This Spring, the Ultimate Journey Begins

Last spring, I was pretty excited about spending half the summer in Nicaragua volunteering, eating delicious food, making new friends, having revelations about my travel self, and doing cool things. All of the above was accomplished and I feel pretty lucky to have had such an experience.

This spring, I can top that journey. Guaranteed.

It's gonna be quite the epic trip. It will cost tons of money, I won't be booking a return ticket, and it's completely uncharted territory for me.

Umm....I am gonna have a baby.

True story.

I have known since early September, but I have been much too busy attempting to wrap my head around the fact that I will be someone's mother to tell anybody anything.

You see, I have never been the girl who spent her free hours daydreaming of her wedding, her Prince Charming, and the babies they would have together. Quite the opposite, actually. I spent most of my time delaying all of those things and instead, traipsing off to lands near and far and daydreaming of those, instead. To compound matters, the level of repulsion I feel for the acts of childbirth and breastfeeding (yes, this blog just went there) is nearly absurd. I might have a phobia or something. Please don't write and tell me how beautiful they are, because quite simply, they are not. I am fully aware that both are necessary and life-giving, but to me, both are barbaric, savage and well, just plain gross.

So what finally pushed me over the edge into pregnancy and impending motherhood?

Let's be honest and tell the truth.  When the idea of spending half the summer in Nicaragua occurred to me, I delicately broached the subject with the husband, who, didn't bat an eyelash when responding: "I would be pretty OK with you going if when you came back we could start trying to have a kid."

So yeah, I exchanged my uterus for summertime in Nicaragua.  Don't judge me. Besides, I needed something to force me to make the plunge. I am 31 now, I would have probably hemmed and hawed over this for as long as humanly possible if I didn't have motivation. I went, I saw, I did, I returned, and now, NOW, the remaining part of the bargain is in full swing. When May comes, I will be a mother.

But nothing could prepare me for the moment when I looked at the plus signs on the multiple pregnancy tests and stared, in shock.  Because really, nothing can prep you for that moment. Shock is where I remained for two days. On the third day, I cried the ugly cry, convinced my life was over and that I would never travel again and my poor passport would die a tortuous death.  On the fourth day, I decided that I was angry and called a best friend and let loose a string of  profanity that would push both of my living and healthy grandmothers much closer to the grave. On the fifth day, I woke up feel utterly peaceful and named him. (I am convinced it's a boy).

Since that fifth morning, I am still adjusting. I am no longer cursing at my friends (God bless them) or in shock, but this is big for me and thank God it takes babies 40 weeks to develop. I need every single one of those weeks. I swing from peaceful acceptance, to resigned acceptance, convinced that my traveling days are over, that I will become irrelevant, that I will cease to be me and enjoy the things that make me "me."

Some people have the maternal glow, the joyous anticipation, and ecstasy of knowing they will soon be a parent.

But not everybody does, and I think that's OK.

But here is what I do have: an amazing, supportive, and loving husband who couldn't be happier that we are taking this plunge together. I am beyond blessed to have him. I have a wonderful network of supportive family and friends who get me, and who say "Claire, it's ok to feel the way you do." I also have the blessing of being someone's mother. Although, to be clear, it is that very thing that terrifies me, almost as much as doing the things necessary to deliver a baby.

I have five months to find a more pleasant, dignified, and ladylike method of childbirth.

And you know what? I will travel again. Just not in the third trimester. 

The Winner, a Tiny Rant, and then I'll Leave You Hanging.

I really need to get in gear on multiple fronts in my life. Not the least of which is to refrain from my leaving all 33 of my readers hanging when it comes to announcing the winner of giveaways. Well, wait no longer. It is American Thanksgiving weekend, the turkey has been consumed (with more coming this evening), the cleaning has been done, the giant television purchased at an ultra-low price during Black Friday shopping, and now, just mere moments ago, the "husband picking the winner's name out of a Ziploc bag" has just been completed.

