'm crazy nervous.  I was a full time teacher for 4 years & subbed the whole first semester this year, but I'm still nervous.  I'll be going into a new school, new district, & picking up where another teacher left off before Christmas break.  Linking up with Biana for Weekending!

Friday

Most of Friday as a whole lot of nothing.  I just sat around watching TV & playing around on the computer at my parents' house.  We did try out a new restaurant that opened up in my hometown recently.  It was really glad & I'm so happy that they opened.  That evening it was off to the airport so I could fly back to Texas.  While on the plane I started the 7th book in the Left Behind series.  I got about half way through it during the flight.  I didn't wind up getting back to my house until around midnight.  I had been wanting a spicy chickent sandwich from Wendy's so bad & had planned on getting one on my drive from the airport to my house but I was so tired that I didn't care enough to stop anywhere.

Saturday

Saturday morning I woke up & headed off to Target to get myself a winter hat & some mittens for my adventure that was to take place that nice.  I had gotten a gift card for Christmas so I used that to get the hat, mittens, & a couple of new nail polish colors since one of my nails had chipped the day before & I decided I just couldn't wait to repaint them or get new colors.  I had wanted a bright deep blue & silver but I couldn't find a silver so I got a champagne color in place of that.  I think I actually like that color more than I would have the silver.  While I waited for my friends to show up I read more of my book, drank some tea, & painted my nails.

Helen & Caleb showed up at my house around 11 am & then we packed up my car & headed west.  We drove 5-5.5 hours until we arrived in Amarillo.  We checked in at the hotel & then headed out to find supper.  We at at IDK Bar & Grill.  I loved my burger & thought their ranch dressing was amazing!  The other two thought their food was meh.  We headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit, drink a little, & play a couple of games.  A little after 10:30 pm we headed to Palo Duro Canyon.  For New Year's Eve this year we did a midnight hike through the canyon.  I don't quite know how to explain my feelings on the hike.  I loved doing something different, the weather was good for a hike, the starts were gorgeous, it was fun, BUT there were a ton of people so it wasn't like it was a ton of adventure.  I would love to do something like that again where I already knew the terrain & do it by myself or with just a few people.  Once the hike was over it was back to the hotel to get a couple hours of sleep.

Sunday

At the ass crack of dawn we were up again.  I had an alarm set for 5:45 & another for 6 am.  The entire reason I got the idea to do the midnight hike was that I wanted to watch the sunrise on New Year's Day & then decided it would be 100x cooler if I did it somewhere like a mountain or canyon.  Looking into that is what led me to the hike.  So after maybe 4 hours of sleep we were up again & back in the canyon.  This time there was no group.  There were others there but it was pretty much everyone for themselves.  We say in my car for awhile to keep warm & then we got out so we could take pictures & watch the sun come up.  It was gorgeous.  It's probably one of the coolest things I've ever done.  Once the sun was up more we drove down into the canyon to see it in the daylight & take some more pictures.

After the canyon we drove to Cadillac Ranch so we could do some spray painting.  I had actually been to both the canyon & Cadillac Ranch back in 2011 but it was still fun nonetheless.  Having slept almost none we were all exhausted so we found some coffee & breakfast at Starbucks before making the 5-5.5 hour drive back to Fort Worth.  It was a pretty quiet drive.  We listened to the Patriots/Dolphins game for a lot of it.  I got home around 3:30, did a couple of things, & then laid down for about an hour a little after 4.  I really only got up because I had to  go to the store.  I originally had intentions of actually grocery shopping & doing some meal prep but it took everything in me to just drag my butt to the store.  So instead I bought muffins for breakfast & a frozen meal for my lunch today.