We traveld through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and finally into Iowa today. There were many adventures along the way of course. We stopped at 10:30am for ice cream at DQ. Only on vacation is this acceptable....lol. In the midwest reststops are called service plazas or oasis'.
After that we tried to have conversation on politics, health care etc but it was unsuccessful do to the hardheadedness of the family....lol. There are also a ton of toll stops in the Midwest. They are fun if you have an I-Pass and can just drive through fast.
So then we decided that we wanted to stop in Chicago for lunch and I suggested Navy pier. It's one of my favorite places eventhough it's a tourist mecca...uhg!
We had Chicago dog's from America's Hotdogs, home of the world's largest hotdog, chinese food, and greek food. It was all yummy for the most part. I love Chicago Dog's even if they are nasty sounding....lol!!! I didn't get a picture of the actual dog oddly enough but I did get some other fun lunch time photos!
Monday finds us travleing through the great states of Virginia, Pennsylvannia, and Ohio. We are currently at the Holiday Inn Express in Wauseon, OH. It's a cool little place. I'm sharing a room with my nieces which is proving to be an adventure. I love them to death and they provide hours of entertainment. We mostly drove today although that was enough fun for us! Mom got friendly with some cops, *A couldn't remember her Alphabet, and *M was just a barrely of laughs. Tonight we went swimming and then came back to the room where I showered and was interupted by the "party" girls. I think they saw my bare ass, serves them right! Below you will find some of the pics from our photo session and time in the car. More to come!!!
"...but you can never leave Chicago...ha hah" - Ani Difranco
So I'm finally in Virginia. It only took 16 hours of travel to get here through our fine air transportation system. It was touch and go for a bit but everything got straightened out and I got here. I'm exhausted. The flights were overbooked. We had bad weather. We had nasty attendants (except for the hottie twink who kept hiding from my camera...grr) I finally got here three hours later than normal. Richmond smells like an outhouse currently and the humidity is 500% or something ridiculous like that. It's glorious...lol. Some highlights of the trip were the sushi I had in Detroit of all places (pic below), and the IPOD vending machine (pic also below). It was kind of bizarre to see a vending machine devoted entirely to IPOD's and their accessories. I'm also posting some randoms of the trip and will be putting the edited versions on my photo site after I get home in two weeks:) I'll be posting lots over the next two weeks barring any major tech malfunctions. OH! And keep my granddad in your thoughts. He apparently has a nodual on his lung and has to have a biopsy. I'm sure it's fine but happy thoughts never hurt anyone:) Miss all of you!!!!
So Friday began S* and I's three week vacation spree, seperately. She's in California and I will be leaving for Virginia and then driving with the family to Iowa. I will be gone a total of 2 weeks. She gets home three days after I leave. Such is life. It will be the longest we have been apart continuously. I know, I know....gag me. It's hard though when you get used to having a constant in your life that you love and enjoy and then to be apart from it for 3 weeks. I hate being in the house alone so I've had "babysitters" the last two nights. SH* kids are awesome and grudgingly put up with my juvenile request for company:) Granted I had to semi-bribe them with electronic treats, but still..... R* came home today and all of us rejoiced and sang and danced upon his return ;) The office overhaul went off well and was much apperciated...YAY! I picked up steaks for dinner and we went over to SH* house and P* grilled them, they were great. The we watched the first part of Angels in America....*sigh*. I love that movie. It's so well done and very true to the original stage production which made me very happy. I would love to be the angel in the movie and be able to scream "I I I" about things....lol. On a side note, I saw the best thing the other day. Two blocks from my house I saw a little person (midget) walking a full-size goat on a hot pink collar and leash (the goat, not the woman). It was a wonderful bit of bizarre in my day! Tommorow will bring lots of list making, cleaning, taking care of medical things, and hopefully some visiting w/ R* and movie watching. I have Jackass 2 that I have yet to see!
The dogs have been busy as well lately. They have had lots of visitors and friends to play with. Murphy is growing faster than we ever imagined and is finally getting used to be around other dogs besides Nero. He still alpha's them but it's not terribly threatening, not like before at least. The heat has been taking a toll on them as well. They love being inside when it's hot and Murphy has taken to standing on the couch in front of the AC to get himself cool. It's quite the site. I've been sick the last few days and spent most of the time reading the last Harry Potter book. It was awesome! Went to the doctor today and I may have an ulcer or some weird stomach bacteria. Lots of pleasant test in my future I think. I'm feeling totally normal today but don't want to have anymore run-ins with whatever it was making me sick. I just need to stay well enough to make it though vacation. S* leaves on Friday for 10 days of family vacation in California. I'll be in a week for vacation with my family in Virginia and Iowa. It'll be fun but we are definitely not looking forward to the seperation. Well I guess I will end there. Would love to hear from the folks that read this eventhough they are few:)
So it's been almost three months since I've posted anything....ahhhh, summer!
I worked as a substitute special-ed paraeducator for Omak School District until Mid-June. It was a ton of fun but also gave may some insight as to what is going on with school systems/education today. It was really hard for me to see kids falling through the cracks not necessarily by the fault of the school system but by a combination of things. Happily, in most cases, the school system was the "positive" aspect of the kids life. I was supposed to recieve a full-time permanent-ish position but that fell through due to the wonders of Union agreements. I'm hoping that there will be something opening soon, at least that's what they keep telling me *sigh*. The month of June was a busy one for us with Pride parades, birthdays, and our 7 year anniversary. It was a busy month and although it was fun, I'm glad it's past. We went to Lake Osooyoos, Canada for the 4th of July with our friends and their family. It was entertaining and a good time.
I spent a lot of time working in the Garden of Despair as I now call it. All I managed to get in the ground due to a series of unfortunate events was tomatoes, onions, peppers, and eggplant. I'm going to try planting late season things and see what I get but the rest will have to wait until next year. We may be buying a house sometime in the next 6-months due to our swell landlord deciding to sell our place. We may buy the house that we are in but honestly, if we are buying I want more land and more rooms! Life in Okanogan isn't as bad as you may think and we are considering extending our stay here to 5 years total if some other things fall into place. We shall see. Most of July was spent working on the Wizard of Oz youth theater camp. It was run by and attended by numerous Mormons. Now that in itself was not really a problem except for the fact that I felt a little judged, many of us were treated like slaves, and there was little recognition of our talents or work. I would only do it again if a certain someone needed the help but ONLY then! The play was awesome and there was a great director and stage crew. The kids were both cute and annoying but overall it rocked. These pictures are of Glenda's Bubble (the good witch) that she rides into the scenes on. R* and I came up with the ideas and I put it together in about a day. It's for sale if anyone is interested:) There is also a huge Oz head that was made. I'll post pix of it later. After that was done there was Harry Potter and visits from friends and their dogs and much merriment had.
