a little too early. a little too cold. good time to break a plane.

I have spent over two years now traveling to northern parts of this country and I am still amazed and confused at why people choose to live here. This morning when we made our way to the airport it was 2 degrees. Thanks to our lovely little windy weather system that came through the windchill was -17. That is officially the coldest I've ever been. Even colder than that day my hair froze in Minneapolis (or Minnianapolis depending on who you ask).

Speaking of hair, I'm trying to decide if when it's time to get my roots covered I want to go back to a more normal color or stay blonde for a while longer. I think because I still have some remaining red from last fall on the ends it makes my hair look yellower than I like. Maybe once that grows out (probably my next hair cut) I'll like it better?

Oh yeah - we got to the airport for our 6am flight, got all the passengers on, got the plane warmed up, and found out something didn't work. So I'm still here in Peoria. At least I'm inside where it's warm. Otherwise I might cry. I even considered wearing my pj pants under my work pants this morning. Unfortunately they're fleecey and a little thick, otherwise I definitely would've.

This just reaffirms my last day of the trip theory...

addictions and millions of little decisions

I'll start off by admitting that my addiction to flica has returned. I thought I was cured of it, but now I seem to spend every minute online searching for better trips, more hours, better overnights, etc...I haven't even turned on the tv tonight (partially because that's addictive as well and I can only handle one addiction at a time.) Part of the returned addiction to flica is that my schedule next month had me wasting too much time in terrible places. Have to change that.

Now I'm in Peoria, IL. I was in Moline earlier today and between these two places I can't remember the last time I was this cold. The worst part is the wind. It's blowing so hard none of the snow that's falling can even land on the ground. I've never heard of a blizzard where the ground didn't get covered with snow, but that's what they're saying is going to happen tonight. Weird midwesterners... All four of my flights today had terrible turbulence as well (thanks to the wind). I had to stop serving once and nearly spilled coffee all over everything another time.

This trip has been far less eventful than last week's. Everything has gone mostly according to plan. I've actually flown all my flights for a change. Since the first night in Newburgh, NY we've been hanging out here in the midwest. My crew is really nice and interesting to talk to. My captain has lost 40lb in the last 4 months. I've really enjoyed picking his brain and hearing what he's learned in the process. I asked him what happened to make him finally lose weight and how he did it. His brother had lost a lot of weight and learned about nutrition and exercise. This made him realize it was possible and gave him the information to do it for himself.

The main thing, though, that has really stuck with me for the last few days was him saying "It isn't one big decision. It's a million little decisions every day." I've really thought about that a lot. I seem to think about it every time I put something in my mouth now. I also realized how that is true of every part of our lives. When it comes to practicing your faith, many people have a point where they made a "decision" but it's really the million little decisions you make every day that determine whether it's going to last. The same with love. I can tell someone I love them one time, but all the little decisions that I make every day show whether I really love them. It's been inspiring to me in a lot of ways. I still ate way too much pasta with alfredo sauce tonight, but I skipped the donuts at breakfast yesterday so hopefully it evens out :-P. I think the million little decisions idea is a good way for me to deal with things as well because I tend to get discouraged if I've made a big decision (eat healthy) and I eat junk. If I view each decision, each choice, as separate from the last one then if I make a bad one it doesn't affect the next one. I don't know if that makes sense, but it does in my head.

I think that's all for now. I'll be home tomorrow if all goes to plan. Then I work again Thursday and Friday. I'm enjoying work more this week. Not sure what's different. It definitely isn't the weather (though Atlanta did feel wonderful for the 45 minutes I was there today.) Whatever it is, I like it. I hope it stays for a minute.

Currently reading : For Whom the Bell Tolls By Ernest Hemingway

It’s easy to be happy when life is this good

It truly is - easy and good. In the last few days I've been reminded what amazing family and friends I have. I got to see most of my family and spoke to the rest of them and have heard from so many different friends of mine. We're into day three of cake day. There are about 25 muffins (4 different flavors, 4 different icings) upstairs along with a "suicide cake" which is all the leftover batter cooked together iced in stripes with the remaining icing. Matt and Molly are really into cake. I love it. And birthdays. Yesterday morning they woke me up with breakfast in bed. I was taken shopping yesterday and got a beautiful dress that made me feel beautiful. I've had all sorts of lovely gifts given to me and been reminded again and again how blessed I am to have such amazing people in my life. I could go on and on but I need to go get ready to have lunch with my parents and Michal before her game. I have to say, my sisters are the prettiest girls ever :-D. I know this isn't particularly interesting or profound or funny but I like to document the mountain tops so when I'm in a valley I can go back and be reminded of how good my life is.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

I may have used this subject title before, but today truly is a frabjous day so I'm going to use it again.

