On the Road Again (Part 3)

We decided to return to driving for our Colorado vacation this year.  Durango is the closest airport but airfare for the two of us was going to be what we thought was exorbitant. We could have flown into Colorado Springs but that would have meant renting a car and driving at least 5 hours each way, which was more expense and meant time in the car anyway. So, a 17 hour drive it was. Our normal long-range drive M.O. is to split up the trip on the way out and do a full-on, non-stop run for home on the way back. This trip was no exception.

The best place to stop for the night on the way out was Albuquerque, which just so happens to be home to a friend of mine from junior high. She and I have reconnected on Facebook in the last couple of years. We weren't close friends back in the day; we were in athletics, choir, and some classes together but didn't pal around together outside of school. It's funny how time changes our interactions, though. Some of the people I interact with the most on Facebook are people that I didn't know all that well back in the day. 

Once she knew we would be coming through town, she offered to put us up for the night. The thing about seeing people after a long absence is that you don't really know whether even a remnant of the connection that you had back then still exists. Added to that uncertainty, I knew we'd be coming in late and would most likely be super cranky grub monsters from our long car ride, so I suggested that we meet for breakfast the next morning before we headed north to Colorado. My friend offered up her husband's fantastic blueberry pancakes. We set a time for our arrival and all parties involved had the guaranteed exit strategy of the Intertia's need to be in Ouray to check in to our rental house, should one of us discover that the other has morphed into some kind of crazed superfreak in the intervening years. 

Suffice it to say, we had an absolutely wonderful visit.  My friend is, in every way that I could see, still that sweet person I knew back in 1984. Her husband and son were absolutely delightful. (Unfortunately, we didn't get to meet her daughter, who wasn't at home.) We talked and laughed and got reacquainted (or in the case of the spouses, got acquainted) and totally blew our exit strategy out of the water.  My friend and her family may have been thinking, "Why won't these people leave?!" but I never got that feeling and we could have stayed all day.  I look forward to seeing them again sometime soon.

Our return trip was a little like Smokey and the Bandit.  We left Ouray at 4:15 am MDT and arrived at our house at 10:15 pm CDT. We saw the sun come up and go down. We stopped for gas and bathroom breaks and little else. It was a very long 17 hours in the Jeep but what a great trip.  Couldn't have asked for more.

On the Road Again (Part 2)

The second point for our vacation itinerary was near Mancos in the Southwestern part of the state.  It's the Jersey Jim Lookout--a decomissioned U.S. Forest Service fire tower. It's 55 feet tall with no running water or electricity, and a bathroom at the bottom of the tower. Run by a non-profit group, it's available for one or two night rentals from mid-May through mid-October. It looks something like this:

This wasn't our first rodeo. We had been there five or six years ago and really loved the experience. Admittedly, it isn't for everyone.  Between the height, the stair climbing, and the lack of amenities many people wouldn't consider it for a part of their vacation experience. The Ritz, it ain't. But oh, the view.  You've got a 360 degree view of some beautiful country with stupendous sunsets.

Without the city lights, the stars are absolutely brilliant. The first night, I awakened at 3:30 am and really had to go to the bathroom. I tried to roll over and go to sleep, but nature was calling too urgently. I got up, put on some shoes and a jacket, grabbed the flashlight and headed down the stairs. Once I got to the bottom and looked up, I could see a million stars and the Milky Way was truly a haze of starlight spanning the width of the sky.


Our second day there we decided to hike the Sharkstooth Pass trail, which is just to the left of the peaks in the second picture above. It was a two mile hike that ended at 12,000 feet at the top of the pass. It was a great hike with wildflowers, marmot sightings, and a birds eye view of two valleys. Here is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Sharkstooth Peak is in the background.

My next post will describe our time in the Jeep as well as our visit with a former schoolmate that I hadn't seen since 1984. 

On the Road Again (Part 1)

TLS and I have been sweltering here in Texas (along with about 25 million of our closest friends). Add to that the fact that we only took a stay-cation last year, and we were quite ready to get outta town for a real, honest-to-God vacation this year.  I have a theory about people: you are either a mountain person or a beach person. You can appreciate the beauty of your "opposite" place, but for absolute soul nurturing, it's gotta be one or the other. I, for one, am a mountain person. There is something about the views and the crisp mountain air that refreshes me like no place else.  I spent many vacations of my childhood in the mountains of Colorado and had introduced TLS to the central mountains of Colorado.  It had been several years since we'd been there, having gone to Yellowstone and northern Michigan on our last two vacations and I thought it might be nice to branch out to a new area of Colorado. I'd heard great things about Ouray, so I found a rental house right on a creek and booked a week there.

