Friday, September 17, 2010

Spinning

Two weeks from tonight we'll pack the last of what we're bringing with us to the other side of this planet. Is it the other side? I don't know-I was never good in geography. Today, I doubt I could even point to Colorado on a blank map. I'm lucky I know where my own little state of Connecticut is. But no matter, I don't need to get us there, only to get through the fifteen hour flight and seven hour time difference. It's surreal, thinking that we're actually taking this trip. I've been buzzing day and night-physically and mentally-I can't relax. Last night I barely got four and a half hours of sleep. I'm hoping once everything is done--or at least once we get there and I adjust as much as will be possible in a new, strange, foreign country, that I will finally be able to get a decent night's sleep. We'll see.
My elephants. That's what I'm most looking forward to seeing. I call them mine-I don't know why. I have a special affinity for those beautiful, peaceful pachyderms. I don't know when it was or why that I developed the fascination, compassion and yes, love, that I feel for them. I can't explain it. But when the opportunity presented itself for us to see them up close and personal, in their natural habitat, we couldn't pass it up. It's something I never thought I'd be doing and it's so far out of the realm of our norm that I wonder if it's something I'll ever want to do again, once we're back on US soil. I hope so.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

I'm Back

September 16, 2010
After months of frustration with Dell and ultimately contacting a big cheese at the headquarters in Texas, I have my third and hopefully, last laptop. At almost a month, this one seems to be working well and so far I haven't had any issues. I can't believe that my last post was in April... my favorite season, summer, is fading fast, and my countdown to days to South Africa has dwindled to a mere 15. It's been so long since I've been here that my elephant photo has disappeared off this page. That alone will take me another week to figure out how to fix, but in addition, Twitter stuff keeps popping up and I don't remember my password or how to stop the pop. One who knows might ask why it was that I didn't use my old desktop computer to fill in here while Dell From Hell was doing their best to rip me off. The answer is I don't know. The usual. Lazy. Fear. Lack of confidence. But I am going to South Africa in two weeks. From the start, it was my plan to use this--or another- blog to keep track of our adventure, post pictures, and make memories for myself and Dennis. If someone happens to stumble across it in the meantime and wants to follow along-that'd be great too. Don't know if any followers are still around--all FOUR of them, but who can follow when there's nothing to read. So as of tonight, I am making a promise to myself to keep track of the last days of the countdown, and the adventure thereafter. I'll need this time to practice and brush up on how this thing works.
Feels good to be here.