Steaming cup warming my hands and the heavenly scent of french vanilla and coffee flooding my nostrils, I drove in the darkness and marveled at the emptiness of the highway at such an early hour. “Just 2 more hours and we can stop” I repeatedly told myself. “I can stay awake for 2 more hours”.
Hubby snoozed next to me and the kids were sound asleep in the back. The silence of the car and the highway made my mind race wildly. The scent of the coffee brought me back in time, to my college years, and suddenly all I could think about was smoking a cigarette.
Did you have to read that again?
Yes, a cigarette. I was craving one. Quite badly.
It’s odd, because if you know me in real life you know I don’t smoke. And aside from a semester or two in college, I never touched the things.
So yeah, I smoked for a bit in college. It was really a social thing; brought on by a smoking roommate and a desperate desire to “fit in” somewhere. I would carry a pack in my back pocket at frat parties – it was a great way to get guys to talk to me.
Ugh. That is so sad.
But I never really smoked regularly. My dad smoked 3 packs a day for years and years and up and quit one day when I was about 8 I guess. I had always thought smoking was a disgusting, dirty habit, but in the year in college that I smoked every now and then I found it to be quite relaxing and enjoyable. Thankfully I am not an addictive personality, so a habit never formed and as soon as the roommate and the frat parties went away I quit.
But for some reason in that lonely, quiet moment on the big, open freeway, my coffee had me thinking of a cigarette.
Perhaps I was longing for something different; it maybe wasn’t so much the feel of the warm smoke in my lungs that I wanted, but the feelings of youth and freedom. And being on the open road so late in such isolation and quiet turned my focus to something that reminded me of my younger self.
I haven’t felt that way in a long time.
Until,
D :)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Bright Is the Ring of Words
My first in-car pump was interesting to say the least. Figuring out how to maneuver the pump, a power converter, the horns, bottles and my shirt in a very small space while trying to maintain some modesty was quite the task. Thankfully, night was falling and I wasn’t too terribly concerned with what passers by might see. But, I also needed to figure out how to pump successfully without flashing the world, so it was a good environment for my first try.
After we were on the road an hour or so, we stopped for a late dinner drive thru and the grease fest began! I wasn’t sure if my system could handle 3 days of fast food, but we didn’t have much choice. Hubby took the first shift driving as both the kids thankfully drifted off to sleep.
Hubby decided to drive as long as he could, thereby making it my job to sleep so I could take over when he could no longer keep his eyes open. Unfortunately, I was not able to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time, as every bump and swerve jolted me out of sleep and into instant panic mode. Ever the control freak, I am not a good passenger in the car. Every peep from Port sent me spinning in my seat, giving me one wicked case of stiff neck and back and a raw underarm from reaching behind my seat far to many times.
I don’t know how he did it. Maybe it was the excitement of the trip or perhaps the 3 Red Bulls he slammed, but by about 5:30 AM, Hubby was finally feeling the pain and asked if I could drive for a bit. I thought I could as long as we could stop for some coffee first. We stopped in the tiny TX town of Van Horn at a po-dunk gas station that looked like it *might* have a decent cup to offer. As we pulled into the parking lot, my weary eyes struggled to focus on the details of the surroundings. Hubby stopped our car and I looked out over the surface of the parking lot. Small black objects moved all about, and I blinked repeatedly and squinted to try to figure out what they were. The parking lot was crawling, literally, with ½ inch long black beetles.
After we were on the road an hour or so, we stopped for a late dinner drive thru and the grease fest began! I wasn’t sure if my system could handle 3 days of fast food, but we didn’t have much choice. Hubby took the first shift driving as both the kids thankfully drifted off to sleep.
Hubby decided to drive as long as he could, thereby making it my job to sleep so I could take over when he could no longer keep his eyes open. Unfortunately, I was not able to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time, as every bump and swerve jolted me out of sleep and into instant panic mode. Ever the control freak, I am not a good passenger in the car. Every peep from Port sent me spinning in my seat, giving me one wicked case of stiff neck and back and a raw underarm from reaching behind my seat far to many times.
I don’t know how he did it. Maybe it was the excitement of the trip or perhaps the 3 Red Bulls he slammed, but by about 5:30 AM, Hubby was finally feeling the pain and asked if I could drive for a bit. I thought I could as long as we could stop for some coffee first. We stopped in the tiny TX town of Van Horn at a po-dunk gas station that looked like it *might* have a decent cup to offer. As we pulled into the parking lot, my weary eyes struggled to focus on the details of the surroundings. Hubby stopped our car and I looked out over the surface of the parking lot. Small black objects moved all about, and I blinked repeatedly and squinted to try to figure out what they were. The parking lot was crawling, literally, with ½ inch long black beetles.
