Thanksgiving in Oz

I'm off to see the wizard tomorrow....the wizard being my family of course. Although nowhere near Kansas, it will be quite the adventure. My car Oz and I will be trekking the 15 hour cross country trip together (yes, I did in fact name my car Oz, but no relation to the wizard). I've thoroughly prepared for this trip. And by thoroughly, I mean I have waited until the last minute to determine some of the things I need to shop for, decide that I want to try an audiobook for the first time without having yet procurred one, and, oh yes...do laundry. Somewhat essential when you're trying to pack clothes.

I'm also in the process of trying to borrow a GPS, because over the course of 15 hours, I'd rather not have to look down every half hour at a Google Maps printout and try to figure out where I am, I'd rather it be told to me. I'm not quite sure how people survived in the stone age 20 years ago when they had to map out routes themselves and weren't instantly told that the route they *thought* would be the quickest is in fact 2 hours longer than other routes on their 90 minute trip. I remember a cross-country road trip with my family going from Colorado out to South Carolina one summer, and my mom wasn't able to come with us, so I took my natural birthright, sat up front, and was in charge of the map. I soon found that as a preteen, this was a very mundane task, and there were far more enjoyable things to do, like sleep or melt crayons on the truck seats. The minute we hit Dallas/Ft. Worth, the road T'd in 4 directions, my dad had no idea which one he was supposed to take, and there were enough cars on the road to sink a battleship. I don't react well under pressure, so the instant my dad started stressing, I started panicking and blanked. What was this sheet in front of me? Why did it have lines with numbers? I wouldn't know. After 20 minutes of battling traffic with only ONE (that's, right, count them!) wrong turn, we made it out safely. And I made a vow 10 years later to never take a roadtrip based on a human's mapping skills alone again.

So wish me luck as I start my journey at the unreal hour of 4am. And pray that, unlike my brother's last cross-country roadtrip, my credit card isn't cancelled and my cell phone doesn't get turned off because my bill can't be paid since I have no credit card...

J&M to the C

The past few weeks have been a flurry of transition. Jon and Mandy are officially gone and Christina is officially moved in. J&M left this morning for training in Philadelphia for the next couple of days, and then off to Kenya for the Peace Corp. We spent all afternoon Friday helping them pack up their apartment into a Uhaul followed by goodbyes. It's like the end of an era; the 5 of us started together two years ago, and now with J&M gone, there's only 2 of us left. The Scoobies have been some of my closest friends here in Midland, and I think the rest of us will fall away from each other somewhat now. But it's been easier to say goodbye knowing what an exciting experience and opportunity J&M are off to. We're continuing our shelf-hanging party tradition tonight in memory of them, so at least we're making efforts to hang out still.

Outside of trying to spend as much time with J&M before they left, I've been spending the rest of my time helping Christina get moved in. We spent the last couple of weekends painting and fixing things up... for having been there a week, it looks amazingly impressive. We had a Halloween "party" Saturday.... consisting of 7 people since we did it last minute, and it was really just hanging out. But it was an opportunity for her to show off her new place a little, and an excuse for the rest of us to dress up like nerds. Jen and I were coming from chaperoning the Xtreeme costume party; I opted to be a Greek goddess this year, mostly because I somehow magically had everything I needed except the white dress, so I got a few yards of fabric from Joann's for $10 and Christina pinned it into a really cool garment. One of my favorite costumes ever.

Currently, I am working with my dad on our trip to Australia/New Zealand. I've been so busy, I haven't been able to think about it, and considering I have a Thanksgiving trip to South Carolina for a week and a Christmas trip to Colorado for likely two weeks, it seems like it's eons away... but recently my dad reminded me that it's less than 90 days away (which suddenly makes me realize that I'll be doing 5 weeks of traveling in the next 90 days!!). So I'm finally getting pumped up about New Zealand, especially looking at all of our excursion options.

It's going to be great that it is just my dad and I because we have the same personality and interests, so we don't have to compromise with anyone else. As we've been going through the excursions, we've been automatically eliminating many of the sightseeing tours and instead looking at things like blackwater rafting in caves and kayaking to remote albatross breeding grounds. Not sure how much of that we will actually get to do because my dad, despite thinking he is invincible, does not have the knees anymore to do some of those things. However, we did recently have an argument about whether we should go bungee jumping or skydiving, so I'm sure we'll find adventurous things to do regardless. I'm also pushing to go on one of the Lord of the Rings tours, purely because I think that would be one of the coolest ways to see some of the awesome nature on the interior part of New Zealand.

Also, on a final note, I'd just like to say that TV tray Thai meals need far more than the 5 minutes it tells you for the noodles to soak... Thai just does not taste very good when the noodles are rubbery and wiry! Not a good lunch...