the perfect carry-on bag? only time will tell...

so today . . . i bought my first backpack.

well, technically rollie bought it, but i picked it out. well, TECHNICALLY, i am the one who handed over the visa, but rollie will be paying the bill...

ok. the truth is, rollie drove me to the outlet mall, and then sat in the car figuring out how to use the sirius radio while i chose a gift for myself. because yesterday was our anniversary, and anniversaries mean gifts...

at least, they mean gifts if you are me. sadly for rollie, we got married at the end of august, and since i don't get paid during the summer, by the end of august my purchasing power is pretty much maxed out at 7-11. rollie, on the other hand, saves most of his expendable cash, so i am always the lucky recipient of something wonderful. yes, life just isn't fair :-)

so this morning off we went to the outlet mall.

i could spend all day at the outlet mall, but i didn't want to do that today. we don't have a doggie door installed yet, so our pups were going to be "imprisoned" in the house while we were gone, and i didn't really want to test their limits! this meant i needed a plan, a goal, a purpose. i didn't have time to scour the racks in all my favorite stores looking for the best deals--today, i needed to shop like a man! today i needed tunnel vision! today i needed to decide what i was going to buy, find it, pay for it, and take it home.

when we recently flew to new york, it became clear that i needed a new carry-on bag. i almost killed myself more than once, schlepping my suitcase, carry-on, and handbag through airports, onto shuttles, and into motels--especially since two of my toes were broken! (and before you say why wasn't rollie handling my bags, he helped me as much as he could, but his hands were full too! i wish i had video of trying to go up the escalator ahead of rollie, tipping all my bags over, and nearly taking him out! i'm lucky he stayed within ten feet of me after that!!)

my current carry-on bag is the result of lots of research and thought--of course. until the last few years, i rarely flew. but when it looked like diandra and i would maybe be making a trip to portland every summer, i quickly decided i needed a better carry-on bag. because i didn't own a handbag big enough for everything i wanted to take on the plane with me.

needless to say, i don't travel light...

i need a lot on an airplane. it doesn't matter if i am flying for two hours or twenty hours, i take a lot of stuff with me. first of all, there are just some things that i don't trust in my checked baggage. you hear stories about valuables disappearing out of people's luggage all the time... cameras, computers, jewelry. and so when i travel, if my bags are going to be out of my sight, i feel compelled to carry my "valuables" with me.

and that includes the cords to all my electronics. yes, that's right, i don't even put the cords to my electronics in my checked bags. my luggage does not end up at the same place as i do an inordinately high percentage of the time. i'm pretty sure i can live for 24 hours without clean clothes or a comb, but if my electronics go dead and i can't recharge them? let's just say, it won't be pretty...

(rollie does not get this at all. he travels with a tiny little bag that pretty much holds his ipad, a set of earbuds, and maybe a few snacks.)

in addition to my "valuables," i also have to take hard candy (if i don't vigorously suck on hard candy when we start our descent, i am pretty sure my eardrums will explode,) magazines (because they won't let you turn on your electronics while the plane is taking off and landing. which, btw is totally ridiculous! one time when we flew, i thought my phone was off, but it wasn't, and everything proceeded according to schedule--the airplane's instruments did NOT go crazy!!) snacks (that tiny pack of snack mix is just not enough. if you are sitting next to me on an airplane, you might not want to go to sleep until you have your snack in your hand. otherwise, your snack might end up in my hand. and then my mouth,) and my inflatable travel pillow.

oh, and my polar fleece blanket--even in the summer.

i don't travel anywhere without my polar fleece blanket. but when i fly, my blanket serves two purposes, the obvious one being to keep me from freezing when they crank up the a/c on the plane. the not so obvious purpose is to hide my handbag from the flight attendants. for some reason, the last few times i have flown, they say EVERYTHING has to be stowed either in the overhead bins or under the seat in front of you. but there is never enough room for my carry-on bag AND my handbag under that seat! but if i put my bag in the overhead bin, then i can't get to my snacks and magazines and electronics and inflatable travel pillow. so my solution is to put the carry-on under the seat in front of me, and then hide my handbag behind my back or in my lap and cover up with my blanket. then when the flight attendants walk through the cabin, checking for take-off infractions, they just think i am cold and they move on... so far, rollie hasn't turned me in, but i fear that one day he is going to feel compelled, for the safety of the rest of the passengers, to point out my deception to the flight attendants. of course, that will be the last time we ever fly together...

which is just another reason that i need a better carry-on.

i really thought that if i could find a carry-on with wheels, my problems would be solved! so a few years ago i went to the orange county swap meet with my list of requirements--wheels, cheap, big enough to hold all my necessities, yet small enough to fit under an airplane seat, and cute. because if i have to carry something around with me all day, it had better be cute! so i was ecstatic when i found this bag!it was perfect! i bought it and prepared to fly to portland...

but as it turned out, it was not the perfect bag. the wheels were better than having to carry it, but i had trouble maneuvering it and my larger bag. i could get a lot in it, but it fit so tightly under the seat that i couldn't get anything out of it. and yet i kept telling myself, through gritted teeth, that it was perfect.

