The aftermath

In the end, the journey to Buffalo was easier than I had thought. Too easy. There was no rush hour traffic going to the airport, we had no trouble finding parking, and we sailed through security. It was eerie, to say the least. See? This is what happens when you obsess about how painful something will be: it isn't painful. Gotta love it.

My trip to Buffalo also served as a last-ditch effort to get through Watership Down, by Richard Adams. My friend, T, lent me this book about three years ago as it was one of her favorites growing up, but I couldn't get past the first ten pages. Well, folks, after two days and three nights, I'm only on page 175. For a person who routinely reads several books per weekend, this is an extremely slow pace.

So why the trouble? I think maybe because the plot (or what there is of one) hasn't grabbed me. Sure, there are a group of rabbits who leave a warren they deem unsafe to start a new one elsewhere. And there's danger. And they have adventures. But what's the story? I was discussing this with a high school friend of mine over brunch today, and he said, "This sounds like one of those books that's really an allegory. I bet the book is really about evil WWII-era companies. I'm not saying that for any reason, it's just what I think." Well, according to Wikipedia, he's scarily close: Watership Down is apparently about "fascism and appeasement." I'm fairly certain I hadn't reached the F&A storyline yet, but it isn't quite enough to make me read on. It isn't often that I can't bulldoze my way through a book, even if I'm not enjoying it. But I think three years is long enough to try, especially considering the teetering stack of books I have here next to me, waiting to be loved. And anyway, my book-as-allegory muscle has atrophied.

By the numbers

Number of projects I'm on at work: 5
Number of scheduled hours of work this week: 24
Number of hours I need at work this week: 80
Cost of machine parts I ruined over the past two days: $500 (and counting)
Number of times I fantasized about tearing said machine apart over the course of the day: TMTC (too many to count)

Projected number of travelers at my airport tomorrow: ~100,000
Projected number of hours to be spent waiting to go through security tomorrow: 2.5
Project flight time: 1.5 hours (one way)
Projected driving time to destination if bumped off flight: 8 hours (assuming no traffic)

Current estimated blood pressure: 140/90

Vacation detritus

I just picked up my mail from the post office and there were LITERALLY 20 lbs of it. Good thing I'm a super-fast Mail Sorter Througher (see how many exciting new things you all are learning about me?), and I dispatched with it all in about 2 minutes.

On a related note, I get a shocking amount of junk mail.

This is exciting, though: for the first time ever I've received a Chefwear catalog. Who the hell sold my name to them?! They have all sorts of bizzare pants. I think the same people who come up with nurses' scrub patterns come up with chef scrub patters. These things are seriously wacky! Maybe I can bring E back to comment on this phenomenon (she worked as a pastry chef in her previous life).

And I'll leave you all for now with my favorite sign from the trip. This one was spotted on the fence of the saddest looking zoo just outside Bar Harbor:

Days till next vacation: too many to count

Days on vacation: 15
Pictures taken: 1,444
Miles driven: 1,840
Books read: 5
Approximate number of different types of animals seen (that can be readily identified -- I'm not so good with birds): 35*

FAQ

1. So, are you tired of eating seafood yet? No, no I'm not. In fact, I feel like I'm going through seafood withdrawal. Must! Eat! More! Seafood! Now!

2. Can you look back ont your pre-trip anxieties about not being able to find food and laugh? No, no I cannot. There were a few days where we had a hard time finding a restaurant or even a store that sold food. There are some seriously unpopulated areas of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia! I guess that isn't surprising given that there are more people in California than in the entire country of Canada. Let this be a lesson to you all: sometimes my craziness is prophetic AND well-founded.

3. What books did you manage to read? I'm so glad you asked. Here is the list. The ones I liked in particular are in bold. I'm also happy to say that Book and I were generally exhausted enough at the end of each day that I didn't get much reading done. I consider this evidence of a successful vacation.