I should devote an entire post to Black Friday madness in America. Ridiculous. Some people in the world are starving and fighting over rice. Not here. My greedy fellow citizens fight over DVD players and the DVDs that go with them. I love my country, but THIS, this, I cannot condone, identify with, or find humorous. I feel a rant coming on, so I will end it now.

Oh, did you want to know the winner?!

DC Dana, COME ON DOWN! 

She writes her own blog, and she lives in, you guessed it, Washington D.C. Anyway, for those of you who didn't win, never fear. You can still visit Reese over at her blog and, conveniently, she has just posted about all the new jewelry she has designed just in time for the holidays. And, she is running a special right now, so get on over there and scope it out!

And finally, you *might* want to check back here Monday for a Giant. Huge. Life-changing. blog post.

Sometimes, Travel Rears Back and Slaps you in the Face

Today's title is a little dramatic I suppose. But it's kinda how I felt last weekend. 

Theme parks close for the season. Christmas tree farms close for the season. Pools close for the season.
Apparently the southern half of my state also closes for the season.

Hmmmmpfffff.

Last weekend, a good friend and I set off for Part II of the Best of West Virginia Road Trip. The friend in question was the "I"m so stressed about turning 30 that I will take all of my friends to Istanbul, Turkey to drown my sorrows celebrate" and Part I was a journey I never wrote about.  (For some reason, I was too snobby to write about anything other than foreign countries when I first started writing this blog. I hadn't yet accepted the idea of adventures in my own backyard).

As I mentioned before, I grew up here, but did my best to ensure that I never saw much of the state, preferring the big cities and exotic locales of places like.........Philadelphia. But the first time I journeyed around the state, I immediately fell in love with my home and became a true fan of the Wild and Wonderful-the good, the bad, and the ugly. Anyway, this post is not about that trip. This post is about the sequel trip.

We set a weekend to go, made a loose itinerary, and then promptly made no plans, made no phone calls, nor did any research until the morning of departure.

And by morning of departure, I mean, we did not start researching vital details until approximately 30 minutes after pulling out of the driveway and headed in a westerly direction. I live in the far extreme eastern part of the state, just under an hour from Washington D.C. We were headed to the far western part of the state, clear over to the blasted Ohio River and Blennerhasset Island State Park.

The very same Blennerhasset Island State Park that had just closed for the season a mere four days earlier.

Since when do state parks close? Since Halloween, apparently. But that wasn't the only place that calls it quits post scary holidays.

It was at that moment that my friend tossed the Crackberry to me, accompanied by a gasp of dismay that did not make me feel particularly hopeful that Blennerhasset was to be our only bump in the road. On the contrary.  Our next stop-the exhibition coal mine-the ONE THING I had my heart and soul set on?

Closed for the season, a mere four days earlier.

I could feel a fit, as in hissy, coming on.

And so this is how the entire weekend went. Plan C, D, and E materialized, and then, just as quickly, vaporized.
The TransAllegheny Lunatic Asylum? You guessed it. Closed for the season, a mere four days earlier.
The glass-blowing demonstration in Weston, WV? Last one in  30 minutes, when we were still an hour away.
The Blenko Glass factory in Milton, WV? No tours on Sundays. We were there on a Sunday.
The Tex-Mex restaurant that my friend promised was well worth a stop? Not just closed for the season......noooooo..... closed permanently. FOREVER.

Various power and water outages at both overnight locations merely added insult to injury. 

Hawk's Nest State Park

SERIOUSLY?!!!

After the third travel slap in the face, all I could do was laugh. And find Plan F, G, and H.

We managed to salvage the weekend. Sulking is acceptable for only five minutes. Then it's time to buck up, and find the adventure in the misadventure. Enjoy a few pics of what we did manage to find to keep ourselves occupied.

It seems like I only have issues when traveling in my own state. Remember when I came home without any of my luggage? 

Pt. Pleasant Mothman pose. Creepiest little town in all of WV. Ever seen "The Mothman Prophecies?"

