Yeah, That's About Par

I have traveled 2,505 miles in the last 3 weeks.

2,505 miles of pure bliss and magical moments, as you can clearly see by how well it went when we moved all our stuff down.

I came back to Utah this week with my Brother (Jay), Sister-In-Law (Amber), and Niece (Bailey). We left Phoenix at 6:30 Friday night. At about 3 am Jay and Bailey were asleep in the back and I was riding in the front talking to Amber so we could keep each other awake.  I saw something floating in front of us. It wasn't until it smashed into our windshield and rolled off the car that I realized it was an owl. What the hell? No damage was done but it scared the crap out of us. We got to Provo at 6:30 Saturday morning. I went to bed at 8 and woke up at 4 pm. My body is still confused.

It was a busy and short trip. We were there because my little sister was getting married. It was a beautiful wedding and I didn't cry once. April Fools. We left the next day. The last time I left for Arizona it didn't feel like I was leaving because I knew I would be back soon for her wedding. This time it hit me that I was leaving. I was leaving, not knowing when I would be back again and my little sister was getting married. I may or may not have freaked out for a second.

We left the morning after Jensenne's wedding. My Dad had fixed my brothers motorcycle and the plan was to have my brother ride down on his bike and we would follow him in the car. It was cold and overcast and we thought if we could just get to Vegas without hitting any bad weather we'd be fine. We made it to Vegas, and that's when the bad weather hit. My poor brother was getting cups of hot chocolate at every stop and putting hand warmers in his shirt and gloves, but he was determined to get his bike home. It was windy and raining and when we were about 180 miles from their house when we stopped at an Ihop to get dinner and figure out what to do. We decided to leave the bike there, my brother would ride in the car with us to his house and he would come get it later that weekend. He was bummed because we had made it that far already and now we had to leave his bike by the dumpster in the back of an Ihop. Classy. While my brother was making arrangements to leave the bike with the manager, our waitress walked around to all the tables and said something to everyone. She made her way to our table to tell us the good news.

"Your food is going to take just a little bit longer. The chef just stabbed himself in the hand with a knife so it'll be a while."

"Um....okay.....is he okay?"

"Yeah he's just going to call the Hospital to see what to do but he'll probably be fine."

Seriously? Amber and I looked at each other for a second before Amber said "Yeah, that's about par. We'll see how the rest of this trip goes." I'm only assuming that the chef was okay because our food came out not long after, there was no blood on or in it, and an ambulance never showed up.

We ate, left the motorcycle there, and took off. Of course the weather was fine the rest of the way. And of course if my brother had decided to keep riding it there would have been a flash flood and tornado. We were about 40 minutes from their house when we see the red and blue flashing lights behind us. You know those roads where the speed limit is 65 then 55 then 45? We were on one of those roads and didn't notice when the speed limit changed. The cop was really nice and just let us off with a warning. He said that they had just enforced the new speed limits because animals like deer and cows were walking into the roads and getting hit and causing a lot of damage. I should have told him to add owls to the list. So we kept driving. We were 15-20 minutes away from their house when we were pulled over for the second time. We had just gone through a stop sign when the cop turned his lights on and my brother said "There is no way I rolled through that stop sign." He was right, I had been talking to him the whole time and would have noticed. The cop did the typical "Do you know why I pulled you over?" routine. Apparently the little light bulb above the license plate had burned out so you couldn't see the license plate. Another warning and we were off. We made it to their house and I spent the night and left for Tucson the next day.

And now for some fun facts:

• Tomorrow it will be 1 month since I've had a job. I don't know what to do with myself. That's not true, my house is spotless and all the laundry is done, and I've watched a lot of Grey's Anatomy. But now that the house is spotless and the laundry is done and I am done going back and forth to Utah, I see a future of boredom. Please bless that I find a job soon.

• I really like our new place. Except today we cooked for the first time and all of a sudden our entire kitchen smelled like cigarette smoke. I've got the nose of a bloodhound and I couldn't smell it at all before today. Maybe because they tore out all the carpet and put in hardwood floors and repainted everything, but as soon as I turned the stove on I could smell it. And I've had a headache ever since.

• We had some birds in the tree outside of our window for about 2 weeks. They didn't chirp like normal birds, they sang, and it was beautiful. They sounded like tropical birds, not birds that you'd hear in a desert. I was never able to see what they looked like but they would sing from when the sun went down to when the sun came up. I thought it would bother me but somehow it made me feel safe. Like who would ever break into an apartment when they heard Disney birds singing outside? A few days ago the singing stopped, and we missed our birds, and then we drove down the street and saw an exotic bird pet shop. Hopefully this means that the birds are safe back at the pet shop they escaped from and not dead somewhere.

• We live right in the middle of Tucson. It takes about 20 minutes to get to the freeway. We are surrounded by a ton of stores. There is a gas station, Lowes, Walmart, Target, hair salon, dog grooming place, pet hospital, several restaurants, and an Albertsons all within walking distance from our place. Also, I thought that Albertsons was only a Utah thing. They're everywhere here.

• Rick and I went to dinner the other night to talk about how we're going to emotionally and spiritually handle our new life. The railroad is a whole new world. Did you know that if you work for the railroad you are 3 times more likely to get a divorce on top of the already 50% divorce rate? Each time Rick gets on a train he works with new people. The trains go in 4 directions and they go every so often so you are always working with someone new, and so far Jeremy, the guy we stayed with, and Jim, Rick's trainer, are the only ones not divorced or going through a divorce. We will never have a normal schedule again. You don't have days off,  you have 10 hours of rest before you go out again. Rick will miss birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, church, family reunions, and just being home. He left for work about 2 hours ago. It's sunday night, and he won't be back for another day or two. This is our life, and I've known that it would be like this since before we got married, but now it's actually happening. I am okay with this lifestyle, but that doesn't mean it won't suck sometimes.

• Sometime soon I am going to give a virtual tour of our new place. Just for you, Mom.