ORD Bound

My morning started after just three hours of sleep. I thought I'd get up early and give myself time to have a nice relaxing morning. It was a pretty good plan and so far I don't feel like I'm suffering for it... I'll be able to make up for it between my 14 hours in the air from Chicago to Abu Dhabi especially since it's just about bedtime when I land there at 8:00pm Saturday... which is 7:00am at home... making for just under a 24 hour journey (counting my layover).

Of course it wasn't as relaxing as I realized that there was no way I was going to get my stupid carry-on to weigh 15lbs... I finally just decided that I'd pay for it if I have to! Hoping beyond belief that I wont have to!

Dad helped me with last minute weight checks and we were off to the airport! Dena did a great job getting us there! She dropped us off at the terminal and went to the waiting area, so just dad and I went inside. Dad helped me get all my bags through the terminal and checked in.

Security wasn't a big deal, though it was much more difficult traveling alone! Trying to keep everything where I could see it and not take my hands off the things that were most important, namely my passport, boarding pass, backpack and laptop! I made it through no problem and headed for my gate.

At the gate I met a waitress who had showed up a little early for work and was waiting in the gate area. We chatted until it was time for her to head in and I went in search of a soda (which I've only taken a sip of... I really should have just put water in my bottle!)

That's when I headed to the counter to get my seat assignment and met up with Randell & Kaaren! I am SO grateful that I have people to travel with the whole time and we're actually all sitting within arms reach of each other! The best part was when I mentioned something about flying alone and he quickly responded that I wasn't.

My adventure has officially started. It's a little crazy to be writing while so high up in the air, but it was the very reason behind my purchasing a new keyboard for my iPad. I knew that while I was flying for 19 hours I'd be driven to write at some point. And while using this tiny keyboard isn't as easy as writing on my laptop, it's much nicer space wise. I'm half tempted to post this without editing it, but I also know how annoyed I'd be looking back. Somehow I got lucky and managed a emergency row window seat, which on this plane means i have an extra foot of space to my right! My iPad says it's 12:30 now, which means I've been flying for somewhere around an hour and a half. In that short time I've watched the first 10 minutes of a movie, drank a glass of sprite, started a logic problem, completed a "quote-falls," chatted with the guy next to me, seen numerous clips of Dexter season four while he was watching, opened a letter from Em, A LONG letter from mom, and a totally awesome {picture worthy} card from Gramma, gone through 10 napkins as I cried reading said items. Oh! And I've attempted to nap... that one's not going too well!

The Town I Love!

 Driving home the wee hours of Monday morning from dropping mom off at PDX I passed by a sign that has been an icon for my entire life. What my parents called the "White Stag" sign, I call the "Made In Oregon" sign. Of course in 2010 the sign was altered for what should be a final time to it's current state. It was while passing this sign in the dark that I realized that I didn't have a picture of it lit up. I then thought of another landmark sign in Portland that I wanted a picture of. Then I realized that I had to come up with someone who would be willing to wander the streets of Portland in the dark with me while I took pictures. That person ended up being my dad. After a long day in the 90 degree heat my dad agreed to meet up with me! We wandered 40 blocks, 2.3 miles, and roughly 2 hours.

From the parking garaged we headed to the Schnitz to snap shots of the Portland sign. We passed through Director's Park and I got to show dad the giant chess board and there was even a private party in the park...something about Salt & Straw... apparently they're a big deal ice cream something or other... We then continued down Park to Main to the Schnitz. The biggest disappointment was that the Portland sign at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall was not lit up. I snapped some pics any way and I'm fairly happy with the way they turned out. I wish I'd known the sign wouldn't be lit, because I would have headed out during the day to get this shot!

From here dad and I headed down to the waterfront to head for Old Town. We wandered down the waterfront, stopping to read a plaque about the 1996 flood wall! It was kinda cool, realizing that I remembered the storm and the news reporting on the height of the water as it rose and endangered downtown Portland. As we

approached the area that now houses the Portland Saturday Market I asked dad if he'd been down there since it had moved from its original location and he said that he hadn't. As we got closer I was trying to tell him where the rows of stalls were on the weekends while staring at an active fountain! That's right, while the market is open the fountain is turned off and turned on when it's not there! I couldn't believe it! It was a pretty cool fountain too! Dad got a little wet walking over the tops of the jets! We continued down to the "Portland Oregon" sign and I got the pictures I was after!

Once we had the pics I was seeking we made our way towards VooDoo for delicious sweetness! Before we made it there we came upon a couple who were snapping pics of each other. I figured since I had my camera out (obviously not a person who was likely to grab their iPod mini and run) I'd see if they'd like a picture of the two of them. So we took turns snapping pictures and I'm very grateful that we did! The ones they took for me were great!

We grabbed our doughnuts and headed back towards the parking garage! It was a great way to spend an evening and I'm thankful that dad and I had that last bit of time together!

T Minus 3 Days!

This is what it comes down to... less than 250lbs. Packing my world into three large suitcases, a carry on and a backpack. This is the result of multiple weeks and too many attempts to remember. I finally had to start with a whole new game plan to get it all to work. With the new plan I was even able to add in the table bins I was hoping to use... though I'm not sure that I am going to keep them in there... The two cases in the back are at ~67 pounds each and will not be adjusted before my flight on Friday. Yes, I said FRIDAY! The black case still has a little wiggle room, but it helps me to feel more in control of the situation knowing that I've got that space.

Today I circled a date on my calendar in marker! Yep, you read that correctly, marker! That's about as permanent as I get around here! My mom had a flight out this morning at 6am so she sat here with me while I stared at my computer willing Hisham to send me an email with my itinerary. I pulled up Netflix and started playing movies... starting with One for the Money, which I've seen, so I was anxiously watching my colleagues post that they were receiving their visa information. I then moved on to What to Expect When You're Expecting, which I hadn't seen so it kept my attention for a little while.

