I went to Falls Church, Virginia to visit family and friends 20 – 29 December. I got home yesterday evening. Drove to Bloomington (1 hour) and flew through Detroit to Dulles and back again.
Going out of Bloomington vs. Champaign is about $150 cheaper round trip and parking is free, which is a substantial savings. BMI now has free public wireless! Yay! Champaign did already for UIUC folks since it’s owned and run by the University, but I read recently that they opened it up to all of the public. Bravo! Now if only the larger airports could get on board.
I was overjoyed to have wireless in BMI on the way out since my flight hadn’t arrived and I got an update from Orbitz before the airline (Northwest) even mentioned it. It seems our airplane couldn’t see well enough to land and got diverted to Champaign to refuel before coming back to Bloomington. Other planes were landing and taking off, though. We left Bloomington after my flight to DC from Detroit had left; many others on our flight missed their flights.
I used the wireless to get several more updates from Oribtz and found a phone # for NWA. They had me re-booked already on a later flight out of Detroit so
I got to DC a couple hours later.
Coming home, our plane in Detroit had maintenance issues and we finally got another plane scheduled for about 3 hours later. Not too bad, but it’d sure be nice if the airline had paid for wireless. I think free public wireless should be at all airports, for many reasons. But until wiser minds see reason and understand service it’d at least be nice of your airline would provide it once you have a delay. Oh well. Travel; it could’ve been much worse.
I had a wonderful visit with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, niece, son, daughter; and friends, Miss E, and Christina Pikas and her husband, Mark. Thanks all.
Saw several movies. Ate assorted cuisine, including Vietnamese with Christina and Mark. Also had great Chinese with E. Played games. Talked. Went to the Natural History Museum and Botanic Gardens. Helped figure out the audio wiring in a new house. Helped with the cooking, sometimes. Ate lots of tasty food.
I fear Christina’s Mark had to suffer through a goodly amount of librariana/grad school talk. Sorry, dude.
No idea what the mail state is since it’s been held since the 20th. Perhaps it’ll get delivered tomorrow; I believe that’s what I asked for. Online holding of your mail is easy, btw.
I have to say that I’m already feeling overwhelmed. So much to do. Bottom line, I put off a major decision until after this visit. Now, I’m back and facing a massive deadline on the 11th of Jan. I was ordered to leave it be until after my visit, so I did. If this does not go well then it’ll be decision time. I have only discussed this with an extremely small number of people; can only think of 2 at the moment and I did not bring it up on my trip. While I love and trust everyone I saw on my trip, I wasn’t ready to discuss this. Don’t really have the words to explain it anyway.
I did 4 loads of laundry this morning, which is a large number for me. Went to the grocery store. Trying to do final updates to several posts; publishing one. Need to reply to a couple serious comments. Changed the header images on a single post and the main Archives page with some slices of a couple photos I took at the United States Botanic Garden. Published another post [Sorry if I'm overloading you, Christina.]
Photos of Christmas presents (known, to date; see mail comment above). Red penciled the current state of my bibliography. Read some. Watched 3 episodes of the Simpsons Season 2.
I know this is fragmented and brief. So much more could be said about many things.
I relaxed while on vacation, while I did not end on a relaxed and rested note, since I was tired most of the time on my visit. I might ought to broach a serious topic with some other folks, but I have to focus on moving forward towards the 11th first. If I reach that OK then other issues may melt away.
I really did enjoy spending time with everyone I saw. I sure wish my niece had been less sick, though.
Perhaps I’ll write more about this year ending and the new one beginning tomorrow. Perhaps not.
Ok, so now I’m burnin’ up with curiosity. What is this big life alterin’ thing goin’ on?
I’m with Jacob. Spill.
And I won’t be there tonight to hear about it in person, so I’ll need to gather intelligence about this “thing” some other way.
It seems you two missed the final “Perhaps not.”
I apologize for being so coy but I know no other useful way to let those folks who are geographically dispersed know that things are still up in the air for me.
Despite not having the words to adequately discuss it, I probably do not want (or shouldn’t) discuss it openly here. If I felt capable of discussing it then there are several people who read this who I would love to discuss it with. But probably not in this venue. Do not want any others to get the wrong impression.
As I said, I did not discuss it with my immediate family nor two good friends while in DC. This is not because I do not trust those folks; I do. It is because after I drop the possible what I have no resources to explain the why.
I can certainly say what my tentative decision is; I just cannot explain the why of it at all well. To others or myself.
Simply put, I am tired. Existentially, primarily.
There is a lot that goes into this and one by one the reasons would not add up to much for others. For me they add up to much more.
For those physically here, I may well discuss some of this (and already have anyway, if less explicitly) with you as my preferred means of communication is face-to-face. But, for now, I am in no “place” where I can, nor do I choose to, discuss it.
I must make much progress on one specific project before 11 Jan. If I do OK at that then the issue will become moot, at least for a while again. And that must be my goal!
Attaining that goal will not really fix any thing in my life but the burden will be eased for the moment.
This year is going to be a milestone year for me in many ways. And all of those (several) milestones have multiple ways of resolving themselves.
If I can manage to positively affect some of these immediately looming changes then, perhaps, I can begin to do so for some of the longer running issues, which many of you are, at least, aware of.
So Jen!! and Jacob, I apologize for not “spilling” but you both already know far more than you think you do regarding this. I know you both care about me and I do trust you, but this is neither the proper place, nor the proper time for me to go into detail.
No worries friend. Just don’t make yourself sick worrying about why you made a certain decision. Maybe I can share a helpful (or not) story this evening.