and then a couple of weeks ago, we traveled to new york.

i couldn't balance my bags. they kept tipping over. they would get stuck every time i had to roll them over a gap to get onto an elevator or a tram. and then they fell down the escalator, smacking into rollie, almost taking me with them, and holding up everyone behind us.

it was not my finest moment.

it was suddenly clear to me that i needed a different type of carry-on bag. and i needed it before i took another trip. which is happening in about a week!

so i did what i always do when i need to buy something--i got on the internet. i searched. i googled. my requirements had changed a bit (i decided instead of wheels, i needed a really good cross-body bag or backpack,) but i still couldn't find anything! i haunted discount stores (because it's the end of august and my bank account is dwindling!!) with no success. and our next trip was getting closer and closer. so when rollie said, "let's go shopping for your anniversary present. what do you want to look for?" i immediately thought about a new carry-on bag.

rollie has a backpack. it's a nice medium-sized black leather backpack. it is very nice, but i really didn't want a backpack. rollie really wanted me to get a backpack. he thought it would be the easiest way for my to carry my stuff and still be able to drive my larger suitcase. but i didn't want a backpack. i wasn't going to get a backpack. all the backpacks i saw either looked like they should be carried by a 12 year old girl or a man. or the fabric was awful! so even though i considered backpacks, i ended up rejecting them all...

instead i looked at tote bags. i looked at large handbags. i looked at messenger bags. i looked at cross-body bags. i even looked at laptop bags. but none of them were perfect. they were too big to fit under the seat, or too small to hold all my stuff, or there was no outside pocket for my phone, or the fabric was too floppy to hold it's shape. or they were just too ugly!

i finally bought a backpack.

the one i decided on is pretty cute. the fabric is a nice heavier weight. the size seems just right (i think.) i didn't have to pay for it, because it was my anniversary gift. i think carrying it on my back will make it easier for me to get my larger bag where it needs to go without knocking anyone down or hurting anyone who might be behind me on an escalator. i think it is going to be the perfect travel bag......if all my stuff will fit into it...

the trip home...

so today . . . we are finally home.

i say finally, like it was an ordeal to get here... like we felt the need to kiss the ground once we got here... like we thought we might never make it home...

well, it wasn't quite that bad, but it also wasn't exactly smooth sailing...

it started last night, with the packing. even though we didn't have to check out until 11:00 this morning, i thought it might be a good idea for me to pack last night. i am not a morning person. i would rather stay up late to finish a task than to get up early. and so, about 11:30 last night, i started packing...

i started packing at 11:30 last night, because i really didn't think it would take too long. really. it wasn't like i had to decide what to pack--those decisions had already been made. it wasn't like i had to worry about if everything would fit--it all fit when i packed it to get here. it wasn't like i had even gone to the mall--my biggest packing challenge was going to be fitting in our two miniature louisville sluggers! so i don't quite understand how i was up until 1:00 a.m. packing...

it shouldn't have been that hard. i should have been able to pack in 15 minutes. all i had to do was throw everything back into the suitcase, right? um, no. that is not how i do things. i had to pack efficiently, like a puzzle. and so i did. i gathered everything together, put the shoes in the corners and the boots on the bottom, rolled the hanging clothes, and stuffed everything else into the nooks and crannies. there was not one wasted spot in my suitcase. and i got it all in. well, almost all of it...

my long insulated coat wouldn't fit, and i couldn't figure out why! really, the only extra stuff in the suitcase were our two miniature louisville sluggers! there was no explanation. i guess i could have unzipped the extra three inches in my suitcase, but now i was afraid that my suitcase was going to be too heavy. that had happened to me once, and believe me, it was not an experience i was anxious to repeat. so my solution? i was just going to have to wear diandra's bulky sweater, and then my long insulated coat, and THEN my shorter jacket--yes, two coats and a sweater... when i finally went to bed, i was not looking forward to spending the next day dressed like the abominable snowman.

rollie saved me. when i explained my situation this morning, he said he thought he might have room for my coat. which he did. and so i was able to spend the day much more comfortably dressed. which is good, because it turned out to be a loooong day.

our flight didn't leave louisville until 4:30, so we had some time to kill. we put our bags in the car, checked out, and spent the next hour and a half sitting in the hotel conservatory with our electronics until it was late enough to eat lunch. we could have ventured outside to take some pictures with the interesting architecture or landmarks, but it was COLD, COLD, COLD outside. so we did the smart thing and stayed in.

we made it to the airport with plenty of time before our plane left. the baggage line was short. security was easy. and so we got to our gate almost two hours early. normally this is not a problem for me--i know rollie likes to be at the gate early, so i just plan on reading or playing on my phone or computer or shopping. but we were about to get on a long flight, so i was saving my battery power. and let's just say, the louisville chamber of commerce must want you to spend all your money in town, because they give you very little opportunity to spend it at the airport...