Seriously
I thought I was seeing things. Again and again I looked. They were everywhere; crawling, climbing, stacked on top one another in every nook, cranny and surface as far as the eye could see in the light of the little gas station. I hesitated to get out of the car, and as Hubby urged me to go get my coffee already, I wondered if he even knew what was lurking just outside my passenger door. Surely he wouldn’t want his fair wifey-poo traipsing across the crunchy landscape?? He was sleepy and he really couldn’t have cared less about my squeamishness, so I gingerly got out of the car and proceeded to tip-toe around thousands and thousands of beetles.
There was a scent in the air – one can only assume coming from the crushed buggy masses – and surprisingly it was somewhat sweet.
I made my way into the gas station, rubbing my eyes and seeking out the black elixir I love so much. (man, I’m getting all flowery here, aren’t I?) Thankfully the shop was stocked with “gourmet” coffee and giant vats of my favorite creamer, so I filled up the largest cup they had and smiled like a Cheshire cat when the total was a measly $1.35. Sweet!
Steaming cup in hand, I tuned into the conversation between the local-yocal cashier and a wayward traveler that had also stopped for a late night pick-me-up. The Yocal and the Traveler were discussing the beetle phenomenon outside the door and the Yocal told him that it was way worse than the cricket plague of last year. Though, he said, it was pretty bad last year “cuz the birds couldn’t fly”.
Puzzled, the Traveler questioned the Yocal. I was lingering at the door now, intrigued at such a random and bizarre statement.
“Well sir, the birds ate all them crickets and their bellies were so full they couldn’t fly. They all just stood on the ground and waddled around for days.”
Mmmmhmmm… gotta love local folk-lore. *wink-wink*
Until,
D :)
p.s. I found a YouTube video of a beetle infestation in TX back in 2001. This is EXACTLY what I saw that night last week. The video is NOT for the squeamish, but if you are curious, here is the link.
Whither Must I Wander
Our family vacation this year took us to Arizona. Hubby and I called Arizona home for about 3 years before Kiddo was born. We returned to Texas to live in the summer of 2003 so that we could be back near our friends and family and start a family of our own. Since then, Hubby has been back to visit AZ a few times, but I haven’t had the opportunity to go back until now.
About 6 months ago, in a state of hormonal lunacy, I agreed to go on a vacation that would require driving across the country with an almost 4 year old and a 4 month old baby. What the heck was I thinking??!? We had the fortune of being able to vacation with Hubby’s parents, who graciously offered to book all of us a condo for a week in Flagstaff, AZ (thank goodness for time-share properties!). All we needed to do was get there.
And get there we did. The condo was booked for a Friday to Friday week and we loaded up all our worldly possessions and headed out late Tuesday night. We decided to try to get the majority of the 16+ hour drive out of the way in the night while the kids slept. We left shortly after 8:30PM.
I am so very thankful that Port is turning out to be nothing like his brother with respect to car travel. Kiddo was a nightmare to travel with as an infant – he would last maybe 5 minutes in the car seat before the non-stop scream fest began. In Kiddo’s early months Hubby and I made a couple of trips to the inlaws house, only to arrive 3 ½ hours later haggard, exhausted, and hoarse from singing Old MacDonald fiftybajillion times. We would bring little Kiddo inside, with his face all puffy and red from endless screaming and we’d collapse in a heap wherever we could swearing we weren’t going to do that again.
So needless to say I was a bit nervous about this trip with Port. I knew Kiddo would be ok; easily entertained by the DVD player (God bless the inventor of such a wonderful creation). But Port, my sweet little boy, I was not too sure about. As we were loading up the car Tuesday afternoon and everyone was getting a little punchy, I stopped Hubby in the kitchen for a much needed hug. “This is going to be fun, right?” I asked. So far, it had been nothing short of immensely stressful. Packing for a 12 day trip with almost 6 days of driving was way more than I had bargained for. And trying to keep a curious, excited and cranky pre-schooler happy while juggling a baby and pumping and trying to remember everything we needed to bring for ourselves and two little people was almost maddening.
But we made it out the door on time. And as soon as we were on the road I took on the task of my first in-car pump. Weeeeee!!!
