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...