Hogmail

For some reason, when I use this keyboard, I type "hogmail" more often than I type "hotmail." Which brings up the question, Is there a hogmail.com? No. But the domain is up for sale if you want it.

In recent news, I bebopped on up to Portland/Salem for a few days with the madre and the sis for my cousin's wedding reception and family reunion. Good times. Amanda was gorgeous and the hubby seems like a winner. I was reminded of my painful lack of small talk skills, but still managed to enjoy myself. Since our last reunion was in the 90's, there was some catching up to do. Like when my cousin, Chris, was chatting with my sister, who actually looks like my dad's side of the family (I don't), and he said, "So? How's your sister?" And Anne said, "Well, I don't know, but you could ask her" and turned to me. And my grandma has really taken to the word, "Spicy!" and uttered it in response to any questions about her food or drink, but especially in connection with alcoholic beverages.

We also played a wild game of tag which involved removing parts of my leg on a tree and some wild jungle-style yelling.

This could be my last blog, however, on account of, well, I might not survive this weekend. I'm going on my first backpacking trip and it sounds a little wild. Words like "all uphill" and "10 miles" and such were getting thrown around. So we'll see what happens. I'm excited nonetheless.

*Theme music plays*

I'm back in the States! It was a bit of a wild ride home, but I'm finally here. We landed in NY on the 7th after a 4 hour delay involving a lot of circling and sitting in some place called Bradley, CT. But this was really a great opportunity for me to develop my Tetris skills with the in-flight video games option. They a couple days in New Haven, CT to visit a friend and learn about the fast-paced, action-packed dice game called Farkle. We then headed back to NY only to realize we had stored our luggage at JFK but were flying out of LaGuardia. Maybe I said a lot of bad words. I can't remember.

Thus, we missed our flight, actually, we missed gate closing by about 15 minutes and had to stay in NY another night. But we luuuuuuucked out the next day when we flew standby all the way home the next day. Plus, I got to meet this sweet kid who was very interested in comparing the extendable handle of my carry-on with his mother's. I think he found hers more impressive because it had 8 sections whereas mine only had 4. Or 4 and 2, depending on if he was counting with two hands or one. Either way, he conducted several studies.

So, I've just been back in the valley, relaxing and washing clothes, etc. I cancelled my trip to Portland because I'm quite out of money. Partially due to the fact that Verizon took it all in order to set me up as a "new user". At any rate, it should arrive by mail Tuesday-ish and I'll let you know when I have a new phone number. Woot!

Oops

So here's the deal. I've been really bad at blogging. Here are some horrifically brief updates:

Anne, my mom, and Kyla came to visit. It rocked my world. We bebopped around Madrid and also went to the beach which was kind of ghetto but still really fun.

I finished all my classes. I am currently wearing one of the bracelets my student made me :D

Astin and I went to Italy. It was rad and I saw a lot of famous-style stuff. Like the Colosseum. We also got stuck in Florence for a night and had to sleep on the train station sidewalk after we were kicked out of McDonald's by a man who thought his job was bouncer of McDonald's.

I'm flying to NY on Tuesday! And to Idaho on Thursday! And I will eat a waffle on Friday!

P.S. All you Portland peeps...I'll be in Portland-ish area from the 13th to the 17th. Without a car. Anyone want to come pick me up and visit?