Today is my birthday and for once my company was nice (not on purpose of course) and I'm home nearly 10 hours early. I'm quite pleased if you can't tell. Yesterday we ended up staying in Tulsa the whole day. The plane we were supposed to fly to Atlanta and then on to Oklahoma City broke in Memphis. They were going to bus us over to OKC but decided to just have us work the flight back this morning instead. I couldn't believe it. Actually I refused to believe it until I was actually on the bus going to my car. But now I'm home and am so happy.

My birthday began last night when we went for Mexican and the captain bought dinner for us. The waitress gave me a scrumptious brownie (with a cherry on top, of course) and a margarita. I don't understand how people don't like celebrating their birthdays. It's so much fun :-D. Now I have a whole extra day at home and don't even know what to do with it. It's fabulous.

Ode to the Tulsa Crowne Plaza

I think I would come to Tulsa all the time just for this hotel. Some things I like about it: very attractively decorated (pale and dark green walls, dark wood trim and furniture); king size, very comfortable bed with white linens and lots of pillows so I can sleep diagonal if I so desire; nice bathroom with thick towels, good bath products, lighted close up mirror; beautiful view of the city; lots of little extras like a kit with earplugs, eye mask, linen spray, cd player with sleep cd and a plethora of outlets convenient for laptops and cell phones. Oh yeah, and unlike other cold weather overnights, they're nice enough to leave the heat on for you.

Today was a most bizarre day work-wise. Since we got stuck in NY last night our scheduling geniusi decided we had to bring the plane back today around noon. This decision was made regardless of the fact that we would then be sitting in Atlanta for 7 hours before continuing on to our overnight here in Tulsa. Being of a sane mind I decided to go home during this break. It was quite convenient since I'd forgotten to do my emissions yesterday and would've had to pay for my tag being late. I got all that done and made it home with enough time left to get relaxed enough to really not want to go back to work. Then I noticed that our flight was late, stretching our break into over 8 hours. We finally brought all 27 of our passengers out here. I managed to get a lot of reading done since they slept the whole way and I had nothing else to do. It's amazing how not working can sometimes make you more tired than actually being busy all day.

Tonight when I was reading they mentioned falafel. It reminded me of Barcelona. I introduced Israel to the kebab/pita stands that are thicker there than McDees or Starbucks are over here. I had also been introduced to them when I was in Barcelona and love them. I think he ended up eating it at least twice a day :-P. I would've done the same if I hadn't lost all interest in food after my third day there. The night I got sick we were out looking for food. We crossed La Rambla and went down some new streets. Just by crossing a street we were immediately surrounded by middle eastern stores, restaurants and people. It was crazy. We went into a little shop to look for something and saw postcards from Pakistan - in Barcelona. (Do people who live in Barcelona sent postcards of Pakistan back to Pakistan or somewhere else? I don't get it.) It's funny how in every major city people of each country and culture find each other and make their own area. The restaurants change. The names change. The faces change. I think that was also the part where the guy got kicked out of the restaurant and started picking a fight so we moseyed on the other way back to white people world :-P. - Random memory that I don't want to forget.

I seem to have left my glasses on the plane going to Barcelona. This means no watching tv once I'm in bed and holding my laptop near and dear to my face. It's pretty annoying. Guess I'll be getting some new ones soon. For now I'm just going to give my eyes a break and let them check out my eyelids.

Currently reading : Blame It on Paris By Laura Florand

Ludicrosity

Don't tell me it isn't a word. I just made it one. It's the word that best describes the things my company does. I'm in Newburgh, NY. Don't ask me where it is. I don't know. I heard it's west of NYC a good ways. I'll google it and find out shortly. It's about 20 here. Pretty warm compared to Omaha, which is where I was supposed to be tonight. Originally I was supposed to go to Newburgh and back, then to Omaha for the night. Then early this morning they discovered the plane we were supposed to take was broken in Texas. So instead of finding a new one they just delayed this flight 3 hours and canceled our overnight. Woo hoo! I get to go home. Or I can just get stuck in Newburgh because they're scared of ice in Atlanta... I give up. The main object of the game right now is to just not expect anything to go any certain way. Then whatever way it turns out is fine. They have us flying back tomorrow before noon and then sitting at the airport for 7.5 hours before we go to Tulsa for the night... We'll see about that. More ludicrosity if you ask me.