I guess there's only one word that describes my reaction to the area around the Ouray: WOW.  The peaks around there and Telluride (about a 30 minute drive west) are just spectacular. They are just "peak-ier"--sharper and more rugged. It's an area with a wide assortment of hiking trails. Our second day in town, we were looking at books on off-road trails in the local bookstore.  The scene went something like this:

TLS:  There's a trail called The Devil's Punchbowl.  It's a moderate trail. No wait, it's extreme.
Me:  (laughing) Yeah, anything called The Devil's Punchbowl has got to be extreme.
Woman seated nearby deciding on books to purchase:  (laughing)  I'd agree with that.
Me: Oh, I see you have In the Woods. I read that this year and it was wonderful.
Woman: Oh, thanks for the recommendation.

Everyone goes back to doing what they were doing.

Woman (getting up to make her puchase): Are you guys also going to be hiking while you're here?
Us:  Yes.
Woman:  I went on a hike to Blue Lakes today and they are just amazing.  Are you from around here?
Us: No, near Dallas.
Woman:  Oh, well, the lower lake hike isn't too bad. The first part is steep but as long as you take enough water and take your time, you should be fine.
Us: Thanks!

We ended up taking her suggestion later in the week and I'm certainly glad we did. Although, dang, she was definitely NOT kidding about the first part being steep. I said at one point to TLS, "It's probably not a good sign when you can feel your heart beat."  Kudos, Woman seated nearby deciding on books to purchase.  It's because of you that we were able to see this:

Next post, I'll talk about our second destination where we stayed in an old Forest Service fire tower.

An Actual Conversation at Casa Inertia

Feeling nostalgic for blogging, I've scoured my planner for my password, which I had completely forgotten, and used it to log on.  I'm looking at the dashboard and contemplating whether or not I want to actually post something.

TLS: (walking through the kitchen, glancing at my laptop) Whatcha doing?  Oh, The Misadventures of Inertia Girl.  Are you resurrecting her?

Me:  Maybe. Thinkin' about it.

TLS:  Do you want me to start writing for you?  I have some time on my hands.

Me:  I think I might pay money for you to guest blog.

TLS: (walking away) ...laughter...

And ... scene.

We'll see whether I can come up with enough material on my own or if I need to put TLS on the payroll. One day (or post) at a time.  And in the meantime, I've changed the template to mix things up a bit.

Farm Livin' Is The Life For Me.. (or How to Major Market Tease Your Blog)

We've had a garden for the last few years. Or, more accurately, TLS has had a garden the last few years. He definitely puts in the backbreaking hard labor and I just reap the spoils. (Love you, honey!!) We normally put in tomatoes, jalapenos, black eyed peas, sunflowers, radishes, onions, and eggplant. This year we decided to go hog wild and plant potatoes, garlic, cucumbers, and lettuce in addition to the usuals. We've harvested the first of the "newbies" and last night had roasted potatoes and garlic along with a salad with our own lettuce, cucumber, and the first of the tomatoes. It was all dee-lish! (If I do say so myself.) I got to use one of the new cookbooks I bought a few weeks ago (Mark Bittman's How to Cook Anything -- highly recommended) for the roasted potatoes and in the words of TLS, they were "almost orgasmic". Well said, honey. Well said.

I took some pictures of the harvest and completed meal, but you'll have to wait for those.

It Was Like Night of the Living Dead Around Here

So, you might have noticed that I've been away from blogging for a while. (I didn't really realize it had been almost two months until I logged in this morning. Sorry!) School really kicked my boot-ay this semester. I ended up taking two classes that were extremely assignment heavy. Like weekly reading/writing/project-y type assignment heavy. At one point I described my experience as living in a zombie horror movie. In one of those movies, the plucky survivors have to mow down waves of zombies coming to eat their braaaaains. Once they kill the first wave, there is another right behind the first, and so on. That's what the assignments were like. I'd do the reading summaries, exercises, information hunts, and other assorted projects due for the week and then have to turn around and have to immediately start the next week's. It was not much fun. I'm 95% done for the semester, though. (That extra 5% is due to taking an incomplete in one class. Doing that was like admitting failure. "Yes, Ms. Extremely Understanding Instructor, something has got to give.") I have one more project to complete to be totally done. I calculated my grade and I only have to make a 58 to make an A and an 8 to make a B, so I think I'll be alright.