• Stardust, Neil Gaiman
• Shadow and Claw, Gene Wolfe
• Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
• Charlotte Sometimes, Penelope Farmer

4. Will you be writing about your vacation on this blog? Um? Maybe? I guess I'm not sure. Do you guys really want to hear about it? Probably not in a huge amount of detail, but maybe I'll give you the highlights from each day with an accompanying picture or two. Or seven. Did I mention how many pictures I took?

5. What didn't you get to do that you wish you had? It would have been nice to have time to go on a kayaking trip in the Bay of Fundy to see some of the 15 species of whale that are there this time of year, and it would have been nice to have more time for hiking in Nova Scotia. But that's why this was a whirl-wind, fact-finding tour of the Maritimes: now we know where we want to visit in the future and to see in more depth.

6. Wait, so you have to go to work tomorrow? *quiet sobbing*


I'll leave you all with something you may not know about me. I'm a giant!**

*Birds: turkey vulture, osprey, seagull, ducks, chickens, crow, bald eagle, loon, yellow warbler, crow, a heron of some kind, canada goose, double crested cormorant, white-winged scoter, scarf scoter, ruby-throated hummingbird
Sea creatures: starfish, muscles, snails, harbor seals, grey seals
Misc: squirrels, chipmunks, horeses, goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, dogs, cats, deer, frogs, cows, porcupines

**And also that pictures of me from below are hugely unflattering. As are pictures of me from the front. And pictures of me from the side...

T minus 15 hours

Ahhh.

That's the sound of me slowly starting to unwind. Up until about an hour ago I was not so relaxed. But I got home from work, looked over my set of lists (yes, that's right, I have about five), and realized that Book and I are actually closer to being ready to go than I realized. I guess he was right! B has taken to sending me adorable pictures of baby animals every time I send her an email where the subject and body are both "AHHHHHHH!" And I immediately relax and say, "ooh! A baby panda!" or, "ooh! A kitty!" Excellent job on Friend Management, B.

Am I always this strung out before a vacation? Well, not usually *this* strung out, but yes. The big problem in this case is that we'll be gone for TWO WEEKS. And we'll be driving all around and what if there's no food? You know, like, anywhere? I mean, it could happen, right? And what if I don't have enough warm clothing? Or enough cool clothing? What if I run out of books? Or have way too many? (ha ha ha ha ha) What if I forget something Really Important? AHHHH!!

Uploaded on October 16, 2005
by Riude

Ok, I feel better now. The good news is that clearly I'm in a Good Place Trip-Wise, or I certainly wouldn't be sitting here blogging. I'd be packing or cleaning or pulling my hair out.

Interesting note: I'm bringing about 8 GB worth of memory cards on this trip. Will it be enough? No, seriously?

In any case, I've lined up two friends of mine to keep y'all entertained while I'm gone: B and E. I think you'll find them as wildly entertaining as I do. Hopefully I'll have a chance to post at least once while I'm gone, but if not, expect a TON of pictures when I return.

UPDATE: I just realized I almost forgot to pack PJs. What else am I forgetting??

Four qui -- zzzzzzz

Shockingly enough, it was actually still a bit dark this morning when I woke up. At 445 AM. And it was already close to 80 degrees with 75% humidity by 630 AM. As you can imagine, testing was not a hoot.

However, there is some good:

1. If for some strange reason we had to leave for Maine tomorrow morning, I would be ready. Yes, I am massively over packed at the moment, but I'm packed nonetheless.

2. I've chosen the books I'm bringing on the trip!!

• Stardust, Neil Gaiman
• Shadow and Claw, Gene Wolfe
• Sword and Citadel, Gene Wolfe
• Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson
• The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
• Charlotte Sometimes, Penelope Farmer

I'm a little worried it won't be enough for the two week trip, but if it isn't, I'll just buy more in Canada. Yay, Canada!! What do y'all think about my choices? I thought it was a good mix.

