Hallo all!
So. If you're reading this you probably care that I'm on vacation. Some of you (I'd hope most) know that already! But here I am in Ohio, writing from Ronni's 'puter. Luckily she is as much of a 'Net bug as I am so she understands the need for regular access. Bwahaha!
Let me tell you about my trip so far, so I don't have to do a massive dump when I get home. (And I don't mean THAT kind of dump, you gross people.)
Jeaux (who's been great) took me to the bus station in Gainesville on Thursday morning. He even waited with me and got me a bagel egg sandwich and chips. It was my big meal. The bus was almost an hour late, which concerned me because, well, I was due in Atlanta at 6 that afternoon and the bus would leave for the next leg of the trip at 7! They arrived and picked me up. The ride was pleasant--I got my own two seats--and I listened to Jeaux's discman thing (which he was kind enough to lend for the trip) and got all annoyed at these batteries he bought me. He got this dollar pack of like 16 batteries, which is nice 'cause they last long enough to play about a CD and a half. Grr.
Five minutes into the trip some asshole lady lit up on the bus! She started smoking! Can you believe it? The bus driver yelled at her. Who smokes on a bus?
So I read some of Roots--with which I'm almost finished--and I listened to the player and I nibbled the crackers I'd made and brought. And I worked on my recipe cards. The bus stopped in weird little podunk towns along the way. Once we got to Georgia they were really funny. I saw a dude just sitting on a tractor in his front yard. What? Some little head-scarfed lady riding a bike. Weird little tiny charming houses.
BTW--don't ever bring a carbonated beverage on a bus. I was smart enough to bring just water, but I was thinking how, with all the vibration, it would have been frothing all over the place when opened. I did consider bringing some Cokes and now I'm glad I listened to the little voice in my brain that just KNEW that was not a good idea.
I had to change to a new bus in Atlanta. We have to change our own luggage, so I went to claim mine and some old lady was holding the handle of one of mine. I was like, okay, she's looking at the tag to see if it's hers--and she was--but she just kept doing weird things. I had tied little ivy sprigs on the handles to help identify them as mine, and she was playing with the ivy sprig, like looking at it and examining it as if she was thinking, "What is this doing on my bag?" When she let go of it I came over and grabbed it and she looked startled, then was like talking to herself, "Oh that's not mine," and then went to get hers--and it wasn't even remotely the same color or style as mine. Weird. I ate an apple on the new bus and tossed the core before we got going. I got two seats to myself again here too. Nice.
On the bus from Atlanta, a guy offered me a cookie. I didn't accept because I'd been stuffing myself with baked goods for the past few days, and told him so. He had seen me with my recipe cards and asked me if I liked baking, and so we started talking about that. Somehow I ended up mentioning that I'm allergic to cinnamon and he's like, "What happens if you eat it?" and I'm like, great, five minutes into meeting some dude on the bus I've got to tell him "cinnamon makes me run to the bathroom to shit every five minutes." Great getting-to-know-you lines! Anyway. Then it turned out this dude just got out of serving five years in federal prison. Fun.
That guy ended up talking to someone else for a long time, and I ignored them and listened to my disc player and finished up my recipe cards, did some more reading, and did some writing. Then the guy interrupted me to ask what I was writing, and so I told him about my books, but tried to not give him much detail because I did not feel like talking about all the intricate plots and junk. He did say some things that made me answer questions very oddly, though. Like he wanted to know what was happening in the part I was writing right then and two of the characters were arguing about whether making another character wear clothes was dangerous. "Is this a nude beach?" he asked. Hah. I think I blew his mind a little, because every question he asked me required an answer that sounded kinda weird. He asked me what I was listening to and I told him it was a CD mix of songs in a bunch of languages other than English. Yum, German techno. Hooray for Blümchen. Also he asked some stuff that made me mention that I run three Web sites, and he wanted to know what they were about, so I was like, "Um, one's a Web page about how to make Web pages, one is just a personal site for my writing and recipes and all that stuff, and one is an instructional page about the Craft." "Craft stuff like sewing and all that?" Oh boy. He didn't know quite what to say when I clarified that I meant witchcraft. Lovely. I probably looked like a total freak to him. But what do I care? I ate a granola bar and some homemade biscotti for dinner.
Um. So I was the only arsehole with the reading light on for a long time, and then I turned it off 'round midnight and went to sleep, sort of. Got woken up a couple times and then had to change again when I got to Cincinnati. Blargh. It was 4:30 in the morning. I got on the last bus successfully and kept myself awake with the disc player, which died four times during my trip. And the headset was evil. Crackle crackle. I swear I'm cursed--some ass behind me had his headphones turned up so high that I could hear not only the beats but the lyrics. Everywhere I go people like to advertise the fact that they like shitty music! The sky lightened and I watched. Finally we pulled into Columbus. Yaay!
Off the bus I went, claimed my luggage (which had come with me in one piece, yahoo!), and made my way into the Columbus station. It wasn't long before Ronni arrived with her husband and son! She scurried over to me and we hugged a couple times, and I was all, "HAHA! Someone my size to hug!" Her little boy is so adorable with his puffy hair, and I was happy to finally get to meet her husband after knowing OF him for so long.
Anyway, we scooted off to her place, and I got my stuff inside and took the grand tour. I want a house. :( She has a room that's the size of my apartment. I think they thought I was kidding when I said so. We toddled around a little and then went to breakfast at Bob Evans, where I got eggs and biscuits and watched little Aidan throwing M&M's all over the place. He ate one piece of bacon and ignored every one of his little pancakes. Wah. They treated me for my breakfast! How cool!
We went back to their place and I gave them my visiting gift: Some shortbread. I'm glad it survived and that they liked it. We blew bubbles with her son for a while, but then he got tired and Chris put him to bed, and fell asleep himself, leaving us a little girl time. We actually ended up on the freakin' computers together! She has a laptop and was on the floor beside me on her regular computer and we're both just messing around and talking and watching Strong Bad e-mails and discussing junk. It was funny how within hours we were both on the computer. Goes to show, hahah!
I took a bath and a nap--a long one--and when I woke up they were playing video games and Aidan was up running around in a diaper--little cutie! Chris had made din-din. Yummy noodle thing with peas and corn and celery--I can take or leave the celery, but the whole thing was great. He dyed it orange with food coloring because he wanted it to look like the Chinese food sauce. Har har har. I really enjoyed it and had two helpings. I hope they let me cook for them sometime while I'm here. Maybe homemade pizza or calzones or little cheese rolls. w00t!
Last I checked they were playing Tomb Raider and Scrabble, so I scurried upstairs to check mail and write this. Sounds like they might be watching TV now. Tomorrow we're going to Amish Country! And a party! Yay. I feel so loved; lots of people knew I was coming and were waiting to meet me. So happy. :) I'm gonna have a great time this week!
See y'all on the flip side.
Notes:
I always have to have Coke on my bus rides. But the vibration never made it frothy, to my knowledge. It's only when I drop it on the ground and it rolls up and down the aisle that it gets all bubbly. My friend's CD player EATS batteries, no matter what kind. I've sworn it off as demon seed. Amish country! I can't wait to read about that. I love Tomb Raider games, even if she has bouncy boobs! [katqueen]