Atlanta has been tormented by the cold lately. And before those of you who live in sub-zero, snow covered lands 9 months of the year start to mock us, we live in Atlanta so we don't have to deal with that. Don't hate us just cause you're frozen solid :-P. Thanks to the cold in Atlanta I got to spend an extra 7 hours in Key West Friday night where the coldest it got was about 70. Yes, it was amazing and beautiful. I'm actually a little envious of myself for getting to go there. Then it was back on the plane, close the door for an hour and a half, and open it to snow.

All this talk of work and weather is boring even me to sleep. I'm sorry.

I think I mentioned the dating dealbreaker the other day. Tonight I realized I have another one. There was a fairly decent looking man on my flight tonight. He was sitting by the window and didn't really say much to me but smiled at me a lot and spent a lot of time looking at me. When he got off the plane he (awkwardly) went to shake my hand and gave me a paper with his name, number, and email address on it. It looked like it was written by a third grader... He had started writing out his email address, seen that it wouldn't fit as one line and scribbled it out and wrote it again smaller. He even had to correct his phone number. Is it so much to ask that a man be able to write like an adult? And I know I'm asking for the world, but how about he write like a male adult while he's at it. I'm sure I'm not the only one that gets incredible put off by silly things like accents and handwriting (and spelling, grammar, bad teeth, bad fingernails... )

The blue skies are deceiving. It’s 21 here.

I'm still in Kansas City. What was meant to be a nice, relaxing day in my hotel room has become an internet connection nightmare. Last night I couldn't get online. They offered to send someone up to fix it but it was late and I just wanted to sleep. Then this morning when I still couldn't get online I called downstairs and was informed that they have wireless in the public areas but don't have internet in the rooms. I thought this was strange since there was an ethernet cord in the room and the little booklet said there was internet. So later I went downstairs to ask what the deal was. The guy behind the desk says - we don't have internet in the rooms, just ethernet.... Last time I checked they were the same?? Then the internet help guy shows up and informs me that the internet for the hotel is working and proceeds to show me on the monitor. I let him know I think that's beautiful and all but that doesn't mean it works in my room. He basically tells me that's too bad. I can use the business center downstairs. That also is lovely and all but what's the point in having internet in my room if it doesn't work (yes, I know you have to take the cord and plug it in. I've done this a million times in a million hotels.) By this time I was so angry. I don't know if he was treating me like I was stupid cause he's Indian and I'm a woman, or because I'm blond, or because I had the worse bed-head ever. I was so mad that I turned around and walked away in the middle of what he said. I took my laptop down to the business center to prove that it wasn't the settings on my laptop. Mission accomplished they send a new ethernet cord up to my room. Unfortunately it still didn't work and was only two feet long anyway. I know this is dreadful but I'm still pretty mad about it. I finally had to take all my stuff and move to another room. So here I am. I lost my balcony and sleep number bed in the move, but there's snow all over the balcony and those sleep number beds are weird so it's ok.

I'm enjoying being blonde finally. I usually forget I'm blonde until I get some kind of reaction. Hopefully being treated like an idiot this morning had nothing to do with me or my hair color. We'll see if blondes really do have more fun. I have to bid and try to remember all the other things on my to-do list since I have a whole day here at the hotel. Tonight I'm supposed to hang out with my buddy Joshua. Should be fun times :).

snow, snow go away

I'm here in oh so fabulous Kansas City. I would be thrilled to be here cause I actually have friends who live here, but I'm too tired to do anything except lie on my bed. Today was a long day. It wasn't necessarily bad, just long. I signed in at 8:45am after waking up around 6 and we didn't get off the plane here until 11pm. We did have a long sit which meant it wasn't all work, but the sitting around sometimes makes it harder to keep your work momentum going. So after two weeks off I'm back at work and I survived. Part of the crazy length of the day was due to the massive blizzard we experienced this afternoon in Atlanta. Okay, massive blizzard might be a slight exaggeration, but there was a lot more snow than we're used to seeing in the ATL. There is actually a decent amount of snow on the ground here in MCI. It's nice to look at and doesn't bother me now that I've holed up in my hotel room for the next day or so.