It Isn't Nobel Prize Winning Stuff, But It Did Make Me Feel Good

The caveat to this story is that I know my (teeny, tiny) good deed isn't on par with curing cancer or brokering world peace, but I did do something nice that gave me a glad heart. Oh, but now I'm writing about it so I'm not sure if that negates any of the intrinsic goodness, though.

I have a friend from childhood that I haven't seen in over twenty years that I have reconnected with on Facebook. (Have I mentioned how much I love Facebook? I know that there's no real purpose for being on there but it's just fun to be able to keep track of your friends and reconnect with people you haven't seen in a million years. Of course, I have had a few people send me friend requests that I had to look up in an annual and even though I then remembered them from junior high or high school, I can't recall having had a single conversation with them. Which leaves me to wonder if a) we really were pretty good friends and I just don't remember them (the thought of which makes me feel kind of sad and somehow ashamed) or b) I was somehow more important to them than I know (the thought of which makes me feel even sadder, somehow) or c) they are just trying to inflate their Facebook friend count. But I digress. Again. Shocker, I know.) This friend is a now a licenced personal counselor (LPC) and is in the process of getting her personal practice built up. In order to get enough hours for the LPC, she worked (and still continues to work) at the men's prison. One of the many things she does there is to take the book cart around the pod so that the guys can pick out something to read. She mentioned in her blog a couple of months ago that someone else had given her a gift card to buy books and something about that made me want to help too. Although it took me a while, I was able to put together two (smallish) boxes of books and a couple of gift cards and shipped them off. This action, which really only cost me a half hour or so of time and a little bit of money, made me feel like I was spreading around a little bit of my good fortune. Good karma brought to me by Facebook, who'd a thunk it?

Why I Think Turning 40 Rocks

1. I got some major birthday love from my friends and family. Right back at you, guys!

2. I got the majorly awesomely cool Kindle e-reader for my birthday. I can download 1,000 books into one paperback sized machine. I'm like a kid in a candy store. Seriously. It is the greatest present since last year's iPod Touch.

3. I am healthy, happy, and loved. [Furiously knocking on wood so as not to invoke any hubris]

Well, that's the top 3 reasons, anyway. Don't want to get too introspective and soppily emotional...

File This Under: Things That Are Interesting Only To Me

I read an interesting fact about the sleep patterns of giraffes (I KNOW. I'm *such* a nerd.) on Wednesday. (Are you ready for me to share the interesting fact? Well, I'm going to tease you just a bit longer.) Then on Friday, my Discover Magazine arrived and it had the same fact in it. I've never heard this in (almost) forty years and then, POW, twice in one week. I think there should be an official name for this phenomenon, maybe something like Factoid Synchronicity.

Oh! The fact: Giraffes only sleep for an average of 1.9 hours a day. (Look in the table at the bottom of this article for corroboration.) I guess they spend the other 22.1 hours of the day loping around the savannah and trying not to get eaten.

I Could Go for a Xanax About Now

A few years back I had what I would delicately call (after coughing behind my hand) a female problem. No one really wants all the gory details but what it came down to was experiencing a lot of pain in an area of the body that about 99.99999% of the time you don't even think about having. My doctor could diagnose the problem as generic "inflammation" but wasn't able to pinpoint the cause...or alternately, provide much in the way of treatment options. As you might imagine, this made me more than a little cranky and depressed. I sought the counsel of a wonderful psychiatrist who tried prescribing an antidepressant, but as I am extremely sensitive to prescription drugs (and probably the illicit ones too, but as we've established previously, I've never done any of those before) I wasn't able to continue taking the Zoloft she prescribed. As a result, she gave me a prescription for the anti-anxiety medication, Xanax, with a stern warning that it would not be given long-term due to its propensity for addiction and abuse. And after taking it, I could understand why. I used to take a half of the smallest dose (1 mg as I remember, but it's been a few years so I could be wrong about that) and that was enough to spread a warm feeling throughout my whole body. Oh sure, my problems were all still there, but I just didn't care. It was a delicious feeling, but I was smart enough to use it only on the most dire days--when I was having a hard time of it--holding myself together with duct tape and baling wire, which seems to be an extremely Texan saying. Long story short, I was able (through help from my mom and mother-in-law) to find a holistic treatment that made me pain free (Hooray!) and I didn't need to use the Xanax anymore.

