Rounding out five months of travel with a nice week long sojourn to the deeeeep South tomorrow….thats right, I’m going to Georgia to visit my pappy! I guess he’s not really “pappy.” I think thats for grandpas. And he’s only lived there like a year and some, so I think I can stick with “Daaaaaad!!” I use more syllables depending on how excited I am to see him, and since I haven’t seen him since July (missing Christmas put him on the short list….a very very short short list….) there will be lots of syllables, and I’m also partial to “yay!” and handclapping.

I’m pretty stoked to spend a week out in the sticks, fishing in the crick in the backyard, riding the gocart, taking pictures of all the funny church signs, perhaps the chance to hunt for my own dinner, oohing at the super Walmart, and sampling the many ways one can fry anything, particularly chicken, (crossing my fingers for a fried twinkie or turkey!), wash it all down with real Coke or iced tea with sugar so thick you can stick a knife through it. PAAARADISE!!

I’ve also been informed by my younger brother Andrew, that we have a date to watch Star Wars episodes 4-6 (I’m a traditionalist and refuse to watch 1-3. Without Han Solo, I dont see much of a point. Such a handsome rascal, that one.) and I anticipate many hours of wrestling both brothers at once, playing on the jumpoline, cuddling with my dog Kellie, constructing massive Lego worlds, and light saber fights.

I am a bit dreading the hours of travel that lay ahead of me….well, after five months of being constantly surrounded by people, I look forward to some hours of solitude, some ipod enjoyment, and some solid people watching time. I have a noon flight out of SF, and as everyone who is employed will be at their place of employment and unable to drive me, I am taking the wonder that is BART. I just spent a lot of time on their website, and I find it fascinating. A lot of history on those trains! And while driving across the bridge would cost me $4, let alone the cost of gas and parking it in a lot for seven days, my BART ticket costs $6, AND I’m saving 33 pounds of CO2 emissions!! I’m tickled pink to save the world a wee bit. There is a chance of some gnarly delays, so I will be at the station at 7:30am. Solid 14 hours of travel tomorrow. Sigh.

At least SFO is a nice, interesting airport. I like their decor and abundance of Starbucks and sourdough and chocolate products. I’m thinking its going to be a lot better than my most recent solo airport experience trying to come home from Lima, where they had no record of my ticket for my 1:30am plane, and needed me to magically produce a paper ticket to let me on the plane, although I had the receipt, the credit card, and the e-ticket confirmation paper that specifically said “you will not receive a ticket for this flight.” I was then told to wait another 24 hours for the next flight to the States. Keep in mind, this is all in Spanish, I am in pajamas, unshowered, in glasses, sweating in the humidity, and really ready to go home for Christmas.

After that fun at the ticket counter, I dragged my bags behind me, sobbing openly, snot running down my face, kicking at the air through the terminal. I found myself double-fisting Oreo McFlurries at two am, trying to sleep on the ground, on top of my backpack, sitting up in a chair, all the while breaking out in random moans of anguish, ( a lot of “WHYYYY??? and then translating for myself for my audiences “POR QUEEEE???!?!”) parents putting their hands over their children’s eyes when they walked by me.

Eventually, by the power of my uncle Steve, I was put on a plane at 7am and made it home just 10 hours or so after I would originally have arrived. Stevie saved stevie saved stevie saved my life that night.

So also i HATE PACKING. I’d rather spend an hour typing nonsense here, relishing the speedy internet connection I craved so much during travels, randomly stalking people from high school on facebook, and never finish packing. I’ll wake up too late to shower or find clothes, have to throw in dirty laundry in the suitcase, end up throwing away all toiletries at security determined to not have to check bag, and then go to Walmart in Georgia and buy anything I need, wearing the same pair of sweatpants and Obama shirt (heck yes I’m rocking that EVERY DAY while I’m in the South!) for an entire week. I’d rather do that. More fun to make things difficult for myself. Other fun distracting from packing things I did tonight include looking at photo albums from college, crashing my laptop (blue screen of death. @#$#&!!!) and looking at pictures of a 2 week old hippo online and wondering just how big a pool we would need to build in the backyard to adopt her, and browsing the Missed Connections on Craigslist in Santa Barbara, a city I dont even live in anymore. My existence is pretty pointless right now.

Alright I’m going to go make an effort.
Maybe.