Catching Up & Texas

WARNING: The entry below is 'totally blabby' to make up for time absent. There will be no picture breaks and the content may lack relevance and/or a point. May also contain copious spelling errors. If you still wish to read the entry below, the establishment will not be held responsible for any choking that make occur from excess drool incurred while sleeping from overwhelming boredom. Have a nice day!

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Greetings!

Had quite the gusty little storm last week. Blew branches off and tried to do its best imitation of a sand blaster. I bent my passport renewal pictures trying to get into the house without having them or myself blown away! ;)

Dad came up for a lovely visit the twelfth through the fifteenth of August. We had a great time just hanging out and chattering. Even went shopping a bit. Had a terrible time finding a duvet cover for my new duvet. Poor man, a whole exhausting day of shopping. We eventually found two that will work splendidly and he survived like a real trooper!



Last part of August and the first week of September, I decided it would be a bright idea to climb aboard a plane and fly to visit some cousins in Texas. They were having a bunch of other people a young kids 'get-together', so I just joined the crowd! (Except everyone seemed to be seventeen...But fear not! I have never found acting younger than I am challenging.) Met lots of new people and had several of them tell me I had to move down there. (They were saying all this right after they explained how they weren't bothered by hurricanes much, but tornadoes were common. Ha ha. *hates tornadoes* Although, I would like to visit again soon. Maybe this winter when I'm oh so tired of all the blessed snow...)

I hung out most of the time with my cousins Autumn, Dana and a guy that was just weird enough to be family so that we all treated him like he was. We got into all kinds of trouble and even had a bit of a scare when my pregnant cousin got kicked in the stomach while we were in their pool! Aaah! It made her feel very odd, so I went with her to the hospital where they put her under observation for several hours. The doctor said the baby is absolutely fine, but she still had intense pain every time she was standing plus a weird cramping sensation. They sent her home anyway. We kept a pretty close eye on her and she didn't get any worse, so we tried not to crowd her too much.

On a side note, if I were in charge of building hospitals, I would change the floor plan of the birthing and baby floor! There were NO public restrooms in the ward where my cousin was. And that's okay if someone just has to tinkle, but what about.....'meditating' over... one's business when there is merely a thin curtain separating one from the rest of the room, the short hallway and a whole host of nurses, doctors and who ever else happens to wander by. Needless to say, I left the ward and went down the hall to the waiting room. There, I discovered the worst flaw of all. On a floor where there is almost NOTHING but pregnant women, there is one, count it carefully, ONE unisex bathroom. Um....does anyone else see the problem here? Don't they know that pregnant women have to pee every eight minutes because junior is sitting/kicking/hitting/pressing on their bladder!?! *shakes head* Great plan guys.

I had a great time visiting and was loving it all until my allergies went into overdrive. Total bleh. I don't know what it was, but it's vile. Took me almost a whole two weeks to get over whatever the nasty stuff was. Getting sick put a big crimp in my plans. They weren't amazing plans, but they sounded fun to me. Not to mention the fact that no one wanted to be around me while I was drizzling mucus out of every facial orifice. Ew. Oh, and the fact that flying when your sinuses are full is absolute agony. No kidding. they could use it as torture. Owie.

Apart from the agony, they flying part of flying to Texas was kinda fun. (Except the part where they switched gates on me at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. That airport is huge. Not fun. Has its own little inner-airport train and everything. Which I'm in love with, by the way. Without the SkyLink train, I would have died. Srsly.)

Flying back was a kick in the pants. The kind of kick that comes in steel toed boots forcefully walloping your tender and unprotected backside. I thought my ear drums had busted. Then I got a bloody nose as we landed in Portland. *gives up* I didn't cry in frustration, but I might have flattened an idiot (or two) that stood in my way in as I was in a major hurry to get off the plane and to a lavatory where I could mop myself up.

On the bright side, it was clear enough as we were flying into Oregon that I got to see Mount Adams, Mount Rainer, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Hood really close. It was actually quite cool. *huge dorky geography and vulcanologist nerdy type grin*

Anyway, almost this entire entry was a long convoluted way of saying that I had a great time in spite of the difficulties! :D

Love you all!
E.