Road Trip

Last weekend, I took my niece on a road trip to her home so she (and I) could attend her sister's baptism. I was a little nervous, as I think I mentioned, because it was 10 hours there and 10 hours back, but it went remarkably well.

So what do you do with your niece for 20 hours in a car?
-study physics. I am pleased to say I do remember some of what I learned 20 years ago, although it may not have been super helpful to my niece.
-expound on the consequences of a lack of dancing among Puritans. I'm pretty sure the world would be a more peaceful place if they had just danced a little more.
- read more pages than you have to for Linguistics (my niece, not me)
-discuss the woes of being a college student, such as deciding on a major and a career and LIFE! (Good news? You actually can get do-overs. Majors and careers are a lot more squishy than you'd think).
-name rock formations that probably already have names, but ours were way more fun, like Jabba the Hut and Platypus Rock.
-sleep (No, not me. I was driving, remember?)
-stay awake by eating lots of carrots (this was me). And I did have plenty of other snacks, most of which were fairly healthy. Let it not be said that road-tripping with me is bad eating.
-enjoy the beautiful scenery and then get really sad that you can't pull over and photograph it. (SO many great fall colors! And the landscape was the perfect backdrop for those colors!)
-Spontaneously name your GPS Georgina and try to convince her that you aren't starting your trip from Chicago.
-discuss the world situation and come up with solutions*
-review American Heritage homework. I was pleased with their curriculum but slightly disappointed (and also relieved) that the infamous "nailing jelly to a wall" quote has been de-emphasized.**
-conduct physics experiments (which counted for her homework assignment)

The worst part of the whole trip was being about 30 miles from home and getting stuck in traffic on the highway. We took an hour to go 5 miles or so. It was soooooooooo annoying. Apparently it was because of construction, but when we got to the actual construction, we zipped right along. I do not understand traffic.

Anyway, it was a delightful (though exhausting***) trip and totally worth it. There were lots of hugs from kids, there was a baby to adore, I got to see another niece perform with her flag team and take great pictures with my new lens, and now I can't wait for Christmas when I get to go back!

Fine, yes, I did pull over and take pictures. But only once!

*US President, North Korean President, or whatever he is called, Dr. Phil, and a ball pit. I think this could work. 
**When I took the class, they were very taken with this phrase - or something like that. Nailing jelly to something. Apparently Washington or some other revolutionary bigwig said it, and I swear we talked about it incessantly.
***Why is sitting in one place for long periods of time so tiring?

Keep calm and breathe on

This weekend, I'm taking a road trip with my niece. It will be about 20 hours round trip - a day down, a day there, and a day back. So, it's a lot of driving and it makes for a packed weekend.*

Which would be fine, except I will get back late Sunday night. I have to get to drop off the rental before getting to work early to install an exhibit that a week ago I didn't even know we were going to do**. Right after that, I have another meeting. Then another meeting. At lunch, we are holding the inaugural session of a local archives group which is kind of a big deal if I think about it. Then back to work, desk shift, and afterwards, an event I'm attending with a friend. The event is about 45 minutes south - I wonder if my friend will be offended if I take a quick nap on the way down? So, packed weekend, packed Monday.

But Tuesday will be great, right? I'll be able to relax? Well, not so much. More meetings, catching up on work for having taken off Friday (to make up for working last Saturday), another desk shift, and then a Church activity that night.

But I think by Wednesday night, things might settle down. I might just have a chance to catch up on life at home, which I'm sure will need to be done. I know for some people, this is life. Nonstop happenings. But for me, it's exhausting to think about.

So, I guess I just won't think about it! Problem solved.


*and I'm remembering that I'm not 30 anymore which is how old I was the last time I did a long road trip. That trip was 1600 miles over about 3.5 days, solo, and by the end of day two, it was painful.
**which in this particular case, is actually less frenzied than you might think.

And then there was today

Some days are ho-hum. Some days are amazing. And some days are like today.

On the plus side, I made it to work on time. And, when I wandered out into the reference room and said I planned on hiding under the desk for the day, I made our volunteer laugh good and hard.

But I really did want to hide under the desk. I would have gone home, except I had too much work and I had a desk shift. But by 11:00 I was definitely hitting my limit. I warned multiple people that if anyone asked me a question about anything prior to 1900, it would not be pretty.

When I moseyed out to the reference room in the morning, there was no one. By the time I had my shift in the reading room, there were at least half a dozen people with a load of questions. And when I got done with my shift at 5:00, I walked into the reference room and, well, yeah. Craziness happened.

I finally left the reference room at 6:00, took a few minutes to take care of some business that I hadn't gotten to, and walked out of the building at 6:15.

To my credit, no living things were injured in the making of this blog post. Everyone I interacted with went home in one piece, and fairly satisfied to the best of my knowledge. So, a win in terms of my contribution to world peace. Sometimes, that's all we can do.

A is for Apple, which I can eat again

Last Monday, I went in for my final checkup after the oral surgery I had. As I left the office, I felt like jumping for joy because finally, FINALLY I could eat apples again!

And my SweeTangos did not disappoint. I ate one for lunch and it was delicious! I have had one everyday except yesterday and they have all been amazing.

I have also eaten raw carrots, chips, Triscuits, cold cereal, and meat! It's been thrilling to be able to eat normal food again.

I still have figuring out what to eat for lunch and dinner, but at least I have all the options and am not limited to smooshy stuff. Hurray for eating! Hurray for teeth! Hurray for crunchy food!

Bad books

I have a friend from Brasil who is expecting a little girl in a few weeks. In preparation for her shower, I wanted to get her some books in Portuguese.* I did manage to find one that was all Portuguese (not English/Portuguese) with a cute picture of a sloth on the front. It seemed like a possibility, so I ordered it.

When it arrived, of course I flipped through it. I am not remotely fluent in Portuguese, but I can pick up on quite a bit as I do know Spanish, more or less.** The gist of the book, from what I picked up, was that this sloth fell asleep everywhere--the bank, school, etc. Not a compelling story, but whatever. Then, on the last page, the sloth falls asleep at the wheel of the car, and the picture shows the sloth behind the steering wheel with the airbag deploying! WHO WRITES A PICTURE BOOK LIKE THIS?!?!?!?!

I get the desire to teach kids safety, but really? In a picture book? For little kids? With a cute sloth? And maybe I'm missing some key detail in my lack of Portuguese, but the airbag was hard to miss.

No. Just no.***


*It is really hard to find Portuguese books in the US. Can we fix this? But, I did check out Amazon and Walmart's Brasil sites. Who knew Walmart was a thing in Brasil?
**Usually less, methinks.
***This book will be returned. I'd like to not cause my friend's baby trauma.