Right here. That's me. I know, I know, but I have been busy with two works and people in town and getting ready for new roommate and long trip and a jillion other lame excuses. Plus, it won't probably get better while on my trip because my parents have dial-up, and who knows when I will have time on the weekends of the trip.
Also, all my carefully laid plans for the trip went terribly astray--which seems to be what my plans have been doing lately, maybe I should come up with plans I don't really want to happen and see what I get instead, at this point, they can't be worse. Yo was going to drive me from Portland to wedding, and I was just going to get to her house Friday night. Then she couldn't leave until way later then I wanted to (we'd get there just before the wedding, and I was hoping for a little more time to get dolled up at least--I mean, you saw the dress). So I was going to fall back onto plan B.
Plan B meant my dad coming to get me in Portland (totally fine) and driving my sister's car. Not fine. My sister's car got a flat tire in it that needs replaced (as really do all of her tires--something she planned to do in the fall), but it got the flat while my mom drove the car back from the airport in Seattle where she had put my sis on a plane to a Carolina (I don't remember which one). So, my sister isn't around to get it fixed. This made my mother vaguely hysterical--which is often her reaction to planning things. Obviously my sister can't make the tires get fixed from Whatever-lina (yeah, like she wasn't going to get my dad to go with her to do it because she was the real necessary one there?). So the car is out.
David Hathaway generously offered to drive me to the wedding if I could get to Moscow before Saturday morning early when he was leaving, but if my family was balking at picking me up from Portland, how much more would they balk at getting me to Moscow? I put the plan into the mix anyway.
Then my mom wanted me to change my flight. Too expensive. Thought about renting a freaking car for myself--that I would return to Pasco--but it was kind of out of budget. Then my mom was going to buy me a round trip flight from Portland to Pasco Friday night (a really worthy plan, it would've worked had any left after I landed in Portland). Then things spun out of control!
Since the Portland-Pasco round trip didn't work, my mom thought she would buy me a flight to Boise. Her plan was fly into Boise late Friday night, and I would stay with cousins I barely know. Somehow someone (maybe Hath) would pick me up in Boise and get me to Twin Falls. Then I would fly back to Portland on Sunday and from Portland to Pasco Monday morning, flying back to Portland on Thursday. Does your brain hurt? Do you realize how much of my vacation I would spend in and out of airports?
At this point, I kind of put my foot down, and tried to bring some reason back to my mother. With two flights, it was no longer more cost effective then driving. This is the first time I have seen most of my family in a year, and I would rather spend it with them--even in a car driving in circles--then with strangers at airports and on planes. Dad can drive to Portland and back. Dad or Dan can get me to Moscow. Yes, the Pasco-Portland round trip would've been a great idea were it possible. But it isn't.
My mother still wanted to sort things out. Then I called her back several hours later. She had calmed down, thought rationally about some things, and decided on this plan. My dad will get me in Portland at 6:30pm on Friday. Once home, my brother and some friends will be roped into driving me to Moscow that night (because he would be way more likely to like a late night drive then a get up at the ass crack of dawn drive). I will be delivered to David Hathaway's house around midnight-ish. The next morning Hathaway and I will drive to the wedding together.
Phew! Yes it was as mellow dramatic and complicated as all that. My mom talks just as fast as I do.
So, Sally it looks like I will get to Moscow, but for a few brief hours that will hopefully include some sleep since it will feel like two in the morning to me.
