Ayn's Multiple World

Wow Vince - You ready for this? FIVE ENTIRE DAYS!!!

Good morning to you, good morning to you ... AND GOD BLESS US ALL!!!

Well, as you might guess, this is the morning we wake up with the reality of Obama having been chosen president. If you haven't gone there already - I captured a couple of documents and pictures in this blog, right befor this. There are 10 pictures from the Chicago Tribune, Obama's form letter sent out to his supporters, and President-Elect's Acceptance speech.

Ahh 2700 people voted 97%-3% that this was the most important election ever voted in. I was one of them. I don't usually to text message polls, but I don't know anything could happen today. This was a CNN poll that took about an hour. I keep looking to my left to gaze into the happy faces of Barack Obama and his family. It is such a national and international marvel that he has been elected that I think the world is spinning on its top. Well, maybe everyone ... I'm sure that Osama Bin Laden isn't real happy, and we are all ready hearing that Russia is voicing negative opinion of the US. But, other than that ... I think most people and countries are happy with Obama being elected. I think it was Internationally like 3 out of every 4 people were for him.

There's so much to convey today that I hope I can manage it. I took my medicine and it's about 6 am. Rich left for work early and we've been up for about 3 hours. I think we got about 4 hours sleep last night. I have been so terribly excited.

I think CNN announced the victory about 10:07 pm last night. We listened to McCains conceding the election and we listened to Obama's acceptance speech. Rich had stayed up only as long to toast with me Obama's victory begrudgingly. He didn't listen to either speech, but then one of us had to get up and out there this morning. I sent an email to Sr. Theresa saying that I'd been up all night and wouldn't be coming in this morning. I'm not sure if she understands, because most people will have the same news and WILL make it into work, but whether it's regular over-duty excitement or obsessiveness - All I want is to listen to how the first day unfolds. It is just a wonderful new day that I can still hardly believe.

I hope to get in a good amount of writing today and I hope to catch some hours of sleep. That's all possible right? Lordy, lordy ... how did Obama ever fall asleep last night?

Hmm, Obama's going to the gym this morning. Maybe if he can make it I can too. Maybe we should plan that in. I think it's a good idea.

Hmm, just did our next text message poll. They asked if there are still red and blue states ... our response was no ... there is only the United States. We have been watching the news coverage ... it's 6:15 am now. Everything is new and exciting and I just can't get enough of it. I'm so proud and happy for the country and for the world. I only pray that God sees fit to allow Obama to maintain his health throughout so he can lead our country to its proud heritage of the world's melting pot and leader.

They are doing General Colin Powell again ... he's asking people to put the "black" part second ... first he is an American - and he is the new AMERICAN President!

Hmm, how am I going to calm down. Can't seem to get past the buzz. Ahh just had some peaches and filled the coffee cup. It's going to be ok, right? Hmm, just took a couple of aspirin ... there are only a few left. Working my way back to that headache I feel so much internal pressure - good pressure to say the least, but I'm as excited as the next person to start the new world order. I want to be ready for every last piece of information as to how Obama builds his Presidency. I know I can't afford to be this obsessed, but surely not this morning.

They are showing newscasts all around the world where people are shouting for Obama. Austrailia, Japan, France, China ... It's just amazing. Everyone wants to share this moment with America. I think we all see it as a new dawning. I wonder how the Dow Jones Index is going to do this morning. Surely that is going to make news too. People are going to find there is new hope. Not sure if it will happen the first day, but soon.

I just marvel everytime they replay a portion of Obama's speech last night. He's so confident and sure of himself just a reknown sense of steady knowhow. He seems so relaxed and sure. They say that he is able to transcend the high's and low's of emotions so that he puts forth a leader-like sense of control and command. There's no doubt he's going to be the pride in our new world. Ok you ... stop stop. Have I said enought of how excited I am? Don't know what else to think ... everything is so grand.

I do want to say also that we are going to want to go back over this last 4-5 days in not only what happened at Obama's campaign headquarters last night, but the 4 days previous where we were on vacation. There's a lot to be writing there. I think I left some notes as to things that we'll want to talk about and it is a very long list. I don't think I've posted that yet. Not sure if the stuff I saved is on this computer or Rich's ... hold on ... why don't I check that out now.

Ok, there are a few notes. This next part is from Sunday 11-2-08 ... I think it's a short entry and there will be one more from the 3rd before we get back again to this morning. Hold on ... Here she is.

Good morning. Is all well with you? Good ... I'm good here too. Just checking. I have to apologize though about yesterday ... well, maybe not as big a deal to you as to me, but we had typed out the entire entry in the morning and then when I minimized it to do something else, somehow it got erased. I don't know why that happened, but I was pretty disappointed. I had typed for a couple of mornings and then it was all gone and there was no way to get it back. I know, I know ... just get over it right? Wow. We've painted you all to be kind of hard on us this morning. I'm sorry maybe just my own frustration. I really really hate to lose a day ... especially a real important one where we are doing something very different than we usually might.

Ok, that's it about now ... we're going to get a handle on it now. I can do this, right? Well, mostly ... we're still going through a good portion of the time watching CNN while we're supposed to be typing. I think that's one of our down falls. We had gotten to the point sometime last week of saying that we were going to turn off the news while we typed, but then in reality it is so much harder than one might expect. I think news does that to people like me in general. They try to be MORE interesting than anything else in your mind. BUT, again that would be to say that what I'd like to be writing about doesn't hold its own weight ... HMPF!

Man ... are we kinda down on ourselves? Could this be because we are coffeeless? Hmm, maybe we should check that out. ok, ok ... brb.

WooHOO!!! Cool, cool. I did it! First of all though ... let me say or remind you that we are still on vacation. Well maybe not today - in reading time - but, today as far as writing time. We are as planned at the Bradford House Bed and Breakfast. Hmm, guess we're back to not doing very much yet. We've been just relaxing I guess ... I shouldn't want to complain about that. We knew from yesterday, we could go upstairs and get some coffee and frosted flakes, AND there just might be a few cookies up there. WOOHOOO!!! I figured out today to get more downstairs, that I was going to need using a plate to hold my cups and cereal ... yeah well you guessed it ... probably know how we got those cookies downstairs without spilling. Using the plate wasn't a first off thought, but we really were having problems coordination, especially since we'd be going down stairs and opening doors. Blah!

Today is Sunday so we have a little over 24 hours before we have to start going back. It's now 6:15 according to the new time.

Whoops, now it is about 8 am and we're headed out the door in a couple of minutes. Somebody crept back into bed with Rich for a bit and snuggled him then massaged him. He's out of the shower now, so we're going to get going pretty soon. We're going to be going to breakfast soon. We couldn't find the channel for CBS Rich's favorite Sunday morning show, but we've got other things going on. We found a fishing show on our way of figuring out the others. When Rich came out he said is there any fishing shows and we were able to say, yup we're prepared for that. We found him a fishy show.

