Southern Hemisphere Bound

After work today, I am going to begin packing. I'm all atingle at the thought of breaking out my shorts and tees.

LIAR!

I will admit that I'm thrilled to be heading to summer but one glance at my pasty skin in the mirror this morning gave me serious pause. Cellulite looks especially ugly in white. Time to investigate self tanning products. I'm just worried that instead of appearing pleasantly sunkissed, I'll end up looking like someone who needs a liver transplant. No matter though, I've decided pumpkin is a pretty shade for my arse.

The next three days are going to be filled with all the minutae I should have handled weeks before now.

Like teacher gifts. What in the world do you get for them? What adequately expresses the gratitude you feel for their compassion and their seemingly infinite reserves of patience? Tequila? I bet there are a lot of educators out there who'd prefer a bottle to another bloody box of chocolates.

What about the bus driver? The same man chauffers both of my children safely to and from school every day. He has made it a point to know their names. He says, "Good morning" and means it. The trouble is, we don't know a thing about him beyond his name. You know what? I sometimes suck as a human being.

I have cat food and hearing aid batteries to buy and a trip survival kit to assemble for each of the children. I need a pedicure and Botox. I have Christmas cards to finish and mail. My roots are showing. I should probably clean the house (but I won't) and I need to lay my hands on the ten adapters I own but cannot seem to locate otherwise, we will be forced to (gasp) unplug. Can I tell you how frightened I am at the prospect traveling with my children for over thirty hours? But it will all be worth it, right?

Case and point: my most excellent, blow-soda-through-your-nose-funny, sister-in-law sent me a text last night which I received at 12:27am. It read:

OK. Hammered. Could you hurry up please. I need some one equally messy to get drunk with.

Note: It was 7:27pm in New Zealand when she sent this. I LOVE her even though she is slightly younger, has bigger boobs, fewer wrinkles and a drinking problem. I'm on my way Leisa.

It's going to be tough for me to blog for the next while but I'll try to at least update with a few bits and some pictures here and there. I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah or Kwanzaa.

Catch you soon from Down Under.

Rangima'arie & aroha

(Picture care of Roblespepe, via Wikimedia Commons)