My Chica, Norma, Visits

I got one of the most wonderful surprises this week...one of my closest friends, Norma Aldinger was coming to the UK on business. You see Norma and I go way back to our college days when we interned together at Becker-Underwood and then she talked me into joining NAMA (National Agri-Marketing Association). She even tried setting me up on an interview with CAT, but I foolish and didn't do it because I had already accepted my dream job as a chemical rep with Dow Agro...I often wonder what life would have been like if I would have head down that path instead. But life has turned out great they way things transpired and through it all Norma and I have been great friends. Our phone conversations always start with "Hey, Chica!" (Norma did a semester in Spain while at IA State). Norma has done lots of moving and traveling with CAT but over they years we've stayed in touch and gotten to hook up when she would come back to Peoria, but it was sooooo cool that she was going to be in the UK of all things and even though it was for a day, we made the most of it.

Addison and I packed up after the ISE tea on Tuesday and drove the 1 1/2 hours to Leischester (pron - Lester) to meet up with Norma at her hotel. Now the drive to Leischester is beautiful but as for the actual city itself I wasn't too impressed so for any of you coming on a visit you can pass around this place. Anyway I got to spend 2 1/2 hours visiting with Norma and we caught up on stories about our hubbies, our children (we each have little girls), and how we were both adapting to our new homes...she recently moved from Nashville to North Carolina. We could have talked forever but we had a haul of a drive to get home through evening rush hour and some icky snow/sleet weather. A colleague of hers is trying to get her to come back over for a meeting in April so I'm hoping we get to hook up again.