Well, I will be leaving tomorrow morning, bright and early for good ol’ Hobbs.  My flight however will end up taking 7 hours and 10 mins (or so the airlines will have me believe).  I have two layovers, which makes an otherwise simple trip a bit more complicated.  Then, sometime this weekend we will be loading up our “wagon” and hitting the highway to head home. Don’t you just love all those H’s! Happily honking on the highway we head home. Hopefully Heather and her mother have a hexciting hourney.  Okay, the last two were a stretch.

Anywho, I may not be around cyberspace for awhile.  So I hope you all have a great time while I am gone.

Hilarious Hippos Hopscotch Hectically to Hannah’s (sorry, couldn’t resist)

After nearly 20 years in a one story home, learning how to clean a three story house is a lesson in of itself!  My back aches, my feet hurt, my head is swimming and other various complaints. I think I am going to have to learn how to split this cleaning thing up. Maybe a floor a day or a system where it’s dusting one day, floors the next. Or maybe when mom is here we can all take a floor.  Husband unit on one, mom on one and me on the other.  The basement can be cleaned for special occasions.

It’s going to get wet here. So I need some good wellies/galoshes.  I have to be fashion conscious, so I’ve done some looking on line. But I found two cute pairs and can’t decide! What to do?

Product Page [thisnext.com]

I left Hobbs, NM on August 9th, got here on the 11th (yeah, that sounds right).  I think we are finally kind of settled (we may not be for much longer, but that’s a whole other post). We’re enjoying it here. Discovering new things, eating at new places, meeting new people, running the dogs in the park. So why am I already headed back to Hobbs? 

 Yes, you read that right. I’m headed back to Hobbs, America this Thursday. It’s not homesickness though.  Nosiree Bob.  While it will be nice to see to how much Hobbs has changed in the two weeks I have been gone and to see the people I haven’t seen in 14+ days, I am flying back to get my mom.

My mom is by no means a woman who is incapable of taking care of herself. Perish the thought. She’s as sharp as a tack and tough as old boots (ignore the word old) and she can take care of herself just fine, thank you very much.  But, while she is a capable 30+ some years woman, it’s still not advisable for her to make the close to 1600 mile journey on her own. 

So this Thursday I board a plane bound for Lubbock, TX to be picked up by mom.  Her stuff will be packed up on Friday and if all goes according to plan we will head out on Saturday which means if all goes well we’ll be home by Monday, Tuesday at the latest.  Just in time for the husband unit to go on his business trip to NY.

So it just goes to show you, you can’t get rid of me that easy. I’m already headed back! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA!

Those of you who know me, know that when it comes to a sense of direction, I don’t have one.  I could get lost walking around a tree.  For those of you who don’t believe me, consider this, I lived in the same town for nearly 20 years and I still couldn’t tell you street names to save my life and I still had to consult a map for finding certain schools and other places.

I am a landmark kind of  gal.  Don’t tell me  “Go North”.  That will only result in a blank stare or a soft chuckle.  Instead you say “Head towards the old Burger King”.  If I see a specific rock or there’s an odd bend in the road I remember it.  You won’t get lost with me if I have things I recognize around me.

So here I am in a new place. A city.  Not New York City or anything like that, but a real city with big buildings, tons of bridges (which are all the same damn color), and lots of winding roads, hills and things that, well, just look the same to me.

I’m slowly learning my way around. I do much better on foot because I’m not having to navigate narrow roads, dodge cars parked on the side of the road (right in the flow of traffic) and attempt to follow street signs that aren’t always there.  Yet, I can’t go everywhere on foot.  I am sure it would be healthy for me. It would eventually cause my buns to tighten so much that bouncing a quarter off of my tushie into a shot glass would be an ice breaker at gatherings.  However, carrying arm loads of groceries is a bit of a bummer and winter is coming eventually. And while it’s not supposed to be like Buffalo here, I have a feeling that walking the mere 15 minutes it takes to get into downtown won’t be much fun when the wind is blowing and the temp outside is 20 degrees or lower.  So drive I must.  But leave the driving to my senses! HA! HA! Not so.

Instead I invested in a small, affordable and pretty reliable GPS (or Sat Nav) for my car.  Kaloo Kalay oh fragious day! Heather will not be gripping her steering wheel and facing forward with sweat on her brow and a pain in her lower back. Instead she types in her destination and the lovely lady in the box tells me how to get there. She also helps me avoid tolls, find places to eat, gas stations and Points of Interest.  Where has she been all my life? If a miss a turn or exit she doesn’t shout. Instead she calmly offers me advice on the next best step to take to get myself to my location.   And when I get there, hearing her soft voice say those three words I have come to love so much ring through my ears: “You have arrived”.

I have arrived, yes I have.

Hello there everyone. I said it was going to happen and it did. I have a blog. This way I can keep everyone up on personal (and professional) life. Right now it’s all bit dull and bland. But I do promise that things will start to get going as I figure this all out and with the help of my own private “webmaster guru” (aka “the husband unit”). I will have a much more impressive and entertaining blog!

Since my move I’ve realized something; with the technology we have today we do stay in contact with the people we love (or even don’t like) with just the press of a button or the flick of a switch. It really is wonderful.

I’ve honestly not missed my friends AS much as I would have (Of course I still miss you guys loads, but you get what I’m saying). At least I haven’t had as much time to miss them with web cams, instant messages, emails, texts, cell phones, land lines, etc. Hell, I even got to see the storm that rocked my old town just weeks after I had left. (Thanks Michelle!)

However, we have lost something because of this. Letter writing. I know, I know. You can sit down and type a nice long email. You can chat for hours on the computer or the phone. But there’s something to be said about the letter.

My husband and I met on the internet, back in the day when meeting on the internet was something new and different! (1997 to be exact) For two years and then some our main form of communicating with each other was email. We would instant message whenever we could and phone calls (especially with the introduction of calling cards) were something to be enjoyed. However, I remember how special it was to me when I would get a small hand written note, a little card, or even a lovely, long letter (more than two pages front and back) in the mail.

Each hand written gem was like a little gift. Just knowing that he had sat there with pen in hand, whether it was on the tube, in his flat, or even sat at the pub made me feel so special. The thought that his fingers had touched the pages, his breath had been on it, his eyes scanning the same words I was scanning made the letter something much more intimate than a instantaneous electronic message sent across cyberspace. It was almost like a little piece of him was being posted to me across the miles.

It also makes me think about the little notes my mother wrote on my lunch napkins. Whether it was a simple heart or smiley face, it really helped make my day. I knew she loved me. She told me everyday. But seeing it in writing made it even more real.

That is why the other day I bought myself a nice pen, with proper ink and wonderful creamy, writing, paper. I want to write letters. I know that I will still email and talk to my friends and loved ones, probably almost daily, but with writing a letter I will be sending them a bit of me (not in the van Gogh sense). I will be putting aside time to send them a part of myself.

And even though I don’t get long letters from my husband anymore it’s nice to find his little hand written notes and drawings that he does for me here and there around the house.