Category Archives: Travel

Updates

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A few random things:

[+] A blessed World Communion Day to you all! May it be a reminder that our Body spans the earth and not just the borders of the USA.

[+] The wedding yesterday was tasteful — even the pranks. (If you knew the groom, you’d know that the wedding had to involve at least one prank.) The only problem: the food had a fight with my stomach and my stomach won so I spent half the night praying to the porcelain god while the food retreated upwards from the battle.

[+] Ginger Altoids are the best thing on earth next to sliced bread.

[+] Someone plowed into us in the church parking lot this morning. Thankfully, the only damage was the driver’s side mirror being knocked a couple inches off-kilter.

[+] The nursing facility where Jon’s grandfather is has a tabby patch kitty with creme brulÃ?e markings. His name is Howie and he likes me. 🙂 He remembered me from the visit last night and I played with him for a good hour today while Jon and his grandfather visited.

Off I go to play Text Twist with my in-laws!

Hell On Earth

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*ding* Alex, what is “driving on LA freeways?”

OK… so I had a nice quiet day yesterday and went swimming in something other than what I happened to be wearing. (OK… it was a t-shirt and shorts but I don’t think Lands’ End can get a perfect swimsuit to me before I leave Dodge.)Â? I got back into my in-laws house and was noshing on some lowfat chocolate-mint brownies from Trader Joe’s (chocolate and mint being my weakness and said brownies being almost better than certain earthly pleasures) when I saw that the instructions I was left on getting to DA CHURCH for DA WEDDING REHEARSAL involved me and 210 West getting intimately acquainted.Â? As my father-in-law thinks I’m a sweetheart, I refrained from vocalizing the words that were in my head.Â? I grabbed all the stuff I needed, jumped in the car, took a few minutes to pray, and got on the freeway.

It wasn’t quite as bad as driving Hwy 17 (then again, NOTHING is as bad as that bloody highway) but I did find myself screaming “USE YOUR F-ING TURN SIGNAL!!!!!!!!!!” to various drivers who decided that my Montana plates were an excuse to cut me off.Â? One driver moved back after I laid on the horn so loud that I managed to drown out the music that was vibrating from the car next to me.

When I got to the church, I went up to the groom, climbed up onto his feet, pulled his shoulders down to me, and screamed at him.Â? Everyone was just cracking up (OK… I admit — I’m adorable when I’m getting Irish on peoples’ @$$es) and they made sure that I had surface street directions to dinner that night.

Dinner was at Shakey’s Pizza in Covina.Â? OK… I was a minority in that restaurant — it was 80% Chicano in there and it was a reminder that I need to be respectful of those who face discrimination and who are dealing with being a minority each day.Â? Mountain Dew + pizza = a serious need of ginger tablets when I got home.

Right now, I’m being loved by a fluffy grey cat and listening to Wait Wait.Â? Not quite in hell anymore but dude… yesterday evening was interesting.

In SoCal Now

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We got to SoCal yesterday evening with very few problems.Â? I hung out with my VERY wonderful mother-in-law and sister-in-law while Jon was at the bachelor party.Â? Joanna (the s-i-l) scored major points with me by picking up some 7-Up to calm some of the nausea from the Ortho Evra patch.Â? (Not as bad as the pills but not fun either.)Â? When we got there, my m-i-l was next door at a neighbor’s pool.Â? They jokingly told me to come on in so… I kicked off my running shoes and jumped in fully clothed.Â? It was positively lovely.Â? 🙂

On Monday, the grandfather of Jon’s friend’s fiancÃ?e was killed in a car accident on his way down for the wedding.Â? The wedding is still going on but ohmigosh… it’s also not going to be quite as happy because of what happened.Â? So… please pray for Dawn and her family since this is just a nightmare for them.

Alma Mater

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I went to Santa Cruz for the first time in 5 years today. Let me just say… Hwy 17 is EEEEVVVVIIIILLLLLLL!!!!!!!!! (Well… California driving in general is evil — it’s like someone decided to suspend all traffic rules temporarily for my visit to the state!) Downtown Santa Cruz is also an *interesting* place to drive.

We had lunch at Pizza-My-Heart and then went up to campus to meet with Cindy, my advisor from my undergrad days. We ended up connecting at her class lecture (Medieval Europe) and had some chill time afterwards at the Taqueria.
Cindy and Jen

(OK… so I didn’t shave my head — I did cut my hair short though, or at least shorter than it has been for awhile.Â? The last time Cindy saw me, my hair was down to my waist and braided.)

When we got home, my dad had the firepit set up for s’mores so we had those.Â? :)Â? You gotta love parents who make them with Ghiradelli chocolate!

We head down to the depths of Hell SoCal tomorrow and then to Vegas and Salt Lake City.Â? I’m going to be sad to leave San Jose, especially my parents’ cats who are now thugs instead of kittens.Â? Speaking of them, I need to steal Jethro after I fold laundry — he is a very good bed tabby.

