Melting

This past Saturday was my going away/ 30th birthday party. The whole time it was being planned, I felt like it was more of a going away party than a birthday party. With all the fuss going on with my trip, my birthday has taken a back seat to the planning madness. However, once the party actually happened, it felt more like a birthday party afterall. Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling all that great, so the anticipated drunken fiasco did not happen. But it was still a wonderful time, and my friends shocked and warmed my heart by coming out in yet another so-not-at-all predicted Chicago snowstorm to see me off. Seriously, what is the point of having a weather prediction? Driving downtown on Saturday night, it had easily already snowed 2 inches, but on the radio, they kept saying, “Tonight, flurries of snow with UP TO an inch accumulation.” How is that any better than relying on Uncle Fester’s knee pain when predicting an approaching storm? But it wasn’t even a prediction anymore, it was already well past the one inch mark. Where are these guys reporting from, Florida? “Sure, they might get an inch of snow in Chicago. It could happen, right?!”

My friends were horrible to me however, and quietly chanted “speech speech” after I blew out my candles, knowing full well I hate speaking in public and having everyone look at me. I had absolutely nothing prepared and am pretty sure I sounded like 6 year old with a bad stutter. “Um, yeah. Thanks, so, for coming. I really, you know, um, appreciate it.” That about sums up my vocabulary that night. Technically though, it wasn’t goodbye, as I have separate plans with almost everyone who was at the party for lunch or dinner or something in the future.

As soon as I figure out this dilemma of photo storage, posting photos, memory sticks etc, I will post some pics of the party. While I appreciate “progress” and “the future” in the broad sense, navigating through all the new gadgets, gizmos and overwhelming choices is giving me a headache. Even though I get frustrated trying to explain “the internet ” to my father, it also humbles me, because I’m really not so far behind him on the scale of understanding this “computer stuff.” The fact that I have this blog up and running is no small miracle, so people asking for photos just have to be a little more patient with me.

The countdown is at 14 days til liftoff, literally. And the goodbye will be for real that time.