Roadtrip 2012: Hot Hot Hot

After First-born, Longboarder, and I slept and ate and slept some more, we were once again functional human beings. We lounged about at Grandma’s. Lounged about at Aunt P’s. We drove around looking for thrift shops and bored poor Longboarder to death. And went down to Wellington Colorado for their July 4th festivities and saw the largest mule EVER!!

I picked up a rental car and headed out on the next installment of the road trip on Thursday. I drove 15 hours to Naperville Illinois to see my internet besties, Evil, Noir, and Trek (as in Trekie).

Why do you hate me, Nebraska? It seemed like the entire state of Nebraska is under road construction. Seriously, even 10 miles was yet another construction zone. Took forever to get out of that state!

Typical view of Nebraska: Corn!

Iowa was pretty, at least the first 90 miles. The other 200 miles, I have no idea. The sun set over Iowa. It was a blood moon (red), but then three hours later it was white. Iowa reminds me of Denmark. I can see why all the Dane expats came here! They are still here. If I remember my family history right, my Danish immigrant great grandfather first settled in Iowa before setting roots in Wyoming. I stopped for the night in Davenport Iowa. And at 11:30pm central time it was still 94 degrees with 88% humidity. Talk about UGH!

Iowa sunset

and Iowa windmills!

I listened to the audiobook Venetia by Georgette Heyer. And then I started singing loudly along with music the last 3 hours. It is nice to be alone in the car sometimes. I notice that I also talk to myself and say random comments when I see interesting road signs or for that matter, anything.

I see this, I just have to say "bi-gosh"!

Friday, I finished the journey to Illinois. I crossed the Mississippi. I took a moment, it is the farthest I have ever driven east. I made it to Naperville by 11:30am Friday.

Illinois has corn too

It was now time to be total dorks and catch up. I hadn’t seen Evil, Trek, and Noir for four years. We had met online in a fan forum back in 2007. Evil and I flew out to New York in 2008 to meet Noir face to face for the first time and go to NY Comic Con. We instantly recognised each other. This time we met a fellow fan forum friend FG for the first time. We all went out to dinner Friday night. Saturday we spent in downtown Chicago and did tourist stuff (double decker bus, water taxi, Navy Pier, Joffrey Ballet, Lake Michigan, the L). The architecture is amazing! Sunday we went to a Hindu temple. Gorgeous building! Understood nothing, but interesting. Had lunch and then it was time to take Noir to the airport. I leave for the next installment Monday morning to Minnesota.

The time spent with the internet besties was great! We laughed our asses off! We always do when we get together. We all decided that it is time for them to visit me next time! A weekend isn’t long enough for us either, need more time. It went by so fast and felt like we didn’t really get a chance to just hang out and chat. Still, won’t pass up an opportunity, however short to see these guys. I regret missing the trip they did to Rome, Italy back in 2010. I just couldn’t swing it. Love my internet hotards!

FG, me, Evil, and Trek

Noir and me

Stay tuned for next time where I visit the big ball of twine.... no really!

Prev<<
Next>>

Roadtrip 2012: This is a trip

In the beginning we were full of youthful exuberance and anticipation for our journey was finally beginning. We were going to Wyoming! ...in a car.

However, once on the road it didn’t take long for that excited energy to turn to boredom and lethargy.

We left Gilroy, the First-born, the Longboarder, and I, at 1:30pm Pacific Standard Time on Saturday the 30th of June. The First-born and Longboarder almost immediately went to sleep. I drove us over the Diablo range (Pacheco Pass), up the valley, and over the Sierra’s (Donner Pass) into Nevada. Drove past the biggest Little City (Reno), and watched the sun set behind the mountains north west of Winnemucca.

I made it all the way to Wells, Nevada, before I needed to switch with the First-born. It was a little after 10 pm. The First-born drove the rest of the way to Cheyenne with a few stops along the way for gas and bathroom breaks. We arrived in the driveway of our Aunt’s by 10:15 am Sunday, Mountain Time. I awoke in Wyoming to smoke filled skies. We thought from the fires in Colorado, but we’re informed later that it was from fires in Wyoming. Cheyenne and probably all of Wyoming and Colorado have smoke filled skies. It smells of smoke. All the talk and news is about fires. Colorado’s new name is Crispy Colorado.

Driving in a car for 20 hours is like being on a long flight overseas. Only the bathroom is bigger and you can get out of your seat and get fresh air and don’t have to listen to crying babies or annoying drunk passengers or plane changes. Oh and TSA. Not sure which is worse, 20 hours in a car or plane? I think it is a toss up.

We tried three audio books. First one was lame. Well, could have been cool if we were 12. So only listened to the first disc. Second was was pretty good. Would have been funnier if I was British. The third was a hit. We are still listening to it and every time Longboarder and I would wake up, we would have First-born tell us what we had missed in the story.

