Road Trip #5 - Wrap Up
We're fighting for ourselves
Fighting for our lives
And no one needs to know
How scared we are tonight
Would you let me see the world
Behind your eyes
So here I am, sitting in a house. A house that is temporarily mine with the appropriate epithet of housesitting. This house is a place of which I have said, affectionately, the following: "This house was built with love. Not necessarily skill." I kind of love it though. This house is a lot like my life. A heck of a lot of stuff is actually anally organized, but 90% of the functional aspects have some patchwork elements going on. They work, usually, but it isn't always pretty and there's a lot of exposed wiring and framework.
Anyway, while I'm making this house a metaphor for my life, a lot of things are not getting done. I have my hopes up to get a lot of things done this week. If I can make this week feel extremely productive, I think I will be able to go into the New Year with a better feeling. But today I was feeling so lethargic I only got, like, four or five hours of work done. Not enough! At least I made it over here with most of the stuff I needed for the week...
I am working on my Year In Review post, which is coming along. This year has been the craziest on record. It was simultaneously a year of bizarre and sometimes even comic tragedy, and the year where I have been the happiest, felt the most loved, recieved the most hugs, had the highest level of self-esteem. I don't think I'm the only one who views 2008 as a pretty extreme year. There were a lot of wars this year, a lot of famines and earthquakes and more.
I just found out about the Israeli smackdown that's going on, and I'm apalled at the spin the North American media sticks on the story. Hamas refused to renew a ceasefire - and by refused I mean verbally and by firing on Israel. And everyone whines when Israel decides they've had enough of the little Iraqi-pets. I love how terrorist has become such a buzzword that nobody knows what it means anymore. People who sacrifice their college-age kids to shahada (suicide bombers) are not interested in peace, only in destruction...
Anyway, on a topic a hemisphere away from that conflict and not conflicting at all, my family and I had Christmas today. It was a simple affair consisting mostly of my family opening their presents from me, seeing as how my Grandma is pretty much incapable of allowing people to open their presents ON Christmas and has to start loading them on early and the presents from my Mom and Aunt weren't the wrapped kind. I guess I'd have to say I got quite a haul this year from friends and family. And I managed to buy presents for almost everyone. Not everyone though, and I feel kind of bad about that. But like a sign I saw in Alberta said, the best gift you can give people is your time. I'm going to try and work that out.
Okay, now about the TRIP.
I have been reflecting on the events of the trip with alacrity. We had a really good time together. As I said in the car just before I was dropped off at home: "We were together for 6 entire days and WE'RE STILL FRIENDS!" Amazing, isn't it. But there were rough patches, and there was increasing grumpiness, especially towards the end. Everyone was kind of tired and tired of each other. The thing with stuff like this road trip is that it smushes you together and all the parts of your character that stick out become dangerous. You get used to it, but it's still kind of uncool at times. Some stuff just hits you all in sore spots and there's nowhere to hide. But when I look back at the trip pictures, I know that's not what I'll remember. I'll remember all the inside jokes and the amazing times and the strength we built into in each of our friendships. It was good times.
Vancouver with snow was a pretty amazing sight. We left pretty late - too late - on the 27th after Dave got the car checked out in the morning and we went out for a very late lunch before leaving. On the way back we ended up sleeping in the car in a Tim Horton's lot in Revelstoke after being repeatedly told there was no room in the inn - everyone who could get a room was hunkered down because it was snowing like mad. I drove from 5am until daylight and then passed off the car. My favourite part of the drive was a series of tunnels that rather reminded me of a Need for Speed track. But if I'd driven like it was NFS I'd have crashed, and I'm pretty sure the occupants of the car wouldn't have appreciated that...
I made a trip map - when I post the photos you'll see that too.
In the last scrap of daytime I appreciated the mountains and got a few photos out the window, and Kaylee played some awesome tunes. I even managed to read a few chapters of David Copperfield. But in the end, I mostly slept. I think I got the most sleep of anyone on the trip, even though I kind of crashed today. I haven't been this ornery in some time. I managed to conceal it somewhat on the trip but at home I just felt whiny and unaccomplished. Too many decisions and things to do in so little time. I feel so pressured. I need to just relax and get stuff done.
I also drove the last leg of the trip home. And I was grateful to be back, although I could have used a few more days of vacation before the rush hit. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, but I think I can manage it.
