A "Third" Date

It has been awhile since my last post.  Bethany has been reminding me of this fact but unfortunately I have been both super busy at work and lacking in desire to post recently so it obviously hasn't happened.  Work in particular has been hectic.  For those that may not know my hotel has undergone a complete change in staffing on the front desk.  After going through the turnover and getting the new staff trained we had all of them (well most of them, one did stick around) quit within a 2 week time frame landing us right back into a state of no staffing.  Needless to say I have worked far more desk shifts than I care to work and I have been putting in super long hours on top of it all.

As if our staffing situation wasn't stressful enough I also had the "privilege" of having a visit from my boss, my boss' boss, the owner rep for my hotel, and the Q.A. inspector.  All within the last month.  The long story short: owner visit was far easier than I thought it would be, my bosses visit was a breeze, my boss' boss visit was disheartening (it always is), and we passed the QA (even if I worried non-stop about it).  We also now have staffing levels returning to almost "normal" levels and the hotel has been very busy through it all. 

In spite of the insanity at work I still managed to find some time to fly across the country for my 3rd date with Bethany.  Yes, I am calling it my 3rd date.  I am counting each actual trip to meet her as one date regardless of how many days I spend with her during the trip.  They are long dates, but count as only one using my highly questioned counting system.  Three has been the challenging number for me.  I have not made it past 3 dates with anyone since my AZ days (over a decade ago).  I have used the term "curse" jokingly but really I just wasn't finding the right person. 

This particular date had an important purpose for me.  For those that may not have heard, Bethany is a Red Sox fan who has NEVER been to an actual Red Sox game!  That simple would not do.  So I bought some tickets to the game, bought some plane tickets, booked some hotel rooms (separate rooms in case anyone was worried) and off I went to pamper my girlfriend a bit.  I even took a few pictures.  Not as many as I thought I was going to take (I am not as good at taking the pictures as my mom is) but a few that I will share after my commentary is done. 

The trip was too short, the game was great,we even got to see half of it from our seats ( 2 and 4 yr olds don't like to sit still for 3 hours of baseball), the company was even better than the game.  And Bethany even made some chocolate chip cookies for me.  Which I ate.  And ate.  And ate and ate and ate and ate some more.  She said they weren't her best but I enjoyed them all the same.  There were lots of other things that happened on the trip (like meeting up with one of Bethany's friends the day after the game) but I have already shared them so many times I don't feel like typing them out again.  Suffice it to say I had a good time and when the day came to fly back to Chicago I didn't want to go. 

I said I took some pictures and here they are.  Some were taken by me, some by Bethany's daughter.