ladykatza

I was up too late last night. Its all the internet’s fault! OK, not really. I blame it on people I’ve been talking with, that and i needed three paragraphs of a story my husband requested before I went to bed. Simon is now home for summer vacation so I wanted to be awake this morning so help diffuse any more destruction caused by the children. They get into things. I keep finding interesting pieces of caveman art in various places around my house. Couple of them were even done in nail polish. Interesting choice of medium, location dangerous. Don’t do it again or I might blow a gasket.

Ooo, coffee’s done. MMMM, coffee.

So I’m going on a vacation! I can’t believe it, actually, because everything just fell into place. A friend of mine helped me out with the plane ticket. This was quite unexpected, but I was told to consider it a birthday present. Now Ava’s picking me up from the airport and we’re staying at her place for the night before heading out to Toronto! I finally get to meet Matthew and I’m so excited about there being a jazz festival at the same time. My mother instilled a love of Jazz and Swing in me rather early, and I remember my father teaching me basic swing moves as a kid.

But aside from that, I get to spend the week with some very awesome people and just have a really nice time. We’re going to be driving by Niagara Falls, which makes me happy. I’ll be abe to get out and gawk for at least a few minutes. This is one of the few parts of the country I haven’t driven through.

Oh yeah. Road Trips. I’m familiar with those. Growing up we had this BRIGHT orange station wagon with brown vinyl seats. It was an AMC Hornet. You don’t get much more 70’s than that, really. It had a Jeep engine in it with a straight six cylinder, so it was cheep and easy to fix with a good amount of power. Dad’s hobby was working on cars so he was always puttering with it. He also installed this awesome stereo system with a *gasp* TAPE DECK! That was the shiznit when I was growing up.

So my summer’s were spent in the back of a 70’s station wagon, driving cross country to see some relative or another. We listened to classical music, Simon and Garfunkel, Taco, and Boy George. (My Mom liked Boy George, I still find this odd) Driving along, when we weren’t a tight schedule, we often took back roads. Dad would ask gas attendants about good local restaurants in the area or something neat to see on the way. This is how we saw Carl’s Bad Caverns and numerous other oddities and roadside attractions. I still haven’t seen The World’s Largest Ball of Twine even though I’ve driven through Minnesota more times than I can count.

Later, after I was old enough to drive on my own and had my own car, I started road tripping myself. At 17, I had wanted to go back and see my friends in North Carolina (we had moved to GA just after my 16th bd), so my parents let me drive myself up there. People thought they were crazy to let a teenager do that. For me, it just seemed natural. Its only been since having kids and needing to keep a steady income that I’ve stopped doing road trips. I’ve been getting itchy foot syndrome. The travel bug bit me.

Suddenly, this drops in my lap. I had dug my feet in about it at first. I didn’t feel like I could go, like I was a bad person for taking time out for myself. Finally my husband insisted. He said “We can handle it without you for a few days, you need this.” And then it really came together.

And I’m going. I’m excited!