So many of my colleagues were posting that they were getting their information that I became a little overwhelmed, and started to get overly anxious. I decided that it was a good time to go and get some sleep. It was just about 0130 and I slept until 0320 when my alarm went off to get up and take mom into PDX. The first thing I did was check my email, it's been the first thing I do when I wake up for a couple of weeks now.

It was there!!! I jumped out of bed and came to my computer knowing that I wasn't going to process what I was reading as well on my phone since I was still half asleep. I quickly learned that I would be flying out on Friday, August 23rd. Now, if you know me well, you know that 23 is my lucky number, and if you know me really well, you might even know the specifics, but I digress. I fly out of PDX on the 23rd at 1055 and arrive at O'Hare (ORD) at 1650 where I'll have about a 4 hour layover. From here it's straight on to Abu Dhabi and the beginning of everything!

Well it actually will all start at O'Hare as my colleagues start arriving with me! It's totally awesome how we've all figured out that there are a bunch of us flying at the same time from ORD! It definitely relieves the pressure I was feeling knowing that I wont be getting off a plane looking for someone holding a sign with my name on it! Or not finding that person! I'm expected to arrive in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, August 24th after 7pm. Wow! I officially have 82 more hours left here! I cannot believe that I'm finally at this point! Wow!

*cnstars23@gmail.com if you don't have a google account for commenting*

Toodle-oo For Now!

Tonight I had to say goodbye to two of the most amazing women in the whole world! We had a great dinner at Olive Garden, including salad, breadsticks and awesome pasta!!! Our waiter was a super great guy who Gramma and I have had numerous times before. He even bought me dessert as a congrats on my travels! Jess and Em made me an amazing photo book filled with memories from our many years together! I refused to read the messages they had added while we were sitting there, but of course I couldn't resist when they both headed for the bathroom. So there I was standing in the lobby of the OG with tears streaming down my face. We had great conversation and followed it up with a trip to TARGET! Not that that's a big surprise, but hey! We picked up some more last minute supplies for my trip, markers, markers, and sticky tac and headed back to the house.

We had forgotten to take a picture while we were out so we ran to the room with the best lighting! It just happens to have an awesome backdrop! We looked through the pictures of what should be my new place and I stalled them until after 9pm. I wasn't ready to say goodbye... So with tears streaming I say toddle-oo. Until next time my friends! I love you both!

Just a Quick Update

For those of you who are reading just to see what's happing with my trip, an update. All's quite on my front. All of us newbies are anxiously waiting to receive our itineraries and find out when we fly out of our home ports. My being PDX of course! It's tough sitting here and packing and not knowing when I'm really leaving. I'm saying August 14th, but that's actually my expected arrival date and to arrive by that date I'd have to leave the 13th. We're reaching the end of Ramadan too which means everythign will close down for the holy days. If we don't have our itineraries before the 7th, we wont have them until after the 12th and that's a little bit scary. I'm trying my hardest to relax and just be prepared to go the 13th. Hopefully it will all work out as smoothly as others are saying it will!

Well that's all for now... we're down to 8 days... and I'm still excited, though still not accepting the fact that its' almost time to say goodbye to my life here.

A Totes Amaz Vacay-cay!

 I'm not sure where to start with this one... What an incredible trip... Starting with reading an entire Cosmo cover to cover... I know who does that right? Well we did, or should I say I did... I read the entire thing out loud to my besties while they threw in their crazy comments that had us laughing more than the written articles did! We made it down to Jess' parents house with plenty of time to hit the pool and get out swim on with Miss Aria while Neven chilled with Jess' mom.

After a great breakfast we got on the road stopping to search for letterboxes along the way! This picture is from a cemetery we found while looking for one specific box! We were looking for Italian Cyprus trees (right behind us!) and I took quite a spill in the mud! I had a bruise for the rest of the trip!

Jessica took the time to create collages for the three days we spent exploring so I figured I'd just use them instead of trying to pick just one favorite!

Our first day was spend at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Safari! We spent the money to do the Caravan Safari which included getting up close to quite a few amazing animals, as well as feeing giraffes and attempting to feed some very stubborn rhinos! We were really good about stopping and taking pictures! For the big one of the three of us I braved setting my fancy new camera on a trash can to get a picture of the three of us framed just the way I wanted! I think Jess' pic with the lion is the best of the three of us, it's her face I'm sure!

Day two had us bummin' around Balboa Park and snappin pics of the awesome tiles in the Spanish Art Village. No secret that my favorite area was the area with the black and red tiles! It was such an amazing day despite my mid morning melt down. We wandered around all of the old buildings as we searched for a place to hide our "To Infinity and Beyond" letterbox. We went to the Seaport Village and got matching henna tattoos in the same design as our letter box and took a stroll to see the "Unconditional Surrender" statue. Though the sun wasn't necessarily at the ideal location for snapping pictures at and of the statue, it made for some great less conventional pictures!

Day three had us arriving at Disney California Adventures just as the park opened. We were so excited to see Cars Land, that the pictures make it obvious that it was our focus! I hadn't noticed that at first. It was such a great day, we got our tickets for World of Color, and actually got to ride practically every ride. At least all the ones we wanted to ride. Multiple times even! It was so great to be there one last time with my besties before I leave.

I don't know how to put the feelings into words. How I felt during and after this adventure with the two best friends a girl could ask for. I don't know what I'm going to do the next three years, forcing myself to explore and create my own adventures without these two beside me. I know that this post lacks a little emotion, well at least it does to me... but I couldn't do it when I was full of all of those emotions, it would have been a jumbled mess!