Sad Day. Last Day.

Sigh. And so the vacation comes to an end. My camera broke while I was navigating that Great Barrier Reef, so pictures will have to wait, but I can safely say that when I woke up this morning (to enjoy the Australian early morning one last time), what was I greeted with but a sunrise over the ocean? (I swear, the view from Hotel Liam and Katherine's place is in-credible when it's sunny out!)

It certainly didn't help this whole "I want to move here" bit. Although I've awoken about 7 hours before my 1:50 PM flight, I'm tempted to just conveniently miss my flight back to the US. I. Simply. Love it. Here.

But alas, you know me. Darn practicality getting in the way of things. You know I'll still be two hours early for my flight, to allow sufficient time to check in and do some airport browsing (people watching, last minute gift shopping, etc.) before I have to finally hop on board my flight to LA.

Sigh. I feel like this post is going to be inundated with sighs. Australia is just one of those countries that people HAVE to visit. Although I wish it weren't so far away, I think that element does add a degree of intrigue to the country. Sure, I haven't visited ALL too many places in the world, but I know what I like and I. Love. Australia. The country is so BIG... by nature, there is just inherently so much to see and do here. And no two cities are seemingly the same (unlike, well, pretty much all of Western Europe)- I think that was one of my favorite parts of this trip... seeing just how unique each city I visited was.

In no particular order, here are a list of my "favorites" from this two week adventure:

Favorite accommodations: Hotel Liam and Katherine*!!

Favorite activity in general: homemade pizza night w/ Kathy, Liam and Hazel!

Favorite city visited: Melbourne

Favorite adventure activity: skydiving

Favorite tour group: Ocean Freedom (for the day at the Great Barrier Reef- this tour group was AMAZING and I can't stop raving about them to any/everyone!!)

Favorite Australian word/slang: "mossie" (for mosquito)... SO CUTE when you combine it with the Australian accent

Here are the things I could've done without on my trip:

1. My sunburn- I've never really gotten sunburned before, so I actually thought this could be a fascinating, exciting experience. I mean, the burn, the peel, the tan that comes with it... it's like a whole new world to me. Yeah, no. It kind of blows. I got pretty darn burned during my day out on the Great Barrier Reef... yeah, yeah, yeah- our guides kept on harping about this whole sunscreen business, but I've never had to use sunscreen before! Why start now? All I have to say is... big mistake. I look disgusting- one Indian lobster if you will.

2. My broken camera- so thankfully, this happened towards the end of my day on the Great Barrier Reef and my last day of "real" travelling, so I think the pictures are still preserved. But still. I could have done without this whole adventure to a sand island for one or two pictures... thanks to the choppy waters we had to navigate through to walk the last few meters to the island itself and the wind blowing sand every which way possible, I can safely say my camera is ruined. *Cross your fingers that the pictures are preserved!!*

3. That's it!

All in all, I have to say... although there are quite a few other places in the world that I still want to explore, I wouldn't mind coming back to Australia for another visit. There are still just so many things to do, places to see, and the like that you just can't cram into a two-week vacation time... darn all those European travellers I met, who were traipsing about the country for 5-6 week stints. DARN THEM.

In any event! Haha- clearly, no bitterness. But at the end of it all, I'm actually not COMPLETELY dreading returning to life in the US. While I do love me my vacation, I also do love routine/habit, so I'm looking forward to returning to my normal, everyday life in Chicago.

Ha. Did you like how I really tried to put a positive spin on my return back to the US? What can I say? I did TRY!

See you all if (oops, when) I return!

*Hotel Liam and Katherine accommodations were of the five-star variety. I would highly recommend you give them a ring if you need a place to stay... hahah. Just kidding. I love you guys!! Thanks so, so, so much for letting me stay with you while I was in Sydney!! Seriously, let's make this whole neighbors thing happen when you guys move to the US!!

Christie. Skydiving. That's all.

Guess who went skydiving today...?!

Seriously, the things I do for a blog post. Because aside from the blog post, there was little to no real motivation for me to go barrelling out of a plane. I hate heights, have never had an interest in skydiving before and... well, I hate heights! Isn't that enough??

