So Maybe I'm Not So Good at this Blogging-From-the-Road Business...

...but I'm taking lots of video! So as soon as I have time to sit down for longer than 8 minutes at my computer, I'll have lots of good stuff for you :)

Til then, happy trails! And here's a sunset/moonrise in Texas:

Charis and Terry Cross Country: Le Route

Tonight's the night we're gonna make it happen,
Tonight we'll put all other things aside...

Ok, sorry, sorry, sorry. But I AM really excited, because this is IT - the road trip of all road trips begins tonight, at approximately 11:30pm.

And this is what we'll be doing:


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Tonight at 11:00pm, the alarm will go off for me (I will have been sleeping since 7 or 8, whether T is sleeping as well at this point is yet to be determined).

I will awaken, throw on clothes, grab purse, and throw hair into a topknot, then T and I will climb into the already (at that point, I hope...) car and hit the trail!

Very exciting.

Oh, and by the way...
The site is up, sort of. Here's a preview:

Voyage

Last day of work today!

Bittersweet.

Bitter because I'll miss everyone and this GORGEOUS campus and such, sweet because of all the deliciousness. Lunches, coffees, etc. in the goodbye-to-a-coworker fashion make me a happy girl with a stomachache :)

Speaking of happiness and tummyaches, we went out for a bon voyage hoorah (#1, that is) last night.

It was at The Arsenal, which is adorable. Yet another place that I wish I would have discovered, oh, two years ago, rather than two days before I pack the car...T and J (ignore the awkward stare...I promise that J TOTALLY knew I was going around, camera in hand...)
Have I mentioned lately that I love love LOVE stringed lights at night? Well, in case I haven't said it, I love them. That's all.We MAY have made a pit stop on the way home...Just fries, please. Oh, and a chocolate shake. Mmmmm. Last trip to In & Out! *tear* (and excuse me, but I just love this picture. Is that chiseled jaw delicious or WHAT) M got a little sleepy and decided to take a yoga-mat-pillowed nap. Er...., I wouldn't do that...Oh well. Germy ignorance is bliss...? What?Yes, STILL in line...Mmmm, chocolate shake...

Today's whiteboard quote (it's a long one, but it'll be the last I ever leave to my hallway peeps so I had to make it good:
"We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

This morning I wished the facebook universe a "happy fall equinox!" and promptly discovered that many people don't know what that is.

Well then, let me enlighten you on its interestingness.
yes, I have been known to put a "ness" on the end of random words and thereby make up new ones. Get over it.

So we all know that days in the summer are longer- judging by daylight - and days in the winter are shorter. I remember wondering why in the heck, when it was cold outside, Mom came home so LATE from work when I was little...yeah, it wasn't any later than normal, it was just that in Virginia winters, the sky darkened at like 5:15pm. Not cool for a 7-year-old.

Anyway.

The equinoxes, two each year of course (one for fall, one for spring) are the days on which the amount of daylight and the amount of darkness are the same. They're the balancing points. Since today is the fall equinox, starting tomorrow the nights will now last longer than the days, until the spring equinox (which falls in March, I believe).

source

In ancient times, when people's spirituality was based on things like the harvest and the sun and its warmth, today held great significance, as it stood for the end of the light's reign for the year. Lots of stuff about winter myths, withdrawing for the cold and dark season, etc. There were various stories in many diverse cultures that explained this (Demeter, the Greek goddess comes to mind), but either way you have the general idea.

Although most of us don't still hold to that sort of thinking, I still like to take time on the equinoxes to feel the turning of the year. The fact that the nights will now be longer does hold significance for me; it will certainly affect my way of life - where I go, what I do, when I get sleepy....

I also think my life is sweeter and holds more meaning when I keep myself in tune with what's happening in nature. It is a restorative practice for me to prepare myself mentally and emotionally for the winter, which is lovely as a time of quiet, and rest, and hot chocolate, and of course the holidays (yay!) - not to mention that because of the move (this weekend, whoa), I will actually have a cold winter, not to mention a white Christmas (double yay!), which makes the equinox all the more poignant for me this year.

