There's a land that I heard of, once, in a lullaby.

Off to the ancient ruins of my childhood we go, in order to observe a tribal ritual known locally as my nephew's wedding this weekend. The first part of the trip should take about 23 actual drive-hours, which, when you factor in stops for food, gas, rest stops, etc., will equate to approximately 26 hours on the road.

WHAT?! Who agreed to this? It's insanity!

Nevertheless, we leave tomorrow. At 6 a.m. sharp the car exits the driveway, pausing only for on-coming traffic, if any... which, seriously... it's a cul-de-sac.

We head first to Denver for a few days, then off to Kansas City to visit my delightful grandmother who's 95 and still living independently, full of love and life. I'm quite excited to see her! From there, we'll circle back home the scenic route through Mt. Rushmore National Park.

I'll miss you, my lovely innernuts.



P.S. Nina, I've programmed your numbers into my cell and I'll call as we get close!

Sometimes, I don't even know me.

You guys, I have to get this off my chest. So, I'm a bit of a technophobe (like THAT's news...), and I never joined the Flickr rush until after TequilaCon'07 when someone put the group photos all together on a Flickr grouping which (duh) you had to be a member in order to post your photos there. Fine. I joined. And added contacts, friends, family... and then promptly forgot my password/username, and no amount of reminders from the server seemed to bring it back.

Then, annoyed by not being able to comment and view my friends' and family's photos, I gave in and made ANOTHER Flickr account after our trip up Rainier last summer, re-friended everyone I could still find, and... promptly lost my username/password.

I was actually more embarrassed than pissed, if you can believe that. (And if you can, you don't know me very well.) So embarrassed, in fact, that I've refused to join up again, even though I'm missing out on all the great photos and comments everyone has posted. Stubbornly, I was just NOT going to make YET ANOTHER flickr account, which, I'd probably get locked out of promptly anyway.

But tonight?? Tonight, I was just sitting here, and I REMEMBERED! I remembered my password to what I thought must be a defunct Flickr account by now, but it's STILL THERE!!! I'm so excited!

I'm not sure whether to be more embarrassed by having lost multiple accounts, or the fact that I'm thrilled to have remembered one of them.

Seriously. Why are you friends with me? Aren't you embarrassed?

Winter, according to me.