Dozin’ II

Yikes…you know how it feels when your routine has been jangled around and you feel like 700 miles of bad road? That’s me this morning.

Great, awesome, amazing weekend, but now the week starts. First DT rehearsals, and this Friday, a very special pair of visitors arrive. So, no fooling around for the next five days.

As most of you know, it was grand seeing my Illinois family on Saturday. Not only did I share memories and fun with them, I got to take off by myself and relive some private memories by seeing my childhood home and the elementary school I attended in my neighborhood. The memories were overwhelming; living in that house and going to that school rank near the top of my list of the happiest time in my life.

I laughed all evening with my Illinois family, and had a great time reminiscing over photos with my aunts and awesome Uncle Jerry and Aunt Betty, who flew up from Florida.

But now, alas, it’s (past) time to hit the shower and the road. Hope everyone has a great Monday — sometimes, they take work. Heh.

FO

Dozin’

The bod just doesn’t want to move this morning…

Woke up awhile ago in this very nice mini-suite ($9 for the upgrade, so I thought why not?), and I haven’t done much moving since.

I went to compose a post for this morning using my iPad for the first time to do so, and found an interesting bug: the background of the WordPress interface is white…but so is the color of the text. Hmm.

So I downloaded Chrome for iPad, certain that it would fix the problem. Nope. Grr. Used a third browser…no dice. Fine. So I downloaded WordPress for iPad. HA. Completely lame, but hey, at least I can see what I’m doing.

I arrived in Zion at 9:00 Eastern last night, talked to the Thriller a bit, read for 15 minutes, then gave up the ghost around 10:30, and didn’t move until 4:30. Pretty good night’s sleep, actually — at least for me it was!

Looking forward to seeing aunts, uncles and cousins I haven’t seen in decades as we all celebrate Uncle Dan today, whose life ended way too soon at age 55.

I’ve decided to stay the night tonight as well, since I want to have time to visit, and i don’t want to feel rushed to get right back on the highway after lunch today, especially after last night’s thrill ride. If I said Chicago drivers are maniacs, I was wrong. What I meant to say was that Chicago drivers are blind hyenas on crack.

But I didn’t have to hang the marshmallow blaster out the window, so we can call it a success.

I suppose I should think about slinking off to the shower. It’s already too late to meet with my aunt for coffee before she has to report for an appointment, so I will get some joe down my gullet and start the day. Can’t wait to see everyone.

Happy weekend, fiends!

Fastenin’ my safety belt…

…I’m takin’ off again.

What’s with the song lyric titles lately? This makes the third day in a row. Am I doing that which I yammer on about with regard to what my students do on Facebook (post bizarre lyrics at random with no artist credit)?

Why yes, I am. :P But I’m happy to identify Bad Company as the author of the lyric. There. Where’s the “like” button on this post?

Everything’s packed and ready to go:

  • various & sundry electronics and their chargers
  • outfits for tomorrow and possibly Sunday, if I end up staying over
  • little black fan for the hotel room (for the compulsory white noise)
  • camera for lots of photos with family, some of whom I haven’t seen in over 30 years

Is that it, Mavis? Anything missing? I think that’s about OH CRAP. I’ve paid not a single bill. NUTS.

Gotta git — hugs to all, I’ll check in tonight from the shores of Lake Michigan

Fink, late again

All my bags are packed

I’m ready to go…

(I loved that song once.)

I booked an extra night at the hotel, just in case I’d end up visiting longer than expected. The idea of getting in the car at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. Ohio time) and driving for 7 hours doesn’t thrill me, so I’ll make a gametime decision on whether or not to stay over. If I do, I’ll hit the road back home as early as possible on Sunday morning, as I surely don’t want to miss seeing the Browns lose again.

I told Suzanne this week that while I’m bummed that Mavis or the Thriller can’t go with me tomorrow, I’ll likely use the alone time to think and plan and choreograph, which can be a good thing. I don’t mind the solitude.

What about you? Are you a quiet traveler, or do you like the company and conversation? Some people would lose their minds traveling alone, while others would play music or audio books and be perfectly contented on long trips. I can go both ways. I’ve driven solo to and from Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas, and enjoyed it just fine. Then I’ve taken long road trips with the Thriller which were loads of fun, too. Meh. Matters not, I guess.

Unfortunately, the Finkmobile won’t be making the trip with me, either. While visiting the Js last night, #1 Son found a troubling issue under the hood, so off it goes to the carspital for a few days. As much as I love my car (a paid-off one, especially), I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t time to at least consider thinking about trading it in for something that’s a bit more reliable, warrantied, and better in snow. Seems like no matter who we take the F-mobile to for repairs on a recurring problem with the airflow sensor (which negatively affects engine performance), they can’t figure out the fix.

Oh well. Those are thoughts for another day. On to the day at hand. Being up since 2:40 and jazzed up on café mocha oughta get me through just fine. Did I mention that I swore off the melatonin for a week to gauge its effects on my sleeping patterns? Well, I got my answer. It really does make a difference, but it seems like I’m either doing the wake-up-at-2 thing, or I’m so groggy and sleepy, it’s dang hard to slide out the bed in the morning. I want to smash my alarm, truly. So…good sleep and bad mood, or bad sleep and decent (artificially jacked-up) mood?

I think too much.

FO

Just as I published this and looked at the date, I realized that today would have been my mother’s 74th birthday. It’s hard to imagine what she’d look like now, seeing as how she was 56 when she died, and to my recollection, very young-looking. Bizarre. We all miss her, that’s for sure.

Auto-da-fé? What’s an auto-da-fé?

It’s what you auto not do, but you do anyway.

:P

I know I auto not eat late at night, but last night I did it anyway. And guess what? Nightmares — all night. Again. Happens every time, and I knew it would happen this time, too — so why did I have dinner at 9:15 p.m.? Oy.

But hey, it’s overwith and I’m awake (although the stupid Droid somehow disconnected from the charger last night and I woke up on my own at 5:30), so it’s another day at the school house, and I’m ready to hit it.

Today’s goal: get through high school choir rehearsal just once this week without lapsing into the process by which the nuclei of my brain’s atoms split into smaller parts and produce dangerous gamma rays, resulting in very large — and, by all modern standards, unsafe — amounts of energy.

*bing*

Oh! And Stoney and I have decided on a show for this year, and I’m surprised we hadn’t considered it before. Should be fun. Challenging, but fun.

Hey now, you have a great Wednesday. It’s a bizzy one here in Finkville. School, the all-important hair-dyeing and cuttage, a visit with the Js (yay!), then more DT work until bedtime. Psh. Piece-a cake. Piece-a-pie. But as for my high school students…

The Inquisition’s here and it’s here to staaaaaaaaaaaaay!