I could definitely be talked into using my little friend "Xan" for the last month or so, though. My company experienced some layoffs in January that directly influenced my workload (and not in a good way). Don't get me wrong, I am happy to have a job in today's economy, but added to my schoolwork this semester I seem to want to escape to "Xan" island. Things have been better in the last couple weeks but anxiety seems to be my constant companion these days. Sigh.

Haiku Anyone?

In my very younger days, I used to write poetry. They were very earnest poems, full of angsty teenage feelings. I'm pretty sure that I threw them all away at some point and probably rightly so. I have a feeling that they would be almost painful to read from my (much) older and (much) wiser vantage point. That being said, however, I do still like to put pencil to paper for something creative.

I was driving home one day last week just as the sun was setting. The sky was a beautiful orange color and there was the barest hint of a cresent moon right next to the planet Jupiter. It was so gorgeous that I was moved to write the following haiku*. Enjoy!

Winter Evening
Lovely orange sky
Crescent moon, planet glowing
Dusk is falling fast

*A short poem in the Japanese style consisting of 17 syllables broken into three lines with five, seven, and five syllables, respectively.

One Of Those Lists That No One Wants To Read

The author of one of the blogs I read religiously posted her answers to these questions. I am always open to "borrowing" good ideas so, despite no one asking for them, here are mine:

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Flew in a glider (and actually flew it for about 10 minutes) in front of the Tetons. It was super awesomely fantastically wonderful. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Let's see. As I recall, my resolution last year was to stay away from vodka. I believe that I kept it fairly well. I'm not big on the new year's resolutions, so I'd have to say that I don't have any for 2009.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes. My friend Amy O. had an adorable little boy, Trey.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No. Thank goodness.

5. What countries did you visit?
Does Idaho count?

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Can't think of a thing. Well, aside from world peace. Oh, and a pony.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I've got nothing for this one. Just as 2008 didn't have any reeeealy bad things, there weren't any "stop the presses this is awesome" ones either.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting up off my duff and actually starting grad school.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Keeping my crankiness in check.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Unless you count the dreaded 21 day cold from November/December, nope.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Okay, I didn't buy it, but it has to be my iPod Touch. Awesome! (Thanks, TLS.)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Drawing a blank on this one. Can't even come up with something amusing.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
See answer #12.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Hmm. Mortgage, car payment, electric bill, gasoline. Okay, this answer is depressing me. Moving on...

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Making an "A" in SLIS 5200 (Introduction to the Organization of Information a.k.a. The A**-Kicker)

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
For sheer numbers of radio plays, Flo Rida "Low" (And how sad is it that an almost forty year old lists a hip-hop song for this question. Think young, think young, think young.)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Same
b) thinner or fatter? Same
c) richer or poorer? Same, apparently, I'm nothing if not consistent

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Reading, travelling, catching up with friends

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Homework. Ugh.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Christmas Eve with the in-laws and Christmas Day with my mother and brother

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Nope. Just happy to still be in love with the darling TLS. (And glad that the feeling is mutual.)

22. What was your favorite TV program?
(Tie) Pushing Daisies and Life

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Hate is such a strong word. Let me think. ... Still thinking. ... Nope, no added hatred.

24. What was the best book you read?
Oy! This is a hard one. Must be Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris. It was well-written, funny and poignant. Recommended.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Has to be last.fm You can listen to music and create your own "radio station" by typing in a favorite artist name and they will stream songs from similar artists.

26. What did you want and get?
A 4.0 for my first semester of grad school

27. What did you want and not get?
Can't think of anything. I must be lucky that way.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Well, technically this was from late 2007, but I'm going to have to say Lars and the Real Girl. If you haven't seen it, give it a try. It has a fairly wacky concept (lonely, alienated, eccentric guy buys a life-size doll and pretends that she's real and the whole town plays along) but it had more true heart that most of the traditional relationship movies I've ever seen.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Had a small surprise party with some friends put together by TLS. I was the dreaded 39.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Winning the lottery. Yeah, that's about it.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Just glad the clothes still fit.

