Apparently, it's not just me

eb, jules, the RevGals, and myself, among many others that I can't think of off-hand, have all been extraordinarily thrown by the immediate vanishing of time. Which explains why I'm here at my parent's house with a pair of shoes that I had to borrow from my sister, because white sneakers won't exactly go with the black dress pants I brought with me to wear for various holiday stuff. But, since I ended up not really packing until the 45 minutes or so between when I got home from school and my friend and her brother showed up, I suppose things like leaving the shoes on the floor was to be expected. And, of course, the room didn't get cleaned -- while I did get my desk cleared off Monday night (since I wanted to avoid grading), it's probably pointless, since I'll just unpack everything back onto the desk when I return, and re-pile all the former desk piles that temporarily relocated to the bed. So, instead of bringing the very-helpful-and-rather-necessary shoes with me, I chose to bring my schoolbag FULL of ungraded papers .... which will probably never even get opened, thereby causing more stress upon my return, guilt at lack of accomplishment, and aggravation for dragging this stuff 600 miles for no reason.

The drive went pretty well, though, all things considered. Took forever to get out of Loovul, and the pitch-blackness of 6:30 PM didn't bode well for an easy-awake-time trip, but for the most part it was OK. Some snow (and therefore slightly gucky roads) in the mountains, but we survived with a 3 AM arrival .... may our joining the masses on the roads Sunday go as smoothly!

So now I'm here in the suburban DC home of my childhood, where I made the mistake of assuming that nieces and nephews would be expeditioning to see Harry Potter this week (and that I could join them) -- foolish me, they've all already seen it twice. And, there's the added oddness of the fact that I decided to give The Book to everyone for Christmas, so by this time tomorrow, I will probably have had at least a few local blips on my sitestats that won't be coming from me. And thus the shift from full anonymity begins. I'm sure in time I won't feel so odd, but in the meantime ....

So I'll just close with a shout-out to all my blogland buddies. Who knows when I'll be on these next couple days -- although I will try to put up my Weekend Wonderings for whoever happens to stop by. But then, with the 9+hour drive on Sunday to go right back into teaching Monday ... it might be a little longer before I return.

So, until then .... have fun, eat lots of turkey (or tofurky, if that's more your style), and, as eb explains, "don't use the carving knife on a loved one." Give lots of thanks, travel safe, and I'll catch y'all in a few. Peace out.