On the road again...

So we are right now driving across the ginormous state of Missouri and I am pretty much bored out of my mind. I have written emails, read about South Korea, napped, vegged and looked at the map. I am ready to just be in GA already. I’m writing this the same way I wrote the emails I’ve written today – to be sent/blogged later when I am in range of some sort of network. Flying J played a cruel trick on me by having a network, but required cold, hard cash to make use. I love technology that allows me to work on these sorts of things on the road, but I hate the commercialism that is required to use it. Oh,well.

So like I said we are headed to the ATL for Christmas, and since my trip has been postponed (yet again), I’m hoping that Mike, Erikka or Laura can put me up. I’m actually hoping Erikka for the rest of the week to soak up some more Molly, and then maybe visit with Laura and Katie for the rest of the time. There have apparently been some Visa problems, so I’m looking at the 3rd as departure date. I’m starting to really second-guess this decision. Causes of the second-guessing: I’m lousy with languages. I know that sounds funny considering what my profession will be for the next year, but I’ve taken 4 years of German, 1 year of Spanish and a semester of French. In German I can say “Where is my sister?” (Wo ist meine schwester??!) and “My monkey wears red leather pants.” (Meine affe tragt roje lederhosen. Note the unexcited punctuation.) And I’m not actually sure about the grammar (or the German word for red) for either of those. The only comfort I can provide myself on this point is that I’ve never tried the immersion method of learning a language – surely I will be better at it when my survival requires learning. A major second cause – loneliness. I’ve said goodbye to my good friend Jeff today and my dog, Beppo, and I’m anticipating saying goodbye to my parents, sister/brother/niece and friends for A WHOLE YEAR. I get homesick easy. Really flippin’ easy. In the past 6 months, I have driven back and forth between Kansas and Colorado every 4 weeks – at most. And I cried every time I left my friends in Colorado or my parents/Jeff in Kansas. So what will I do? I went to church camp when I was 11 – and cried just about every night for that week. One week. I regularly left sleepovers early because I was missing my home. I wasn’t too good for my home. One night. This could be a really rough year. The only comfort I can give myself on this point is that I want an adventure. And if I can focus on the achievement of that goal, maybe I can become less of a homesick wussy (spell check wants me to change this to hussy – that’s just cruel). And maybe this tortuous year is what I need to get a little more independent of my parents, etc. Maybe. 3rd point: I’ve never lived with a stranger. I lived with LJ (the greatest roommate known to mankind) all 4 years in college, then my parents, then ex-husband. What if these girls turn out to be like Vladimir or Jillian? They could be just big negative Nellies. Or maybe they are huge neat freaks (which I’m not) or huge gross slobs (also don’t put myself in this category)? Ugh. This could make the loneliness factor even worse. Comfort on this point supplied by Jeff: I’m relatively laidback for people outside my family. I judge myself and occasionally my family members and definitely my ex-husband and in-laws fairly harshly. But for people outside those 3 groups (and only 1 person is allowed in the first group, so that helps) I am fairly relaxed. Live and let live. Jillian as a roommate was fairly controlling – she could be trusted to freak out if one of her Sprites was missing or to pile your things for you in the common area to encourage you to clean up. In those situations I was not laid back – I pretty much freaked out. So I hope I am more mature to deal with these roommates that are bound to happen. How lucky could I get – plus there is only one LJ in this world. Unfortunate. (We should clone that girl. Get on that science people.)

Reading back through this, there are several things about myself I have had confirmed. I knew these facts already, but this extremely long blog makes them very real. I love parentheses. I type/write like I think (a true problem in high school English) and apparently I think a lot of side thoughts. Parentheses may seem disruptive to you but they make you privy to a lot more of my thoughts – good important thoughts (My God! The Mississippi river is huge!) Second of all, I type relatively fast. All of this came out in about 20 minutes. And I used spell check twice. Third, I over think things, maybe?

Still bored, but nothing great to say here.

The End.

CHRISTMAS!

I just got an email from the school - they are postponing my trip to Korea until after Christmas. This means for the 1st time in 3 years, I get to go to Christmas with my family. It seems they are expecting me very soon after Christmas, but I am so grateful for any sort of real Christmas, I will take what I can get. So, I'm hoping to go to Denver this weekend to visit with the girlies and see Cari, and then on to the ATL and the KOREA, Baby! YAY, me! This is all working out great. I knew Karma hadn't forgotten me entirely!

Still here...

...for now. Waiting (im)patiently for the travel agent to send me the itinerary. I could leave tomorrow, I could leave next week - a little bit anxious about when it will be. The silence from the travel agents end is a little bit frustrating too. I missed a call on my cell last night from Korea - may have been the school, Jason or the travel agent but they didn't leave a message and they didn't call back. ARGH!

Start here

Not much here just yet, but I'm glad you came to check it out. In the meantime here's something pretty to look at:

I'll let you know when there's more!!