What a Weekend!

This weekend has been CRAZY! *B* and I had planned a small vacation with his parents to the Shenandoah Valley for months now, from Friday to Sunday. I'm taking out of state classes on Learning Disabilities from Monday to Wednesday. No problem. Get home Sunday, pack, leave Monday, right? Wrong. I realized at 11:30 pm on Thursday that I had a Sunday flight! So we scrambled to pack bags for both vacation and my trip.

All weekend, I've waited for something to go wrong.

So I got out of work early on Friday and we made it down to Virginia. We actually had a pretty good time. Friday night, we hung out by the campfire. On Saturday, we kayaked down the Shenandoah River. It is gorgeous. We saw all manner of river creatures: fish, turtles, cows and even a mink on the bank of the river. (When I get home, I'll put pictures up). My camera even enjoyed the water. It now has water spots on the inside of the LCD screen. But at least it still works and takes good pictures.

Then, something did go wrong.

This morning, we woke up at 5:00 am in order to leave for my 11 am flight on time. I drove for three hours, then hung out at the airport for an hour and a half. I love airports. They're so clean and pretty, and they make me buy books. I realized that I didn't have two of the required materials for my class - a textbook we were supposed to buy, and one that we use in our classes. That was what was going to go wrong, I thought. I got on the plane, but didn't see the guy I was supposed to be traveling with. Oh well, I thought, I'll see him when we get off in Hartford. So the trip goes smoothly, and I go down to baggage claim. I do not see my travel buddy. He's supposed to rent us a car (I'm 24 and get charged out the nose). So after frantically calling around, I pieced together that my colleague has said from day 1 that he is not flying. No one told me. So I called another teacher who was up here for the last week, and he drove an hour and a half down to pick me up so that we could drive another hour and a half back up. I traveled for TEN HOURS to get here. That is the same amount of time as if I were to drive here straight up. It would have been cheaper, too.

But I'm here! And I'm in time for the classes.

One of my favorite parts of flying Southwest is the napkin they give you. It has a US map on the backside. This is what I do on the flight:

All the gray spots are states to which I've been. That puts my grand total at 27 out of 50 states! I've also got four countries under my belt. And for my most exciting achievement, I've been to three continents.

While in the airport waiting to board my flight, I was drawn to the Borders shop. I LOVE bookstores, and I don't get to go in often. But I did, and I saw a book for which I've been looking a while now. It's A Mercy by Toni Morrison.

I've never read any of her books, but people always gush about her. If I remember correctly, I first heard about this book from the author herself on NPR. It was a rather good read. It's not my favorite book ever, but I'd give it a 4/5 as far as recently read books go.

That's all for right now. I'll give a thorough tour of my amazing accommodations once I'm safely at home Wednesday :o)