Ethan’s Journey

 The excitement I felt this morning as I was getting ready to go to the zoo was equivalent to a small child going to Disneyland. I put SPF 50 on every square inch of my body. I am so pale sometimes Paul has to poke me with a stick to see if I am still alive. Arriving at the zoo had a huge WOW factor. Every detail was calculated in a perfect way. From the way the concrete was stamped with tropical leaves, to the jagged wooded fences and the ambient noises true to the habitat that we were looking at. It was 85 and hot but there was a lot of tree cover and areas of shade which made the heat far more bearable. The white rhino tour was really well done. We got a behind the scenes tour that included many other animals as well. It was really neat to be able to touch the rhino and feel the toughness of her skin but the move your hand down to one of her skin folds. In between the skin folds the skin was a different texture. It was soft, dry and smooth.  We then headed over to the manatee critic

 “See you soon friend” I texted to Sarah this morning at 3:45 am. We had an early start to the airport. Paul drove me to the airport and dropped me off.   The first flight to Washington DC was delightful. At the last minute they changed Sarah’s seat. I took a leap of faith and hoped no one was sitting next to her. I figured if someone was sitting there I would just move. No one sat there so I won that round with life. Sarah and I got to sit next to each other. Yay! We flew to Washington DC, switched planes and were split up. I had a window seat. As I approached my row, I saw that the two people were sitting in the aisle and middle seat. I had the window seat. I apologized for making them move so that I could sit down. The man in the aisle stood up. The lady in the middle stayed put and was telling me just to shimmy by her. “Mam, if I “shimmy” by….you may end up pregnant.” There was no way, to gracefully do that without full body contact. We arrived in Orlando and rented a car to drive

 Things are all set for an early start tomorrow. Paul gets bonus points because he is taking me to the airport at 4:30-ish am. Avery and I did a short visit to Goodwill to drop some things off. Of course we did venture in and Avery found some good loot! It was a beautiful day. I love these pretty days. I look forward to more of them.

 Cinco de Mayo. Yay! A reason to drink a margarita. The restaurant we went to ran out of margaritas which is sub par. A corona with lime was a good second choice. Work crept by today as I wound down to my vacation. So slow! Ugh! We had a fun evening out celebrating my several days off in a row coming up. Paul, myself and Avery went out to a restaurant with a group. Paul ended the evening in this position. Not a bad way to end cinco de Mayo. I ended it with a couple dogs napping on me. That was the best. Had to set my alarm to make sure I got a seat next to My Sarah on the plane to Florida.

Today I did a little light reading about a man named Nicholas Winton. He rescued 669 Jewish children from the Holocaust. The question asked was “How are you quietly and humbly helping humanity?”. Woah. 6:30 am….no coffee…that was a tough question. It made me feel pretty crappy too. I am not helping at all! My immediate thought was “nothing”. I haven’t done anything substantial that offered such a huge opportunity for my fellow humans. Some of them I don’t even want to help. Some I can’t because they don’t help themselves. Some people I would like to help….but it is into a grave…and I don’t think THAT was the intention of the article. It sort of set a negative tone for my morning. Ugh! I should be doing more. Is there something grandiose I can do that I don’t have to put too much time into (because that doesn’t defeat the purpose)?  What is everyone else working on or doing? Are they thinking about this too? Work kept me distracted for the most part, but I kept gravitating back to that

 Poor Phineas won’t be asked to sleep in our bed anymore. He sleeps like a drunk toddler and he has gas. At one point he gave Paul a love puff right to the face that made Paul choke. Nothing like waking up choking on hot fart air from a sound sleep.  The very audible blast of warm air hit Paul’s face and then the dispersement of smell was like long smelly fingers clawing it’s way up our noses. Barf. Of course he was allowed to stay after that but was eventually removed around 3:45 am to go fart in his own bed. Paul and I went to donate blood tonight after dinner. The questions they ask make me feel very boring. Have I had sex with a prostitute recently? Have I taken IV drugs recently? They check my arms for signs of drug use. All important things to know before they use that blood for someone sick. When we arrived home, Ethan shared a paranormal show that he has been watching that was quite fascinating. We watched it and I get so excited over these shows. Now Ethan and I want to visit

Ethan took Jiminy to bed again last night. I love that.  I took care of re-newing my passport. Woo hoo! I will be all set for my worldly travels next year. Cross that off my adult chore list. Avery has a couple tests this week so she has been studying and telling me about how she feels. Next week is going to be the hard tests. She will do great. Even if she didn’t, I would still think she is great. Maybe I am biased (doubt it) but I sorta like her. Tonight she came in my room to share a fun little story and it made me laugh out loud. What a gift! Paul worked all day. He came home and was disappointed when he went to grab a piece of chicken and realized it was still frozen. We ate and then he proceeded to continue working on our stairs project. He has fine craftsmanship. It’s coming along. Phineas my old man dog was quite whiney today. He needed to be close and even then he was whining. I can tune it out for the most part but it can get overwhelming. We picked up a script for a new anxi