AHA ... we remembered that we might have looked for a boat for him this morning. It would be real progress to get him into a show room. He'll probably look for it after breakfast ... he's moving now and I think we're really headed for breakfast.

We are going to have to go over later all the information that we lost in losing our yesterday's entry. I'm really feeling bad about that. But, we'll give it a wrap up at some point. It would be a good idea to do some writing when we're in the car if I could balance Rich's computer on my lap. He's got a car charging cord.

Whoops my guy is ready. We better get going ... there's vacation to be had. Woohoo. AND, this time we are going to be saving the document!

Ok, back again ... that last part was from Sunday, now this part is from Monday 11-3-08 ... hold on going to do some cutting and pasting.

Good afternoon. This is me. I'm writing now from the car and that pretty much means my vacation is almost ended. This is the sad part. But, the nice part is that we're still having a good time. We're about 4 hours from home. Rich said he was going to let me drive the car, but then I think he thinks about that means I will be driving and he thinks no I can type longer. This is no good for him, but it gives me some free time.

We spent a while talking about political stuff, but we didn't like that he was being argumentative. He was saying that we were like doing something wrong - basically that we were being close-minded to McCain stuff. I'd like to think we've been listening to him, but then we heard something and gave it to Rich as a for example of how he says stuff without meaning and that made Rich defensive. It took a while for me to figure out he was just arguing to play devil's advocate. Of course, we never like being bated in that game, because we like to talk not debate. I didn't need anyone at that time to teach me something I wasn't interested in learning.

This is probably sounding more negative than it is. I still like Rich - actually love the pieces out of him, but I don't need my ideals messed with I figure it took me a while to thinking as I did. Maybe I just don't like to be challenged. Maybe. In some ways it's like the other person, Rich in this case, is thinking that my thoughts aren't important. Who could like that?~!

Hmm, we just had the radio changed, but it will most likely go back after they are done playing Deep Purple. ARGH ... that was terrible. He's changed it over to the Heart to appease me for a few minutes ... hmm, then there was the part he was just messin with me. He played elevator music and then he made it look like he was swingin to it. He was being too silly. Now ... we're up to Huey Lewis, If this is it. We can handle that for a little bit ... I guess we don't do car music with Rich too much. He's a little strange. Like a fish!

Woohoo ... captured SOME of it. You might have read that I lost a whole good morning of writing on Saturday 11-1-08. I'm doing a little better on saving now, but I was still disappointed I missed the direct connection to our experiences. But, again ... we've got an outline of where we've been just going to need going over it one step at a time.

Ok, back again for a second ... I found this one other document that I thing didn't get posted ... if you've read this before ... I apologize ... Shoot, did I lose that outline? Skip then down to where it says we're getting back to Wednesday morning. From what I can tell this next section was from last Saturday before we went on vacation. Ok? Here she is ... brb to the new stuff.

Good morning. This is me and it's a Saturday morning and I've been up for a couple of hours and not gotten too far, but we're still here nonetheless. It's now about 7:30 am. I've taken our shower already and I'm waiting for another half hour before getting Sweetie Pie up. I figure that will give him an hour to get ready. We're thinking we would like to leave about 9 am. We'll again be heading down to Obama National Headquarters. WooHOO!!! Yup, yup that's the deal!

*Sigh* ... I'm looking forward to the day. We've been trying to get our computer up and running ... it seems that we were bogged down I'm so happy we've finally gotten up, but then there isn't much time to be writing. I'm pretty in the air about where or what we want to be writing about. Ok, ok ... this seems normal, hmm? It is just that it was so hard to get everything going this morning on the computer, and then there's the catching up on news ... I don't know why news is so important to me, but I love getting back to CNN.

Hmm, now we're listening to Gupta ... he's the medical guy ... they are doing a piece on memory ... they've got this one guy who's got a phenomenal memory and they are saying that studying him they will find secrets to memory. It's more specific than that, but it's the just of it. What a cool asset that would be.

Ok, this is just more stalling on the day. Maybe I'm not too proactive. I'm just kinda floating. I keep looking at the clock as to when I can wake up Sweetie.

Hmm, ok, that's something we do. We talk about the day before. The last memory I have is that Sweetie came home ... Not sure about when maybe about 10 pm. He had been out with the guys doing his last football game of the season. And, then they went out to eat. Somehow or another we fell into this little intimate interlude. WOOHOO!!! My guy is hot!

He put us then to bed and the rest is this morning. we've got about 15 minutes before we wake him up. I'm looking so forward to our little warm-up exercises where I'm going to crawl into bed and slowly massage him to waking up. He's soooo cool. Did I tell you that part already?

I don't remember too much about the day before that time when he walked in and we were woken up. So, that's yesterday in a nutshell.

Ok, is there anything else we need to be writing about? Not sure. Whoops forgot about charging up our mini-machines. Just plugged them in ... at least I'll progress those for about an hour or so. Couldn't hurt.

Hmm, feeling just a bit flighty. Not sure where to lead our mind. Maybe it's just because my minds are no where in particular. We just happen to find our fingers on the keyboard with room to roam. I would get dressed, but I figured I'll wait until Rich gets up so I don't interrupt him. Just a few more minutes now. I'm surprised how long he is sleeping in. He's such a snugglebunny.

Ok, 10 more minutes before the WAKE-UP moments. What should we be thinking next? Anything on the day? Hmm, not really. We know that we're going downtown and that Rich is going to pick drop us off and pick us up. He's got the thought he might play poker today, but then he's also thinking he may go fishing this afternoon with Bob at Bob's club. Bob was going to go further away, but he didn't want to wait until Saturday when Rich was going to be able to go, so then Bob called his back-up fishing friend, but then he backed out and now Rich I think feels insulted that he wasn't considered first, because it had turned out before the other friend cancelled Bob had switched their time over to what Rich had originally wanted.

I think too that Rich is concerned because they are talking snow by Sunday or Monday and he is thinking it might be too cold to be out there. NOT that my superbuddy isn't well-worthy of all the fishyman bravado to be out there, it's just that I think he might need a little break. He's been going on strong for about a month and a half now. I think he's looking forward to sleeping in his own bed. I can't remember the last time we watched Sunday morning TV together. It's got to be that time soon, right?

Hmm, anything else? Wow I'm really reaching into the depths of something not real deep this morning aren't I? Maybe I should give in and go snuggle the bunny. It's gotta be a good idea, because he's soooo warm and fuzzy!

WooHOO!!! We woke him up! He's such a nice person in the morning. He doesn't ever growl at us. There was a little question as to the time because his clock said 7 am while our clocks were saying 8 am. But, sure enough 3 of the 4 clocks said 8 am, so we're thinking we're good to go. He's in the washroom now. He's going to want to take a shower before we go. When asked he said, he'd still prefer some card playing opposed to fishing. I think he has some domestic goals too. Whoop here he is!