32. What kept you sane?
My friends and TLS

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Daniel Craig ain't too hard on the eyes.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
The election is finally over.

35. Who did you miss?
My grandma.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
My school BFF Mary. She kept me sane during SLIS 5200.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
You can do anything you put your mind to. (Dorky and not very original, I know, but it's all I've got.)

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
In the "getting motivated" column, from the song, Believe by The Bravery
Waiting for our ship to come but our ship's not coming back
We do have time like pennies in a jar
What are we saving for?

All Is Quiet On New Years Day...

New Years Day checklist:

The Making and eating of my spicy black eyed pea recipe? CHECK.

Putting up the new Christmas card photos on the fridge? CHECK.

Happy New Year! May 2009 be even better than 2008.

One Weird Fact About Me

Don't ask me why this occurred to me today, but I realized that I have a weird relationship with ice in beverages. I have never been a fan of the ice-filled glass. I think that in my younger days I only saw the whole bad economic sense of it. I mean, when you buy a fountain drink that is filled to the rim with ice and then the beverage is poured in afterwards, what you're getting is less drink and more ice. I may be a capitalist pig, but I prefer more drink for my money. ("More drink, less ice" would look good on a shirt, I think.) And once you start using fewer ice cubes in your drinks, it is a short road (or at least a much shorter road) to using no ice cubes in your drinks.

Totally irrelevant aside:
Although, come to think of it, this whole topic made me nostalgic for the "chewy" ice sold at the locally owned convenience store in my home town. I know you're going to laugh hysterically, but where I grew up (Amarillo, Texas), we didn't have 7-11 or Circle K, just the Toot N Totum. There is a whole story about the name and how they beat the big boys of the convenience store world if you follow the link. But anyway, to get past the digression in my digression, they sell the best ice in the world. I have no idea why it is chewy rather than crunchy, but it.is.the.best. And as I've already established that I'm not a fan of the ice in general, that's high praise from me. I can't believe that I didn't go to one for old times sake when I was back there last year for my high school reunion.
End of totally irrelevant aside.

Back when TLS and I first bought our house, we ended up with a hand me down refrigerator without an ice machine. Since I was already well into my "I don't need ice in my drinks" phase (plus I hated filling, cracking and refilling the crappy plastic ice trays), I started opting out of ice usage in general. Even when we got the spiffy new refrigerator with the ice and water in the door, I mostly just use it when making an adult beverage with crushed ice. We also don't refrigerate our bottled water. I know, it's weird, but it's how I roll. And while I'm not averse to drinks with ice, I'm perfectly happy with my plain old, room temperature water. Go figure.

As Wholesome As Apple Pie

The set up:
There is about a five-mile stretch of our drive in to work that has a traffic light every mile or so. The powers that be do not have these lights synchronized, so it is nearly impossible to catch all of them as green. It does happen infrequently, though. When that happens, it's enough of a rarity that it's worth commenting upon.

The actual conversation this morning: **
Me: (While TLS drives through the final light) Wow! It's a Monday morning miracle!
TLS: Why?
Me: We made all the lights. They were all green.
TLS: (Looking at me strangely) We had to stop at one.
Me: No we didn't.
TLS: Yes, we did.
Me: Really?! No we didn't.
(pause)
Me: (laughing) Well, it felt like we made them all.
TLS: What are you doing there in the bathroom before I get up, (puts his index finger and thumb to his mouth and inhales) toking on your crack pipe?
Me: (hysterically laughing) You don't smoke a crack pipe like that.
TLS: (laughing) Oh yeah, how do you know?
Me: I know everything.

**Total disclaimer: Neither TLS nor I have ever done any illicit drugs. Ever. I swear. To make my point, we went to Jamaica (world capital of street-corner ganja sales) on our honeymoon and were perhaps the only people on the planet never offered drugs. We met another couple while we were there that didn't even make it out of the airport before being accosted. Apparently, our halos were too shiny! Inertia Girl and TLS, as wholesome as apple pie.

