Saying yes...

My idea of hell...

... would have to be a traffic circle. I don't get them. I don't like them. Don't make me use them. That means YOU, Grizzled. Don't say, "I need to drop off the truck, just follow me..." and then take the TRAFFIC CIRCLE!

A traffic circle in my mind is the wild west of traffic conditions. There are rules, but is anyone following them? Hell no! And that includes myself, because, as I wait for the people on my right to enter traffic circle hell, the people on my left are waiting for me and eventually, we all dive in at once, zig-zagging in and out of the two lanes until we're shot out onto our exit street. It's like Spirograph done with cars, except instead of one pen point making the lovely pattern, it's lots of large cars being driven by overly-caffeinated, sleep-deprived people somewhat like myself. Give me the expressway, give me downtown Chicago traffic. I'll even take the school drop-off lane and that's a scary place, just don't ask me to do the traffic circle. We're not made for each other. I can admit that.

What is made for me is chocolate. Note to self, don't buy the lamblets' Valentine-function chocolate a week or more before the slated events. Just don't do it. Even better, just buy something you don't like. It would be easier that way. They should put all stores that sell chocolate on the other side of the traffic circle with no alternative routes for getting there. I'd still love chocolate, but I'd snap back to reality and would realize that it is not a breakfast food.

Other random observation: I no longer live in a suburb. I live in some new-fangled place called an iceburb. My burb has been taken over by petrified mountains of snow that are peppered with jagged outcroppings of ice. More snow is scheduled for this afternoon. The new, fluffy as a bunny snow will cover and disguise the evil jagged piles of ice. I will no doubt back into a few while trying to avoid garbage cans that are precariously perched on top of the various parkway ice mountains. It will still be preferable to attempting the hell that is the traffic circle.

Of course, I could just stay inside with the remaining chocolate...

Bossy Road Trip Mayhem!

It appears that Bossy is getting so many requests for visits on her potential road trip that Bossy may not even have to drive! I'm thinking she has enough people signed up that she won't have to worry about paying for gas, she won't need gas! She won't need a car... all of the people will merely line-up and form a Bossy Brigade. Yes, Bossy will be passed from person to person across the USA and possibly even into Canada. May Bossy's feet not touch the ground until she reaches the Pacific... and this is a good thing considering Bossy's feet are usually cloaked in slippers.

Round and round she goes! Where BOSSY stops, nobody knows!

Bossy's planning a road trip... an excellent road trip. You can become a stop on the trip! Yes, you could have Bossy come to your very own town... your very own home! You could have Bossy sleep on your very sofa! You could sell Bossy's sleep drool on Ebay! You just have to sign up! Sign up and pony up... pony up some gas money because with oil going for $100 a barrel, gas is not going to be cheap in the near future. Bossy's going to need fuel to make this dream happen. Bossy's going to need support. Even if she doesn't wind her way through your neck of the woods, chip in for gas and rest stop money. You'll be a part of history.

The road not meant to be traveled

I don’t have a very good sense of direction so I don’t know why that wouldn’t pertain to my life direction as well.

I wonder if a midlife crisis is merely becoming aware of the fact that you’re life is off course, or maybe not even off course, just off of the course you assumed it would be on.

I think there’s a part of us that always has a plan for how our lives are going to turn out and a few end up exactly where they thought they’d be. Maybe they’re connected to a LPPS (Life Path Positioning Satellite). The rest of us, well, we take turns, sometimes turns we’re told we should, and we get lost. We make little choices on our trips, choices that seem interesting or necessary, but they take us off of our path, the path we assume we’ll always be on, should be on. We end up somewhere else instead of our intended destination and its not even that the destination we arrived at is bad, it’s just our brain is still trying to make sense out of the fact that it’s not the destination we chose or were told to take some 10-20 years ago.

Maybe a midlife crisis is not so much about getting back on track with our original destination as it is learning to accept the fact that our destination, for one reason or another, changed and we’re no longer where we assumed we’d be and that’s ok.

Somewhere along the ride I stopped riding solo. I picked up a man, I added two children and all of the baggage that traveling with others entails. You don’t travel the same when you’re traveling with others, especially others who have their own internal maps, their own preconceived destinations.