Oh dear ... he says his mind is foggy, but he's holding the remote ... what am I supposed to do with that? Whoops said that outloud ... doesn't make him less foggy. He's looking for his bass fishing shows. I know I have got to give him time, but it is a little hard to give up our CNN.

Oh good ... he's in the shower. We are going to have to work on that space we got between smooching him to pieces and messing with my CNN. Life is hard ya know?

AHA! We figured out our coat. Rich says that it's getting up to 55, but I know that it's cold downtown and we're going down there in the morning and coming back in the evening ... so we think we're going to miss that 55 degree weather. I tested out two coats and the one I found best usable is my Dad's old coat. He used to give it to me to wear when I went outside to have a smoke. I haven't worn it for a couple of years, but it's now about time for that one. It's between seasons, is a nice muted green, and is a little big so feels comfortable to wear. I've still got to worry about wearing my more summer clothing, but I'm not sure what else I could be doing about that. I wish I had a long sleeve white shirt, I could wear that underneath my other shirt. I'm not sure maybe we should look, brb

WooHOO!! We're back. We were in the bedroom with Rich and we did some snooping around and we found that we have some sweatshirts in the middle of our two closets in a hard to reach spot. BUT, they FIT!!! That means I have some fall clothes. I'm soooooo happy. I don't have to wear summer clothes when its cool outside. I'm wearing the sweatshirt with my jean skirt, and I only pulled back the top of my hair instead of putting it in a ponytail. Ponytails are for summer or for the gym, but for now ... I feel super fall like ... It makes me sooooo happy. I know these sweatshirts are years old, but they are new to today's wardrobe. This one has some faded delicate redish flowers with shaf-wheat type background spread. It's blue and has a white collar as if I were wearing two shirts, but there's only one.

Actually, yup yup just checked ... it is the same shirt and hair look that's on our website ... the one under Dr. Marvin where we are holding the phone. Yup yup ... that's just what we look like except we are happier because we're really looking forward to the day. Rich is happy too, because we gave up our CNN to finish our blog here. We've only got about 10 minutes to go. We're both happy now. He's got his fishy show taped so he's crusing through the commercials. I like it too in that it allows me to concentrate more on the writing - that's not to say that we have that much more to write about ... We're still low there.

Whoops, I forgot we've got some getting ready to do ... better brb. Take care!!!

Ok, back again to Wednesday morning 11-5-08. It looks like I must have saved the part I'm looking for on Rich's computer. Shoot. Really could have used the outline I'd written, but we'll get along anyway because that's just who we are. Right? :)

We just reread where we've been the last couple of days. It seems as if I might not have saved the outline we'd written about and typed out on the way home on Monday. It's ok, we're living up to a lot of hard things this morning. Good idea for us to continue the effort to concentrate - yeah I know in and out of CNN news stuff. I'm pretty sure we're not going to be listening to anything, but Obama as President this morning. They are predicting very soon he is going to name his Chief of Staff. I have a little more understanding of that position because of watching a few shows of West Wing, but I don't know anything about the person or two they are reporting just might get that opinion. We are going to start this term fresh and new. Hopefully, we've learned enough to keep up with what's happening, though it will be interesting to think what CNN will be reporting on. They've talked so much about the election, I don't recall what was their regular fare. I thought they'd done more on the war, but that's so far out of sync, I'm not sure if that was it, if they are going to be coming back to it. They talk vagually about it being a success, but our guys are still there. We'll see.

It's about 7 am now. Ok ... figuring we'll now try going back in time. I think we'll start with yesterday because that's still fresh in our mind where the other we'll have to think harder about. Yesterday was the day we went to the Illinois State campaign headquarters. As it turned out ... it was a lot different than the Chicago headquarters. The Chicago was on the 19th floor with lots of windows and the Illinois state one was in the basement of a building that was unfinished - exposed cement bricks - and very few windows and at that they were higher than 6 feet. There were a lot more people though in this small cramped space than at the first. I have this sense of the space as being a combination of 7-8 rooms one opening to another in a awkward sprawl. It was grundgy, but there were so many dedicated people - they had scheduled about 150 per each 2 hour slot - that it was just wall to wall chair to chair people with quite a few even sitting on the floor.

Everyone was using their own phones. I was real happy that one of the guys at my table of 4 had figured out how to get an extension close to our chairs so that at one point I could plug in for a bit to recharge - that got me through the night with my phone being of good service. We all switched around the cord and our seating positions to be close to it at the various times of our need. That's the kind of attitude this kind of event transposes. Everyone is into helping others. At one point the lady across from me said something about hoping that they would have had water ... they did come up with water later as well as pizza and subsandwiches, but for the time being I realized I had two water bottles and could surely give her one. Of course I wouldn't take the money she offered - again just one of those things from working close to a lot of positive people over a brief amount of time.

I didn't have any problems finding the place. Rich had given me good directions to just follow Ogden Avenue, turn right on Lake, and then look for the address. The address was 566 Lake Street and I parked my car in a garage at 600 Lake Street WOOHOO!!! And, what's more was there was on that same corner space for disability, so I didn't have to walk very far at all - and I knew my car was going to be safe.

There were signs in the small foyer pointing the direction downstairs. I came in with a group of people and they got right away to setting you up. I did take a quick bathroom break, but otherwise received my directions and phone lists. Oh ... one more thing ... about 4 small buildings on the other side of the street there was a Dunkin Donuts. You can better believe we were thinking a nice large cup of coffee at that time. It felt like such a Chicago thing to do. Everyone in the morning walks around with their cups of coffee. It's just the way.

I found my location in a room of about 30 people and about a dozen tables. It was on an outside edge, so I could get up and down without bumping into people. There was one nice lady already there at the table, and then as throughout the day from the 9 am arrival time to the 8 pm closing time - the table gained and lost people all day without losing its basic composure of 4 people. There was one other guy - a young Irish person named Dan who sat kitty corner from us most the day. The other positions came and went without too much notice. Oh there was another guy across from me who spent a good amount of time there too.

The conversation that was occuring all day was very, very good. You might go through a streak of talking to people on the phone for awhile, but sooner than later, the table would burst into spontaneous conversation. Usually, it engaged all 4 people. We would talk about so many things. Often we talked of our excitement about Obama - so we fed and confirmed to one another our own special conveyances of truth and love. We also talked about some of the phone calls and our plans for the evening and so many other things. It was really, really great to be with Obama support people all day on such an important day.

Please don't miss the balance of it though. Most of the time there was spent on the phone. There were hundreds of phone calls made. We went through many states. We started with Indianna, then went to Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada, and I think we ended with Colorado. Not everyone was changing along with us, but a lot were on the same set of states. Toward the end of the evening, they would stop us from working on one set of states to another set of states as polls closed down. I never imagined that I wasn't doing something very important.