You Can Call Me BOA

TLS and I were eating sushi at our favorite neighborhood sushi place this weekend. (And by neighborhood, I don't mean that it is in our neighborhood. We're lucky to have a gas station and a feed store in our neighborhood, so I'm figuring that the first sushi restaurant will open near us in, oh, about 2020. I simply mean to convey that it is a family-owned, non-conglomerate business. But I digress. As usual.) The sushi chef had a college football game on the TV and it happened to be between the school where TLS and I met and a local university. TLS graduated there in 1992 when I was attending my first (abortive) stint in graduate school--a story to be told for another day. Here's how the general conversation went:

Me: We should really go back for a football game this season.
TLS: Yeah, a couple of alumni like us, they must be dying to have us back.
Me: We'll, you're the alumnus. I just attended.
(pause)
TLS: They want you too; you're Bride of Alumnus

I think I might have found my new nickname.

Misshapen Homemade Pizza or the State of Texas? You Decide.

I got a hankering last weekend for some homemade pizza, so I whipped up some pizza dough likety split, grabbed some toppings and a jar of spaghetti sauce and lo...this!

While it started out generally rectangular, during the baking process it came to resemble a misshapen state of Texas outline. (Or at least that's what TLS and I thought. You be the judge.)

The actual state of Texas

P.S. Those are home grown tomato and eggplant slices as pizza toppings. Yum!

Seriously Inertia Girl, You Are One Weird Cookie.

I must preface this post with the disclaimer that I do not have any children so that anything I say herein may be complete and utter crap or alternately something that everyone with children will read and then exclaim something along the lines of, "Well...duh!" (And now I immediately have to write what you are all thinking, which is "Yes, Inertia Girl. We get it already. You.Do.Not.Have.Children. Get over yourself!") Isn't it nice to know that I apparently don't even need people to read my blog? I can have the whole experience all by myself.

When is it that children physically morph from being cute and cuddly and so adorable that you literally want to just eat them up into little adults? Seriously, is there an actual moment when this change happens? And really, there's nothing wrong with having people who look like little adults running around. It's true; we're all changing on a daily basis. We all go from newborn to infant to child to adult to the grave. (Wow! That certainly got morbid all of a sudden, didn't it?)

I guess it is a weird question to ask, but having four nephews and a niece, ranging in age from almost 15 (fifteen!) to 7, I've seen the transformation take place but never been able to put my finger on the specifics of it. Or place exactly what makes them stop looking like a child and more like an adult. (I've almost convinced myself that it has to do with the arms and legs--long and skinny and no longer pudgy.)

Unfortunately for those of you who are looking for some sense of cohesion or a point to the post, I'm afraid that I really don't have one. I just saw a picture today of someone's daughter that I hadn't seen in a while and somewhere in between this photo and the last, she went from child to little adult. It came as such a shock that I was moved to write a blog post to ponder the question.

To Do List - Part 1

Things to do before leaving on vacation (a work in progress):

1. Charge phones, iPods and camera. (Be sure and bring chargers for all!)
2. Pack the U.S. atlas
3. Decide on books to bring for plane rides
4. Prepare checklist for feeding and care of animals to give to neighbors
5. Set out of office agent for work email
6. Change outgoing work voicemail message
7. Pack the nerdy manila folder full of Important Vacation Information (including, but not limited to, rental car confirmation, directions to rental cabin and necessary phone numbers)

Countdown to vacation departure: 5 days, 13 hours, 5 minutes. But who's counting, right?!

"Are You Alright? Are You Okay? You, Call 911!"

Last Friday, I did what I hadn't done since ... oh, about 1984, which was to take a CPR class. Our office hosts them about twice a year and even though I'd always managed to find a reason not to take it, something about that invitation in my email box kept calling to me. I've found it mostly advantageous to listen to subconsious girl when she's sending me messages. I just hope that it isn't an omen that I'll have to use my newly re-found skills anytime soon. (God forbid!)

CPR has really changed since I had to be certified in my ninth grade health class way back at Crockett Junior High school. (Not the least of which is that you are no longer CPR certified, but now you are CPR qualified. Apparently, the certification tag is only for people who get paid to render aid. Who knew?) There are many more compressions than before (30 compressions to 2 breaths now versus 5 to 1 before if my memory serves me), but the one thing I remembered was the title of the post and that hasn't changed at all.