A little sunburn

Of course I got a little bit of a sunburn.  I spent about three hours on a boat today.  🙂  We went on the Fish River.  It was a beautiful day, nice and warm, and we had lunch (fried chicken and deviled eggs).  Then we fished.  Well, Dad and Corey fished.  Gaby played with her toy fishing rod and Mom told her stories (The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Three Little Pigs, etc).  I don’t particularly like to fish, but Corey told me he would bait the hook and just hand me the pole.  I could cast and fish, and if I caught anything, he’d reel it in and take it from there.  I thought that was a pretty good deal, since I don’t really want to do anything messy.  Or slimy.  Or involving hooks.  No one caught anything, though.

Anyway, we’re back at the house.  Dad is de-veining shrimp, Mom is cooking, and I am ripping mp3s for Dad.  And downloading the soundtrack (original off-Broadway) of Really Rosie for Mom.  Fascinating, I know.  But I’m enjoying my vacation.

Traveling

I love to travel.  I love going places, and I don’t really care how I’m getting there.  I love to fly, but I’m happy in the car on a long road trip, or on a train (although I haven’t done that since college).  I even like to travel alone (it’s fun to try to figure out who everyone else thinks you are, what you’re doing, where you’re going, why, and fun to make up stories you could tell people if they were to ask), but I hate leaving John behind, and I don’t like it when he leaves me behind (even though I usually enjoy the time alone).  We both associate me leaving without him with when I was in the Navy.  Then we’d have to say goodbye for two weeks, or two months, or (worst case for us) six months.  Now, even though we know it’s just for a few days, that initial sense of impending separation comes with the same anxiety that upcoming deployments used to bring.  It doesn’t last (or we’d both be miserable the whole time), but it makes the night before a trip a little difficult.

I sat next to the skinniest girl in the world on my first flight.  She’s a college student going home for Spring Break (another thing I had forgotten – I’m traveling during Spring Break season).  She was shorter than me, maybe a little taller than Jess, and she was twig thin.  Probably wears a size 0 or 2 jeans.  Anyway, our row only had 5 seats, and we were in the two on the right side of the plane. I had the aisle seat.  She folded herself into her seat. It was like watching an accordion close up.  Looked unreal.

Traveling with my laptop is SO cool.  Well, traveling with it and actually using it while traveling is cool.  Just lugging it around is not so cool.  I’m aware that Mom and Dad have at least two, probably three laptops in their house, but I wanted to play with mine en route.  Plus, I wanted to test out my new bag, which I bought specifically so I could have a nice looking, work-ready bag for my laptop and other things.  And it’s a nice carry-on.  Anyway, I wrote the first paragraph up there around 6:15 this morning in the terminal at Dulles.  The rest of this is being written (by some mystery person who likes passive voice, apparently) as we’re flying along at cruising altitude on our way to Pensacola.  I like my laptop.  🙂  Plus I wanted to get this written before I get there so I can just post it.

Update: I made it safe and sound, and in the four or so hours I’ve been here, I’ve been to Lowe’s, had a picnic lunch with Mom, Dad, and Corey, picked Gaby up from school, and read her a story before her nap.  Now, the three of us (Corey went back to work) are all on our laptops, doing whatever.  I think we may go for a walk soon.

What am I forgetting?

I am totally in the grip of eve-of-trip, last-minute list-making.  I’m convinced I was supposed to do something today that I haven’t done or look something up that I can’t remember.  I did remember to arrange a cab to pick me up tomorrow morning, something I  had forgotten until about half an hour ago.  What other things like that are lurking unremembered in my brain?  I haven’t packed, but I know what I’m packing, so that’s not it.  Of the things I can think of, the hardest thing I have to do tonight is pick what book to read next, since I’ll probably finish my current one on the flight.  And that’s hardly hard.  Hardly hard hard.  *giggle*

Lots to do

I had a very productive day, both at work and at home.  My to-do list for this trip feels manageable again.  I finished updating the, ahem, paperwork for the thing next week, registered for that thing, did lots of laundry, and….well, that’s all I did when I got home.  Oh, and I picked up all the stuff that’s been collecting under my window in the bedroom.  Lots of random stuff.  Wow, this is boring.  Sorry, but that’s all I’ve got right now.  I should quit before this gets worse.