So maybe try to jump on the equinox bandwagon - take a moment today to reflect on the year, the spring and summer, and now the upcoming Autumn. How was it? What did you like? What did you not like so much? How can you make this the best autumn and winter possible? For me, it'll include enjoying every drop of this crazy road trip and all of its accoutrements, and to make sure that I take full advantage of the freedom and the potential to reconnect that all of this time spent with loved ones will bring. Who knows the next time that I'll get to see everyone this much, maybe never... So make some goals! Remember where you are! And happy autumnal equinox! (now you know what that means)

Today's whiteboard quote:
"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."
~Elbert Hubbard

Thanks Ispy!!!

Please excuse the lack of a longerish post this morning, I'm pretty beat (4.72 hours of sleep will do that to you when you're unaccustomed, I find...)

Last night my cousins Ispy and Jaaye came over. In exchange for a delicious dinner of black bean vegan tacos courtesy of T (I was supposed to help but got completely carried away, jabbering on in the dining room), and a non-vegan blueberry tart and vanilla ice cream dessert (courtesy of me, the oven, a big spoon, and Trader Joes...), Ispy took some halfway impromptu beach pics of us. They turned out GREAT. (Thanks Ispy!!!!) We took some video snippets too, of various things, which I'll put up sooner or later...

Jaaye hung out with us until a wee hour, talking in the living room (I MAY have been asleep and drooling on the couch for the last half hour...)


Today's whiteboard quote:
"I recommend you take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves."
~Earl of Chesterfield

How I Almost Got Run Over by an Insane Waste of (insert basically anything here)

So.

Because my last day here at the office is a week from tomorrow and there is still a stack of at least 100 things to do overflowing my desk, shining with the white of printouts and purple and yellow of file folders (like a sunset but not nearly as pretty...yeah...) and because this is a busy job ANYWAY, not only when I'm #1) trying to wrap all my tasks in little bows without loose ends for those after me and #2) hosting THREE conferences in the last two weeks before my departure (that's right, one today and yesterday, one tomorrow, one next week), and since I'm looking like various degrees of this:Or this, for a pretty blog's sake...

Both images courtesy of google image search for "pulling hair out", by the way

Anywhoo, because of all of those things, I had decided not to post today. No big deal, it's okay to skip it anyway, I said to myself, besides, I'm sure no one will even notice.
But.
Since this happened, and since I have five minutes during which that I should probably step away from the pile on my desk before I lose my mind ("put down the hammer"), I thought I would vent a little.

Wait, what?

Charis, of the life-is-wonderful-1001-ways-to-be-happy-blogging-style is about to vent?

Yeah, it happens sometimes.

So here we go.

Each morning, I arrive to the office bright and early at 7:30am (that is, mind you, after an hour of traffic). I park my lovely little blue saturn (which I'm dropping off at the dealer on Saturday, sniff) across the street from campus and make my way to the office, unlocking doors and turning on lights and all that sort of starting-the-day business. I work the next hour and a half away quietly, and at 9:00am, I make the reverse trip back across campus and scoot my car across the street again, to park in 9:00-4:00 street parking. Quite convenient, as I leave the office at 4:00pm.

During my walk to the car at 9 I do things like make phone calls, listen to the parrots overhead making a racket as usual, or contemplate the meaning of life. You know, the usual.

This morning, I decided to call T and check on his day so far. We're both under a lot of stress about the move and accompanying factors, so I thought I would see how he was doing.

He recounted some morning reading (perhaps we'll have a green check blog post tomorrow because of its craziness, more on that at another time), we discussed healthy eating, escape to Canada, and the food industry's corruption as I made my way across a busyish street towards my parked car. After the busyish larger street, I have to cross a small residential street where I only encounter a car actually driving about, roughly, hmmm, I'd say once every two weeks, maybe once every week and a half.

As I diagonally crossed the little avenue towards my car, head bent towards my phone, key chain out and unlocking the car via keyless entry, I was assaulted with a loud, angry blaring horn blast about five feet away from me and over my left shoulder.

Surprised, incensed, and (not gonna lie) a little scared, I turned around to first of all see what the heck was going on, and second of all to express the ridiculousness of blasting a horn at a person two steps away from their car (not to mention yours).

