In Which I Brag About Traveling and Make Up Another Word

I have some fun and exciting news! As I've alluded to in various posts, I'm going to PJs@TJ's! For any of you who do not follow Temerity Jane, she's hosting a get-together and pajama party for about 18 bloggers and twitterers at her home (!) in the Phoenix area next weekend. Which I think is both awesome and incredibly brave! Not that any of us are scary or anything. Just that opening your home to 18 strangers (and some of their babies) is a big deal. I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to go to something like this and to meet these women. It's going to be AMAZING!

But wait! THERE'S MORE! Since I live in the (top secret, vaguely guessable) Far North, it's kind of expensive to travel ANYWHERE. So anytime I leave Far North and don't cross the Mississippi River, I try to lump together several West Coast visits into one trip. With that in mind, I am flying out tomorrow night for a week-long trip to see... wait for iiiiit... ROOMMATE!

I am so excited about this! And judging by the multiple, exclamation point laden texts she has sent me over the last few weeks, she's excited, too. She has all of these secret plans for us, including hiking some kind of mountain or hill or other tall earthen formation--I'm not sure... she's very secretive when she wants to be. We'll watch the Super Bowl together (which neither of us is really that into, but there will be food and friends and beer and fun, so I'm stoked) and eat at Olive Garden, which is my favorite restaurant in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD. And up until a month or so ago, Far North did not have a single one. NOT ONE!

AND!? After I leave Roommate and spend what is shaping up to be the best weekend ever with the amazing ladies of PJs@TJ's, I'm grabbing a five hour layover in my old college town to see a dear friend and her family. These people and their adorable children are my surrogate family.

They took me home after Bible studies and fed me home cooked meals and let me play with their babies (none of which are babies any more, oh my word) and just generally filled in for my Far North family (both biological and church) when I couldn't go home for long stretches of time. Now that I've moved home, I see them about one every year or two (usually on layovers) and talk on the phone only slightly more frequently. But none of that matters, because the second we see or talk to one another, it's as if no time at all has passed.

So, as you all can easily imagine, the next two weeks are kind of big for me. I'm very excited, but I'm also slightly nervous. Some of it is meeting all those new people (although I already kind of know them through their blogs and tweets) and some of it is just the unexplainable anxion of traveling.

Anxion? Yes, anxion. I know it's not a word. And I totally could have used "anxiety." But this nervousness is slightly different from anxiety. Remember when I made up the word obnoxion? Because "obnoxiousness" is a mouthful and doesn't convey what I want to say? Apply the same rules to anxion. I suppose it's kind of a cross between anxiety and angst...? Who knows what I'm talking about? Lord knows I don't. Whatever.

Where was I? Oh, yes. I was talking (kind of unintentionally bragging?) about this AMAZING trip that I am going on and how I have the jitters. I'm sure it will be wonderful. I'm actually a little worried I've built it up too much. But probably not. I'm sure it's going to go really fast and before I know it, I'll be back in yoga pants on my couch, without any remaining excuse not to get a job. So, this is kind of a last hurrah before I dive into full-employment again. Or, at least, full-employment seeking. Which seems like a job in and of itself.

I must go pack. It looks like it's going to be about 60 everywhere I go, which would be awesome if I hadn't gained a bunch of weight since I (barely) fit into my summer clothes. This might be no fun at all, come to think of it... I'll let you know how it goes.