More to come…
Until,
D :)
About 6 months ago, in a state of hormonal lunacy, I agreed to go on a vacation that would require driving across the country with an almost 4 year old and a 4 month old baby. What the heck was I thinking??!? We had the fortune of being able to vacation with Hubby’s parents, who graciously offered to book all of us a condo for a week in Flagstaff, AZ (thank goodness for time-share properties!). All we needed to do was get there.
And get there we did. The condo was booked for a Friday to Friday week and we loaded up all our worldly possessions and headed out late Tuesday night. We decided to try to get the majority of the 16+ hour drive out of the way in the night while the kids slept. We left shortly after 8:30PM.
I am so very thankful that Port is turning out to be nothing like his brother with respect to car travel. Kiddo was a nightmare to travel with as an infant – he would last maybe 5 minutes in the car seat before the non-stop scream fest began. In Kiddo’s early months Hubby and I made a couple of trips to the inlaws house, only to arrive 3 ½ hours later haggard, exhausted, and hoarse from singing Old MacDonald fiftybajillion times. We would bring little Kiddo inside, with his face all puffy and red from endless screaming and we’d collapse in a heap wherever we could swearing we weren’t going to do that again.
So needless to say I was a bit nervous about this trip with Port. I knew Kiddo would be ok; easily entertained by the DVD player (God bless the inventor of such a wonderful creation). But Port, my sweet little boy, I was not too sure about. As we were loading up the car Tuesday afternoon and everyone was getting a little punchy, I stopped Hubby in the kitchen for a much needed hug. “This is going to be fun, right?” I asked. So far, it had been nothing short of immensely stressful. Packing for a 12 day trip with almost 6 days of driving was way more than I had bargained for. And trying to keep a curious, excited and cranky pre-schooler happy while juggling a baby and pumping and trying to remember everything we needed to bring for ourselves and two little people was almost maddening.
But we made it out the door on time. And as soon as we were on the road I took on the task of my first in-car pump. Weeeeee!!!
More to come…
Until,
D :)
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Big Wheels
In preparation for our annual family vacation, I took our car over to the local Discount Tire to have the tires balanced and rotated. I also needed to purchase a tire for our spare – those of you that have been reading this blog for a while may remember the flat tire incident we had back in November. We had that tire replaced shortly thereafter, but a couple of months later we discovered the spare tire was coming apart and we never got around to replacing it. Anyway, our family vacation was going to take us driving cross country over 2500 miles round trip, and with the way things tend to go on our big outings, I wasn’t about to take the chance of us not having a spare tire.
The kids and I waited in the waiting area of the tire dealer for about 45 minutes as they worked on my car. Kiddo was so good – he sat in the seat next to me and “read” all the car magazines they had in the little rack beside him. Shortly after we settled in the chairs a young woman entered the store and handed over her car keys to the employee helping her. She was dressed in a black tank top and a long, flowy blue skirt; it looked like something out of the late 80’s – sort of hippy style with a 3-4 inch ruffle of fabric at the bottom. She walked over to the waiting area and plopped down in a chair perpendicular to the row we were sitting in. She curled up her legs beneath her and in the process, hiked her skirt up around her thighs. Her position in the chair and the skirt hiking made it so that anyone in that room could see, uh, well, most everything (if you know what I mean). I was a bit taken aback – I know that personally I am pretty aware of when my goods are showing, and sitting in the Discount Tire Co. is not exactly the place I would chose to not mind if things “hung out”. She sat there for a while like that, and eventually got up to take a look at the magazine rack. Kiddo said hello to her, and while she perused the periodicals they made cute small talk. She bent over to pick up a mag and it became quite obvious that her skirt was not exactly sized properly. I got a lovely shot of the back side of her – underwear, crack and all. *sigh*
Thankfully she returned to her seat and this time took on a more lady-like position. A gentleman entered the facility and immediately made his presence known to all. He stood somewhere in the 6’5” – 6’ 6” range and most likely weighed somewhere between 350 and 400 pounds. His legs and arms were thick and straight like tree trunks. His head and torso not only were heavy with excess weight, but big boned as well. He had one of those deep, baritone voices that sent echoes of sound throughout any building – but it especially rang loud in a place with concrete floors and surrounding glass walls. He wore a black t-shirt and shorts, and I couldn’t help but stare at the condition of his skin. He was covered from head to toe in discoloration and open sores – most likely caused by diabetes and/or a serious case of gout. And though the sight of him would cause most to recoil in disgust or fear, he seemed unaware or perhaps uncaring of his appearance and was friendly and talkative with everyone there. He commented on the boys (how handsome they were) and made polite small talk with Kiddo (there isn’t anyone the boy won’t talk to!) and after taking a magazine, crammed his larger than life body into the standard sized waiting area chair. He talked politics with another man in the waiting area – easily discussing his views with a total stranger. And all the while his gigantic voice rattled the walls and windows of the facility.
