We made it!!! All the way to Buffalo!!! I'm still alive!!!! Everyone in my family is still alive!!! The existence of God is vindicated!!!!
No, but seriously, it was sometimes a close call for one or the other members of my family. We all love each other very much, I just think we do it better at a distance.
A few notes that have been piling up in the old brainpan and beg to be spilled into cyberspace:
Before I close the Houston chapter of my life, I would just like to reveal one monumental and life changing encounter that I had there. It was called Geopalooza and it took place at the Museum of Natural Science, which is probably my favorite place in all Houston. It was a glorious exhibit of geodes, crystals, fossils, agates, moon rocks, petrified wood, and phosphorescent minerals!!! Yay!! For those of you who haven't heard, I am a little bit of a geek when it comes to geology. And so there it was, a whole exhibit that seemed to be tailor made for me. Because, not only was it chock full of rocks, but it was also chock full of puns. For example, the whole premise was that the exhibit was a "rock greatest hits anthology" and so throughout the exhibit they were playing "rock music." Including, notably, Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven." Oh, so glorious. It was just deeply affirming that there are other folks out there who are happy to be as dorky as I am when it comes to this stuff.
Other notable occurences would be the cross country road trip that I took with my family. I actually really enjoyed myself for the most part. I am so predisposed to enjoy road trips, though. I love all the goofy little games that we play like hangman and sensosketch and telling stories and listening to books on tape. And it didn't hurt that the scenery lived up to expectations--yay Smokey Mountains and yay Tennesse. And, surprisingly, my mom is really flexible when it comes to route and driving schedule, so we ended up taking a few little detours to see the sights, which I thought was really cool. The picture above is from a place called Lookout Mountain in Tennessee, where we had all kinds of adventures to finally end up on a secret little nook of a precipice, which was probably the most beautiful view we saw on the whole trip. Strangely enough, road trips make me like America more. I think it's because just living in places like Houston and Omaha, you could get the idea that the country is hideously ugly, which is just not so. West Virginia and Tennessee are very redeeming for our great nation.
I don't think I'll share stories from the road because those stories are sacred to the road and to those who made the journey. I will, however, say that the song "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" by Cher has earned itself a special and eternal place in my heart, and if you've never heard the song you should go out right now and have a listen and forever after, when you hear it, think of me.
And now, Buffalo! What shiny new adventures await me here? I don't know, but today I feel optomistic. The sun is shining and the wind is blowing and James Taylor is singing and the air feels free. Sometimes you don't realize you've been living in a cage until you make your way out. And with that, I will bid you adieu for the day and devote myself to enjoying the breeze...
S.
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