The calls were very simple and organized. We each got a sheet giving the talking points and a set of three sheets of names and a tally sheet. As you finished one set you would do the tallying and then get a new set. Sometimes we had to wait a few moments to get the new sheets, because we must have been as a large group keeping up with their needs. It was a targeted list of mostly democratic or undecided voters. Some of the time was spent going over other peoples sheets a second time ... If people had marked busy, not available, or had left messages - we would call these people back and try again to connect to real people. It was a process that was easy to learn. Basically you would say hi or ask for the people listed on the sheet, and then you would identify yourself, and then you would ask them if they'd voted yet, and then you would make sure they knew their voting polls - we had each individual's polling location listed on our sheets. We would suggest that they bring someone with them, and we would tell them when their poll closed. We also gave them a number and web address so if they had questions or needed a ride - they could be supported by other parts of the Obama team.

In all it was very quick and comprehensive and deliberate. I had maybe about 10-12 people who hung up, but most the calls over 11 hours of work went through just fine and there were a lot of messages left so we had the feeling that we were really connecting to people and helping them out. Some of the workers were asking who the people had voted for, but this wasn't on the script and I didn't ask. I just thanked them for voting. There weren't too many personal conversations because the nature of the calls was to be very brief and not disturb too much. The people working at the leadership level were very good. We went to the same person - a guy for most of the day. He was upbeat and prompt and conscientious. Everyone was putting out his best. I also had the feeling that the lists that we were working on would be used in the future for other purposes. So, for example if a person answered and was hostile - we would mark it that way so the next person checking on the lists would not call and disturb him or her again. Almost all hostile people were women. Maybe that was just a coincidence.

I heard within Obama's speech that there would be more invovlement of people with the one's that were making the calls and knocking on doors and the people who were responding to the volunteers. I think they have considered the names and numbers on these sheets as valid and useable to include people in the next stages of government. I hope to stay involved. I like the flexibility the system has given me and the sense of pride I've gained from working.

Toward the end of the drive - Getting out the Vote - They announced that if you stayed until the end - about 8 pm that you would get a couple of the valuable tickets that about 7000 people were getting - stand the closest to Obama over a distance of a quarter million people. This was a great gift and really well planned out on the part of Obama's team. I had known though going into it that there was no way that I'd go through that many people, alone and without a safe place to sit. So I asked at the table and sure enough - two of the people there we'd been working with wanted tickets, so we gave each of them one of our tickets. I think they appreciated that a lot. The one lady stayed a few minutes longer so she could get my ticket for her son - and the other - was going to be able to bring both his friends. I knew the tickets were going to good use and that made me happy.

I didn't have too much problem going home afterward ... the election results were starting to come in at the TV that was at the organizer's table. I think of about 150 electoral points in Obama was ahead 2 out of 3. I had to use a different door to get into my car, but for a moment I thought I'd have to wait downtown for Rich to come get me and the car would have to stay downtown. I'm really glad I proved to be more competent than that. The drive home was easy and I was glad to get some leftover pizza when I got home.

There was something that happened while I was there in that Thom had given me a call. He must have heard the background noise, because he asked me if I were down at Obama's again. We of course said yes. He told me briefly a few things - it seemed that he was talking more to his girl, but that he was very frustrated yet - maybe more tired, but he asked if I would like to give her a call. We said we would after we got out. So on the way home we left a message to her that we'd like to talk if she wanted to and we left a message with Thom that we'd left the other message.

After I got home and had finished dinner Alexis called back. We had a nice long talk and I had the impression that both of us enjoyed being able to talk to one another female to female. I tried very hard not to take sides, but to encourage parts of the conversation that made sense to me. There was a lot of affirmations. I won't go into the nature of the call, because I believe it was private, but I think it was a good call. I have to be very careful of not getting in the middle of their problems, but I had the sense that both of them trusted me enough to talk. After a bit I'd disconnected because Rich had come home. After we talked a bit about his and my day, I thought I better call Thom and tell him I'd had a discussion with Alexis, but by then Thom's phone was busy and that told me that he and Alexis were talking so all was well. I will follow up today to see if Thom has questions, but again ... I don't want to be an unwanted 3rd wheel. Just thought I was a step removed from the situation so I could help think through some of the problems. I think that both of them have a lot of love for each other, but I pointed out more than once ... they don't have good communication skills and some of their behaviors were like acting out. I think it was said smoother, but I thought from the perspective of me knowing people through the center's work, and through my longstanding relationship with Rich I'd had information that might have been helpful. Alexis is really smart and it felt like we were each picking up each other's points. Love that girl!

So that was most of last night. Like I'd said before we stayed up until about midnight watching the news and was up again about 4 hours later. It's about 8 am now so we are moving on with the day, but there's still plenty ahead. Still looking at life as if there is newfound hope. I loved that he acknowledged the door knockers, the organizers and the volunteers. That makes me feel already that I had a special part in the election - and I know there are about a million others who are feeling the same this morning.

I think it might be about time to now cover the vacation the best I can. Let me see how that goes.

The first thing I remember is the organizing part on the Friday morning that we left. We seemed to get things together enough that we'd taken our shower before Rich got up, and then we both went through our packing. I only have the choice of a big suitcase or a small suitcase, so we took the big one and filled it by putting in everything and the kitchen sink hehehe. Silly us. It did work out in that not only did clothes, shoes and toiletries go in, but we also placed in the bag our stuffed dog and the C-Pap machine. That made me feel like we were better using the space. It was still heavy enough that we had to leave it after packing for Rich to get to the car.

Rich stayed home and took care of some loose notes and calls while we went to St. Rose to pick-up our check. We got there about 7:30 am and we had the goal of leaving town with Rich about 8:30 am. I think we were within about 15 minutes the time we'd wanted to leave. There didn't seem to be much problem getting into Chicago and back home and then we stopped at the bank to deposit the money. After Rich and I met downstairs for the completion of car packing we went to the drug store to pick up medicine and get some coffee.

I don't remember much of the trip although I can say going there we talked or listened to Rich most of the way, and on the way back neither of us did as much talking. I don't think it was because we didn't want to ... just that each of us were so relaxed and tired - we didn't have the same needs to talk. Also I had taken up writing. We were able to plug in the computer and we had gotten the Internet connection on Rich's computer. That was nice. He also has an adapter so you can plug a regular ac/dc cord into the cigarette lighter ... smooth!