Directly behind me, in a beat up little gray honda or something (I couldn't really tell the color or the make right away, there wasn't much paint left and the horrificalness of the whole spectacle somewhat blinded me) was a sour-faced man, probably about my parents' age, with a badly balding head and a scowl.

As I said sharply "I'm crossing the street!", because clearly he took me as being out for a pleasant stroll, notwithstanding the keys in my hand held up to a car 1.7 feet away from me that I was directly walking to, and because clearly he was the type of person who has the emotion (and perhaps total) maturity of a toddler so that's how you must speak to them, he snapped "blahblahridiculousness your time!" and zoomed off.

I would like to note first of all, that he didn't meet my eyes for more than a split second. It's a little different when the object of your random act of hatred (which is probably one of many) turns around and looks you in the eye, huh? During the rest of his momentary rant his eyes ran around like frightened mice, although his voice sounded slightly more sure of itself. Only slightly. Either way, the lazer beams of Charis' eyes strike again, as a man at least double her age tries to take her down in a staring contest. Bad idea, Sir.

But okay. To be fair, I wasn't exactly scurrying. Considering that what I've roughly translated his gibberish to mean is something like "you're taking your time!" or "quit taking your time!" or something about gathering moments for my own personal use rather than donating them to kind individuals like himself in general, I get it. I was walking diagonally, and not all that quickly. I wasn't strolling, but I certainly would have crossed faster if I had known that there was someone waiting.

However, this brings me to my next point. OBVIOUSLY he had zoomed around the corner like a bat out of the 8th circle of hell, because I never heard a thing until his horn was shouting at me. I would have known he was there by the sound of his clanking and banging engine, surely, if he had done anything other than take the turn at no way near a safe speed and expect to be able to press harder onto the gas pedal on the straightaway of the street immediately after the turn, rather than wait for a pedestrian.

So I apologize that I don't have a psychic ability to spot a lunatic coming towards me from 200 paces. I'll work on it, Sir.

And finally, I think we should have a moment of silence for this poor soul. After my heart returned to its normal beating pace and pattern, I started for a moment to wish for the bad karma to hit him that, a second later, I realized has certainly already hit him, probably did years ago, and that those hits obviously keep coming. A happy person who leads a fulfilled life would not sling hatred like that at someone that could have, in another circumstance, been introduced to him as a friend of his offspring. But let's be honest, his gaze would never have traveled closer to my face than 6.5 inches below it anyway. He's obvious a very respectful and mature person. I'm sure his life totally rocks too. Because of course that type of behavior comes from a stand-up kind of guy who only makes good decisions...

Of course, that is unless he is one of the many Southern California residents who are perfectly nice in person but morph into fire breathing demons when put behind a wheel and on a highway...because that certainly happens.

But that's a post for another day.

Have I mentioned that I cannot wait to leave?

Today's whiteboard quote:
"Begin at once to live and count each day as a separate life."
~Seneca

Chapel Chatter: Introductions

So yes, although I am engaged, and the topic of the intricate wedding planning I now find myself entrenched in should get some air time occasionally, I do not - let me repeat - do NOT - want this to become a wedding blog.

Therefore, each post on this matrimonial topic will be marked with the clear Chapel Chatter heading.

You've been warned...

Some quick stats on the current planning stage:
Date: May 22, 2010
Location: Richmond, VA
Time: early evening, post sunset
Colors: Dark blue, light blue, with green and silver accents (sound like a high school prom? Perhaps. But don't worry, it'll be much more awesome)
Dress: Chosen.
T, do NOT click this link!
Cake: small gluten-free cutting cake and cupcakes for everyone else (very excited about this)

(for exemplar purposes only):

Cake topper: chosen.

Hmm, what else....it'll be in my mom's ginormous yard which she is, as I type, meeting with gardeners and tent people (no, not carnies, rather people who rent those big tents) and caterers and such in order to prepare for. She's training flowers for an arbor and the event will be after dark, lit with hundreds of candles and thousands of stringed lights, with soft music and deliciousness of varied sorts everywhere your eye falls.

Good times.

Oh, and for favors we're giving away seedlings in little pots. Green, and awesome (wow, 2nd time I've used that word in one post. You know it's gonna be good...)

I think that's about it!

Consider yourself updated.

Today's whiteboard quote:
"One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure." ~William Feather