I forgot to mention that I was on the radio the other day. I was listening to Star94 in the afternoon. This was unusual in the first place, and the fact that I decided to call in was even more unusual. Then on top of that they actually answered and considered what I had to say good enough to be on live radio. I was very nervous as I waited to talk to the djs. They were asking what your dating deal breakers were. One of mine is a redneck accent. I told them how I'm a flight attendant and i have a lot of really attractive men get on my flights, but once they start talking they lose all their appeal. Maybe I'm shallow. I don't care. We all have silly things that we can't deal with. That just happens to be one of mine.

I was lying in a very particular spot on the bed so I could get wireless here but now it kicked me off so I'll have to post this in the morning when I have the energy to fight with it.

The bane of my existence

I'm not going to make you guess. It's my room. If you've ever seen it you'll understand why. It is such a mess right now. I'm trying to rearrange it but I don't have very many options. It's making me insane.

As you may have noticed, I made it back from Germany. After having a crazy fun time at the club in Binsfeld (pop. 1000-8000 depending on who you ask) we drove to Frankfurt Saturday morning so I could get business elite going home. Sweeeet. I was really surprised to walk down the street of this quaint little German town and be in a dance club. I'm not talking about a pub with a dance floor either. This was a dance club (somehow fit into the historic old buildings) that had a downstairs for techno and upstairs for hip hop. It was a cool place with good music, but I honestly would've been content just to sit and watch people all night. It's fascinating to go to a different part of the world and see people my age-ish and how they dress and act. I knew there would be a lot of Americans there because of the military base, but then I started to see more and more people that made me feel like I was in Atlanta. I can't even remember how many different team jersies I saw as well as do-rags, baseball caps, and bling. I initially assumed everyone dressed like this was American until some of them walked past speaking German to each other. I also saw a guy who had a Jordan jersey on BACKWARDS. I'm assuming he wasn't American cause if he was he'd know that's a good way to look like an idiot. If he's German he can get away with it. They seem to get away with anything fashion-wise in Europe. It was pretty liberating to know that I could wear my black coat and my brown shoes and look just like everyone else there. It was a lot of fun to see the Euro-mullet again. I wore my hair in a mohawk when we went out and actually got a few thumbs up and other such signs of approval from other crazy haired people. The weather was so nice that evening that we walked to the club in short sleeves and were only mildly cold. I would've never expected such weather in Germany in January.

Now it's back to Georgia in January. I'm loving it. I think I'm still a little jet-lagged. I get tired about 6pm every day. It's kind of annoying cause I had to drink some caffiene to stay awake through the evening and now I'm awake. Looking at my room is wearing me out though. Especially now that I have a belly full of my mama's good cooking.

Today I took a journey to Chattanooga where I took part in a hair class. I had my hair bleached a week or so ago but we had trouble with the remaining red from my last hair class I was in. After about 4 steps they got the remaining odd colors out of my hair and it is a true platinum blonde. I will post pictures tomorrow. I really like it. They also sent me home with a ton of salon grade hair products which is always fun.

I guess it's time to take my extremely platinum blonde head and put it on my pillow on my awkwardly placed bed in my ridiculously messy room.

Currently reading : Hide By Lisa Gardner

whatever happened to aging gracefully? it got old.

Well I made it to Germany. It was quite the voyage. Took a walk, a bus, a plane, and a car, but I'm here. My time in German has not been very extensive, I've bussed across it then ridden a train back across it stopping in Berlin for a day and a night, but I've always really enjoyed it. I was already enjoying it as we flew in. All I could see was green grass, fields, hills, and trees. In January that's always a sight that pleases me. It wasn't nearly as cold as I expected. Kind of feels like January in Georgia. It's a little rainy as well. By the time we got back here I'd been up and traveling for 9 hours so I was content to run around with Mandy for a little while. My appetite has finally come back with force. So much for losing weight by not eating. Guess I'll have to actually exercise. Blah. Anyway - back to Germany. Today we had to drive to Frankfurt to pick up one of her friends so I got to see a lot of the countryside. We saw a few castles and a few dozen adorable little towns. It also seems to be wine country here. There are vineyards growing at ninety degree angles on the hills here. There are also two huge sundials built into the side of the hill. Guess they want to make sure no one can dispute work times in the vineyards. There's also a river running through the area here, and there's nothing like a river to make me love an area even more. It's so beautiful here. I discovered yesterday that my company does not have the ugliest flight attendant uniforms. It was quite reassuring. Still not sure if they're pretty enough to keep me there, but I'm on vacation so I'm not worrying about that. And since I'm on vacation I'm enjoying sitting on the couch, watching episode after episode of shows I love, laughing with Mandy and her friends, and just relaxing.Tomorrow we're going to pick out the castle that I'll be moving into when I come back here. There are enough airplanes, military guys, and pretty little villages to keep me amused. At least for a while :-P.