I think I'd have to think really, really hard to put together an idea of our conversation on the way there. I remember after St. Louis about 1/2 way through an 8-9 hour trip, there was more time spent talking in and out of noticing how beautiful and new the scenery was. Rich is used to the trip because it's how he goes to his daughters in New Mexico, but it was all new to me. The leaves were gorgeous and the roaming hills and bluffs were fantastic. They went on forever. I think this area is called the Ozarks, and I learned there was a city called, Ozark, but I'm not sure of the nature of being "in" the Ozarks. I was really impressed to with the Arch after having first gotten to Missouri. I saw it from quite a distance, and then it seemed we got closer and closer to it until it was right next to it.

Hmm, remembering something now. Rich got a regular big person to talk to for the first hour, but then there was like a 3 hour block where he was talking to a younger part. I don't recall what they were talking about, but I was aware that a younger part was out and was very excited that she was someplace new. I think she asked a lot of questions. Rich was also aware there was a younger part out. He is very good natured by this kind of thing because it happens often enough, but I also gathered that he was appreciative to gain back the confidences of older parts.

Getting into Branson was something. It was like no other in that everything was located within the rolling hills and the city of Branson was very busy with one business after another of hotel, resteraunt or other various site. It was pretty splendiferous. I hadn't any real idea what I was in for, but it was cool. And, there was so much of it. I was like someone might be hitting Las Vegas for the first time and being blown away by all the bright lights. We were naming outloud all the different parts of town as we passed them.

Rich had set the car to the address of the hotel, so that wasn't much problem to find although it was on a back street. I think I've explained the hotel situation before, but I'm not sure if that was part of what was accidently erased earlier. Basically, the hotel was a grand Victorian mansion that was very full and beautiful. You walk into a huge 2 story lobby with a round curvy staircase to the second floor. We were met right away and welcomed. We got a tour of the first floor common areas and so were led through a couple of dining rooms, the kitchen and the living room. The living room also was 2 story with walls of windows on 3 three sides. There was also a nice large fire place. The kitchen was unique in that there were things to buy for $1 like popcorn, pop and water, but there were also quite a few coffee, tea, cereal, cookies and brownie like things that were for free. The first floor of the bed and breakfast were open 24 hours so we could come up stairs at any time to get whatever we needed.

Our room was actually on the first floor too, but the elevation toward the back where it stood by the outdoor pool was lower - so the house was built into the hill. We had a semi-private entrance that was shared with one other room, but of course we had a private door to our room. Rich and us both worked to bring in the suitcases and stuff - mostly Rich. I think it was before we got to the room, but we'd bought a bottle of wine to use that first night. WOOHOO!!!

The room was nice. You walked in and were immediately in the living room side of the room. There was a large 54" TV to the left and a love seat under a old fashioned net to the right. On the same wall as the door there was another door to a very large bathroom. It turned out the jacuzzi was only big enough for one, but at that it was very comfortable. Rich never went in, but we were in the jacuzzi all three nights we were there ... Might be a good time to mention that Rich saw fit to have a sexual encounter each of those 3 nights as well. Can we think he has a BIG tiger in that tank! Ok, that's as much as you get there. Stop giggling.

The rest of the bathroom was nice as well. They had a double sink in a cabinet that was about 10 feet long. The commode was at the end of that and at the opposite side was the shower stall. There was also a cabinet to hold towels and flowers along with a small fridgerator. Going back into the room. Opposite to the front door was a huge wooden King size bed. It had tons of pillows we didn't used, but it looked pretty magnificent all dressed up. There was a couple of bedside tables and a midsize writing desk. There were also two closets that were both more than we needed. We put the suitcases in the closets with the exception of things that were hung.

I don't think we stayed up real late that night, but it was a good night. We did go back out - hmm maybe that's when we got the wine - for dinner ... we had gotten into town about 6 pm. We had asked at the hotel their recommendations to dinner and they sent us to a nice steak place. I had nacho chips with cheese and Rich had a steak. I had plenty from the appetizer and brought a serving home to be snuck eated later. We were both pretty excited to be there, but of course toward the tired side - well - you heard not TOO tired, *giggle* Shhh...

The next morning we got up before Rich and we'd set up the computer. We'd already checked out the TV from the night before. It had about 60 channels - and low and behold one of them was CNN. This is the true genious of America - the likelyhood that I'd get my favorite station cross states. The first morning we wrote actually quite a bit, but again it had gotten erased. Won't go into that again. We figured out without waking Rich how to go upstairs for a couple of coffee and some frosted flakes. This became a pattern for each of the 3 mornings we woke up there. But, otherwise we wrote and watched news.

After a while Rich finally got up and we went to the official Bed and Breakfast breakfast. We could have had eggs or pancakes, but got instead sausage, biscuits and gravy and waffles. Oh we had a bowl of mixed fruit too. The breakfast food was good enough, but it was harder to wait for tables - they had about 6 - 2 seaters and 1 6 person in the main dining room ... and one large 8-10 seater in the second room. BUT, they had enough people to fill 10 rooms, so between the mornings with tables and only one cook - you had to wait - Especially the last morning. We hadn't realized that weekday breakfast was served at 8 am rather than 7:30 am. It wasn't horrible just you know how impatient we get with our food. But, it was included in the price so there was no budging Rich on the fact we'd have to be patient.

After breakfast the first morning we went back to the main streets of town and picked out a ticket place. They advertised for 1/2 price tickets, but it turned out that was only if you were going to sit 2-3 hours for a time share meeting. Rich decided he'd rather pay full price. I think the four shows we'd picked out and the double set of tickets cost about $325. It seemed like a lot of money, but then we were getting a lot of show. It took a while to pick out the shows we finally purchased and to order the tickets. We just got a receipt for payment and then we had to find each of the four locations to pre-receive the actual tickets. It gave us an opportunity to travel all over the fairly large town. It was very beautiful. The B&B was actually more in the woods and someone had spotted 3 deer when they woke up.

We'd asked at the ticket place a recommendation for lunch and we ended up at a place that advertised that we get piggy. It was a local BBQ place that wasn't very fancy, but the food was great. Due to the condition of the bathrooms though, I wouldn't have gone back. We decided the chips had gone so well the night before that we'd order the same thing, except the chips were BBQ chips. So the same as the Mexican one with cheese, but it also had chili, pulled beef and BBQ sauce ... It was one of the best meals I had while being out. Rich and I had stopped for lunch the previous day while traveling at an Arbies ... and that sandwich sat poorly in my stomach as did Rich's. Rich said that his sandwich was very good.

After lunch we decided to go to a wine tour that was right in town. That was a pretty good idea especially because it was free - although they compelled you to buy wine afterward ... which really wasn't a problem since we had two more nights and had already finished the first bottle. They brought us through a total of four rooms. The first was the store where we started and ended the tour. The second was in a room full of kegs and vats where they stored the wine and port. She told us about a whole lot of stuff, but I was worried here because I didn't know how long the tour would be and I was already getting tired of standing. I looked around and saw all the old people and tried shaming ourselves, but had to let that go to concentrate on finding the next chair. The lady who was leading us gave the first presentation and the last, but inbetween in the 3rd room a guy presented.