we got great seats on the plane. which is good, because our flight ended up being four and a half hours long as we battled a head wind. when we neared las vegas (where we were going to change planes,) we realized that we were only going to have a few minutes to get to our next flight. fortunately we were sitting in the first row of seats and were able to zip out the door of the plane and race down the concourse to our next gate.

i've never been in the airport in las vegas. i think you could spend your whole vacation there! it smelled wonderful, with all the food possibilities. and not only were there a lot of shops, there were also kiosks selling pretty much anything you might want, lining the concourse. and there i was, with no time to look at anything! not that i was going to buy stuff--i already had my souveniers--but i just like to see what i am not buying... and there was no time to stop. although, i was beginning to think that even if we made the scheduled flight, there was no way, NO WAY our luggage was going to make it.

i have the worst luck of anyone i know, when it comes to my luggage arriving at the same time and place that i do. maybe it is because i am usually on the cheap flights, which usually means changing airplanes, but i have been left standing alone at the baggage carousel on more than one trip, hoping that just one more bag--mine--will come down the conveyor belt. i figured our luggage was still headed to san jose, even though we were not...

when we reached the gate, they were just loading the last of the passengers onto our outgoing flight. we quickly explained our situation and were given the option of waiting for the next plane (which was an hour and a half later, and would have our luggage, they said,) or taking the last seats on this flight and then waiting at lax for our bags.

this seemed like an easy decision--wait for the next flight. that would give us time to eat, possibly better seats, and maybe we could even walk more slowly past all those kiosks... we killed another hour and a half until finally boarding our final flight. (we sure spent a lot of time today, just waiting...) forty five minutes later we were back in los angeles. i wanted to kiss the ground!

we headed for the baggage carousel. i was not confident that our bags had even made it onto this flight, but we had done our best to arrive at the same time our bags did, even taking the later flight to get home. i started settling into a chair with our carry on bags while rollie waited for the checked bags to hopefully come down the conveyor belt. and then suddenly, there he was in front of me, before the conveyor belt had even started, with our bags.

"you won't believe this," he said, "but our bags came in on our original flight. they have been waiting here for us!"

sigh. some days it doesn't matter what i do, i can't win...

ah, flying...

so today . . . we are headed home from our christmas trip to oregon. usually this means packing all our stuff the day before we leave, getting up before dark (but not really waking up,) dragging our sleeping bodies into the car, and then sleeping for several hours while rollie drives.

but this year we flew :) and we didn't have to leave for the airport until the middle of the afternoon. so we slept in, leisurely packed our stuff, and then ate lunch. rollie watched football, and i watched some HGTV (i don't have HGTV at home, so i'm sort of obsessed when i am anywhere that has it. i mean really, have you watched "house hunters?!?!")

packing to go back home on an airplane, after christmas presents and post-christmas shopping proved to be a little challenging. especially since diandra was also wedding shopping... she bought mosaic glass candles and purple christmas beads and heart-shaped ornaments and big round sparkly placemats for centerpieces. she kept coming into my room and saying, "mom, do you think you have room for this?" and mostly i did. but then a couple of times i had to say, "rollie, do you think you have room for this?" and thankfully, he did.

and then there was my wedding dress...

i think my wedding dress is one of the most beautiful dresses i have ever seen. timeless. classic. and a little bit sparkly (of course!) several years ago, my mom took it and had it all cleaned and preserved and packed in a pretty box. but the box is pretty big, and we have never had enough extra room to bring it home with us.

until we flew.

which is odd, i know, because you would think it would be easier to find room to take it home when we drive the suv. but when we drive the suv, we pack like we have unlimited room--even though we don't. when we fly, we know all our stuff has to fit into our suitcase (no extra bags of stuff can be stashed around our feet) so we pack lighter. and we flew on southwest, which let each one of us check two bags. for free! and since we only each brought ONE bag, we could check the dress.

this seemed like a great idea! until we got to the airport and tried to get our 3 suitcases, 2 carry-on bags and 1 dress box inside... (thankfully we didn't have a partridge in a pear tree.)

we schlumped all our stuff to the ticket counter. i admit that there was some rearranging, some tripping, and a close call with a revolving door, but we got there. we started checking our bags in. rollie's suitcase. my suitcase. diandra's suitcase. and then the box.