Longboarders first comment once we arrived in the driveway of Aunt P’s house was, “Get me out of this car!” Thinking that everyone was still at church, I texted my cousin D and asked her what the door code was for Aunt P’s house so we could use the bathroom. She texted back the code and to the front door we went. First-born said, “we should see if she is home first”, and proceeded to knock. Aunt P opened the door. She said that she had been texting cousin D and cousin D had texted that we were there. Aunt P texted back saying that no we weren’t. Cousin D texted back, “they are in your driveway!” And sure enough we were.

We relaxed and washed up, unpacked, and discussed where we would be sleeping. Me, upstairs in the spare room (cousin D’s old room), and First-born and Longboarder in the basement rooms. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and put flip-flops on and we were ready to go to Grandma’s. We had lunch there of KFC. Longboarder said, “finally, real food”! We had packed our pantry and fridge for the trip. We didn’t stop for food, drinks, or snacks. We had PB&J sandwiches, nuts, doughnuts, water, kool-aid, and other various what-nots from home.

Various relatives started to show up, Aunt J, Cousin D and her hubby and two girls (Miss Princess and Miss leave me alone), Uncle E, Cousin T and his better half and their kids (Young cowboy and cowgirl), Uncle E’s sister and hubby, and Cousin T’s better half’s parents. All were there to celebrate Miss Princess’ 3rd birthday. Miss Princess got a lot of new Princess clothes. She also got her first bicycle.

We played candyland with her on the table we had made for her. First-born, Longboarder, and I were walking zombies, only we didn’t eat anyone’s face off. Miss leave me alone is about ready to walk. She is around 10 months old. She doesn’t like me yet, or maybe she was just tired and crabby. I’ll go with tired and crabby, and not the fact that she has never seen me before. We explored the bunk house and basement at Grandma’s and chatted with everyone. We went back to Aunt P’s for bed, and I had my first poop in over 24 hours. First-born left her mark in every state. We will sleep good tonight. I hope so anyway because I have kankles!

next>>

Previously On "my childhood"

A bit ago, I shared a photo from my youth in which I expressed gleeful amusement at wringing my Cabbage Patch Dolls neck, here. This time, I give you exhibit B. Honest to god truth, that I, have been documented....
wait for it....... in a DRESS! *gasp*

Before I get to the dress, note the broken arm. I did that riding my bike to school one morning, in the third grade, so I am about 9 years old in this picture. Also this is the small cast. Originally when they put the cast on, they set my arm wrong and put the wrong cast on. Wasn't till I started complaining of back and shoulder pains and Mom took me back to the hospital, did they realize that I had the wrong cast for my particular break. Go figure.

Anyway, we aren't here to talk about patient care and "oopsy" Doctors. The dress. This was by far my most favorite dress in the whole wide world! Lord knows, I wore it to church practically every Sunday for that entire year! I loved it because:

1.) it was GREEN! It is still my favorite color.

2.) it had ruffles!

3.) because of ruffles, it was a great spinning dress.

I would spin like the Whirling Dervishes out in the parking lot of the church every chance I got. I wonder how many horrified church goers saw my 9 year old underwear? And if they wondered where my parents were while I was showing my underwear to the holier than thou? A parking lot with lots of moving cars isn't necessarily the safest place to spin in circles like a crazy person. My parents, however, were most likely watching me spin round and round with a grin on their faces. Now whether that grin was in delight at seeing their cute, adorable daughter spinning in her equally cute, adorable dress and seeing me happy too boot, or they were grinning through embarrassment. I'd go with option one, there. Just saying.

And now you have it. Proof that I (at some point in my life) did actually enjoy wearing a girly foo foo dress. Until next time in my childhood where we will examine fluffy kittens and their impact on me becoming the crazy cat lady, or the allowing of older siblings to do what they wished with me and how that facilitated my knowledge of worms, snails, and pincher bugs.

uh oh, what if there's sex?

I’ve decided to post just half of this particular entry. 1.) it is taking way too long to edit the second half, 2.) the second half doesn’t really have anything to do with the first. So instead of confusing you all, I will split them, and maybe someday I will get the second part the way I want it... or not.

I recently convinced my sister to purchase an audiobook for our trip. It wasn’t hard, I didn’t even have to reveal the real reason I wanted her to get it. Then I realized it was a classic regency romance, and then thought, “oh god, what if there is sex in it?” So I had to go to the library (needed to get my card anyway) and got the book. Read it. Rest assured, there are no sex scenes. Our fragile ears will not be defiled! Hurrah! But as I was reading this lovely book, I realized that since I had stopped reading as of late, I have become dumb. Seriously! There were so many words in that darn novel that I didn’t know the meanings of. Sad to say though that I didn’t look any of them up. I have always realized that my own vocabulary is limited. I’m more of a say it straight, dammit. So when people start using big vocabulary, I start to feel kind of stupid. And I know this is all shocking to you because I have a bachelor's degree in English! Yeah, I felt pretty stupid then, too. Besides the life stories I’ve been sharing with you here on the blog, there has been another one that I have not been sharing. And while reading this book, I thought, this (reading intelligent books) will help me in my pilgrimage of bettering myself for a specific purpose (of which I will not share with you all). But rest assured reading intelligent books not only betters me for my “specific purpose” but also betters my mind, body, and soul in general. It’s multi purposeful!