In California

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I’m in my homeland with my parents for a couple days before I head to the depths of Hell southern California.Â? Currently, my parents’ network hates my laptop, so I’m hijacking the network computer to post.Â? 🙂

The drive was LONG.Â? Two days of 12+ hours on the road including bathroom breaks and such.Â? Reno was a nightmare — my first CITY driving in for-freaking-ever and the sun was in my eyes so I was almost completely blind.Â? I mostly read and let Jon drive though I did do about 3 hours of driving on Sunday and about 5 yesterday.Â? (Astigmatism is a pain when you have to drive at night.)Â? I also think Nevada is the only state that makes North Dakota look remotely interesting — I saw hints of green in Nevada.Â? No such luck in ND last year!!!!!!!!!!!

I have three cats at my disposal at the moment,., all of whom are out killing things.Â? I did have a tabby this morning at 5 am… after I shanghai’ed him from the hall, put him on the bed, and told him to sit down/shut up/purr.Â? He did and his motor skills are spectacular.Â? His brother is a big gray tummy who also went nose-to-nose with me last night.Â? HIS MAJESTY is chill with me and gave me a tour of his yard before settling down and letting me pet him.Â? (He has an owie on his head — apparently, he had an abcess and had to have it drained, so part of the top of his head is shaved and my parents have to pill him twice a day.Â? He purred for me and it sounded like a jet engine taking off.

I’ll probably do the Santa Cruz thing tomorrow and this afternoon, I’m shaving my head.Â? 🙂

Friday Friday Friday

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[PHC] It’s a quiet Friday here in Big Sky Country, my chosen land. [/PHC]

Mr. Sours is off hanging with other Episcos so I’m having to find my own entertainment tonight and find another place to send the large amount of cat pictures I’ve acquired today.

The two ecclesiastical cats (Finian and Edda) are busy trying to kill a moth that is flying around my study. I’ve rarely seen such interesting jumps and acro-catics so it’s rather an interesting show. (I think they’re still cross that I took away their cricket on Monday night.)

I spent a great deal of time on the phone with tech support at Dish Network tonight trying to get the new receiver installed. (Our old one wasn’t giving us DVR features and it was getting really annoying since we pay for that each month.) To the call center person I talked to, thank you for being patient and enduring my attempts to make small talk with you while the stupid stuff was downloading. I appreciated your kindness and I wish I’d had the foresight to speak to your supervisor and tell them how awesome you were.

I’m part way into The Kite Runner and it is definitely an interesting book. I’m hoping to finish it this week and that the library gets copies of Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Devil Wears Prada in so that I can get those read and knocked off my list.

We’re going to be headed to SoCal at the end of the month for a wedding and taking I-15 back up to Montana. If any of you want to try and arrange a meet-up (and I haven’t already contacted you), let me know and we’ll see if we can’t do a couple blogger ones on the way.

I think that’s it for now. If my glasses will hurry up and get here and if the post-nasal drip and ear pain would stop, I’d be a very happy Jen.

They’re Winning

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Apparently, wearing a t-shirt with Arabic writing will cause you to have problems flying.

One of the two men who approached me first, Inspector Harris, asked for my id card and boarding pass. I gave him my boarding pass and driver’s license. He said “people are feeling offended because of your t-shirt”. I looked at my t-shirt: I was wearing my shirt which states in both Arabic and English “we will not be silent”. You can take a look at it in this picture taken during our Jordan meetings with Iraqi MPs. I said “I am very sorry if I offended anyone, I didnt know that this t-shirt will be offensive”. He asked me if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all of my bags and I asked him “why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn’t it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?” The second man in a greenish suit interfered and said “people here in the US don’t understand these things about constitutional rights”. So I answered him “I live in the US, and I understand it is my right to wear this t-shirt”.

Then I once again asked the three of them : “How come you are asking me to change my t-shirt? Isn’t this my constitutional right to wear it? I am ready to change it if you tell me why I should. Do you have an order against Arabic t-shirts? Is there such a law against Arabic script?” so inspector Harris answered “you can’t wear a t-shirt with Arabic script and come to an airport. It is like wearing a t-shirt that reads “I am a robber” and going to a bank”. I said “but the message on my t-shirt is not offensive, it just says “we will not be silent”. I got this t-shirt from Washington DC. There are more than a 1000 t-shirts printed with the same slogan, you can google them or email them at wewillnotbesilent@gmail.com . It is printed in many other languages: Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, English, etc.” Inspector Harris said: “We cant make sure that your t-shirt means we will not be silent, we don’t have a translator. Maybe it means something else”. I said: “But as you can see, the statement is in both Arabic and English”. He said “maybe it is not the same message”. So based on the fact that Jet Blue doesn’t have a translator, anything in Arabic is suspicious because maybe it’ll mean something bad!

Umm… y’all: they’re winning! Am I the only one (besides Dave who provided me with the links) that sees a problem with this?

Update: I ordered one of the shirts.