People came and went and soon enough it was time for us to go. Kiddo had a melt down in the car because I didn’t show him our new tire. Who knew he would be so excited about such trivial things?? I explained to him that it was on the back of the car and I made sure to show it to him when we got home.
He is such a boy. ;)
Until,
D :)
The kids and I waited in the waiting area of the tire dealer for about 45 minutes as they worked on my car. Kiddo was so good – he sat in the seat next to me and “read” all the car magazines they had in the little rack beside him. Shortly after we settled in the chairs a young woman entered the store and handed over her car keys to the employee helping her. She was dressed in a black tank top and a long, flowy blue skirt; it looked like something out of the late 80’s – sort of hippy style with a 3-4 inch ruffle of fabric at the bottom. She walked over to the waiting area and plopped down in a chair perpendicular to the row we were sitting in. She curled up her legs beneath her and in the process, hiked her skirt up around her thighs. Her position in the chair and the skirt hiking made it so that anyone in that room could see, uh, well, most everything (if you know what I mean). I was a bit taken aback – I know that personally I am pretty aware of when my goods are showing, and sitting in the Discount Tire Co. is not exactly the place I would chose to not mind if things “hung out”. She sat there for a while like that, and eventually got up to take a look at the magazine rack. Kiddo said hello to her, and while she perused the periodicals they made cute small talk. She bent over to pick up a mag and it became quite obvious that her skirt was not exactly sized properly. I got a lovely shot of the back side of her – underwear, crack and all. *sigh*
Thankfully she returned to her seat and this time took on a more lady-like position. A gentleman entered the facility and immediately made his presence known to all. He stood somewhere in the 6’5” – 6’ 6” range and most likely weighed somewhere between 350 and 400 pounds. His legs and arms were thick and straight like tree trunks. His head and torso not only were heavy with excess weight, but big boned as well. He had one of those deep, baritone voices that sent echoes of sound throughout any building – but it especially rang loud in a place with concrete floors and surrounding glass walls. He wore a black t-shirt and shorts, and I couldn’t help but stare at the condition of his skin. He was covered from head to toe in discoloration and open sores – most likely caused by diabetes and/or a serious case of gout. And though the sight of him would cause most to recoil in disgust or fear, he seemed unaware or perhaps uncaring of his appearance and was friendly and talkative with everyone there. He commented on the boys (how handsome they were) and made polite small talk with Kiddo (there isn’t anyone the boy won’t talk to!) and after taking a magazine, crammed his larger than life body into the standard sized waiting area chair. He talked politics with another man in the waiting area – easily discussing his views with a total stranger. And all the while his gigantic voice rattled the walls and windows of the facility.
People came and went and soon enough it was time for us to go. Kiddo had a melt down in the car because I didn’t show him our new tire. Who knew he would be so excited about such trivial things?? I explained to him that it was on the back of the car and I made sure to show it to him when we got home.
He is such a boy. ;)
Until,
D :)
Monday, August 04, 2008
I Have Trod the Upward and the Downward Slope
Just a quickie...
Port turned 4 months yesterday and showed us what a big boy he is by rolling over!! For a guy who hates tummy/floor time, he made his momma so proud by doing it several times in a row!
Anyway - remote blogging here, so this will just be image heavy. Stories to come later.
Images from the road:
Some places have the best light...
Wide Open...
Wouldn't be a trip without something like this...
My beautiful boys...
Amazing...
Missing you...
Making new friends...
Meeting "old friends" for the first time...
Port turned 4 months yesterday and showed us what a big boy he is by rolling over!! For a guy who hates tummy/floor time, he made his momma so proud by doing it several times in a row!
Anyway - remote blogging here, so this will just be image heavy. Stories to come later.
Images from the road:
Some places have the best light...
Wide Open...
Wouldn't be a trip without something like this...
My beautiful boys...
Amazing...Our breakfast companion...
Missing you...Making new friends...Meeting "old friends" for the first time...
Much more to come!
Until,
D :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)