A whole month gone...

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to blog more often.

Great job so far, eh? LOL

January was a very busy month. The first weekend, we were up in Seattle for five days. We go up every couple of months cuz my honey's doctor is up there, and so is her family. We stay at a friend's place out near Maple Valley, and enjoy the quiet scenery and forest smells in between trips into town. We love that area, and are hoping to buy some property ourselves up there in the next couple of years. We've already staked out our plot, but it's not for sale at this point. It would take a lot of work, because the plot is undeveloped, but it is beautiful, and the land is calling to both of us.

It was a great trip, but the return flight was a real white- knuckler. I haven't had a flight that rough in years. Very turbulent takeoff.

So then I worked for 4 days, we unpacked from Seattle by dumping everything onto the bed, and refilled our suitcases for a road trip to Tucson the following weekend. Yet another rental car -- and since the car wasn't ready until an hour AFTER my reservation, we didn't get on the road until 4pm -- on a Friday, on a 3-day weekend. Needless to say, we didn't get to Phoenix in the 5 hours suggested by Mapquest. It was actually 9 hours by the time we got there. As if it wasn't bad enough getting out of LA/Orange County/Riverside, we had to slam on the breaks just outside of Blythe, where there had been a bad accident. But we did finally find our motel in Phoenix, checked in, and passed out on the bed. The next morning we drove to Tucson, stopping for lunch at Govinda's.

A lot of people have asked me, why Tucson? Well, I do a workshop called "Beyond Categorical Thinking" for Unitarian Universalist churches who are searching for a new minister. The goal is to ensure that ministers who are people of color, have a disability, or are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender have an equal opportunity at getting a settled position. I've been doing these workshops for 9 years now, and it's something I really enjoy. So, that's why we were there. Of course, the best time to drive across the desert and visit Tucson probably is in January!

So I preached and did the workshop there on Sunday, then we drove back halfway and stayed in Blythe Sunday night, finishing the drive home on Monday morning. Even breaking up the drive like that doesn't seem to have helped much. I used to be able to handle really long road trips with no problem, but nowadays it takes me better than a week to recover from them. I end up exhausted, stiff and sore, and barely able to get up and to work on time.

And now, here it is the end of January already! I think I'm finally recovered from the two back-to-back trips. Our next trip isn't until middle of March, thank Goddess. Mabye I'll have the time and energy to catch up on some paperwork and organizing!