A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

It's not uncommon for me to put thousands of miles on my car in the course of a few weeks (although usually it was a rental car and I was traveling for work), so it's no surprise that I'll hit the mileage printed on my Jiffy Lube sticker within a month of my last oil change. As a matter of fact, by the time I finish my two-week trip back to Ohio, I will have seen nearly every corner of the state, which is just one more reason that I'm a little perturbed that gas is over 50 cents per gallon more than the price in North Carolina. Seriously...

My two-week adventure - brought to you by summer vacation - has taken me from Winston-Salem to Akron to Anna, and will continue from Anna to Cincinnati, Ada, Centerville, and Urbana before returning to Winston-Salem. If I had hit Toledo and Columbus, I might be able to make the map of my voyage look like I drew a star on a map of the great state of Ohio, the heart of it all. Instead, it looks like this:

In preparation for this trip, I packed just about everything but the kitchen sink. With two HOBY seminars, overnight stays in at least four different places, a concert, a baby shower, visits with friends, and all sorts of other stuff jammed into these two weeks, you never know what you'll need. Of course, my life is never a dull moment, and packing my car provided another glimpse into the idiot moments that punctuate my everday life. For example, I took a little car-packing break to take a shower and get ready to depart Friday morning. After a few hours indoors, I walked out my front door to embark on my journey only to find that I had left my car door open for the last two hours. Yep, that's right: car packed full of nearly all my worldly possessions, doors locked, with the back door wide open. Smooth move, ex-lax. At least that wasn't as bad as the time I left my front door open for a few days while traveling for work.

So here I am, at the beginning of two weeks in Ohio. I'm getting pretty good at this driving thing (I really, really think I was born to be a trucker), and my car is almost totally unpacked again (all doors closed - no worries). If you'd like to add to the fun, there are still a few minutes of those two weeks that are left unclaimed, and I'd love to pencil you in (although you might need to come to me). You can be sure that I'll be blogging vigorously through this time (which, in Emily terms, probably means about once a week), and you can bet that something ridiculous will probably happen to me during that time. It's never a dull moment.

Peace, love, and gas station loyalty cards--

Emily