All that work for what??

Grrrrr. My quest is failing... sort of. As you may know I have been running and working out for over 8 weeks now, trying to lose that last elusive 10 pounds. I lost one. One freakin pound! ugh. So frustrating. But, there is some good news in all this. Although I have only shed one measly pound, I have lost 2 inches off my tire (waist), 1.25 inches off my hips, 1-2 inches off my thighs (depending on where one chooses to measure), and 1.25 inches off my calves. So I am slimming down, just not getting any lighter. Bwahahahahaha

When I get back from the road trip, it will be time to change things up a bit, so that I don’t plateau or get bored. Not sure what that will entail yet. Maybe run the loop in the opposite direction. Means more up hills than down hills, which would make it a bit more difficult. And somehow change up the weights routine.

The run today (beginning of week 9) was easy. Well it is never easy, but that painful stitch I had is finally gone (that was a hard 2 weeks) and I ran the entire loop. I usually have a short walking stint towards the end, but ran through it today.

I broke one of my rules. I said I would reward myself with a DVD every five pounds but since it is taking 8 weeks to lose just one, I bought it today. (Hopefully it will get here before Saturday.) Because, I have been doing good. I’ve never kept up a workout this long before! And I threw out another pair of “way too big now” shorts. Even though I haven’t reached any weight goal, I thought I still needed to celebrate what I have accomplished. So there. Still a long road ahead (the fight against genetics will be lifelong), but trying to keep optimistic.

It's not a tumor

Utter fail today (Friday) on my run. It’s the end of week 7 of this odyssey and it didn’t start out well. It started on Tuesday towards the end of the run I had such a bad side cramp/stitch that it even hurt to walk. I had to stop and bend over. I didn’t think much of it at the time. Yes, it was painful but went home and finished the usual workout. Next day, the stitch was worse. I had to stop earlier and ended up walking the last half mile. Day three was a bit better. I was able to run up to my usual rest/walking point. I thought, this is not just a normal side ache. I wonder if I have a hernia? (*make note to google hernia) Then, today, Friday, the last full workout day of the week. I knew I was going to hurt. But started out anyway. It started to hurt immediately. I made it, maybe half a mile before I had to stop and walk. It still hurt, even during the walk. I kept going though. I stopped and kneeled down and bent over for a spell. That seemed to help. I then said, well, give it a try, you have about half a mile to go. I was able to run most of the last half mile.

I knew it was going to be rough today, so I even decided to do the slightly shorter route of 2 miles instead of the usual 2.2. Glad for that. To compensate for the lack of leg exercise today, I will ride my bike to the post office, which is about 3 miles round trip, I think. Hopefully whatever this stitch is will heal itself by Monday which is the next time I will run. Riding my bike does not seem to aggravate it.


*I googled. I sure hope I don’t have a hernia. Ouch! I’m hoping it is just muscle strain and with a few days rest will be fine.

The fickle beast

I have two new blogs I am wanting to write but they will take some time to figure out. One requires me to learn how to embed music files legally and the other requires going over to my parents house to use their scanner, and search out more photos from my childhood which I do not have. *see previous post here

You may have noticed that this blog isn’t really about my job anymore. The obvious reason for that is because I don’t have one anymore! Haven’t for over a year and a half now. Scary to think about that. Money is getting very tight these days. It’s a good thing I’m a saver and not a spender. But the savings is almost gone. I have no idea what will happen when the winter rolls around. I’m hoping that dig bumming this summer will give me a little cushion... but if I have learned anything about the field of archaeology is that it is a fickle beast and can drop you in an instant. I haven’t worked for over 2 months now. I may or may not have a job lined up when I get back from the road trip in July. Being in limbo for a year and a half has not helped my psyche, I suspect.

Oh archaeology, I can’t seem to quit you. (sorry, I couldn't help myself) A smart thing would be to get a part-time job at some menial retail gig to have steady income till the shop requires my full attention, but I can’t seem to bring myself to do it. There is a sense of rebellion (may not be the right word) to staying in archaeology. Sometimes the work is monotonous and tedious, and downright frightening (angry people with guns and dogs comes to mind). But then there are the times when it is just breathtaking, literally and figuratively. And I hope I will never forget some of the amazing people I met and worked with over the years in the job.