post-holiday blog lull

sorry for the gap in posts. i've been busy from leaving my last site, getting to see jules for a little over a week, lots of travel (both, intra- and inter-state), getting ready for my next site, and the unthinkable... i'm sick.

i never get sick. truthfully and honestly, i can't recall being sick since maybe highschool... about 12 years ago. i don't know how to do it. i get a cough once in a while, but i don't consider that sick. i consider cough, congestion, sneezing, runny nose, fatigue, aches, upset stomach, sore throat, fever, chills, etc... that's sick. well this time i have the sniffles, cough, congested and fatigued, so i'll have to admit, i'm sick. the problem was, i may have exposed the BTBz. we hung out over new year's, and it seems juddy is now ailing, possibly because of me. we spent one night playing "rock band", which required a lot of singing from me which just plumes the air with my pathogens, when i only thought i had a cough. the next day i kinda kicked in to full gear BLAHness. sorry juddy, i hope no other BTBz are sickly.

i'm still writing a blog post about my trip to boystown in mexico, but that's still in progress. i got to see a lot of jules as she came to town to visit for my 30th. my 30th was typical, same ol' watering hole, but said watering hole has it's xmas party every 23rd of december, so i just acted like it was my party. after sleeping in a bit, jules and i hit the road around 10:30AM on christmas eve trip to florida to see her brother's in-laws and her family who were there visiting as well. we could've flown, but i figured i'm not going to drive my truck for a year, i've never really road-tripped, and jules and i could catch up. it ended up being about $500 in gas round trip, and we didn't need a rental car once we got there, so it ended up being cheaper, and i think it was pretty fun. the trip was monumental for me as it was the longest i've ever done, 16 hours. we arrived at our hotel around 2:30AM christmas morning. jules and i had a good time on the drive, lots of talking, she read to me quite a bit, i learned the hard way that jules falls asleep on car trips. that kinda sucked on occasion when i was getting drowsy, and she was well ahead of me in sleep.

i met loads of people i'll probably never meet again, had some good food, and watched a tiny parade. jules and i took her 5-yr old niece and 3-yr old nephew to our hotel and swam, and by swimming, i mean, jules looked stunning while sunning herself on the chaise while the youngins jumped from the pad for me to catch them in the water and take them back. on the day we left, we made a last minute decision to go to the beach with her parents, her brother and sister-in-law and the niece and nephew. i took the niece out into the ocean while jules, her brother, and her nephew made a big sea tortoise out of sand. it was nice, but sadly the kids got a bit cranky wanting to destroy the turtle before it was finished, and we left maybe after an hour or two. jules and i then made the trip back home in two legs, 8 hours each, with a stop in columbia, SC. that made for two really nice length trips, the hotel was nice, and too soon we were back home. too soon, that was, because jules had to fly back to her house the next day to get ready for a new year's party she was going to. i hate when good times end.

now i'm preparing to go to egypt. i had to go to cleveland to get my transcripts from my school. on tuesday, i fly to washington, DC. the next day i have to go to the egyptian embassy to get my diploma certified to make the work visa process easier in country. hopefully i can do that in one day, because i have my flight to egypt booked on thursday.

hope i didn't lose too man y readers in my downtime. i'll try to update more often. let's go steelers tonight and THE ohio state university on monday night