Aug 2007

I went up to Hendrix to work orientation for a while. It was fun in that crazy, ridiculous way that OR usually is. At one point in time, three of us were dressed up as skyscrapers while a fourth was godzilla. All for costume bowling.

Mainly, it was good to see people--new freshmen, upper classmen, friends coming back from abroad. I also got to tie up a lot of loose ends, bureaucratically and otherwise. I drove home last Tuesday, getting in early Wednesday morning, and then turned around and left for Houston Wednesday afternoon. To sum up my trip, I managed to survive this:

to get this!

Houston driving in a van. The fact that I am alive is a testament to my incredible luck at not beign squished between an 18-wheeler and a concrete barrier while attempting to maneuver across 6 lanes... The French Consulate was about as easy to deal with. Everyone entered with the same nervous faces and ended up becoming buddies with the person next to them in such a stressful time. But, the fact that I got my visa would be the important part of this story. I also got to visit John, and in doing so got to speand time with his family, see an Astro's game, watched Saturday morning fireworks set to 80's music, and ate his dad's wonderful breakfast. All of which were very cool.

So now I am into the semi-packing up stage. There is only so much packing one can do when you still have to use the majority of what you would pack, but I'm making a valiant attempt to start the process ahead of time. I am usually the "night before, just throw some stuff together" kind of packer, so this is a big deal.

I feel like it looks more like a picture out of an I Spy book than anything else. But I'll get there. Especially with the help of a certain friend who's done it all once before. --wink wink--

anyway, T- 10 days and counting.