"The fearless are merely fearless. People who act in spite of their fear are truly brave." -James A. LaFond-Lewis
First of all I would like to thank my LJ buddy... SISSAMHAIN for giving me my new cheer and basic pledge of allegiance for the next 17 days! It has made me laugh, I've passed it to some of my other friends who plan to fly sooner than later, and it's rallied even more of my courage within my rattled being. Why don't we all chant it together?? Here we go now...
RAH RAH SIS BOOM BAH - FLY THAT PLANE- DON'T TAKE THE TRAIN! THE BOAT'S TOO SLOW - DON'T WANNA ROW! THE BUSES STINK - YOUR NECK WILL KINK! GET ON THAT JET YOU'LL GET THERE YET!!!
LOL!! I love it! :-) You can be guaranteed that I'll be saying that as I walk the tarmac (if it's a charter flight) or the little tubey airline walkway thinger that connects the plane to the airport... maybe I'll even start a pep rally in one of my 4 flights! hehe :) I'm sure everyone could use a little lifting of their spirits once in awhile.
Anyway... I can't really think of too much that is going on here lately. YES.. there is a mere 17 days to go until I leave AUS to go home! WOW... that means 19 days until I see my family again!!! For the first time in 16 months!!! I could cry!! Has it really been that long?? Time must have gone by terribly fast. But in other internal ways it hasn't at all... no one should ever be away from everything that is familiar and loved for this long. It's just WRONG. I miss them more than words can say... I NEED to go home! I need to hang with my mommy... man, I never thought I'd grow out of my "MOM.. you annoy me! GO AWAY!" phase, but distance surely makes the heart grow fonder. Of course I can't wait to see my brothers too. And my friends of course.. We're going to have SOO much fun!! I could sit here and list all the people that I can't wait to see... but that would take up my whole entry. Just trust me... even with all my nerves with the flying issue (knowing deep down all will be a ok... I just have anxiety issues... don't we all? :) I'd STILL get on a plane tomorrow... if it meant getting HOME sooner.
WELL, now that I got that out of my system. I might as well say what my days have consisted of lately. Work... a four letter word... so we won't go there. Although I will say getting things in order at work is a breeze IF you have worked all year to maintain that order. :) During my after work hours, it's all about fixing up the house. We've been cleaning inside and out. It's a yearly ritual. When one is going on such an extended vacation... ya just gotta get your humble abode looking up to scratch. No one wants to come back to a sorry old deteriorating house. Might as well put in a little elbow grease now. This weekend has been dedicated to yard work. We've cut and stacked piles of unused fire wood. It took two days. WHEW! I found muscles I did not know I had. The coming week is mainly for inside duties... woo hoo. (we're actually bringing one of my friends back to AUS with us in Jan. 02... I want her to oooh and ahhh at the sparkly cleanliness... yeah sure.. make her think we live like this all the time. LOL! Until she lives here for a bit and sees for herself! Then she'll wise up! hehe). The last weekend here will be for mowing LOTS of grass. ARGH. Aaaahh well... it's gotta be done.. Hey it's good for muscle toning too. At least I have a PLAN. The plan WILL be accomplished. :-)
Today is Sunday here... (technically it's going on 3am... on a Monday...OOPS). BUT Monday (today) is a holiday in AUS. It's their Labor Day. So that's cool. More time to pack!! (it's really tough to pack carry-on luggage these days. Stuff that I've taken in the past is bound to get confiscated. I'm thinking just the basics... a book, a flashlight, all those documents that say... I'M ME CC, some clothes, toiletries, maybe a gameboy? hhhrmmm). OH by the way... before I forget. Can anyone suggest a good travel book to take on a 12 hour flight?? I should say a 20 hour flight because that is how many total hours I'll be up in the sky. This trip is 35 hours total people... NOT FUN. Oh well.... I've been there and done it over 10 times now... so who's the pro? ME!!! SO... any suggestions on books... nothing too scary. I need something calming and interesting to take with me.
I keep getting off track tonight. It might have something to do with the time. Bleh. I was gonna say what I did today... yeah that's right. Today was a day of rest. We went to a BBQ in the park with some people. It was just the kind of relaxing experience I needed to unwind. I think we might do that more often within the next two weeks. aaahhh... and the weather... ~sigh~ sunny and in the 80's. T-shirt and shorts weather is for me. But alas... I seem to chase Winter around the world. * giggle *
As some of you may know. During the last 7 weeks... I've been on a diet of sorts. I've taken a lot of the practices of the Atkin's diet (thanks to kitykity... you got it goin' on girl! :) and added my own version of commitment and style. heh... I could do a commercial. I guess I've just been eating right and exercising at least every other day. I think this is the first real diet I've ever been on... and I can't say it's totally real. I'm definitely not consumed with it... plus a lot of the dieting routines I do are all made up LOL, but I know my boundaries... and I know when to get off my booty and DO something. AND... in 7 weeks I've lost 15 lbs! That's about 7ish kilos for all of you poundage illiterate folks! ~grin~ Pretty good eh? Of course the diet is still on (for a few weeks more anyways... whoever thinks I'm gonna diet when I'm at home... and for the holidays and all that is NUTS.)... maybe I'll lose a few more by the time I leave. I kinda think I may have stalled though... I guess I need to try a bit harder. I have faith I can lose maybe 5 more lbs by the 17th ~ the stress of this huge trip will see to that.. but even if I have to kick my butt harder... I can do it! Yippee :)
Other than that I think I have run out of words about me for now. So I'll end with... God Bless America!!! May the world catch all of the terrorists and their cowardly cell groups... and take a poll in NY, PA, and DC... to figure out how to dispose of them. I have my own opinion locked in my head, but if I said it aloud I may scare even myself! Spooky! Ok... one more thing... my Pennsylvania state motto... WHY? Cause I can... "VIRTUE, LIBERTY, AND INDEPENDENCE."
