The Day Before my March to the Sea

I’d forgotten the loopiness of NyQuil.  Last night I took some in the hopes of warding off a sore throat that had been sneaking up, only at night, since Georgia’s party on Saturday.  I stopped by the Kroger on the way home from work to pick up that and some other things (hair color - now brown again, cat food - because, well, they like to eat once in a while, crazy things), then settled back home to watch the 8pm episode of Big Brother with my roommate.  Which was at 9pm.   Which if I had any sense at all I would have realized because I did the same thing last week.   That bit of idiocy I can’t even blame on the loopy NyQuil as I hadn’t even taken it yet.

I always do the self-scan when I can at the supermarket (it was my first-ever job, afterall. I was born to scan!), but I was surprised when I swiped the NyQuil/DayQuil combo pack that I had to show the cashier my ID for it.  I’d totally forgotten that kids these days use this kind of stuff to get a high. I should have remembered that later when I took my couple swigs of the nasty stuff.

NyQuil is the most foul tasting stuff ever, that licorice piece of death. But oh, does it work!  I’d forgotten the lightheadness that comes with it and how, well, it’s actually quite pleasant.  I decided not to set my alarm today - Day 1 of vacation - but still woke up at about 7:30am.  I could only keep my eyes open until about 9 until I had to go back to sleep for another hour.  Then, I was golden.

I am going to blame the drug on the fact that I slept through all kinds of chaos last night: an electrical transformer blowing the neighborhood that I didn’t know about until reading our Yahoo group’s conversations today (so THAT’s why all our clocks were blinking!) or Phil’s bathroom picture falling in such a crash that he believed our house was being broken into.  Yeah, some protection I was last night when he wandered from room to room trying to find the intruder!

In any case, tomorrow I head off on a little trip to just get away.  I had originally planned to do this all by myself but last weekend my roommie figured he could get away from work and do the same.  Today, however, was meant to prepare and to clean.  I’ve accomplished:

1. Doing all my laundry and putting fresh sheets on my bed

2. Doing all my ironing

3. Watching the final installment of “Henry VIII’s 6 Wives,” which I’d had recorded for weeks (done while ironing, actually)

4. Emptying the dishwasher and baking Louisiana pepper chicken for lunch

5. Coloring my hair.  This month’s color has gone from rosewood red back to chestnut brown.  I do have to admit it looks a little intense right now, but hopefully that will die down in a week or two.  Until I turn it blonde next month, that is.  Now only if it would just GROW so I can cut it already!

6. Making two CDs for the road trip.

7. Filling up the car with gas, topping off the oil, and getting cash for the wallet.

And now I’m just going to chill for a couple of hours in the hopes of getting to bed early so I can leave early to…. Savannah!

I love this city, Savannah.  I don’t think I’d ever really heard of it before moving here, but just a few months after I did, I took my Mom, sister and younger brother there.  A second trip came with a boyfriend at the time, a third with a friend and my sister again.  A fourth was when I took my friend Carey Lynn.   I’ve always loved this city: it always represented everything I always felt the South should be.   So when my salesman mentioned he was going with a friend a few weeks back my honest response was, “I am so jealous!”

And then I realized: huh. Why be jealous when I can just as easily go myself?   It set the wheels in motion and last week I pre-paid for my hotel at discount and so I wouldn’t find reason to not go (such as laundry or other lame excuses).  I had already had time secured off from work as I was supposed to head back to Wisconsin instead which couldn’t work out for various reasons.  And this time I had a camera and a blog.  Things I wanted to capture and photograph and write about and be able to go back to years from now and remember more than just in vague memories and mental images.

So tomorrow at the crack of dawn, roommie and I will head south and east to this charmful little city and do all the things we want: explore the cemeteries, do ghost and Civil War tours, hit Tybee and the beach, just take photos of everything.   Of course, we’re going to be wicked hot at the same time: why I always go in the dog days of summer, I have no idea.  But hopefully I’ll have some great photos to post and great stories to share.  We shall see!