In case I wasn't sure where to pose in the glass museum

Our beautiful state capitol-Charleston, WV

Dressed and ready to kill.......something.

Hillbilly Hot Dogs. As featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network. The bus is the dining room.

Oh, the People You'll Meet!

Ok, so I wrote this yesterday, while it was actually October

I am livin' the dream today. Today, while it is still October, on a Monday, I am relaxing at home when I should be at school. That is because an unexpected pre-Halloween snowstorm has knocked out my school's power and therefore, the children cannot learn. There has not been an October snowstorm since 1979, before I was even born. Thank you gods of snow and electricity for waiting 32 more years.  Now, let me assure you, I truly love my job. Love it. But after spending six years as a substitute teacher and agonizing over every snow day or holiday because it meant less money to cover my bills, I feel I have earned the right to be gleeful, joyous, even ecstatic, about days off.

Besides, it gives me time to catch up on your blogs, as well as my own. I know you've missed me. Don't deny it.

I have been thinking for a while now about the people I have "met" while blogging whose stories, while different from my own, are so very similar. We all love to see the world and simply can't get enough of the adventure that is travel.  So this post is dedicated to all of you reading this (insert mushy air hug here), but I want to highlight one of you in particular. And I am giving something away so let's move on past the mushiness and get down to business. Oh, and the book from my first giveaway actually made it to Kalyan  in India, thereby restoring my faith in the United States Postal Service. My faith was previously lost when a random postal worker STOLE some books out of a package sent to me from Arizona. Yes, I said STOLE.

So since I started blogging three years ago, I have encountered people who have traveled to Antarctica, or have settled down in Moldova, and  still others who recount their adventures from Washington D.C. There have been regular commenters, and there have been random commenters. I love them all.  I thoroughly enjoy the glimpses of your life on the other side of the world, or just down the road from me. Shivya from A Shooting Star keeps me informed and wanting more from India, while Kristina seems to never have a dull Vagablond moment wherever she is (Turkey right now). I am waiting for Scott to take the Shirt off his Backpack and depart on a RTW in a few months, and I found a book I must buy from Fearful Adventurer. Pretty cool huh? I have never even met any of you people.

Love these!

But there is one fellow blogger whose been a constant here and you can find her comment on nearly every one of my posts. She just might get the award for Most Faithful Reader Whom I Have Never Met (Yet!). She has been there since just a few posts after my First Post Ever and has been around ever since. We started emailing after I bought some jewelry from her new shop and I feel like our "blendship" (blog friendship!) was settled. If I am ever in Italy, Reese will be the first person I contact.  Anyway, if you have never stumbled over Rambles with Reese or her pretty cool new shop on Etsy, you should. If fact, I am giving you the chance today. For my birthday, she sent me an online gift certificate worth $15 USD to her shop.  Since I already own some of her goodness, I am passing it on to one of you. (She said this was ok-and no, I don't normally give away people's gifts to me) All you need to do is leave me a comment and share a link to another blogger you like/appreciate/love/follow and you will be entered. I am always looking to read new material, plus it always helps when you spread the love. Guys, don't be afraid to enter this. Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Diwali is just around the corner.

Reese makes everything herself and she does a pretty darn good job. I ordered a bracelet and earrings, and I love them. She ships it fast and her prices are extremely reasonable. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I like to......spend as little money as possible. There. We will just leave that at that. If she was doing this when I got married, my entire bridal party would have been outfitted in a sweet, sweet style. The pieces are simple, classy, colorful.  Plus, it's also really fun to get packages from other countries that have lots of stamps on them. I can't deny it.

So what are you waiting for? Go and browse. Send Reese some love-she's a pretty nice person.  If you don't win, dry those tears and click "purchase" anyway. Reese will thank you, and so will I.

You have until Monday 11/7 at 5 p.m  EST to enter. The winner will be chosen via the trusty "husband picking your name out of a Ziploc bag" method. 

PS-Apparently Diwali just passed. Must brush up on my cultural holidays. Thanks to Payal for mentioning this.