Family Stuff

For the record, I hate goodbyes. I'm also weird about missing people because I usually don't. I just don't think about it. I'm always happy and excited to see people when I can, but if I can't see them I'm never really broken up about it. That's probably one of the reasons I don't like goodbyes.

I sort of disappeared when I left. Everyone knew roughly when I was leaving, but not exactly when. I wasn't sure, either, but even if I did know I probably wouldn't have been vocal about it anyways. So, for anyone left wondering if I've left. . . yup, I have.

MOM
I was able to stop at a rest area in New York that had Wi-Fi so I could get on the internet. My laptop was low on power, but I decided to stop anyways and send a quick email. The reply I got back made me laugh. It was just perfect. I included a picture of it to the right:




ERICA (Lilly/Tyler)
the day after I leave, of course Lilly starts crawling. She's been doing the backwards crawl for a bit now, so we've known it's coming for a while. The bad news is that her hysterical chubby thighs will start to dwindle. It stinks I missed it, but I've definitely got to get over that one because I'm going to be missing a lot more than that. She'll be a year old when I get home and will have taken leaps and bounds in her development by then. I didn't have much of a hard time with goodbyes in general like I said, but leaving the niece and nephew was the hardest. I know they're young enough that I'll miss a lot. Tyler is old enough to probably notice I'm not around, but not old enough to understand why. Lilly may just be too young so that when I come back she may not know me. I'll just give her candy all the time when I get back so she likes me again. Sorry in advance, Erica.

LeahTard (Sagan/Elton)
I'm just praying the cats don't freak out while I'm gone. They've been used to my presence since October when they were 6 weeks old. For Leah's sanity I hope they don't go crazy, because cats can do some demented things when they're upset. I've heard of a cat being mad about some sort of similar routine upset that decided to go to the bathroom on their owners bed. . . while they were in it. Let's hope. I do miss those little buggers already, though.

DAD
Thank GOODNESS he gave me a GPS unit and thank GOODNESS I finally learned how to use it. I find those take a bit to get used to. More than just the menus etc., you need to learn how to take directions from it. Luckily I was on 90 the entire way here so I had time to learn it a little without being worried about going the wrong way. I made the thing speak to me in German for the heck of it. I can understand little tiny bits and pieces of German, so I figured I'd get the hang of it and possibly understand more after listening to that German lady for 5000 miles. Everything's a game, you know. When I stopped for the last time before reaching Chicago I changed it back to English because I'd hate to get lost because of one of my silly games. I was delighted to find that the GPS unit has an English accent.

Before I found the setting to control the contrast I couldn't see the screen in daylight. I also didn't yet understand when it wanted me to turn based on it's directions. It says "go right," to warn you of which way you'll be turning, then when you reach the intersection it will say it again to let you know you have to turn there. At first I thought the thing was telling me to take right turn after right turn while I was in Downtown. I spent 20 minutes in downtown Chicago driving in circles around the same few blocks. I'm sure the other drivers were amused by my yelling at the thing, "I JUST WENT RIGHT, I"m NOT GOING RIGHT AGAIN," and "I'M AT A LIGHT, SHUT UP!" (because it told me to go right again). I was pretty spent by that time, so my patience was nonexistent.