not all who wander are lost…but we are rather crazy :)

well, it is done.

i succeeded in travelling to the opposite tip of the country, working and playing hard all summer, and then getting back in one piece…and without too much drama to speak of.

70 hours of driving.

i think it will be a very very long time before i do that again. (please note that i have done that drive *3* times in 10 months now. i must be a madwoman!)

it was interesting to take 10 days to make the drive back, but in truth, anything less that 2 weeks feels pretty rushed and exhausting. the big perk of making it a bit slower than the way up was getting to see so much of david’s family. i now know what winona, MN looks like when its *not* under feet of that cold white stuff!

our time in chicago was fun. a whole day of laziness and a whole day of trouncing around the city. we got to see angella, david’s good friend from high school and she got us into all the museums for free 🙂 that was very very nice!

our last stop before the 18 hour drive home was champaign and i *finally* got to meet becky and phil. i must say that was one of the most enjoyable evenings i have had in a long time. so enjoyable, in fact, that i, the bedtime lame-ass, was up until 3:30am!

the drive home was pleasantly uneventful. we had some shitty rain in georgia in the middle of the night, but my trooper of a boy drove most of that.

so at 8am on sunday, we drive into tampa.

and i am beginning to feel anxiety about whether the house faired well over the summer. after all, it *is* the vile south, and the humidity all summer is wretched. i had visions of rainforest like weather inside my humble home…even *with* the air conditioning left at 90.

well, indeed, when we got home, all was not as well as i might have hoped. the living room was hit pretty hard with a film of dust and the beginnings of mildew.

at that moment, i began to flip out. even with the exhaustion of an 18 hour drive and a strong desire to SLEEEEEEEEP, i instantly became mairi and sprung into Compulsive Cleaning Mode. and anyone who knows me and my tolerance for clutter and dirt knows how shocking it must have looked for me to react in such a way.

fortunately, once i started, it became obvious that it wasnt *nearly* as bad as it could have been. everything was wiping off fairly easily and we caught it before the spores got really ugly. the smell was easily banished with the glory of lysol.

david quietly watched me become the Rabid Cleaner, and he concentrated on bringing in the essentials from the car. and then, being the perfectly amazing and understanding boy that he is, he asked the magic question:

“what can i do to help you feel better about this so you can get some sleep?”

<DEEP SIGH>

god bless him. i knew all too well that this was my flip-out and that he wanted nothing to do with it…and yet he was willing to do what he could before he passed out. so i asked him to do a few things, which he did without complaint. and then he made up the bed (the bedroom was thankfully safe and only a little dusty) and he laid down.

and after about an hour of crazy cleaning, i realized i was starting to stand around numbly and feel nothing but overwhelmed. so i crawled into bed and slept for about 5 hours.

and when i woke up, things werent nearly as bad as they seemed 🙂 isnt that always the case?

so last night was all about wrangling our stuff into neater piles and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

i feel better. by the end of the week, this craziness will be over and it will be back to a nice stable routine…for 2 whole months 🙂 and then we move again.

crazy, i tell you!