My turn to take a trip!
I'm sitting in Denver Int'l Airport for a couple hours waiting for my connection to Chicago. I would have been long gone, but the Abq-Den flight was quite delayed, so they had to put me on a later connector than the one I'd booked. Stuff happens. Good thing I packed some snacks!
I'm headed to Michiana for a friend's wedding, and will be doing some visiting while I'm there. A nice long weekend, and I have a day off when I get back, too. I brought my schoolwork, too, since I have assignments due while I'm on the road.
Anyway, now that I have the new MacBook Pro, I'll hopefully be able to get more posts up. Having to fight with the old Dell just wasn't cutting it, and now it won't power on at all. Gotta fix the power jack, I think. Having 99% of everything backed up on the external drive helped a lot with the transition to the new Mac. Having a friend who's a Mac guru didn't hurt, either!
Anyway, I'll hit Chicago tonight, spend a night with Ambr and Aidan, then South Shore it to South Bend tomorrow. I'll get a rental car for the long weekend, and go from there! Back up to Chi-town Sunday evening, then fly back to NM on Monday evening.
Other than that, life's insanely busy, between work (lots of changes, not all good) and school (just a lot to do!) and trying to have some kind of social life in the odd moments. Actually, all the moments of my social life have the potential to be odd, so let's just leave it at that, ok?

Sunday afternoon, time to blog my little trip.

It was good, but fast.

 

( The condensed version... )

 

Anyway, that's my weekend.

And then I'll be in my new apartment! Yay!
I'm still a bit amazed that I actually have Saturday off, but then it's probably only because I have to work 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. I'll live with that.
I've arranged to rent a U-Haul trailer for Saturday. Should only take one trip, but now I'm really glad I got the trailer, since a co-worker has offered me a sleeper sofa for the front room. Hooray for furniture. Last night I also snagged a cool cabinet/cupboard for my digs, too. There are a few other things I want to get, but they aren't urgent. Plus I'll be getting the rest of my stuff from Indiana at Yule.
I bought my ticket for the trip home last night! It feels good to have done that. I'll be saving up for the rental truck till I go, and will probably book that soon. Just have to figure out when I'd actually be leaving to come back to NM. Probably on Xmas Day, oddly enough, but I can get my visiting done by then and Mom will probably have to work that day, anyway.
I'm finally able to look forward to things again! Next week is Thanksgiving, and I'll be going up to Chama to spend the holiday with my second family. Then Yule next month, and getting to see my favorite regional band, Mother Grove, at my favorite pub, Fiddler's Hearth in South Bend. February is Estrella War, if I can manage to make it there. In the meantime, there's work (lots of it), music, writing, all the fun things I like to do. I can set up my sewing area again! :-)

But on the other hand, the first thing I will be doing when I get my altar set up in the new place is memorializing another lost friend. I missed Samhain, anyway, and was going to do something for Mel (my housemate who passed in January) and Betty (a church sister who passed in July). Now there's my hordebrother Irina, a totally unexpected loss. Sorrow in the midst of joy, and vice versa.

So the rollercoaster ride continues. I'm at the cafe, but I think I may give myself one last night of motel tonight. Gotta do truck tomorrow, since I have the late shift at Home Depot.

All my travels seem to end up having funny incidents in them. I think it's an inherited trait from my mother, the original Superklutz. It's hard to pick the funniest, really, so I'll go with the earliest funny story.
Back in 1973, the airlines all went on strike, just in time for Christmas. Mom refuses to fly anyway, so we weren't too worried about the strike affecting our plans to go to Chicago to see some cousins for Christmas. It's maybe a three hour train ride from Jackson, Michigan, no problem. Why take the train? Well, Amtrak didn't exist back then, and there was talk of all passenger train service being permanently discontinued. Mom wanted us kids to at least have the experience of a train trip once in our lives. I was 8, and my brother was 3 1/2, just old enough to remember the trip.
So we're off on our adventure to the big city. The train's a bit crowded, but not too badly. That didn't last! By the time we hit Battle Creek, we'd been through several college towns and they were all going on Xmas break! Standing room only? No, sardine room only! Mom couldn't even bend over to pick my bro up and get him up above all the knees. They stopped taking on passengers, leaving hundreds of people to wait for the next train, but there were so many people already on the train that Mom was getting worried for us kids' safety. Suddenly, a small door opened behind us, and a woman said, "Get those kids in here before they get stepped on!" A quick squeeze through the door, and we were in the lounge of the ladies' bathroom! Yeah, a real lounge, about 5' x 8', and the little bathroom was off of that room. What luxury that little room was! There were about 10 of us in there, but we had space to sit down, and we had the potty! Yay!
To add the capper to this little tale, the conductors couldn't even get through the crowd to sell or collect tickets. We hadn't been able to buy tickets at the station, so we ended up riding to Chicago, in the bathroom, for free. Didn't see much scenery on the way, since there was only one little frosted window to look out of, but that's ok. We had brought books to read, and Mom had snacks for us, so we were just fine.
Chicago was good, and I loved the museums and all the new stuff.
The trip back had it's own fun....they put the train on the wrong track, and we had to back up for about 20 miles so they could switch us to the right one....
Just another typical trip with my Mom!