Christmas
2008
Seasons Greetings!
At some point, I suppose everyone has to pay the piper.
This was BJ’s year. With
the Travelport acquisition of Worldspan in 2007 came some opportunities for new
and exciting ways to occupy her time. Travelport
decided to combine their Denver Data Center with their Atlanta Data Center, a
MAJOR effort. The good news was that
the decision was made to locate the new combined Data Center in Atlanta.
The bad news was that it would be a LOT of work (something BJ is allergic
to!) In January, BJ’s
boss called a meeting and informed the employees to brace themselves for “9
months of Hell”. Sure enough, he
was right. BJ and her co-workers
worked pretty much 7 days a week for 9 months and the Embassy Suites in Denver
became their home away from home for much of the time.
Tony is in his 5th year with the Lockheed Credit
Union. Technically he works for
BJandTony, Inc. but Lockheed is our only customer at this point.
He’s considered a god at the Credit Union (BJ’s words, not Tony’s).
He makes programming look easy!
It is apparent that we and our friends are an aging population.
Ø
Milestone
birthdays are no longer 20 and 30; they are 40 & 50 (or more).
We celebrated many milestones in our circle of friends and family this
year. Virginia’s 90th; BJ, Mark
& Cathy’s 50th; Jennifer’s 40th; and Brian’s 35th (yes we do have a
few young friends - if you consider 35 young).
Ø
BJ
celebrated her 25th anniversary with Delta/Worldspan/Travelport.
It came with 6 weeks of vacation (that she wasn’t allowed to take this
year).
Ø
Body
parts are starting to fail. We
complain about our backs and our knees. Instead
of having babies, our friends are having hysterectomies (and we’re jealous
because they get 5 weeks off from work).
Ø
We
attend funerals and retirement celebrations instead of weddings and baby
showers.
Ø
Our
friends’ children have all graduated from High School and some have even
graduated from College.
Ø
Some
of our friends are even (gasp) GRANDPARENTS!
Ø
BJ
can no longer talk the policeman out of a speeding ticket by batting her
eyelashes (she got her very 1st speeding ticket ever this year, along with one
of those photo red-light tickets).
But we’re trying to stay young by joining Facebook, watching
YouTube, dying our hair various colors that do not occur in nature, and just
generally celebrating life LOUDLY at every opportunity!
(The cops came to BJ’s 50th birthday party to ask us to quiet down –
twice! Surely that means we qualify
as young!)
Our pleasure travel was curtailed significantly this year. We did manage to fit in a few trips here and there, but nothing to compare with previous years. Visit www.bjandtony.com to read more about our travels.
Internationally, we traveled to only 5 places this year.
Ø
In
February we flew to Prague, Czech Republic with 3 friends to take advantage of
another friend’s business trip accommodations.
Ø
We
made our annual trip to Tortola, BVI in May with 7 friends to visit our friend
Kathy.
Ø
In
July, we finally found Noah’s Ark (which had eluded us the previous
Thanksgiving). It was in Lelystad,
Netherlands.
Ø
An
unexpected break in September gave us time to take a short trip to beautiful
Cinque Terre, Italy.
Ø
Thanksgiving
was the traditional “Take a kid to Europe” excursion.
This one was to Italy. We
started in Pisa, then to Lucca and Florence.
The Leaning Tower is still leaning!
Domestically
we logged a few more trips, but mainly because of BJ’s business travel.
Ø
She
made 6 trips to Denver between December and April (and racked up lots of Hilton
Honors points)!
Ø
We
were able to combine one of the business trips in January with a pleasure trip.
BJ flew from Denver & Tony from Atlanta and we met in Salt Lake City
where we joined 13 of our friends in Deer Valley for eating and drinking (oh,
and a little skiing).
Ø
A
rare Saturday off in February gave us a day to spend in Del Ray beach for a
friend’s birthday. It happened to
fall on the same day as the Garlic Festival but our whirlwind trip didn’t give
us enough time to sample the garlic. The
flight attendants on our return flight were probably happy about that.
Ø
We
combined another business trip with a visit to some friends in Salida, Colorado
in April. The drive through the
snowy mountains was beautiful. We
also enjoyed trying our (non-existent) luck in one of the Casino’s in Central
City.
Ø
BJ
found a weekend off in July and went down to St. Simon’s Island with some
girlfriends to celebrate friend Cathy’s 50th birthday.
They stayed at her friend’s parent’s Winter Home.
Ø
Tony
went to Fort Walton Beach, Florida to sulk because he wasn’t invited on the
girls’ trip.
Ø
BJ
was able to spend another weekend with the girls in Sky Valley, Georgia in
November. They stayed in that same
friend’s parent’s Summer Home. (This
Winter/Summer Home thing is rather a foreign concept to us.
From BJ’s childhood, she thought a Winter Home was when you staple
plastic over the windows to keep the cold out and a Summer Home was when you put
the box fans in the windows.)
For
the remainder of the year, we’ve got a few more parties to attend and some
loose ends to tie up. You know,
dental appointments, eye doctor appointments, dermatologist appointments,
prescriptions to fill… You get the
picture. The most exciting holiday
plan we have is probably the Colonoscopy that BJ has scheduled for New Year’s
Eve!
We
wish you and your family a wonderful holiday and many blessings throughout the
New Year!
Sincerely,
Tony and BJ