"what's in this box," the check-in person asked. we told her it was a wedding dress. "oh," she said, " it would be better if you could carry it on." that might be true, but the box was too big to carry on--why would she even suggest it?!? was she trying to get me into more trouble with the tsa?!?!

and then she said, "has this dress already been worn in the wedding?" it sounded innocent enough on the surface, but what it said to me was, "how terrible will it be if somehow the box gets crushed and pops open, and the dress gets caught on something and comes down the luggage shute in shreds?" now i was worried. she slapped a couple of orange "fragile" stickers on it, made me sign a waiver that said they were liable for loss, but not for damage, and sent it out to the plane...

i almost started hoping they would lose it...

on the way to the gate, i kept seeing oregon duck stuff. (in case you somehow didn't know, the ducks are playing for the national championship on january 10th. you should watch. they will win.) diandra had already acquired a duck sweatshirt, but i still didn't have one. we saw them all over the mall when we were shopping, but i had my eye on other things... now, though, we were in the airport headed home. and i was pretty sure if i didn't get a duck shirt before i got on the plane, i was going to be watching the championship game in the one green sweater i own. and it doesn't have a big yellow "O" on it! i was suddenly worried the ducks might lose if i didn't get a shirt. they might think i had no faith in them, or worse yet, didn't even care. so i walked back down the concourse, compared the different designs, and finally chose this one.now i was ready to go home. (and if by some fluke, the ducks lose, it is on them--i've done my part...)

as we were sitting on the plane, waiting for our flight (which had already been delayed for an hour,) diandra saw them loading the luggage. they were not all that careful with our suitcases. our suitcases were flipping and flopping and smacking onto the luggage conveyor belt. but they respected the fragile stickers on the dress box, carefully laid it on the conveyor belt, and it arrived at lax in good shape. which is good, because we have plans for that dress!

i've decided i love to fly! i don't love wrestling my bags through the airport. i don't love going through security. i don't love delayed flights. i don't love peanuts (oh, for the days when you got a real snack!) but i do love to fly. i love being in the airport. i love checking out the food options. i love getting on the plane and having someone bring me a drink. i love getting to my destination in just a few hours. i love not having to worry about car trouble, roads closed due to snow, and sleeping in the pretzel position.

in fact, i think we may have started a new tradition this year :)

a travel day...

so today . . . we flew to portland. for christmas :)

we have never flown to portland for christmas before. usually we drive. even though we moved to southern california, which is about a 17 hour drive away, still we drive.

but this year, because of some last minute scheduling issues, we realized that we were either going to spend most of our vacation riding in the car, or we needed to get on a plane...

so i spent last saturday on the internet, trying to find a flight that would work with our time schedule, had three seats available, and didn't require us to sell a car in order to purchase the tickets! considering that it was just a week before christmas, this proved to be an almost impossible task, but finally, southwest airlines came to our rescue.

we got tickets. but that was just the first of several problems... the next problem was packing. because when we drive, we drive our suv which has lots and lots of room. and we take way more stuff than we need. and we have plenty of room for bulky presents. and we take lots of snacks (because we are in the car for 17 hours!) but when we fly, we have limited space.

do you remember what i bought my nephew for christmas?

yes, this was going to be a problem. probably the decision to drive or fly should really be made before any of the shopping is done. because if flying is going to be the mode of transportation chosen, we either need to buy small gifts (dvds for everyone!) or shop online and have everything delivered to my mom's house (thus requiring her to stay withing 50 feet of her front door for a month, just in case something has to be signed for...)

and then there is the issue of boots and coats. in southern california, we wear boots and coats for fashion. but when traveling to the north, boots and coats become a necessity if we don't want to turn into popsicles. and so packing becomes a battle. we are conditioned to think, "these boots go with this outfit, and these other boots go with this other outfit..." and pretty soon we are looking at taking five different pairs of boots for a week long trip. which is ridiculous. especially since we also have to make room in our suitcase for a warm coat. and five scarves.

i managed to narrow it down to only two pairs of boots. but the turtle pillow pet still had to fly to portland in rollie's bag...

this morning we arrived at the airport, checked our luggage, and headed to security. let me just say, security is a whole different ball game than it was last summer. we took off our coats and shoes first, which seemed reasonable to me. and then the tsa agent said to diandra, "do you have a shirt on under that sweatshirt?" i thought that was a little personal, but they told her she either had to take off the sweatshirt or get patted down. she took off the sweatshirt.

then it was my turn. they made me take off my extra sweater AND the scarf around my neck. really? what could i possibly hide in my scarf?!?!? i guess i am not creative enough to be a terrorist, since i couldn't think of a thing... but apparently this was not obvious to the tsa agents. i made it through the scanner without incident, but my carry-on bag did not. "they have to search your bag," diandra said. "ok," i said. i wasn't worried. i figured i was just passenger number 25 or something. but that tsa agent opened my bag and went into it like he had a treasure map! he held up my brand new bottle of hand lotion--the new bottle of lotion i had just received from one of my students as a christmas gift. "this exceeds the acceptable limits for liquids," he said. i couldn't believe it! he was going to confiscate my brand new bottle of lotion! i said, "but i just got that!" "do you have any checked luggage," he asked? "you could put it in there." well yes, of course i have checked luggage! it is christmas! i am traveling to oregon, where the high temperatures in the next week might not exceed 60 degrees!! i had to pack boots and coats and sweaters! and christmas gifts!!!! besides, that wasn't going to help me--my checked bag was probably already on it's way to the airplane...

i had no other option than to say good-bye to the lotion and be glad they weren't confiscating my apple bread...