He basically took us through the bottling stage. He made a joke that just like the town of Branson, bottling their wine was done one bottle at a time. The machine he used was big like an industrial strength boiler. There were various stages from filling the bottle to corking it, twist tying it, wrapping it in metalic paper and labeling it. I thought all that was pretty interesting for two reasons. The first obvious reason was that there was one chair in the room toward the back and no one had taken it so I grabbed it ... ok ... let's let some of that guilt go. How do all those old people stand for so long. There were about 20 people on the tour. The second part of the enjoyment was because I could see Rich really appreciating the bottling process. That's the kind of stuff he does - packaging - in his workshop and he enjoyed the thought of it being a one bottle at at time operation. I think they usually run the machine or activy about 16 hours a day to get it all through, but still one bottle at a time. Makes the whole thing very homey.

The last room we visited was the tasting room YOOHOO!!! They had a large U shaped bar in the middle of the room that was THE room. Well that an except there was one chair. You guessed it ... we stood a couple of rounds and then grabbed the chair and pulled it over to the end corner of the bar where Rich and I were standing. They had on the counter settings of two wine glasses each and the couples that were on the tour saddled up the bar. There was one child on the tour who was asked to stand back until he received a glass of welsch grape juice. One couple was carded, but made it though.

The next part was that we had to start sampling!!! There were about 10 brands tested and we only received a sip of each IF we'd pushed our glass forward. I might have taken about 7 types and Rich might have taken 5 types. We figured out early that we liked the dry white wine best. I hadn't realized before that dry wine was just wine without sugar. The lady continue to talk through and explain things about wine and the varieties that we were testing. I didn't really like her though I thought she had a lot of information and obviously knew her wines. She wasn't very personable though. She did have staged pieces of humor and after sampling that much wine ... no one was complaining.

They had left everyone a two-sided sheet with lists of the wines on it with a quantiy column of that which you might like to purchase. It had a general description of the wine and the cost per bottle though they were encouraging purchasing a 4 or 12 pack. Rich let me choose the wines, but he put a limit on getting just two. I thought that was nice and I did have two favorites. Because there were only 2 nights left ... I figured it worked out well.

After purchasing the wine we headed home because we had about an hour before the first show. Well, we had an hour and needed to test out that brand new wine. I figured personally, I'd like a nice buzz before watching the show. The first show we were going to was the Elvis impersonator. I forget his real name, but I thought out of a preference him to be the 2nd best show. He didn't try to be Elvis all the time because he took short moments of time to explain things that were happening in Elvis music history. But, for sure he dressed and sounded like Elvis. I loved the music ... I thought he was very good. Rich seemed to like him too. We learned a couple of other things during this first show. First you always get options to buy water before the show, you are shown the bathrooms, you are cramped into you seats, shows are approximately 2 hours and usually there is a rest period between those two hours and they like to sell and sign stuff afterward. Pshwoo. This is a lot of new knowledge for us.

I think part of why we liked the Elvis guy is that he made it feel as if we were listening to Elvis himself. Him and the music put us back into an era where everything was fresh and new. PLUS, he had a whole lot of moves! WooHOO. If it could be shaken he shook it. Yup yup ... gotta love Elvis! He also had a small band that played thoughout. There was a person on a organ synthesizer thing, a pianist, a guitarest, a female backup and a drummer. The female and the guitar player were married. Elvis guy did all but one song on his own. I think the star musician was the piano player he had some very great shows of abilty where Elvis guy would back up and highlight the guy was playing riffs that were pretty flashy and fantastic. It seemed they all got along pretty well and they seemed very natural in giving the show.

Hmm, I forgot something ... another thing these shows or locations try to do is get pictures of you and your guy and then they sell it to you. We decided not to get our picture taken with him, because for one I'm not really into that kind of thing, but as well, we'd gotten our picture taken at the resteraunt the night before. They had given us on 5x7 and one on a keyring. I liked that one, but I shouldn't say really "give" because everything is for sale for extra bucks.

That's one thing about Rich this weekend that I'd felt real special about. He took care of all expenses without complaint and did things like opening my door or letting us go ahead of him. I felt like I was being treated like a princess and made sure to thank him. It might have embarrassed him a little, but he deserved a lot more ravings. It was as if to say ... he was on vacation and he wanted to show me how vacations go and how we should work toward being able to be treated this well and special. I couldn't get over my love and admiration enough. I was extremely proud and happy to have him there as my partner. I thought this was especially true in all the variety of conversations we had with each other and how well together we seemed to match like gloves. There was a lot of hand holding and shoulder wrapping throughout and I was so pleased that he was my guy and I had someone this unique to be spending my time with. I love that guy to pieces!

Whoops small break ... the President is going to be speaking ... good time to take a break. I hope that you are ok with me going on like this. It was the other half of me needing to take the day off. You know how important it is to me to get things down right. I knew this was going to take a bit.

Hmm, that wasn't too impresive. He spoke for an entirety of 3 minutes ... maybe plus a few seconds. He got through only the practical parts ... acknowledged both candidates, conveyed the smooth transfer of power and his invitation for Barack to visit the Whitehouse very soon from now and stated that he and his wife appreciated the countries trust in them, but that afterward they would be headed back to Texas. That's really about it ... oh one more thing ... he noted the historical nature of the election eluding to civil rights. BUT, there wasn't anything more ... no flourish, no sense of happyness ... in general he sounded depressed and deflated. He has to know how unpopular he is AND it seemed that neither candidate really mentioned him in the speeches although we had known Bush had called to congratulate him.

We'll slip back into our vacation story. I think though today is or will be a very long post ... so if you want to take a sleep inbetween paragraphs, I would understand. Just that we have about 5 days of writing to slip into one day. AND, they WERE very special days.

After the first show, we did a couple of things ... we ate and we rested drinking one more glass of wine. I'm not sure though if I remember where we ate ... hmm, I know something ... ohhhh I got it. What we did was that Rich took us to a 50's style dessert place. We each had a piece of pie. I had coconut cream and Rich had pecan with caramel sauce dribbled on it. The event for the night was going to be dinner and a show combined. We'd gotten tickets to the Branson Belle Paddlewheel.

We got to the boat about 75 minutes before the boarding which is what we'd been told by the ticket people. There was a mid-size walk through the first part of their property between the boat and the parking. It was like the zoo at Christmas where everything was lit up. That was something about the trip too. Saturday the day we're talking about was on November 1rst and on that day all of Branson switches tact between their regular summer shows and the Christmas season. So in all the events we listened mostly to the normal parts but as well listened to parts of holiday performances. With the lights in this preceding area - all minds are being transferred to the holidays.

