Imperfect Surprise

Last weekend Dre had job training for his new part-time job Friday-Sunday in Annapolis. He had to be there by 9 am and wasn't scheduled to be done until 6pm over the weekend (meaning he would be leaving before 8 and not getting home until after 7). That essentially meant that my dear hubs and I would barely be able to see each other essentially until Tuesday when he had the morning off of his other part-time job. (Have I mentioned my love is a hard-worker?)--So knowing I would be very sad to not see Dre for that long I made a plan. I found a hotel near where Dre's training was, made arrangements for us to be "covered" where we were supposed to have Saturday night, and did my best to keep it a secret. (The hardest part is not telling him that I have a surprise cuz then he might figure it out.)

My plan was to drive to his training site, sneak into his car and leave a note with the address and then meet him at the hotel hoping he'd be completely shocked. A slight hiccup was when I made the choice to go to the hotel and check-in before going to leave a note in Dre's car. Dre called me as I was pulling into the hotel parking lot an hour-and-a-half before he was supposed to get out of training. I got really flustered and made him sit in the parking lot at a Koon's for 10 minutes while I made up something. I used my iPhone to email him a map link to where I was and told him to come meet me for dinner. While he wasn't totally surprised in the end, he was very surprised that I was down there and that we were going to have a night to ourselves so it was worth it even if it was imperfect. ;-) -- We had a great night just being together. We did a little shopping and then got Carrabba's to-go since I wasn't feeling very good and ate dinner in bed and watched a movie. While it was just a quiet night and not a huge romantic weekend, it really was one of my favorite times in the last few months. I love just being with my husband and don't get to do it nearly enough these days. I'm grateful that this period of extreme busyness won't last forever but also grateful for how much it's revealing about my husband's diligence, perseverance, and just general increibleness. I respect him so much. And love him tons!

(Me & My Man in Florida last November.)

So anyways... point of the post, other than to share a fun weekend in our life, is to share about Aloft Hotels. We stayed at the one near BWI which is right at Arundel Mills. For the price (under $80 with tax!) I loved the hotel; at a regular rate I would have still liked it a lot. (If that makes sense, it does to my wifey mind.) We were impressed by the cleanliness, modern take on essentially a Sheraton, and, even though we didn't wind up having time to check it out, any hotel with a clean indoor pool is a bonus for Dre. Hooray for hotel deals! Even if it wasn't at my favoritest favorite hotel in all the land. ;-)