Packing Tips

Gather up loose plastic.

Find yourself some newspaper.

Find yourself a roll of duct tape.

Wrap your crazy big rug in the paper.  More paper.  And even more.  Then the plastic.  And more plastic.  And then some more.  Then the tape that bastard using a OCD weave pattern till it can't see straight.

Then walk into the airport like you own it and never ever lose eye contact with the check-in lady when you tell her you have one piece to check.

Hurrah!

Sometimes travel can be lonely when I'm traveling by myself.  So I was head over heels happy to see Anna come through my door.  Who would have thought that Amman was just a short 3 hour plane ride from Addis?!

She did her duty and saw the sites of lovely Addis while I worked.  And then, once I broke free, we did all kinds of things like shop. Well, I guess we mostly just did one thing: like shop. 

But while shopping we managed to sneak in a few sites - like Mexico Square.  The deal with Mexico Square is that it's actually a circle and 40 years ago Daddy used to circle it like a crazy man with everyone in the car laughing hysterically.

We were not able to convince the taxi driver to follow Daddy's precedent.  But we were able to teach him enough about cameras that we only got his thumb in a picture of us at Mexico Square just a little bit:

Addis Ababa

Hatred and Disgust

My hotel room has cockroaches.  I detest cockroaches.  I tattled to the manager, informing him of my extra room guests.  He insisted there "are no cockroaches in our facility".

I was like, "DUDE THERE ARE."

So did the only healthy thing a person in my situation can do: I trapped one under a cup and left it labeled (with pictures in case housekeeping doesn't read English. How clever of me) to prove that there are roaches:

Needless to say, when I returned that night, my heart jumped for joy when I noticed the cup had been moved. And then it dropped when I lifted it up and saw the roach still there.

Clearly my drawing of a roach and a frowny face was not as internationally understood as I had hoped.

And then I sealed all foodstuffs up and hung it from the ceiling. Ha, of course I didn't.  But I did think about it. I just didn't have any rope.  Or tape to fashion a rope out of.  Or enough socks to fashion a rope out of.  Or a enough hand towels to fashion a rope out of.  Yes, I thought about it this much.

Ethiopia

 

Group Processing

Friends, I'm still not recovered from the hotel David and I stayed in.  I mean, the hotel in which we stayed (sorry still can't end sentences with prepositions thanks to Ms. Highland of almost 20 years ago).

David needs to group process having to share a bed with me.  And by share I mean hover on the far side precariously balancing I'm sure with expert precision.

Rachel needs to group process the smell, sound, and stickiness of the hotel.  And she needs to process how she slept fully fully fully dressed, with her hoodie on, the hood pulled, the strings tightened tight so that it pulled fully around her head ... laid on her side (less square area touching the bed) and put her had under her head and INSIDE the hoodie). All in an attempt to not touch the sheets. at. all.

I know.  Total "bouge" problem.

I'd say David's face pretty much captures our feelings about this hotel.

Things to Do

When you have long road trips, you had time to catch up on to-do lists.  Like trimming your abundant facial hair:

Road Trips

David flew to DC to get Anna's car.  The plan was roughly:

Step 1: Get to Denver by 5am on Sunday to catch my plane back to DC.

The catch was we didn't leave DC till 9pm on Friday.  For those of you running the numbers in your head right now, let me help you:

That would be 27 hours of solid driving in a 32 hour timeframe.

Never fear!  David and I were ready.  I'd slept 2 hours the night before after all.

By midnight I was swerving.  By 2am David was swerving.  We found a charming motel for the singular price of $27/night.  Much to my relief, the car was still there 5 hours later when we were up and driving.

For those of you math whizs out there, you've now figured out that we have exactly no extra time left.  From here on out (that would be from West Virginia to Denver) we had to drive straight through.  And drive straight through we did.

By Eastern Kansas I was driving 90 mph.  And nearly cried for joy when my dad figured out that we got TWO WHOLE HOURS back because of the time change.  Yay for MST!

And yay for M&Ms and for Hendy giving me a 12 pack of Diet Coke (yes, one per hour as a reward) and for no policemen.

Poor David, he had no idea what he was getting into.  Anna hadn't warned him yet.  Or he'd just blocked what would happen out of his memory.