There were little storefronts - maybe 4-5 at the location we waited to board the boat. Fortunately we found a place to sit so were very happy. We didn't get to board first as there were people with special seats, but we were otherwise toward the front of the boarding. Again they took our picture and Rich purchased it later down the line, but after that I figured we had enough pictures. Sheesh lots of nickel and diming it. It was a long dock walk to the boat and after the pictures we veered to the right and found that we were 2 rows back from the stage. We'd been about 6 rows back with the Elvis show. It's tricky with seats getting in them and out of them with other people being packed in next to you along with needs for stretching and washrooms, but in general people tried to be considerate.

We had a good waiter who had an extra row - so three rows to serve. There were about 12 people per row. He did a very good job I thought. He was personalble and stopped to talk and he made sure that glasses were filled and each of the courses brought out promptly and dirty dishes or spaces taken care of. We gave him a $20 tip ... there was a little sign saying that he should get at least 15%. There was one interesting thing when they first started serving. It turned out that we got a pretty good MC who'd done the same job for 4 years. He announced between things that the salad would be served and then in showboat fashion they had entering all at the same time all the servers and they came in quickly with arm extended holding very large platters of salad. They criss-crossed each other and put out a good show. I liked that. Most the rest of the dinner was served without being so flashy though.

They served the whole dinner and dessert before the stage show began. It was the difference between the first hour and the second hour or maybe 2 1/2 hours. I think they were serving some kind of roast and chicken Kiev. There were mixed vegatables, potatoes and lemon ice/cake for dessert - plus, coffee and tea. After the dinner they gave everyone a chance to be up and around for a good amount of time. Rich and I walked up a couple of flights and we sat on a bench overlooking the dark scenery and sprinkly white lights of the city. The boat moved during the night about 12 miles and the temperature was very comfortable. The event itself started at 8 pm, so it was definitely dark throughout ... the next time it might be better to take an earlier trip to see the surrounding banks.

The show itself was probably the least favorite of all the shows, but that' not to say it was bad. It's just the other were that much better. There was four musicians on a very small stage, and beside the MC who sang one song, there were 4 other singers - 2 males and 2 females. They did a bunch of songs of various natures. More like show music and Christmas stuff. I didn't like the girls so much because they looked more showy than warm. The guys usually got the better of lines - more humorous and were more friendly-orientated. They had another show where there was a couple of Russians who did acrobatic type things and had some kind of props where they could be lifted in the air and above people. I didn't like that part so much either, because I never got over the feeling that people were putting on a show and that their hearts weren't fully into it. I liked the MC, but these other 2 acts were only average. The last act though made me laugh a lot.

The last guy was a comedian who'd been on all the late night shows. He had a total of 3 dogs, which he brought out at various times. The one dog - the first one was out the entire time and the other two split their time 2 to 1. The dog with the least time seemed to be the oldest and perhaps a little more tired as if she might be retired. She did well, just I felt a little bad for her. The act was that of a ventrilquist. Sorry on the spelling. He had some kind of massage like gadget that encouraged the trained dogs to open and shut their mouth as if they were talking ... he did a nice long set of routines and there was quite a bit of laughing ... he played the straight while the animals appeared to have the upper hand. Rich laughed so hard during this show that his eyes were teary. I'm glad that they had had this part ... it made the night.

That night we were glad though to be getting home. We were tired, but again not so tired I didn't want a full-bubbled bath and play time. WOOHOO!!! We really went hog-wild with the bubbles. We had used our shampoo and had first streamed them in and then we turned on the motor and we built within minutes a tall wall of bubbles. Rich let us play each time as long as we wanted - or more often the case until we fell asleep for a bit. Then he would come over to make sure we were helped out of the tub and he made us take a shower to wash off the cascade of bubbles. He had read in full view of the tub while sitting on the loveseat. I'm not sure if he had the TV on, but I'm thinking it was more quiet for him. I think one unspoken nice part about all this bubblemaking was that Rich got a quiet time to read and be by himself and so did we. Unless one was still sleeping in or using the washroom there isn't a lot of private space on trips. At the time I didn't realize this might be needed, but now I'm appreciative that we had the space. It seemed very natural.

The next morning was Sunday. Half our trip was over ... again Rich slept in and we were at the computer or TV, but for about 40 minutes we crawled back in bed with him and cuddled some sleep time. I really did enjoy going to bed with him each night ... the bed was big so there was a lot of space, and we had to be separated somewhat because I was still using the mask. But, in the mornings, I could lay down for a short amount of time without it ... and you just know throughout he was getting plenty of massages! It was a little harder waiting in line the second day because the room was so crowded. On the back of each breakfast we used the living room for a bit. We either sat and sipped coffee, or Rich would give me 20 minutes to use the computer. It turned out neither of our computers had worked on-line, so it was a chance to check mail.

After we got back to the room ... we took care of some housekeeping type details, but headed out. Rich had in mind that we check out the local river/lake and parks. That turned out to be a really nice deal too. We parked a couple blocks away from where we sat, but that's because Rich had in mind we go back toward the boat loading area. He was sure he didn't need to golf or fish while we were gone although we encouraged him to do so. We had gone back into the city to get some chips and drinks, but were otherwise both going to read. Rich though got into watching the boaters and fisherman and I ended up on the phone.

The first call was to Maury to talk to him and wish him a happy birthday. I think he was better toward the end of the call rather than the first. He wasn't real excited that we were on vacation and doing some fun things. I think he was kinda down because his father and them were getting together for his birthday and then instead his father left town to go to a wedding in Michigan. I think he, Lauren, and the girls had come up with other plans ... and he'd had a chance the day before to be out with his step brother, Alex and Joe, but it was still harder. We talked about gifts and such, but it wasn't a real long conversation.

After I got off the phone to him, I held onto the phone thinking that I'd like to give Thom, Joe and Alexis a quick call too. But, before I was able to locate a number Thom had called. We had a longer conversation because he was upset and needed someone to talk to. I am always honored when he thinks to talk to me and as earlier noted it went onto a conversation later with Alexis. I'm not going to go public with all of that, just that it was a hard conversation and I had to think quickly and clearly to be of any use to Thom. I think he still had problems after he got off the phone, but hopefully a little was worked through.

Joe we just left a message for. He didn't call back ... so that was that. Rich was with us for most of the conversations, but we only talked about them for a few moments. Neither of us mess in the others' kids problems too much, but he was considerate in helping me readjust to being on vacation.

For lunch we went to a place that was only average. It turned out to be a buffet. The chicken wasn't too bad, but there wasn't a lot of options. I did make use of their cobbler and ice cream. Mmmm...