I need to stop judging my trip and my destinations in terms of a solo traveler. I need to stop judging my trip in terms of the maps that were handed to me in my youth, maps made out by others. Maybe instead of being off track, I am more on track than I’ve ever been.  

But then again… I could be lost.  

Closed for Vacation

The mommy blogging you've all come to know and love will be non-existent over the next week. We're off to the great north to host Grinnell-fest '07 and I'm not taking a computer with me. I am expecting to return sometime next week, but am still on the fence as to how long I'll be gone.

Feel free to leave your random thoughts, shopping lists, angry letters to bosses, etc, in the comments.

Life is a highway...

I don’t remember where I saw it, but some time in the past few months, I read an article that said if you and your mate travel well together, especially by car, then you will no doubt be able to survive the journey that is marriage.

Grizzled and I had our first *date* 19 years ago this week. I accentuate date for my own reasons. He was a very nice man and was one of the few that I felt incredibly comfortable with. I, however, saw this summer fling as going nowhere... 

In a couple of weeks, we’ll celebrate our 15^th wedding anniversary. I’ve never been one of those people to not be able to say I was wrong. :)

When Grizzled and I got married, we were hoping to go to Alaska on our honeymoon, but time and money were telling us that was not in the cards so we planned a trip that might have some of the flavor of  of the bigger, grander trip. We were going to drive out to Montana, spend some time in Glacier National Park, and then spend a few days at a beautiful bed and breakfast on Flathead Lake. This particular B&B was a refurbished one room schoolhouse.

So... we rented a cushy Lincoln Continental with unlimited mileage (they must have hated us upon our return) and we drove. We did lots of driving.  "Life is a Highway" was popular that summer and played often on the radio.

Our only reservations were at the B&B. The rest of the trip was going to be winging it. Our first stop was in a crappy Quality Inn in Fargo, ND, but it was our honeymoon, we didn't care. Grizzled had even brought in his camping coffee gear so that I could have morning coffee. Grizzled had been with me long enough to know I like morning coffee and by morning, I mean as soon as my eyes are open. He had been with me through the stage of keeping my coffee maker at the foot of my bed so that when the alarm went off I could merely lean forward and push, "On"!

Our next stop was Havre, Montana. It was dark, it was late and we were tired. Havre looked large enough to have a variety of hotels/motels, but what we didn't know beforehand and what one chiding clerk told us was that the state fair was in town! All rooms had been booked up for weeks! There would be nothing to have in Havre. We found one creepy drive-up motel that charged $23 per night. The clerk kept asking Grizzled if he was sure he wanted the room for the entire night and not just for an hour because they also charged by the hour... wink, wink.

The next leg of our trip took us to Gustin Orchard where we had a few days of solitude and creature comforts. This was followed by a night of camping in Glacier National Park and then poof, we were winding our way back home.

All in all, we must have spent 65% of our honeymoon, driving. We were on no ones schedule, but our own. Having taken the northern route to Montana, we drove back home via Wyoming, saw Devils Tower (Dick Cheney's home, I believe), went through South Dakota, saw Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore, and in the *in process* Crazy Horse Memorial. We also did a drive-by of the Badlands. Ironically, we had our only fight in the Badlands. Grizzled was driving at this point and I was navigating. We had intended on doing the much touted *scenic turnout*. We missed the scenic turnout which Grizzled attributed to my lax navigational skills. I have wonderful navigational skills when I have a map and dammit, I had one! I had a brand-spanking-new atlas! It turns out, Rand McNally oopsed on that one and I was vindicated.

If I recall, the last leg of our trip was from Pierre, South Dakota to Chicago. We easily did it in one day. The entire trip was wonderful, was full of lots of unplanned adventures, but best of all, Grizzled and I were just in the car with nowhere to be, nothing we had to do, and plenty of time to talk.

We have since taken many trips. On occasion we have flown, but we are never against getting in the car and driving. We've gone to Atlanta in one day, to Ontario in one day. We once did a 10-day, spring break tour of the Southwest. We hit Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma and this trip was done with two young children and two dogs in tow. We travel well together.

Someone once asked my oldest lamblet if she had a DVD player in her car for those long trips. She said no, she took books, but other than that, she preferred to look out the window at the view. "What's the point of going somewhere else if you're not going to look at the changing scenery?" she asked. I thought she had a good point.