shaking off my moss

It seems that it´s time to move on. I´ve just cleared out our room in the hostel and am waiting for Israel to get back from work. You´d think that after another day or so in Barcelona I´d have many more grand and exciting adventures to recount, but alas, I don´t. Unfortunately for me I´ve spent the majority of that time in bed or in the bathroom. Lovely, I know. It seems that I either got food poisoning or caught a virus that also seems to be wandering around Europe. I ditched Israel for supper Sunday night cause every time I smelled food I thought I was going to puke. Then I came back to the hostel and shivered in bed. Then it became my body´s mission to rid me of all food and anything else inside of me. It was the strangest thing - I´d finally fall asleep only to begin dreaming of food. Once I started dreaming about food I would get nauseated again. Gross. I finally got out of bed around 4 yesterday afternoon and managed to walk around a little bit. It has really killed my adventurous spirit at the moment. I have a whole other day here before I go to Germany, but I´m assuming a great deal of that time will be taken up with getting to the airport (it´s an hour away from here), figuring out where I´m staying, and other such lovely necessities. Israel leaves for Hong Kong tonight via London.

A few interesting things I remembered - around all the big tourist sites there are lots and lots of beggars. There was a very persistent one the other day by the Sagrada Familia. She kept talking about her 3 children, but the whole time she talked to us she held a scarf across her mouth. I didn´t think much of it until I saw her talking to some kids later - maybe hers - and she had dropped the scarf. That´s when I noticed the FOUR gold teeth in the front of her mouth!! This is why I don´t give money to beggars. The beggars here are the cleanest, most well-nourished bunch of poor people I´ve ever seen. The scam artists also abound. Israel and I have enjoyed watching them play their games to see if any innocent people fall for it.

During my night of sleeping and sickness I dreamed that I was requesting that all my dreams involve space camp...??? I also dreamed that I was being a flight attendant on a school bus. Yes, it was going to fly. And I was totally making up the announcement as I went. I had to say things like the emergency exits are on the side, there in the back and up front here. And instead of saying the door at the end of the aisle is the flight deck door I just said the area up at the front is for the pilots... hahah. When we were reading the Christmas story the other day I noticed how many things God told them in dreams, but if God is trying to tell me something through my dreams I think He needs to make them a little less ridiculous.

Next time I write I will probably be in Germany. Hasta luego!

lots and lots to say - be warned

Today is basically my third day in Barcelona. It feels like all we did today was eat. I understand even more why the Spanish people do the siestas. I´ll get back to today in a minute.

Yesterday Israel and I woke up really late. I slept about 14 hours. I think my job helps me adapt to different places better because some days I have to get up at 4am and some days I don´t go to sleep til 4am. Yesterday we walked all over the city. It seems that the main architectural style is modernism or modernista. I´m sure someone reading this knows much more about the technical names but I mainly read my guide books so I don´t get lost. We saw Gaudi´s Sagrada Familia which seems to be the symbol of Barcelona. I´m not sure if I´m a fan, but I guess I can appreciate the creativity required in something like that. We didn´t do the tour because the dollar is 1.5 to the euro and unless I really love something I´m not going to spend that much money to tour it. We also saw a new building that makes me wonder what they were thinking when they built it. It´s blue and phallic shaped and looks like all it´s lacking is batteries - if you know what I mean. It is such a harsh contrast to the beautiful city that Barcelona is.

We zigzagged back toward the coast and went to the aquarium. It´s built in the port and is really pretty. It has tunnels so you can walk under the fish. We were able to see 6ft long sharks gliding over our heads and right past us. I had to avoid dwelling on what it would feel like to have one of their many rows of teeth sink into me. It was interesting and educational. Friday we also watched surfers battle the waves. They were enormous and I can´t imagine why anyone in their right mind would voluntarily submit themselves to that. Of course, I´ve never surfed so I don´t know what I´m missing out on.

After the aquarium we wandered around a long time looking for somewhere there would be people speaking English. We ended up going to two different Irish pubs. In the first we talked to a guy who brought people here from Ireland for the Formula One races, but who also happened to know everything about everything. After a while of that I started to appreciate not being able to understand some of the nonsense that was probably being spoken around me. The next place we went to there was a very British sounding Swedish girl who was nice to talk to.