RAH RAH SIS BOOM BAH - FLY THAT PLANE- DON'T TAKE THE TRAIN! THE BOAT'S TOO SLOW - DON'T WANNA ROW! THE BUSES STINK - YOUR NECK WILL KINK! GET ON THAT JET YOU'LL GET THERE YET!!!
LOL!! I love it! :-) You can be guaranteed that I'll be saying that as I walk the tarmac (if it's a charter flight) or the little tubey airline walkway thinger that connects the plane to the airport... maybe I'll even start a pep rally in one of my 4 flights! hehe :) I'm sure everyone could use a little lifting of their spirits once in awhile.
Anyway... I can't really think of too much that is going on here lately. YES.. there is a mere 17 days to go until I leave AUS to go home! WOW... that means 19 days until I see my family again!!! For the first time in 16 months!!! I could cry!! Has it really been that long?? Time must have gone by terribly fast. But in other internal ways it hasn't at all... no one should ever be away from everything that is familiar and loved for this long. It's just WRONG. I miss them more than words can say... I NEED to go home! I need to hang with my mommy... man, I never thought I'd grow out of my "MOM.. you annoy me! GO AWAY!" phase, but distance surely makes the heart grow fonder. Of course I can't wait to see my brothers too. And my friends of course.. We're going to have SOO much fun!! I could sit here and list all the people that I can't wait to see... but that would take up my whole entry. Just trust me... even with all my nerves with the flying issue (knowing deep down all will be a ok... I just have anxiety issues... don't we all? :) I'd STILL get on a plane tomorrow... if it meant getting HOME sooner.
WELL, now that I got that out of my system. I might as well say what my days have consisted of lately. Work... a four letter word... so we won't go there. Although I will say getting things in order at work is a breeze IF you have worked all year to maintain that order. :) During my after work hours, it's all about fixing up the house. We've been cleaning inside and out. It's a yearly ritual. When one is going on such an extended vacation... ya just gotta get your humble abode looking up to scratch. No one wants to come back to a sorry old deteriorating house. Might as well put in a little elbow grease now. This weekend has been dedicated to yard work. We've cut and stacked piles of unused fire wood. It took two days. WHEW! I found muscles I did not know I had. The coming week is mainly for inside duties... woo hoo. (we're actually bringing one of my friends back to AUS with us in Jan. 02... I want her to oooh and ahhh at the sparkly cleanliness... yeah sure.. make her think we live like this all the time. LOL! Until she lives here for a bit and sees for herself! Then she'll wise up! hehe). The last weekend here will be for mowing LOTS of grass. ARGH. Aaaahh well... it's gotta be done.. Hey it's good for muscle toning too. At least I have a PLAN. The plan WILL be accomplished. :-)
Today is Sunday here... (technically it's going on 3am... on a Monday...OOPS). BUT Monday (today) is a holiday in AUS. It's their Labor Day. So that's cool. More time to pack!! (it's really tough to pack carry-on luggage these days. Stuff that I've taken in the past is bound to get confiscated. I'm thinking just the basics... a book, a flashlight, all those documents that say... I'M ME CC, some clothes, toiletries, maybe a gameboy? hhhrmmm). OH by the way... before I forget. Can anyone suggest a good travel book to take on a 12 hour flight?? I should say a 20 hour flight because that is how many total hours I'll be up in the sky. This trip is 35 hours total people... NOT FUN. Oh well.... I've been there and done it over 10 times now... so who's the pro? ME!!! SO... any suggestions on books... nothing too scary. I need something calming and interesting to take with me.
I keep getting off track tonight. It might have something to do with the time. Bleh. I was gonna say what I did today... yeah that's right. Today was a day of rest. We went to a BBQ in the park with some people. It was just the kind of relaxing experience I needed to unwind. I think we might do that more often within the next two weeks. aaahhh... and the weather... ~sigh~ sunny and in the 80's. T-shirt and shorts weather is for me. But alas... I seem to chase Winter around the world. * giggle *
As some of you may know. During the last 7 weeks... I've been on a diet of sorts. I've taken a lot of the practices of the Atkin's diet (thanks to kitykity... you got it goin' on girl! :) and added my own version of commitment and style. heh... I could do a commercial. I guess I've just been eating right and exercising at least every other day. I think this is the first real diet I've ever been on... and I can't say it's totally real. I'm definitely not consumed with it... plus a lot of the dieting routines I do are all made up LOL, but I know my boundaries... and I know when to get off my booty and DO something. AND... in 7 weeks I've lost 15 lbs! That's about 7ish kilos for all of you poundage illiterate folks! ~grin~ Pretty good eh? Of course the diet is still on (for a few weeks more anyways... whoever thinks I'm gonna diet when I'm at home... and for the holidays and all that is NUTS.)... maybe I'll lose a few more by the time I leave. I kinda think I may have stalled though... I guess I need to try a bit harder. I have faith I can lose maybe 5 more lbs by the 17th ~ the stress of this huge trip will see to that.. but even if I have to kick my butt harder... I can do it! Yippee :)
Other than that I think I have run out of words about me for now. So I'll end with... God Bless America!!! May the world catch all of the terrorists and their cowardly cell groups... and take a poll in NY, PA, and DC... to figure out how to dispose of them. I have my own opinion locked in my head, but if I said it aloud I may scare even myself! Spooky! Ok... one more thing... my Pennsylvania state motto... WHY? Cause I can... "VIRTUE, LIBERTY, AND INDEPENDENCE."