Fighting for our lives
And no one needs to know
How scared we are tonight
Would you let me see the world
Behind your eyes
So here I am, sitting in a house. A house that is temporarily mine with the appropriate epithet of housesitting. This house is a place of which I have said, affectionately, the following: "This house was built with love. Not necessarily skill." I kind of love it though. This house is a lot like my life. A heck of a lot of stuff is actually anally organized, but 90% of the functional aspects have some patchwork elements going on. They work, usually, but it isn't always pretty and there's a lot of exposed wiring and framework.
Anyway, while I'm making this house a metaphor for my life, a lot of things are not getting done. I have my hopes up to get a lot of things done this week. If I can make this week feel extremely productive, I think I will be able to go into the New Year with a better feeling. But today I was feeling so lethargic I only got, like, four or five hours of work done. Not enough! At least I made it over here with most of the stuff I needed for the week...
I am working on my Year In Review post, which is coming along. This year has been the craziest on record. It was simultaneously a year of bizarre and sometimes even comic tragedy, and the year where I have been the happiest, felt the most loved, recieved the most hugs, had the highest level of self-esteem. I don't think I'm the only one who views 2008 as a pretty extreme year. There were a lot of wars this year, a lot of famines and earthquakes and more.
I just found out about the Israeli smackdown that's going on, and I'm apalled at the spin the North American media sticks on the story. Hamas refused to renew a ceasefire - and by refused I mean verbally and by firing on Israel. And everyone whines when Israel decides they've had enough of the little Iraqi-pets. I love how terrorist has become such a buzzword that nobody knows what it means anymore. People who sacrifice their college-age kids to shahada (suicide bombers) are not interested in peace, only in destruction...
Anyway, on a topic a hemisphere away from that conflict and not conflicting at all, my family and I had Christmas today. It was a simple affair consisting mostly of my family opening their presents from me, seeing as how my Grandma is pretty much incapable of allowing people to open their presents ON Christmas and has to start loading them on early and the presents from my Mom and Aunt weren't the wrapped kind. I guess I'd have to say I got quite a haul this year from friends and family. And I managed to buy presents for almost everyone. Not everyone though, and I feel kind of bad about that. But like a sign I saw in Alberta said, the best gift you can give people is your time. I'm going to try and work that out.
Okay, now about the TRIP.
I have been reflecting on the events of the trip with alacrity. We had a really good time together. As I said in the car just before I was dropped off at home: "We were together for 6 entire days and WE'RE STILL FRIENDS!" Amazing, isn't it. But there were rough patches, and there was increasing grumpiness, especially towards the end. Everyone was kind of tired and tired of each other. The thing with stuff like this road trip is that it smushes you together and all the parts of your character that stick out become dangerous. You get used to it, but it's still kind of uncool at times. Some stuff just hits you all in sore spots and there's nowhere to hide. But when I look back at the trip pictures, I know that's not what I'll remember. I'll remember all the inside jokes and the amazing times and the strength we built into in each of our friendships. It was good times.
Vancouver with snow was a pretty amazing sight. We left pretty late - too late - on the 27th after Dave got the car checked out in the morning and we went out for a very late lunch before leaving. On the way back we ended up sleeping in the car in a Tim Horton's lot in Revelstoke after being repeatedly told there was no room in the inn - everyone who could get a room was hunkered down because it was snowing like mad. I drove from 5am until daylight and then passed off the car. My favourite part of the drive was a series of tunnels that rather reminded me of a Need for Speed track. But if I'd driven like it was NFS I'd have crashed, and I'm pretty sure the occupants of the car wouldn't have appreciated that...
I made a trip map - when I post the photos you'll see that too.
In the last scrap of daytime I appreciated the mountains and got a few photos out the window, and Kaylee played some awesome tunes. I even managed to read a few chapters of David Copperfield. But in the end, I mostly slept. I think I got the most sleep of anyone on the trip, even though I kind of crashed today. I haven't been this ornery in some time. I managed to conceal it somewhat on the trip but at home I just felt whiny and unaccomplished. Too many decisions and things to do in so little time. I feel so pressured. I need to just relax and get stuff done.
I also drove the last leg of the trip home. And I was grateful to be back, although I could have used a few more days of vacation before the rush hit. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, but I think I can manage it.