After lunch we went home again for a bit and might have had another glass of wine. I think we watched TV for about 45 minutes before getting ready for the third show. The third show was the twelve tenors. It was a pretty good show - we ranked it our 3rd best though ... Their voices were great and they sang a pretty big variety of songs. There was one who had more star power than the others, but pretty much the equaled each other out. There were a few songs sang with smaller groups, but most of it was sung in the largest group. They had coordinated stage movements that were complex in that 12 people had to move together, but it wasn't really fancy dancing. They were singers more than dancers with the exception of the one. The songs were pretty good ... and there were a couple of show stoppers. We had a good time.

There was more notice in that we were more packed in this time. We were about 10 rows back in a long row of seats. For both of the Sunday shows though we ended up next to seats that nobody had shown up at ... so we spread out a little giving us some elbow room from the strangers next to us. At all the shows there were a majority of gray-haired folks. I guess they are most aligned in the age of music being sung and they had the most expendable time to be seeing shows. Coming in on a bus tour was of normal fair. Usually the entertainers made sure to appreciate out loud the tours, the folks who served in the military, and the folks having birthdays or anniversaries.

After the show ... I think we skipped meals. I know the last meal that night was after the 7:30 pm show. I think we went back to the B&B, but I'm not remembering this time. I know that most often when we got back to the room, we had to freshen up, use the washroom, adjust drinks and medicine, and catch up with the news. If we were mostly caught-up then Rich got to choose for a bit. But, I don't really remember what we were watching. I think though we left the B&B again about 6:45 for the 7:30 pm show. The last show was the Bobby Vinton show. This was the best show. I think the Elvis guy had a better presence in some ways - was more flashy, where Bobby Vinton was older and not as nimble. BUT, he did a lot of songs and moved quite a bit.

The Bobby Vinton show was probably the best in that it was a real star, not to say the others weren't, but he was known nationally and he wasn't imitating someone else. All the musicians threw in some music from other artists and Vinton wasn't any different. He introduced quite a few people into his show. Most memorable was that Tony Orlando was in the audience and they set it up so he could tell a funny good size story about the two of them. Vinton also introduced his manager and most importantly his family.

Vinton's wife was in the audience sitting with Orlando, but his children and in-law children were part of the show. He had two daughters - one who was more pronounced than the other, and he had two daughter-in-laws, and he had his son. All of these people sang and the son played guitar and directed the orchestra. The orchestra was the Glenn Miller Band. They were really really good. During the show we learned more and more about Vinton. For example before he was found to be a singer, he was a leader of a band. He'd started with his father when Vinton was 15 years old. He played the music for a lot of famous people at that time. During the show they had a piece showcasing his other musical abilities. He played without music very well piano, trombone, saxaphone, and clarinet. Wow ... he was really good.

I think that he has been off for quite a while from show giving and this was like a comeback tour. It was his first show and he was going to perform through December. Part of the show - giving him a break was that they had a session where for three songs the orchestra played on their own and the lead daughter entertained about 18-20 people coming up on stage. Each of the theatres we were seeing all this with were of different sizes and this crowd at Vinton's was by far the largest. People had a chance then to dance with a very famous band. We found that Vinton himself got better the more warmed up he was. He was still able to sound like he used to be and he had a very good range, but you could tell he was being put out in that there was quite a bit of sweating. I liked that he talked about how he was doing and how happy he was to be performing as he went along. It was like we were getting to know him better and better.

After the show got over it was like 9:30-10 pm so we went out to a late night dinner at a fancy hamburger place. Rich had a burger and we had a cheese sandwich and we split a milkshake before heading home to bed. There was always something to talk about as we discussed the various shows. Rich while gone talked very little about business and we talked about it even less. On the trip there there was a lot of catching up to do and we gave Rich time to talk to his sons, daughter, mother, and friends. He'd done the same for me at the park ... in waiting patiently for us to talk to our family.

By the time we woke up the last day - on Monday, we'd realized that we'd slept in all the way until 7:30 am. Each day it seemed we relaxed a little more without needing to be up early. Routines held out pretty normally and after breakfast Rich paid for the room and by the time we got back to the room, we were ready to pack the bags. The trip home seemed like it took no time at all. We stopped at one point to get a 1/2 subway sandwich that was finished after a while and we got a pizza after we got home. I think I've mentioned before that we typed on Rich computer on the way home, but there was other stuff too ... just I don't remember most of the trip. I do know that Rich was going to have us drive, but he ended doing the majority on his own.

Oh there was one thing. We had a headache leaving Branson and had taken medicine, so we came in and out of sleep for the first couple of hours. Fortunately ... that wore away.

I remember more getting home finally. There was a process of settling in. We had to say hello to the kitties, but we found they weren't too standoffish. They surely wanted their petting and appreciated the wet food we put down, but it seemed they must have know we were coming back. They didn't act too strangely, nor have they this morning. We also hooked up the computer and our little machines and got comfortable. Rich and us had picked up the pizza on the way home, but he had to go out an hour later to pick up the extra medicine. We'd called on the way home, but the lady said our doctor wouldn't reorder. That made absolutely no sense at all, so we called Dr. Marvin and happened to get him ... It was about 5 pm. He straightened it out for us ... and gave us reason to complain alongside Rich about the services of our Walgreens. Unfortunately, they are the only one's open closeby for 24 hours, so it's hard to change services - plus, they've got the drive through.

I think I gave up the TV to Rich sometime, and I think it was during that evening. He'd watched two hours of news while playing poker on his computer, and then I got tucked into bed. We were pretty beat and knew we were going to be out all day on Monday. At this point, I think we've gone full cycle, because we've already talked about Wednesday. It's about 11 am now. I don't know if I could fall asleep now, but I'm thinking that this would be the time to take a nap if we could. We should still think then about getting into the shower and maybe going to the gym. We need to pay that bill and stop by and pay the rent. We also should go through bills, but I'm not sure if we are getting that far. Some of this will depend when Rich is comin home. Last night he did his first basketball game and then later stopped for dinner with his son Chris.

I think too, I would like to try reading. I was too wound up all during the trip to focus on it seriously. I never got to reading in the car. If I were to put some grand conclusion on all of this above? I think it was the nicest vacation I'd ever been on because I was with the nicest person I ever knew. Rich is such the gentleman that he brings tears to my eyes. He's a one of a kind keeper and it thrills me entirely that he wants to live his life with me. I feel a little bad though because he seems to have picked up a cold. It just happened yesterday and got worse overnight. I'm hoping he'll come home earlier tonight and not work too hard, but I know that he'll think of laundry and shopping and all his work concerns. I think that's all what makes him a super bunny. He's just that gosh darn terrific.

Shoot Campbell Brown and Wolf Blitzer are going to do a show now on the transition to power. How am I going to sleep through that!?? Maybe I better post this though ... if one person is going to read this long expose ... it's going to be Vince - and we heard you Vince ... where is Ann? Maybe by now though your sorry you asked. We're sorry about the length, but now feel relieved for our first memories of it down. Take care!

posted by Ann Marie @ 11/05/2008 11:06:00 AM Comments: 1