If anyone has ideas of something to do tonight, please let me know. It’s been so long since I’ve spent a Friday night in Baltimore that I’ve forgotten. *sigh* That’s not a good sign.
Or, if no one else has anything planned and wants to create trouble find something to do, that’s an equally acceptable option.
Let me start by saying that I was at least :30 minutes off in my original assessment of ‘when’ I was leaving NC today. I got caught up watching “The Weakest Link,” the daytime version. The host, whose name I didn’t catch, is not nearly as annoying/abrasive as his prime-time counterpart. In fact, he’s rather amusing. So I wound up shaving and running back to the bedroom to find out “Who is the Weakest Link?!”
I was also delayed, rather pleasantly, because I stopped to say “hi” to one of my aunts before hitting the road. I hadn’t seen her in a longer time than I’d care to admit, so that extra time wasn’t a bad thing.
Finally got underway and made pretty good time… with one minor problem. I normally stop in either Lynchburg or Richmond, VA – depending on which route I take – for ice cream (Lynchburg: Dairy Queen; Richmond: Friendly’s)and to fill up the car. What can I say, I’m a creature of habit when it comes to that. The ice cream was no problem; finding gas (diesel) was.
After filling up, I got back on the interstate and a couple of hours – and an intentional detour through part of downtown – later, I was home.
When I lived here, I had, at one time or another, used all but one of the bedrooms for my room. And all of them, were outranked by the basement; I had it set up like a mini-apartment. It was great. I grew up. I got older, moved out and time passed. My grandmother has moved here and Dad has had the entire basement remodeled. It. Looks. Amazing. I am jealous. For the first few minutes, all I could say was “Wow.”
The only apparent damper to things is that I can’t get the modem on the laptop to play nicely. Nothing that a complete system restore shouldn’t solve when I get back behind to Utah.
The family-unit seems to be doing well. They talked to Rana yestermorn; it was her birthday. She is enjoying her time in the Ukraine and things are going well. She will most likely come home for a few weeks at Christmas. It will be interesting to hear what she has to say about her experience.
Well, off to wander around some other corners of cyberspace for a bit and then…. sleep time!
Peace.
I am about 0:45 from hitting the road. Conditions outside look good: Sunny and clear with a light wind.
Sleep was good, but broken. But, again, one of the nice things about not having to worry about a schedule this week is that my time is my own.
And, “Happy Valentine’s Day” to all. Something to consider: This isn’t just a “Hallmark holiday,” as a lot of people tend to think of it. If you don’t have a special or significant other, call or get together with a family member or good friend… even if it’s just to say “hi.” Both of you may just feel a bit better because of it.
I’d better get moving before the voices in my head start singing “Eastbound and Down” again.
Peace.
Wednesday.
I was planning on hitting the road for Baltimore today, but a minor glitch with the car I was planning to take set that plan on the back-burner for a day. I can handle that. Besides, the rest of the day more than made up for it.
I should most likely be in bed, as I have 5-1/2 hours of driving in my immediate future. *shrug* Oh, well. I won’t leave until I’m rested, so it all balances out. If all goes according to plan (“…and the creek don’t rise…”), my next post will be from “Charm City,” itself: Baltimore.
“Good night, Mr. and Mrs. (and Ms.) America and all the ships at sea.”
Peace.
Have I mentioned that I am enjoying the bloody Hell out of this vacation yet? I am. It’s just what the doctor ordered. Of course I didn’t see a doctor to plan my vacation; that would be completely silly. Besides, everyone knows that if you need help planning a vacation, you see a grocery store clerk!
Tuesday’s highlights:
And, in case some of you came in a little late, there WILL be a quiz at the beginning of the next class I will reiterate: This vacation is just what I needed. Well, off to chat up a few friends back on Outpost Colony: Utah and then off to The Dreaming.
Peace.
For Meg and Carey:
Here’s another book recommendation (like you wanted/needed another one from me).
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, by Richard Bach. Your local B&N or Borders or other favorite bookstore should have it in stock. It is a short book and is written in the same vein as The Way of the Peaceful Warrior. I think that you’ll like it.
And for anyone else who reads this message, feel free to pick up either of the aforementioned books, too.
Peace.
Monday (abridged):
HOPEFULLY, this time the server will accept this post. Either way, of to go meet the world.
Peace.
Nine Hells!
I wrote a good entry, and TRIED to send it… only to get the “I’m sorry, we’re having problems” message.
I’ll recap it tomorrow.
Peace.
HOME!!!
After something around five (5) hours in the air, I’m on the Right Coast!
I haven’t flown out of SLIA since the Disneyland trip, and with the Olympics in SLC now, the in-airport security presence is notably increased; I counted five fully-armed National Guardsmen/women at the security check. They check you again at the gate. It can be a little bothersome, but in the final analysis, I’d say that for safety and security, it’s worth it.