we still had a couple of hours to kill before our flight left. we went to our terminal, laid claim to a couple of chairs, and then rollie and diandra went off in search of food. i tried to sleep. i had only slept two and a half hours the night before, so i put my purse in my lap, my feet on my carry-on bag, my other arm through rollie's back pack, and used his coat for a pillow. no one was going to walk off with our stuff, even if i fell asleep!

i didn't fall asleep.

i was soooo tired, but sleep just would not come. maybe it was the incessant security announcements ("don't leave your stuff unattended, blah, blah, blah...") maybe it was the crush of people trying (some with limited success--there were a lot of delayed flights) to get home for christmas. maybe it was the hunger signals my stomach started sending me right after rollie and diandra left. maybe it was my brain, which would not shut up!!! maybe it was all of the above. but my nap never materialized...

when diandra and rollie came back to guard the stuff, i went for food. i almost stopped at mcdonald's. but, being me, i had to see all the options before i made a choice. so i walked clear to the other end of the terminal. back past security. and there was my favorite tsa agent. with my lotion. he was tossing it up into the air and catching it. tossing it up into the air and catching it. tossing it up into the air and catching it. over and over again.

clearly, it was not a bomb...

it was quite a day.

our plane was late.

our luggage was wet.

our flight attendant was bald. (but it's ok, because he had a selection of hats--santa hat, reindeer antlers, and a lighted christmas tree with micky mouse santa ornaments--yes, he wore that on his head!)

but we made it home safely. and quickly.

and the good news is, at least in portland, it wasn't raining...

if only we were in oregon . . .

so today . . . i had to put gas in my car.

this may not sound like a big deal, but remember--we are not in oregon--we have to pump our own gas here in california . . .

i hate to pump my own gas. i do it, because otherwise my car refuses to take me where i want to go. rollie likes me to fill my tank when it gets down to about 3/8 full. i usually fill it when the "get gas before you end up stalled on the side of the road and have to call AAA" light comes on. rollie's thinking is that i will never have to call AAA (or him) if i fill it at 3/8 of a tank. my thinking is that if i wait until it is almost empty, i won't have to fill it as often. rollie just shakes his head. i keep my AAA card right behind my driver's license . . .

i filled the gas tank a few days ago, right before we left for san diego. i wasn't sure that one tank of gas would get us there and back--in fact i was kind of hoping it wouldn't, because rollie would be with me. and if rollie is with me, he pumps the gas! but apparently my car gets pretty good gas mileage, because on the way home today when i asked him if we needed gas, he said, "no, we still have a quarter of a tank . . . "

this remark came, however, as we were sitting in the parking lot they call the 91 freeway at 3:00 on a friday afternoon. helicopters were circling ahead of us, so we knew there was a problem. we were in the car pool lane, but it wasn't doing us any good. traffic was not moving! we inched our way forward, looking for an exit out of the car pool lane so we could get off the freeway and onto surface streets. i was starting to worry that AAA might have to bring us gas in the car pool lane! finally we maneuvered our way across the four lanes of traffic standing between us and the relatively open road . . .

you would think i had spent enough time in the car for one day, but when we got home diandra had some errands to do and asked if i wanted to go along. of course i said yes, and so we headed to the long beach town center. two hours later we were on our way home. in the dark. and the gas light was shining brightly right at me! shoot! my evil plan for rollie to realize we needed gas and fill the tank before we got home had been thwarted by good gas mileage and all the traffic issues . . . so now i was going to have to do it. we went east to the gas station with the cheapest gas, but when we got there, it was too crowded for me. which worked out well, because diandra said she had heard that particular brand of gas wasn't very good anyway. ok, i thought, we will go to my other favorite (and by favorite, i mean cheap) gas station. so we turned around, backtracked, and kept driving--only to find that the left turn lane into the station was blocked off with traffic cones! i got out of the left turn lane, drove through the intersection and into a parking lot where i could turn around--because there was a police car sitting on the cross street with his headlights flashing. which seemed odd to me, but i was on a quest for gas . . . we pulled into the station, only to see that it was the same kind we had already passed up! but we were there, so whether it was good gas or not, it was going into my car. while i was pumping gas, another police car careened around the corner and screeched to a stop. and there i was, pumping gas, wondering what was going to happen next . . .

when we got home, we turned on the news to see what all the fuss had been about, and learned that earlier in the afternoon there had been an armed robbery of a jewelry store near us. they had caught one of the robbers, but were trying to catch the others. there was a short car chase, before the suspects escaped on foot--which is why the freeway was closed. by the time we saw the story on the news, they had all of the suspects in custody.

so, my neighborhood is once again safe, and my car is once again cooperative, and i am once again home.

ah, college life . . .

so today . . . it occurred to me that perhaps i should blog . . .

i haven't blogged since sunday night. i meant to, but i have been kind of busy . . . sleeping. i didn't realize how tired i was until i ended up in a dorm room with no tv and nothing i had to do . . .

i brought plenty of stuff to keep me busy. i thought rollie would be tied up in meetings most of the time we were here, so i brought music to evaluate, photos to organize and sort, books to read, photoshop to learn, snacks to eat. i was ready!