This morning we met up with one of Israel´s coworkers, Alicia, for churros and chocolate. I´ve had this in Madrid but usually late at night after dancing for a long time. Never first thing in the morning. It is very traditional and that is what she wanted to show us. We then met up with one of her friends, Marina, who drove us up to the mountain on the north side of the city. There was a really nice view but we only stayed for a few minutes. These girls are the classic thin, stylish Spanish girls who make me feel frumpy and American. We had a very good time practicing their English and our Spanish together. They showed us some more of Gaudi´s work around the city before we parked near the port. We walked through the Born area and had tapas at a little hole in the wall place. The only thing is, the way the streets and building are built, most places - shops and restaurants - are holes in the wall. I love all the tiny little streets with the balconies with plants and laundry climbing high above. It amazes me that people really live here.
After tapas we walked around more until we met up with Marina´s boyfriend and went to a really nice restaurant on the port. For appetizers we had the most un-rubbery calamari I´ve ever had as well as something very light and fried that had fish in it. After that we had more seafood paella than most of us could handle. I don´t even know what everything was that I ate. It was very good though, and also very traditional. To me, tapas and paella are what stand out in my mind as Spanish food.

Now I´m back at the hostel. Israel has gone for a run and I´m trying to let my food digest. Tomorrow is the beginning of their huge shopping sales - probably the equivalent of the day after Thanksgiving. I guess that´s what I´ll be doing. They celebrate Christmas a little differently here in Catalunya (northern Spain). Yesterday was Three Kings Day which as far as I can tell celebrates when the wise men came to see baby Jesus. It seems they celebrate that more than actual Christmas day. We´ve also learned a lot about their traditions and how they feel they should be separate from the rest of Spain. That´s one of the beautiful things about spending time in a foreign place with the locals.

This is really long now. Hopefully you survived it. I have to go wrap back up cause the sun has gone down and it´s pretty chilly at night. Hopefully Israel didn´t get lost and end up in France... :-P

Barcelona

Greetings from across the pond. I´m currently sitting in our hostel trying to stay awake. We got first class on the way over, which was great, but I only slept about 3 of the 8 hours. And then we arrived at 2am Georgia time. We got a bus into Barcelona and dropped our stuff off at our hostel, then went walking around the city. My feet hurt. I think I´d give a lot of something valuable (money?) for a pair of shoes that don´t hurt my feet after a day of walking. Barcelona is as lovely as I remember it. The weather is nice - pretty chilly now that it´s dark- but mostly sunny during the day. We walked down La Ramblas and saw the living statues, lots of animals for sale (not for human consumption - nice change from my last trip :-P), artists, jewelry stands, con artists, magicians... You name it. I love the fashion here. Boots are everywhere in all shapes and colors. I´ve looked at some but can´t find any that are $150 worth of comfort. I´ve seen a lot of really cool architecture and art. The city seems to be the doodle pad for a lot of famous people. I´m going to go to my room and see if I can stay awake at least until 8. I don´t know what I´m going to do for the next 4 days. One of Israel´s coworkers is going to take us around on Sunday and he has to work on Monday. I´m supposed to fly to Frankfurt on Wednesday. I might see about going earlier if I run out of things to do around here. That´s about all for now. I´m tired and am going to go read about tango in Buenos Aires.

PS. I´m extremely blond now :-P. I´ll try to get some pictures up but I need to take a shower and sleep first so I don´t look scary.

Currently reading : Kiss and Tango: Diary of a Dancehall Seductress By Marina Palmer

vacation

I'm going to Spain and Germany today. I haven't even unpacked my suitcase from last night's trip. I seem to be quite the last minute packer. I don't even know what to pack. The high in Barcelona is in the 50s and the high in Frankfurt is in the 30s. As if Atlanta isn't cold enough right now. Don't they know we live in Atlanta so we don't have to deal with single digit temperatures, or wind chills for that matter??

I guess I don't really have time to write the long, thoughtful blog I've been meaning to write for days now, but at least you'll know why I won't be answering my phone (unless I get one that works over there). Israel and I are leaving for Barcelona today. The company he works for in China is based there so he's going to meet some of the owners and employees. I'm tagging along cause I can :). Then on Wednesday I'm flying into Frankfurt to visit Mandy. Should be there until Saturday. I got a ticket on Ryanair for 13euros. It makes me a little nervous how cheap it is, but I'm trying to remain adventurous - or regain some of my adventurousness.

Now I have to gather all the warm clothes I own and see what I can take that will keep me from being cold and miserable.