In Between Days

It's that time of the day in Florida when everything is glowing, hit by the orange sideways light of a long sunset. This happens almost every evening, but I haven't learned to avoid avoid the feeling that I should go outside and watch it. After all, Florida has such lovely sunsets, and I really shouldn't mope around the house when I could run down to the beach asap, camera in hand, and get a few shots. This is one of the downsides of living in Florida. My subconscious, fed on a history of childhood vacations here and the energy of the tourists that sometimes outnumber the residents, won't let me accept the scenery as ordinary or let me concentrate on my real life. I'm not on total vacation, I have things to do and sleep to catch up on, but its hard to silence the voice that says, "Go out and play while you can, you're in the lovely tropics, the sun is setting, hurry now, hurry!"

Bah humbug, I say.

Liisa left yesterday. Our road trip was fantastic. We ate Rocky Mountain Oysters in Manitou Springs, saw eight hundred year old Native American cliff dwellings, went on a prairie dog safari, had elk, buffalo, and coyotes step feet from the car, played with snow in the alpine tundra, drove on the highway to the sky, nearly stepped on a rattlesnake at the Red Rocks Amphitheater, went horseback riding for nine long hours on silver-dusted mountain trails in the Roosevelt National Forest, got old time photos taken at Wall Drug Store, temporarily adopted some parents in Deadwood, saw Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial, drove through the otherworldly Badlands, learned to rock climb and even scaled a 180 foot granite dome, saw Mitchell's Corn Palace and the Falls of Sioux Falls, had a terrific and classy meal in Omaha, Nebraska, took a boat through a thunderstorm that gave way just in time to reveal a fiery and brilliant sunset, explored every inch of the new Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, and more. Best of all, I got to show Liisa my own places, people, and things, as she showed me hers two years ago.

It took me a day and something of a conscious effort to remember that I could now put things in the shotgun seat in the Forester. I wasn't used to it being empty. More than that, I wasn't, and still am not quite, used to being alone. One of the last things we did was trade CDs - I gave her the two I had in the car, which included her new Dixie Chicks favorites. She gave me a CD her sister had burned for us, labeled Suomi. I played it all the way to Maxine's house, and back home, and it turned the backdrop of Spanish moss and palm trees into a dream-scape.

Scotland is only a few days away now and I'm not ready for it yet. I need sleep, some tech work, sleep, an apartment in Spain, sleep, time to do laundry and finish packing, sleep... I should just be able to catch up before I leave, but without much time to spare. Today I woke up early at Maxine's and drove to the beaches to go to Writing Club one last time before I leave, and immediately afterward I had a dentist appointment - tomorrow I take Tidbit to the vet and have one last lunch with my mom. The long and painful mini-laptop-battery saga is almost over, though. They agreed to replace it free of charge (!! :D), but I panicked and took it back for one more night to make sure I have all the files backed up, so I'll get the new one tomorrow. I resumed looking for apartments with renewed vigor. There are new ads up since I left for Missouri, so I've made a new list and started sending emails. If I don't have any leads by the time I get to Scotland, I'll call from there with cheaper European rates and Lucia standing by.

And this is a big one: I got my passport back, with a Spanish VISA in it. ^^ So I'm clear to fly...