after packing the trunk like a jigsaw puzzle, we drove to san diego with the top down on the car. the weather was beautiful--for about half an hour. then there were clouds. lots and lots of clouds. so we just turned the heat on and the music up and kept driving. actually the plan was for me to drive first (because it was fun!) stop for lunch, and then rollie would drive the rest of the way in. but i kept missing the exits with food--probably because i was driving in the far left lane. by the time we reached our destination, i was starving! we still didn't stop for food though, because we needed to get through registration for the conference. and when we registered, we found out that dinner was going to be served about an hour later. i wasn't sure i could survive another hour without food--i hadn't eaten since breakfast! but thankfully i found the campus snack store and snagged a bag of chips. i was so hungry, i noticed later that i had ripped open the bag from the bottom. luckily i scarfed them all down so quickly that the bag never left my hands . . .

we finally found our room, after sidetracking a couple of runners and blocking traffic while they gave us directions. we hauled all our stuff into our room (which has an ocean view--once you look past the parking lot and the dumpsters,) and went to dinner.

i LOVE eating college food. i loved it when i was in college (even though everyone else complained,) and i love it here. there are so many choices, and you can eat as much as you want. there are sandwiches and salad and cheeseburgers and pizza and ice cream at every meal! and also a variety of pastas and ethnic foods and a vegetarian dish too. and it all tastes good! of course, i eat a lot of fast food, so maybe my taste buds are somewhat torqued.

when we had eaten our fill of cheeseburgers and ice cream, we came back to our room. i logged onto the internet, caught up on facebook and thought about blogging, but my eyes were resistant to anything that required them to be open.

i was in bed by 9:00. and sleep was not far behind. i slept late the next morning, and was asleep last night by 10:00!

(i know my mother is probably the only one who cares about how much sleep i get--for the rest of you, that information was just a bonus :) )

as it turns out, rollie hasn't been quite as tied up as i thought he would be. and we have been spending some time with friends that we rarely get to see. so i haven't read one sentence in a book, looked at one file of photos, organized any music, or opened photoshop. it seems all i do is sleep and eat and hang out with my friends . . .

. . . just like being in college :)

vacation: day 10

so today . . . was the end of our oregon vacation.

my dad bravely hoisted our luggage ("what is in these bags?!?! why do you bring so much stuff?!?!" clearly my dad does not understand the shoe and wardrobe needs of a certain girl . . . or the electronic needs of the other one,) into his trunk, and we headed for the airport. the drive was uneventful--ok, well there were a few close calls, but no bumpers bumped, and no wrong exits were taken, so i call that good. when we arrived, we headed for the parking structure.

to enter the parking structure, you are forced to drive up a circular ramp. my view from the back seat did not include the guard rail positioned for safety along the outer edge. so when my dad suddenly straightened out the car, i saw my life flash before my eyes, because it looked to me like we were headed over the edge!

thankfully we were just headed onto the third level to park.

we went in, checked our bags (yes, that cost us $20 each!) ate lunch, and made it through security, all without incident. we sat down to put ourselves back together after the ordeal the TSA likes to call 'reasonable' security measures, and diandra asked me if i had any lotion. i said i did, and handed her the bottle i had in my purse. i found this lotion when i was cleaning out some bathroom cabinets last week. it was in a small, cute bottle and smelled delicious, so i thought it would be good to take on our trip. now we were on our way home, and i hadn't used it yet. she put a little on her leg, and said, "mom, what is this? i can't rub it in!" i said, "it is just some lotion i found in the cabinet." i picked up the bottle and looked at it again. yep, made by nivea. they make hand lotion. she continued trying to rub it in. "mom, it isn't working. look. it is turning white and spreading around." hmmm. i didn't know what to tell her. i looked at the bottle for a third time. and then i saw it. uh oh.

"what?" diandra said. she reads me too well. because i was busy stuffing the offending "lotion" back into my purse and hoping the goo on her legs would soon magically disappear. "what, mom! what it is? it isn't lotion, is it?!?!" no, it wasn't lotion. it was body wash.

i have got to get those new glasses!

diandra just looked at me. i was laughing. she was laughing too, although hers had a little edge to it, like "ok, this might be funny if it was someone else, but my legs are covered in sticky, white goop!" i started rooting around in my purse. "do you want a tissue? would that help?" i asked. again, the look! in hindsight, offering a tissue probably wasn't the best idea. it would have probably just stuck to the body wash, and then her legs would have been covered in white goo and fuzzy pieces of tissue.

did i mention she was wearing shorts?

she finally made most of it disappear, and turned to me and said, "i am going into that store over there and buy some LOTION!" ok . . . of course, i followed her into the store . . .

there is something about stores in airports that is irresistible to me. i don't know what it is, but i have this compelling need to buy souveniers. or something! so while diandra was trying to find lotion, i was looking at t-shirts. yes, t-shirts that said 'portland' on them.

