It’s Like the Last Day of School

Tonight we are getting on a plane bound for Atlanta. Todd’s birthday is in a few weeks and as a surprise I bought us a dive excursion in the Georgia Aquarium. On Monday we’ll dive in an aquarium full of whale sharks. Whale sharks! Our suitcases are packed and they’re in the car, the dogs are also in the car waiting to go to kennel at lunch time.

I can’t concentrate on anything except the whale sharks that I’ll meet on Monday. I also cannot shake the feeling that I’ve forgotten something of critical importance at home. That feeling will pass once I figure out which travel site Todd used to book the tickets so I can print out the itinerary. At the moment I not only have no idea which airline we’re flying on, but I also have no idea when the plane leaves. Our departure time is set for, roughly, some time after work tonight.

:::

Last night, while distractedly lobbing random articles of clothing into the suitcase, I had the honor of participating in Mr. Taoist Biker’s blog radio show. We talked about our family’s Christmas tradition. He talked about the Southern Christmas, and I talked about what I like to call “A Very Polish Christmas.” It was a lot of fun, and I’d like to thank my blog pal Taoist Biker, a.k.a. Bitch Taoista, for a good time last night.

In the mean time, I watch the clock and try to convince myself that it hasn’t just run backward.

Useless

It’s raining out. The sky has this color to it that can only be described as “blah.” The busy season, for me, has largely ended. I still have a few events coming up in the next 3 weeks that require my attention, but they are largely on auto pilot. This coming weekend is a 4-day weekend, and the anticipation of having 4 days off has sent my already narrow attention span to dangerously slim proportions. It also does not help that my excellent husband is working from home today. Let’s just slap a giant pair of air quotes around the word “working” and call it a day, shall we?

We are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time ever this weekend. Todd’s parents will come in from Vermont, and our friends John, Jen, Sean and Heidi are also coming over to celebrate with us. Todd will pick up our turkey from the farm a ½ mile down the road from our house this afternoon and begin the elaborate turkey preparation tomorrow which involves the word “brining.” I think that’s like marinating, but different. Good thing I am not the cook in this family. We’d all be making sculptures out of inedible mashed potatoes around the table while our guests casually checked their watches and exchanged glances that would only mean “When can we blow this popsicle stand and get a Big Mac?”

The Saturday before last we met our turkey. We arrived at the farm, and followed the farmer to the pens where gaggles of turkeys were housed. He vaguely pointed to a big one in the middle of the pack and told us it could be our turkey. We stood there, not knowing exactly what to do. I mean, there’s an animal that would soon be on the end of my fork happily gobbling away with its other pen-mates. I think we must have somehow complemented the farmer on his turkey growing prowess before we dodged the mud puddles and made our way back to the car.

But until I dangle the forkful of neighborhood turkey near my open mouth, I still have about 12 hours of work to go. And I swear the clock just ran backward a little bit.

Already Pining for the Long Weekend

I just got back from vacation 2 weeks ago, and I am ready to go on another trip. We were trying to set up a dive trip in Florida for the long weekend, but waited a bit too long and didn’t get a good price on the fare. So we decided we’d do something locally, involving both sailing and diving.

It’s Thursday, and I am itching for the 3-day weekend. It is also the last week that I can use flex time at work. In the summer they let the employees work 9 hour days Monday – Thursday, and then you can leave early on Friday. I am hoping that my workload won’t be too heavy that I can still leave early on Friday.

On Friday afternoon we’re going to pack up our dive gear and food for the weekend. Todd will be inviting some dive friends to go with us, and we’ll sail on Saturday morning for Bristol, RI. We’ll do Bristol for Saturday, and then on Sunday morning we’ll set sail for Hope Island, in the middle of Narragansett Bay. This island is the one that Maggie and Krys explored on the last day of our vacation. There is a sunken tug boat on the south shore of the island that we will hopefully dive on Sunday as well.

I’ll let you know on Monday or Tuesday how the trip went.

Happy Labor Day, Internet.