ida-ho-ho-ho

ida-ho-ho-ho

Well, I'm back from Idaho. To be honest, I was reluctant to go. As much as I love traveling, I hate the process of traveling and Christmas - in my opinion - should be spent safely at home overeating and fighting with your family. But there was plenty of lounging (I invested in my first pair of sweatpants! Ugh?!) and too much overeating. I'm thinking of starting a strict regimen of steamed vegetables and rice... as soon as I finish eating all of my Christmas chocolates.


Also, I discovered several advantages that Idaho has over Kansas:

1. White Christmases (!)
2. The Potato Museum (!!!)
3. Proximity to Yellowstone:

Amazing! We drove around Yellowstone in these old snow mobile-type vehicles (I think their name started with a B?) from Quebec - ours was named Cygnet! I'd been to Yellowstone before during the summer, but winter was obviously a completely different experience.

(the vehicles that start with "B)

So I still prefer Kansas. (Though saying you prefer Kansas over anything sounds strange... like saying you prefer iceberg lettuce over everything else at the salad bar.)

Still, Idaho was lovely. Lots of movies watched (Indiana Jones!) and books read (finally finished The Midnight Children!) and chocolates eaten. And now that I have a functioning camera, I can take all sorts of pictures! Photo OVERLOAD!

However, I spent half of it having panic attacks about my passport, of which I had failed to locate before leaving. Half of my dreams while in Idaho consisted of me being denied entry and being shipped to a slave labor camp in Burma. Thankfully, after much rummaging this morning, I located it amidst the mess of things I've brought home from Lawrence.


THANK.




GOD.


Anyway, I've started the process of packing, which actually just means trying on all of my clothes. So, not really.

But I dug a suitcase out of the basement. I'm starting out big and then slowly downsizing until I've reached optimal minimalism.

(It has a flower and "Paris" on it - how European!)

Oh! And I also got a backpack for backpacking (duh) this summer. I'm borrowing it from the people we stayed with and it's perfect. I'll keep you updated about packing as I go along (fascinating!).