this is wrong for so many reasons. first of all, i grew up in portland. when i go there, i am going home. having a t-shirt that says 'portland' on it, would imply that it was some exotic destination for me. but the truth is, i don't go there to see the sights--i go there to see my mom and dad! secondly, i don't wear souvenier t-shirts. ever. because if my shirt has words and pictures on it, can i accessorize it with jewels? no. that would just be wrong. so i should probably buy a souvenier bracelet or earrings rather than a t-shirt. and thirdly, there was no place to try them on, so how would i know if they would even fit properly. but they were on sale for $8.88! how could i not buy one?!?

i managed to resist the siren song of oregon souveniers, diandra made her purchases, and we moved on. after a stop at the restrooms, where diandra tried somewhat unsuccessfully to remove the body wash (apparently it was not as easy as one might think it would be,) we got to our gate just in time to board the plane. "are we going to be on another small plane?" diandra asked (with a bit of a wary look in her eye--for some reason she was convinced the whole lotion/body wash thing was not an accident.) "yes," i said. "it is a bombardier--the same type of plane we were on before." "well, that sounds kind of mean," she said. i had no idea what she meant, but it was time to board . . .

alaska/horizon airplanes do not all look alike. we flew from long beach to seattle on the oregon state university plane. and we saw the university of oregon plane on the ground in seattle. they seem to like to decorate their aircraft in different and unique ways. as we walked toward our plane, on the nose it said 'bombardier' and had a number and a person's name. i'm sure there was some significance to it, but i didn't know what. and then diandra said, "oooohhh, bombardier!" "yes, that is what i said," i said. diandra replied, "i thought you said bomb-a-deer!"

ok, before you think that is a totally unreasonable thought, there is a lot of forest area in the pacific northwest, and a lot of deer. however, bombing them from passenger planes is still not an accepted way to bag one and put it in your freezer. at least, as far as i know . . .

as our plane took off from portland, headed for seattle (i know that is not the most direct way home, but alaska/horizon thinks everyone should spend some time in the seattle airport,) i heard the young woman sitting behind me ask a flight attendant for a blanket for her bird--yes, there was a bird in a box in the seat behind me. and apparently it was cold.

some days, my blog almost writes itself . . .

plane ticket woes

so today . . . i am forced out of my comfort zone by the evil lakers.

diandra and i are going to go to portland in july to visit my parents. we have done this for the last few summers, and it is always so much fun! but it requires plane tickets to be purchased . . .

i haven't done a lot of traveling in my life. as a kid, most of our vacations were spent in the car traveling to the midwest to visit family. i have lots of good memories about those trips, but it meant days spent in the backseat of our car with my little brother.

you do the math.

as an adult, most of our vacations have been spent traveling to the portland area to visit my parents. thankfully we have always lived on the same coast, so the travel time was shorter, but it still meant many hours in the car. only now, i get to sit in the front seat!

so until recently i hadn't flown much. and when i did fly, rollie took care of all the arrangements, and i just followed him around with my carry-on bag trying to look inconspicuous. because for some reason, rollie always gets singled out in the security line. i don't know what it is. i think he must look a little bit sinister when we fly, because he is so tall and he is always on the lookout for suspicious characters . . . which probably makes him look a little suspicious!

but this time, it was up to me to get the plane tickets. i have been online for days now, checking out the prices, scared that they would go up before we could finalize our plans. which, of course they did--in a matter of hours, because i checked them today right before i came home from school! and then when i went to book them tonight, the price on the return flight had jumped $50!!! so i knew i needed to get those tickets NOW!

and why, you ask, was it up to me to get the tickets? why wasn't my wonderful, thoughtful husband taking care of that little task for me, as he usually does? five words . . .

game 1. lakers vs. celtics.

i'm sure rollie would have been happy to take care of this for me, but my time frame happened to fall during the first game of the nba championship series. he has been looking forward to this series since last fall. and really, if i had asked him, he would have done it anyway (he has tivo!) but i decided there was no reason i couldn't do it. i am a competent, capable adult. it isn't rocket science! it is just shopping . . . for something non-negotiable and non-returnable.

but there are so many decisions to make, and you know how i am about decisions! diandra has been easy to work with. she is flexible and keeps saying, "whatever you think." but that just makes it harder for me, because it leaves me with so many choices. and buying plane tickets isn't like shoe shopping--you can't really change your mind and exchange them. (speaking of which, i now have two pair of twinkle toes shoes at my house in two different sizes! the sales clerk finally said maybe it would be best to try them both at home and then return one pair. yes, a sales clerk actually said to bring one pair back. i think i wore her out with all my questions about, "but do you think it is better for them to be a little tight? should i be wearing socks? will they stretch out?" i am pretty sure she just wanted me to go away . . . ) so i played around with different flights and airports--because i am lucky enough to live within 45 minutes of four different airports--until i found what i thought was the best one. i put in all the information, i read all the fine print, but i just couldn't click on the button that said "purchase." i just couldn't do it. i wanted to check with someone, anyone, to make sure i had done it correctly. but it was late and rollie was already asleep, and i was pretty sure my mom was asleep, and diandra was awake of course, but she had already said, "whatever you decide will be fine!"