Lack of concentration and the DMV

I’m having a hard time concentrating this week.  Work, that thing for next week, reading…can’t concentrate on it.  I get like this whenever I’m about to travel somewhere.  I’m mentally ready to go several days in advance, so I find it hard to focus on anything not related the trip.  I find myself mentally packing.  Today, I was trying to figure out just how light I could pack to make my run through the Atlanta airport as easy as possible.  (I have a 38-minute layover in Atlanta Friday morning, and my flight out of there is two terminals away from where I’ll land.  I’m packing carry-on luggage only ’cause I don’t think anything I check will make the connection.  Which explains why I’m obsessing a little over what I’m going to pack.  And that’s just a bit ridiculous since I’m only going for a long weekend.  What’s to pack?  Get out of parentheses, please.)  I still have two days of work to get through.  Feels like forever.

Speaking of forever, that’s about how long I spent at the DMV today.  I remembered over the weekend that my license expired on my birthday.  I planned to go to the DMV yesterday, but the one near the office was closed because of the snow, so I went this afternoon.  The website lists wait times for nearby locations, and the one I was going to said the wait time was about 25 minutes.  They LIED.  I waited about 5 minutes in the information line to tell them why I was there and get my number.  Then I sat down with my book.  An hour later (not 25 minutes or anything close), they called my number.  Ten minutes at the counter, and then I sat down to wait for them to call my name for the new picture.  Maybe another ten minutes, took the picture, and then another ten or so before my license was ready.  Despite the annoyance of having to wait that long, I think I enjoyed that part of my day more than any other part until I got home from work.  I had about an hour and a half of uninterrupted time to read my book!  During the work day!  So that was pretty cool.  Yay DMV!  I bet they never hear that.

Snow in March is not cool

So we got more than 4 inches of snow last night.  It’s March.  It should not be snowing in March.  Not here.  School was out, of course, but the federal government didn’t shut down, so we had work as usual.  It just took us a little longer to get there.  John’s class got canceled, though.  It’s a little ridiculous that his evening class was canceled.  I mean, the morning classes, sure, but by early afternoon, all the roads were clear.

I don’t really have anything to say today.  I could complain about our DVR (we recorded Friday’s episode of Battlestar Galactica, but for some reason it won’t play), but I don’t really feel like it.  I don’t really feel like complaining at all, actually.  Surprising.  🙂  I’m just tired.  Today felt stressful, even though there wasn’t anything stressful about it.  I felt rushed this morning because I was supposed to be at work in time for a 10am conference call.  I called in from the car (we didn’t get to work until about 10:15), and the people from the Department never showed up, so that call ended quickly.  Our boss understood our tardiness (the roads were mostly a mess and everyone was driving REALLY slowly even where the roads were clear), so that wasn’t a cause for stress.  And then the day dragged on forever.

That sounded like complaining.

Forced to shop

I had a successful shopping trip today.  It’s a shame I wasn’t in the mood for it.  I don’t think I’m your typical girl when it comes to shopping.  At least, not the stereotype.  Shopping doesn’t brighten my day.  And even when I’m buying stuff for myself, even when I’m thin enough that everything fits (so shopping isn’t a depressing exercise), I still have to be in the mood.  I had to shop today because I need a suit.  I’ll need it a week from Tuesday, and since I’ll be out of town next weekend, this weekend was it.  Had to buy it today.  It wasn’t a bad experience.  The mall wasn’t mobbed or anything.  I just got tired of looking, finding a fitting room, trying things on, and then repeating the whole thing with the next outfit and the next store.  Today, I didn’t have the patience.  The worst part was that the suit was the first thing I needed to get.  So after the fourth store (where I finally bought a suit), I still had to go to two more places to finish my errands.  I just wanted to go home.  But I got a lot done (and I got a haircut!), so I don’t have to worry about anything before I leave on my trip.  That was the big reason for getting everything done this weekend.  And with that goal in mind, it was a successful day.

Now I’m home, waiting for the snow.  (We’re supposed to get 4-6 inches tonight!)  We just ordered a pizza, and John said he’ll come downstairs soon (he’s playing his guitar and messing around with data on various hard drives) and build me a fire.  🙂  He stayed up until after 1am last night working on that quiz (I went to bed before 10), and then spent another couple of hours on it this morning.  It’s done now, so it’s time for everyone to relax.  I’m so glad.