No problems with the flights. The landings are a different issue. Actually, only the landing in Charlotte was bad. It was as if the pilot/co-pilot misjudged how close we were to the ground, so we dropped heavily onto the tarmac and then hopped a couple of times.
In talking to Mom EARLY Saturday morning, she seemed to think that I was coming home NEXT week. Fortunately, I called her during my plane change in St. Louis.
This could have potentially added a major braincramp to the day, but Providence smiled upon me and it turned out that friend of the family was in the Charlotte area at the time, so he gave me a ride home.
And here I am. By the time that I get used to being on Eastern time again, it will be time for me to head back to Salt Lake City. Oh, well. It’s worth it.
More “News from the Right Coast” later on your LJ station. Please check your local listings for times.
Peace.
Saturday:
Tomorrow, at this time, I will be in my old bed at my mother’s enjoying the pleasures of a week-long vacation on the Right Coast. I like Utah and the rest of the Left Coast, but I miss the green – SLC is on a desert plain; there are trees here, but nothing like on the other side of the country. Besides that: it’s home. And, before I completely space it off: If anyone (in NC or MD) is interested, and has the time, I’d enjoy meeting you. ‘Twould be nice to put real faces with the LJ alter-egos.
As promised, I posted the pics from Friday. They can be seen here. This is the raw form, I’ll tidy them up and put them on a nice and neat page while I’m vacationing.
Bedtime.
Peace.
It’s official: I will be in North Carolina tomorrow night and Maryland sometime mid-week!
Peace.
Catching up…
Thursday was pretty run-of-the-mill.
Friday: On Wednesday, I volunteered to work at one of the downtown malls and do special cancelations for the Olympics. Translation: I volunteered to hand-stamp/hand-cancel mailpieces for collectors and souvenir hunters who wanted to get one/some/all of the 24 official 2002 Winter Games postmarks; today was the first day that they were offered… as the games started today.
I didn’t have much of an opinion about the games being in SLC… other than the fact that I knew that I wanted to be out of town for the first week of them; I’m leaving Sunday. I figured that I’d let the locals and visitors hash it out and find out how to get along and get around. Also, while it’s cool that the Games are being held here, they didn’t hold a lot of allure for me. This seemed to change Wednesday, after I was asked if I could replace someone at on the cancelations assignment…
When they originally asked for volunteers, I wasn’t interested in doing it. After I agreed to do it on Wednesday, I starting thinking about it… I came to the realization that it was a cool – and very rare – opportunity. It was made even more cool, on a personal level, because I did the first Olympic cancelation for our outlet.
I would not have believed how obsessive some people were about getting these postmarks if I had not seen it. We were kept busy today, not so much by the number of customers as by the number of items that they wanted postmarked. As I mentioned earlier, there are twenty-four (24) postmarks. There were people who wanted one of EACH of the postmarks. And there were some who wanted multiple sets of all of the postmarks. And some who wanted multiple cancelations on a single envelope or post card. The permutations were seemingly endless. And that’s still leaving out those who came in with stacks of postcards and/or envelopes, had them cancelled, left… and returned a short while later, ready to make a family trip out of it. But we took care of them all. Confession: I bought postcards so that I could have a complete set of the cancelations, too. BUT, I also got “first date of issue” and date stamps for the parental units.
All-in-all, it was a good experience. It was pleasant enough that I offered to cover for someone else after my vacation.
After work, I went to Borders and met Julia and m3lody. Julia introduced me to the “game” of “What can you make of this squiggle?” Basically, one person draws random lines on a sheet of paper and the other/another person has to draw something that incorporates those lines. It’s was not always “easy,” but it was fun.
I’m tapped, so I am going to call it a night… morning… SOMETHING!!! Aw, screw it, “it’s bedtime!” (That works!)
Peace.
Wednesday.
Three days done, two to go.
Pretty uneventful workday.
Good, but short, workout.
Went with Jess, Land, and Katherine to see “Behind Enemy Lines.”
Quote of the Day: Delfina and I were comparing our cell phones – we had the same ones, but she has recently switched services and got new phone. It turns out that she got one like Jess used to have… which also has games on it.I said,“You have ‘Snake’ on here,” a fact of which she was unaware; I showed her where it was on the phone’s menu. Although she has games on her new phone, one feature that it does not have is a vibrate mode… which led Delfina to say: “I’ll trade you Snake for vibrate.” Dee, who was also at the table, and I just looked at each other and tried (successfully) not to burst out in laughter while Delfina hid her face at the double entendre.
Peace.
Tuesday:
This evening, Jess told me that our neighbor apologized to her about the loud music. As I said earlier, it’s nice when people can come to rational resolutions to problems.
Quote of the Day:
Peace