so finally i did it. i clicked on the purchase button. i bought plane tickets. all by myself.

of course, i only did it after reading all the fine print, which included the words "you may make one change to this itinerary or cancel and refund to original form of payment with no fee within 24 hours of purchase." ah ha! a loophole! admittedly it is a tiny loophole, but it was enough to make me feel like that if i get up tomorrow morning and realize i have made a terrible mistake, i can undo it.

because i need the security of knowing i can change my mind--even if it has to be in the next 24 hours!

oh the weather outside is frightful!

so today . . . technically we are on our way home from visiting our families for christmas. but in reality, we are stranded in southern oregon, as there is apparently a blizzard in northern california and I-5 is closed. yes, closed. to all traffic. that means us.

this is not the first time this has happened to us. in fact, i don't know why we don't just start factoring in a delay for weather when we plan our trip.

last year the weather was so bad in the portland area, that we almost didn't go. but we decided to forge ahead and were lucky enough to stay just ahead of the road closures and accidents. usually that is not where trouble occurs. usually our problems lie just south of ashland, in the siskiyou mountains. and that appears to be the case again this year.

when we left sunny southern california a week ago, i checked the weather. i needed to know whether to pack snow clothes or rain clothes or just cold weather clothes. and at that time there was very little precipitation in the forecast. i was expecting clear skies until the very end of our trip when it looked like there was a chance of a little bit of rain.

ok, in oregon "a chance" of rain means get out the umbrellas and rubber boots. and there is no definition for "a little bit of rain" here. when it rains, it pours. but you see, i have spent the last eight years living in the land of perpetual sunshine where "a chance" of rain means it might rain in burbank. and "a little bit of rain" means wear a hoodie. so i foolishly believed the weather report and left my mittens and snow boots at home.

we enjoyed fairly good weather for most of our trip. the sun shone, but cold east winds blew. and then this morning, while we were packing up the car, i noticed that the sky looked kind of dark. ominously dark. we hit the freeway, and shortly after we left, i got a text from my mom saying that it was snowing. whew, i thought, we just missed it! and then it started snowing where we were . . .

it was snowing pretty hard, but not much was sticking to the ground. and as we continued on our way, the precipitation turned to rain and stayed that way for the next four hours. then, just as we were approaching medford, we saw the sign--blizzard conditions, northern california, I-5 closed to all vehicles.

yep, the kiss of death.

thankfully we were planning on spending the night in ashland anyway. we have friends there who were expecting us for dinner. but we were not the only ones on the road. we were surrounded by oregon duck fans headed for the rose bowl. i am guessing that many of them were coming from eugene, and probably planned to spend the night in redding or sacramento before driving on in to pasadena tomorrow. but sadly for them, they are going to be staying in medford or ashland tonight (if they can find a room,) which is going to make for an unexpectedly long drive tomorrow. and all those motels in redding and sacramento who were expecting duck fans are going to be very disappointed with all their empty rooms . . .

I-5 is not going to be a happy place tomorrow . . .

we drove on to our friends' house, entered their warm home, got hugs all around, ate a delicious dinner, and enjoyed an evening of catching up. we kept checking the road conditions, but when we finally headed for bed, the highway was still closed.

so i am going to sleep now. i don't know when we will be able to leave. i am sure that the california department of transportation is aware that their roads are going to be crammed with frantic duck fans as soon as that road opens, so i am sure they are doing everything they can to make it happen. rollie is still planning on getting up EARLY so we can leave, but if the road is still closed, we won't be going anywhere.

weather! it sure can mess up your plans!!

and away we go!

so today . . . i've spent the day getting ready to go north for christmas! i am so excited!!

our pups are not so excited. somehow they seem to know, even before we get out the suitcases, that we are going. (i'm sure they understand us when we are talking to each other.) this was milo's response when i began gathering clothes to pack . . .
now before you think, "well of course he knows you are leaving--you are getting stuff ready to go," the sad truth is that it is not an uncommon circumstance for him to find a stack of tops or pants laying on the bed. somehow, when i do laundry, i seem to lose interest between the folding stage and the putting away stage . . .

anyway, it is now 10:07 p.m. and of course i am not ready to go. once again, rollie is. he is tucked snugly in bed racking up zzzzzzzz's so that he will be ready for the long drive tomorrow. he will wake up about 3:00 a.m. and be ready to go.

diandra decided that she would just stay awake until we leave. her thinking is that if she goes to bed tonight, she will get just enough sleep that she won't be able to sleep in the car. and how frustrating would that be, to be wide awake in a dark car at 4:00 a.m.?!?!

i am heading for the shower. and then i will finish packing (i am almost done,) pick up the last few things lying cluttered about, and maybe vacuum. and then sleep . . . of course, i will sleep in the recliner, in my clothes, so that when rollie is ready to go he can wake me up and i can walk zombie-like to the car and resume my slumber.

i have no problem sleeping in the car . . .