i am certain now that i am vindicated

so, apparently it is time to update.

i got back on tuesday afternoon from my week-long family vacation. stops included national parks and monuments mostly, including: the petrified forest, bryce canyon, zion national park, the grand canyon, mese verde, and the four corners monument. we camped. our tent isn't entirely waterproof apparently, so on most nights at least one person was sleeping in our van. this non-waterproofed-ness was especially convenient considering that we apparently hit the area at approximately monsoon season, which basically means it rains every afternoon. that also made it kind of cold. we were all wearing pants and jackets. kind of different from the sweltering weather of oklahoma and missouri, and well received from my end, not so much from everyone else.

it was a pretty good trip. the scenery out there is fantastic. it was a bit hard going from no family time to all the time is family time. overall it was fun thought. we went to mesa verde in 1991 and camped, so that part was a bit for nostalgia's sake. since i was 5 at the time though, i have virtually no memories of the place. it's pretty cool. indian ruins built up on the cliffs. almost a thousand years old. it was also kind of weird to compare what was happening with the indians here at the time to what was happening in china at the time (give me a break, i just spent four weeks reading about it) and the difference in "sophistication" is pretty big. the situations were so different though.

so as not to have to relate the whole trip to you, i now present highlights:

• white water rafting on the last day and naomi falling out after our guide told us to turn completely around in the boat.
• driving around to different hotels in an attempt to find wi-fi/email access that wasn't password protected (at least i had a good excuse for having my laptop with me).
• the family pow-wow to discuss seth's future and not actually deciding anything
• the free hot showers at the last campground we stayed at
• all the foreigners with rented RVs at the national parks we were at
• playing "guess the nationality" of the aforementioned foreigners
• arriving at four corners at 1 am and sleeping by the side of the road until it opened in the morning.
• seeing my mom get freaked out by heights and refusing to move anywhere near the edge of a cliff.
• knowing that there was a 20-minute orientation video waiting for us at every national park and knowing that we were going to watch it.

that's all i can think of right now. may not sound too interesting, but family vacations always are.

on our way back, we picked up our new van in kansas city. so we now have three vans and no cars. pretty great.

most of the rest of my time at home has been spent being a bum. i'm trying to motivate myself to pack, but it's not working too well. i think i'm heading back to school sunday afternoon. we'll see. my plans don't seem to follow through very well these days. the plan at this point is: naomi is driving me back to school and we're picking up seth in lawrence on the way so naomi doesn't have to drive back by herself. i'm not sure why naomi seemed to want to drive me back, but i think snowcones may have been the deciding factor. if anyone would really like to meet them during the day they're in norman, let me know and we could arrange a showing.

my bottom retainer broke a couple of weeks ago, so i had to get a mold made for a new one when i went to the dentist today. i forgot how much that process calls up the gag reflex. having not the best nose in the world due to my being allergic to anything i can breathe in, it's kind of freaky to not have the option of breathing through your mouth.

i think that's about it. i'm terribly excited about getting back to norman. and i called heather's room tonight to find out something about moving in to the dorms and she answered the phone...meaning that heather is once again my RA after my one-year technical sabbatical. w00t-ness. so long to my 4 semesters/5 RAs.

adios folks. i'm exhausted.