Big Bonus Weekend

2012 was a hard year at work.  I was feeling really worn out from all the travel and seriously questioning how much longer I would be able to carry on.  Just recently I received my year end review and I have to say, I was both stunned and ecstatic to receive both a pretty amazing bonus AND a salary increase.  I finally felt like all of my hard work and endless hours on the road hit a payoff. This past weekend it was pretty amazing to receive that paycheck!  I have an incredibly hard time spending any money on myself...ever.  It always seems like we are saving for a big trip or a big home item, so I rarely spend a dime on anything materialistic that I really, really want.  Thanks to O's encouragement and outright prodding to get me spending, I set aside an amount to spend on myself and shoveled the rest into the savings account.

BIG BONUS WEEKEND PART I

O has been on me for months to finally purchase an i-Pad.  The only technology I have is my Kindle Paperwhite, my i-Phone and my raggedy work laptop.  I don't borrow O's i-Pad often, but whenever I do it is, admittedly, very nice to use!  So Friday we found our way over to Best Buy (O insisted I buy there for his Reward Zone points) and I lingered and labored over my decision for a good half hour.  I picked out all of my accessories and then .... we happened by the MacBooks.  I have wanted a MacBook Air for a long time.  We played around with the demo, I fell in love with it some more and O finally just grabbed a Best Buy sales guy and told him to go get me the box.  I could have never committed by myself.  I would have stood there all day hemming and hawing over what I should do.  Ultimately, the Mac Air offered me so much more of what I wanted - i-Tunes, photos, movies and, most importantly, word processing for writing.  I was second guessing myself pretty much the entire way home and then got home, poured some wine and started exploring my new toy.  I was up and running in about 5 minutes flat - the easiest set up ever.  So, thank you Apple.  I'm am in love. Truly, madly, deeply in love.

Still in the box...excitement awaits!

BIG BONUS WEEKEND PART II

Now.  Let's move on to the part of the weekend where I experienced temporary insanity (and so glad I did!).  First I should say that I have never considered myself a big right winger.  I certainly never imagined myself to be a card carrying member of the NRA.  With all of this recent gun legislation talk, I think everyone - myself included - is a little tired of the gun debate.  Without getting majorly political here, I will just say that I do support the 2nd Amendment. Criminals will find a way to break the law no matter what in my opinion.  

That being said, O has been a bit more, uh, adamant, about his 2nd Amendment rights.  He could hardly wait to purchase his gun.  After saving money and getting some birthday money this month he finally pulled the trigger (ha - pun intended).  So this weekend we decided to go to the gun range and shoot his new toy at Hoover Tactical Firearms.  This place has downright terrible reviews about their service, but we decided to see for ourselves.  We found the range staff to be very helpful and nice and the sales staff to be very standoffish.  After shooting O's gun, I wanted to go hold a few and decide if anything struck my fancy.  O's gun, while very fun to shoot, was a little too big for my hand.  The staff was less than helpful.  I held nothing.  They also didn't have a huge selection.  But before I get to the best part, here are the obligatory shooting pics...

After this Omar decided he wanted to go buy a cleaning kit for his gun.  We decided to go to Mark's Outdoor Sports - a little more reasonably priced and hugely popular.  You can hardly get in the parking lot of this place on the weekend.  While O was perusing cleaning kits, I went to seek out the gun I had been wanting to hold and try.  I was helped right away by a fantastic salesperson - Jack.  He didn't treat me like I knew everything or didn't know anything.  When the gun I had my eye set on didn't fit great in my hand, he brought me numerous others to try.  I wasn't even planning to purchase anything at all - more of a recon mission.  Then Jack handed me the Walther PPS 9MM.  I would say he had me at hello but the gun just fit like a glove.  I literally couldn't wait to shoot it.  It didn't even take any convincing by O - I just knew I was going home with it!  Here I am filling out the background check paperwork (which took all of about 5 minutes flat): 

The FBI, ATF or whoever they call to make sure you are not a psycho gave the stamp of approval and the whole thing took less time than buying my Mac Air. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not, but I'm assuming they know what they are doing.  There is no waiting period in Alabama so I walked right out the front door with my first handgun, dragging O back to the range to go give it a try.  Jack even sold us 250 rounds of 9MM ammo - which is nonexistent right now due to all of this gun control nonsense.  Needless to say, my experience at Mark's was so fabulous that I walked out a gun owner. 

Worry not.  O and I are signed up for all of the appropriate NRA safety classes.  There is even adorable ladies shooting and range gear I can't wait to get my hands on.  I've been eying a few things at the Bang Bang Boutique and I will let you know what I end up with.  There is also a ladies shooting club in Birmingham which I have joined.  I am super excited to have something fun to do with O and on my own.  I'm really looking forward to getting good and get involved!  

So, yes, while I never imagined myself a card carrying NRA member - you should never say never. Easily the most fun and entertaining weekend of 2013 thus far.