Send me on my way

4:30 AM my alarm rings and informs me that I have to get a move on. It's today! The day I head out on a new adventure. Completely unaware of what life holds in store for me in the next two years, I wake myself up and get ready to head out. This past week has been one of the most bittersweet weeks I've faced through this whole process. Leaving myself three full weeks without work really was a stroke of genius! I was able to fly to Maryland to see two of my best friends. I finally made good use of my snowboard in Denver, (a makeup trip from my snowless vacation in November) and went snowboarding at Copper Mountain with my brothers. While I came out battered, bruised, and slightly worse for the wear, I got the chance to spend time with my awesome brothers, enjoying some motherly cooking thank for Mrs. Moss, and just letting go for a few days. A going away party with my brother let me see and say goodbye to many amazing friends and encouraged me on my travels. A family party reminded me of what an incredible group of people I am lucky enough to call my relatives. It felt just like the holidays, with sightly less food, and amazingly enough, more people. Then came one of the harder goodbyes, my car Shaymous. :-) I will miss him dearly, but I think we will both survive. The worst part by far however, was saying goodbye to my grandparents and brothers. I was purposefully not thinking about it because I knew it would be hard, and it was. It's that heart-wrenching feeling of being so loved yet so upset. I know it won't be too long before I get to see them, but it's that darn uncertainty. Time seems so elusive when you think about the next time you get to see someone.

I unfortunately left my packing until the day before I left. Genius I know. I had everything I was going to bring, I just hadn't set about stuffing it into the suitcase yet. It's amazing how little 40 lbs really is. They really make those suitcases too big, it's deceiving. You get about halfway full and you reach the weight limit. It seems like there is so much wasted space! Needless to say, I might have taken the liberty of plus or minus a few pounds; and by a few I mean about 8! So, with my bulging bags I make it to the airport with almost a full 2 hours before my flight. No way I'm cutting this flight close. My bags go through easily, extra 8 pounds and all. I get to my gate and .... I get hit with the ominous trifecta of flying woes; the flight is late coming in, maintenance is required on the plane, and the weather in Philadelphia is causing delays. Great way to begin my trip huh? I am just hoping against hope that this isn't a premonition of my trip to come. Good thing I'm not superstitious (kisses rabbit's foot and vigorously rubs a horseshoe). Finally they announce that we have switched planes and are set to take off just an hour and a half after our scheduled departure, and I'm off. Philadelphia, I'm coming, eventually!