3. There were two articles I wanted to mention today. The first was a really interesting Salon.com article about the rash of Jane Austen-related books and movies that have come out and are coming out this summer, including one I reviewed over the weekend: Austenland by Shannon Hale. Another entertaining article today, this one from the NYT Op-Ed page, talks about one author's summer working as a volunteer at the Central Park Zoo. You've all come to "appreciate" my animal obsession, and despite my mixed feelings about zoos, I've sorta kinda always wanted to work in one, so this piece was interesting to me. Has anyone heard anything about the author's book, Zoology?

4. Had dinner with the Tater Tot tonight (it would have been many long weeks until I saw him again!), and learned that apparently he's thinking about naming his stuffed elephant after me. When I said "goodbye, sweetie!" to him as we were parting, he returned "bye sweetie!" Collective: AWWWWWW. Too adorable for words.

And that's all I have energy for now, folks -- I've been up for almost 18 hours!

It's a "good" kind of stress

I've been stressing about our vacation. You see, next Saturday we're going away for two weeks! We're entirely unorganized about it at this point, though, and have to do some major shopping. Food shopping, supplies shopping...I haven't come even remotely close to completing the list of things we need, let along the list of things we need to bring! And did I mention that we were leaving on Saturday? For two weeks?

I'm actually really excited about this vacation (it's actually two, two, two vacations in one!). The first week we're going up to Bar Harbor with my family to celebrate two milestone birthdays. After realizing how long it had been since Book and I had been on a vacation by ourselves, we decided to just jaunt over to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia the second week, you know, because we were already up there.

I've *always* wanted to explore this region of Canada, and I'm so excited that I'll have the chance to do so this summer! This trip is going to be a whirlwind adventure through two provinces. It'll be just crazy enough to help us decide where we'll want to spend more time during future visits.

What am I looking forward to the most? One word: seafood. I LOVE seafood. And shellfish. Oh, and did I mention that 15 species of whale travel to the Bay of Fundy this time of year? And that I may get a glimpse of some of them? Hopefully by KAYAK?!

But first we need to go buy a compass (because it's THE LAW in NS that you hike with one, it's not just common sense, people!) and a lot of food and wind/waterproof matches and more memory cards (picture-happy Bibliophile on vacation for two weeks = need for a ton of memory) and a new backpack and I'll need about 10 books to last me that long and and and

*HEAD EXPLODES*


**Dolphin Stress Test

The picture posted here has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at Loma Linda Medical Center.

Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study of a group revealed that in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins. The number of differences observed matches closely to the amount of stress the observer is experiencing.

Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may be experiencing stress.

Uploaded by Tidewater Muse on 24 Apr 06, 8.38AM PDT.

Trip to the middle of the country

We got back Wednesday night from our trip to the Chain Restaurant and Shopping Capital of the World, aka Book's home town. We usually spend the time with his family eating, playing games and watching movies, but this time was different. His Mom had a Plan of Action, and we were out doing things every day. Despite the incapacitating heat (nb: I happen to know a lot of people who love 90+ degree weather. I am not one of these people. Give me a cool, humid, overcast day anytime. Sadly for me we left the latter for the former, and this Bibliophile turned into a lump that could barely propel itself from place to another).

I mentioned about a week ago that I had particular animals in mind I wanted to see and capture on film during our trip: the red pandas and sun bears. Last time I had been at this particular zoo the sun bears were not out yet, and the red pandas were sleeping. Well, last week I had partial success: the red pandas were still sleeping, but I got a whole slew of pictures of the sun bear! It's hard for me to choose which ones to show you guys. So I will show a couple:

Look at that cute tongue! This guy was really quite small, and seemed to be enjoying exploring his habitat. I also got a cute picture of two elephants fighting over a stream of water in their exhibit:

Our excitement didn't end there, though. The next day we went to this great conservatory with several interesting biomes filled with beautiful plants and flowers.

One was even filled with butterflies! There was also a beautiful garden outside the conservatory

with a large sculpture I really loved (here are two wee small parts of it):

There were also lots of exciting birds (red winged black birds, common grackles, great blue heron, green heron, cardinals, hummingbirds, just to name a few) and other animals in the backyard (squirrels, chipmunks and HUGE bullfrogs).

All in all, we had a great time!