I like long trips because I know I have Grizzled to myself. We talk a lot, we solve a lot of the world's problems, sometimes we just sit next to each other and enjoy the silence of the ride and wonder when the next *hysterical marker* will appear. We've always traveled well together and judging from the fact that we've been together for 19 years, that first long trip must have been a good omen.

Bon Voyage, Claire!!!

Claire is hitting the road, or rather the skies, and is heading for Shanghai this week! Her bags are packed, she's ready to go... she's leaving on a jet plane... oh wait, that's another post.  Anyhow, Claire is going to be traveling to exotic locales. Stop by and wish her well.

Have a great trip, Claire! Travel safely, have lots of fun and don't forget to try and slip in a blog post or two while off gallivanting. :)

Odds and ends

I have a smattering of things to put forth... none of them fully-baked... so I'll just ramble which is what I do best anyhow. Grizzled calls me the Queen of the Non Sequitur. I guess someone's gotta do it or be it.

Anyhow, I am proud to announce that I am kicking off the new season of Celeb Dream Cameos over at 3Bulls! Woo-hoo!!! Who knew that dreams that were well over a decade and half old... (maybe even older), would bring me such riches, such honors! I still cringe a tad thinking about them, but know the possibility for *cringement* has significantly been upped now that they are in Pinko's twisted hands!

Weekend blogging will be light if not missing altogether... lots of stuff going on. I think I'd rather sleep, but apparently sleeping is not in the stars. It may be January, but the holidays keep rolling along. I should have been a bear.

And... speaking of January, it's raining. AGAIN. It's in the 50's and has been for the past 3 weeks. December started out so promising. I actually thought we might get a winter! I know, I know, it's early. I would just like to have my winter during winter. I am not fond April snow and it seems like that is usually what we get when we have this kind of weather at this point in the season.

I'm almost jealous of Denver. I'd like at least one snow day this year... just one day where you have permission to turn off the the responsibilities of the outside world. The way it looks, we won't be having a snow day, but maybe a mud day...

Okay, I'm off.

Back in town...

I'm back in my home after a mad dash to my hometown and my past. It's always good seeing my parents, seeing the siblings who still live there, seeing siblings who might also travel there.

Even though my parents' children are all full-blown adults, their house seems even more crowded when we visit. I see not only my nearing-80 parents, but I see their ghosts of their former decades. I know I not only bring my present self with me, but somehow, no matter what I do, my 12 yr-old self shows up, my 23 yr-old self and various other *me's*. They run into my sisters' ghosts, my brothers' ghosts and a cast of many others.

It's always interesting to see who's in control at any given time. The dinner table can consist of my 79 yr-old father, my 60 yr-old mother, my 7yr-old self, my 18 yr-old sister and so on and so on, and sometimes during a meal, we all get up and change exchange seats so that my 50 yr-old father shows up, my 78 yr-old mother,etc, etc.

All in all though, it was a good trip... too short this time. I would have preferred to have wallowed in the various decades for a few more days.

Right now I am going to wallow in some coffee. I was up way past my bedtime and had to leave way too early this morning.

I'm not sure if I packed my various selves or if I left them in my old room at my parents'. In case they came along, I think I'll make enough coffee for all of us.

I'm still full...

We spent this past Thanksgiving at Grizzled's sister's house in lovely Salt Lake City. I had never been to Utah before. It was an interesting place. To the left is a very bluuuuue photo (unfortunately the camera was set for tungsten...) of our two lamblets along with a cousin on Ensign Peak. You had a gorgeous view of the city on one side and the Great Salt Lake on the other. The trek up to Ensign Peak was listed as "easy" and it was... for our legs... however,  Grizzled and I suffered from flatlander lungs. We did a fair amount of walking, hiking, checking out the surrounding scenery. We saw some intimidating bison at Antelope Island. Supposedly the bison were there for our amusement, but I couldn't help, but think that we humans were amusing the bison. We were acting all goofy while they looked rather bored and were more concerned with nibbling on the local flora. That was good for us. No one needs an irked bison in his path.

Aside from taking in some of the local color, we did what most people did... we ate and drank enough to last the rest of the year. Sister Grizzled is an awesome cook and had no fewer than 8 dishes for Thanksgiving dinner along with 4 dessert choices.  We could have walked home from Utah and still had calories to burn... but ohhhhh! It was worth it!