Apparently not. Despite how much I am NOT designed for adventurous activity (what can I say? I scare easily), I was surprisingly quite calm during all the buildup to the actual skydive itself. It all started a couple of days ago, when I went a little crazy at the Information kiosk when I arrived in Cairns and just booked out like a $1,000 worth of activities for the week. Oops- so I got a little excited! So I've never really appreciated nature in the past? Not gonna stop me from exploring the rain forest here! So I can't really swim, am terrified of open waters where I can't see the bottom, and really get uneasy at the thought of what can bite me underwater? Oh well, not gonna stop me from booking snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, apparently. Aaand, so what if I hate the feeling of my stomach dropping on roller coasters and literally am terrified of heights? Clearly, the only natural thing to do is book a skydiving adventure of all things.

Oh well... I guess this is what happens when you go to the other side of the world. Lots of things change, apparently.

I was surprisingly quite calm, cool and collected from the booking through this morning. No freakout moments, no nightmares the night before, nothing. To be honest, the weather has been kind of crummy in Cairns (rainy, rainy, rainy) for the past couple of days, so I think I was subconsciously just figuring the skydive was going to be cancelled. At which point... oh darn!

This morning, when I awoke to the same gray skies and looming clouds, I can't say I was all TOO disappointed at the prospect that the skydive was likely going to be cancelled due to weather. The group picked me up and began the hour's drive out to the skydive start point... and the rain was POURING. Again, can't say I was all too disappointed (first time in my life that I wasn't too disappointed with rain).

I don't know WHAT happened though. Literally, about 20 minutes from our skydive spot, the clouds started to clear and... well, not only did it stop raining but it actually became BRILLIANTLY sunny. Well...

Well, WTF. Mother Nature and her ways... I will never understand.

In any event, I still wasn't all too nervous, despite the looming prospect that this plummet (excuse me, "jump") was actually going to be happening. I think it helped that there was like a TEN-YEAR-OLD in my group... I mean, if HE can do it, well, so can I. Right? Right.

Riiight.

I was introduced to my tandem teacher (or whatever they are called) right away, who turned out to be the friendliest thing ever. She put me right at ease and got me all nicely harnessed. I actually felt quite safe! I think another reason why I wasn't all too nervous about the plummet ("jump"! Sorry!!) was because if you are jumping tandem with someone, you don't really have to do anything. I mean, you don't have to jump- the tandem teacher does. You don't have to hold specific poses or anything- I mean... you SHOULD (they clearly show you the Superman pose you should be holding), but if you blank out and don't hold the pose, I don't really think it's any big deal (speaking as an expert, clearly). You don't have to pull the parachute - your tandem teacher does. And only when you're landing, you have to make sure you have your knees and feet up... and the tandem teacher does the rest.

Since I like to think I take instruction fairly well (obedience is my middle name, after all), I figured this was going to be easy peasy. Even the tiny propeller plane didn't really faze me (and normally, I think I would be terrified of tiny propeller planes... Cuba ring a bell, Jess? :))! I was quite proud of how calm I was. I mean, I was actually even taking the time to enjoy the view as we took off!

As we were well on our way, I was admiring the view and thinking "Wow! This isn't so bad at all! 14,000 feet isn't nearly as high as I was expecting!". It was literally at this moment that my tandem teacher was like "Yes, it is very pretty isn't it? We're at about 5,000 feet now... this is where we'll be when we finally end our freefall and release the parachute".

Lord. We still had another 10,000 feet to ascend before we dumped ourselves outta the plane?? And that, my friends, is when the panic started to set in. I mean, I actually have little to no fear of death (I'm kind of excited to see what it's like after this life! Haha), but STILL. You can't help but face a slight degree of panic when you look out and see... well, how much SPACE is between you and... well, LAND.

For some reason, once panic starts setting in, the activities started to quickly propel forward. First of all, these tandem teachers have these damn video cameras to document this whole sordid experience. At the start, I was ALL about it... you know me and that camera! I LOVE IT!! You better believe I was flashing that smile right and LEFT at the start of this experience and during the flight up. But once we started cresting higher and higher (thus elevating my panic levels higher and higher), I swear that camera became such a nuisance. My darn tandem teacher kept shoving it in my face, asking me how I was doing, how much I was loving the view, etc. etc. I swear, there was one point when I wanted to shove that camera outta my teacher's hand... I mean, who wants their moments of full-fledged panic to be fully and completely documented for all the world to see??

I guess this is the problem with being a people pleaser. Despite the panic, despite the newly realized dread of plummeting outta the plane... well, anytime my tandem teacher asked me how I was doing (and trust me, she asked quite a few times), what would I respond with? "Oh, just fine! This is going to be fun!" *Flash smile for the camera*

Trust me. As much as I love that camera, I am a big fat fail as an actress. This will CLEARLY come across in the video as my responses are more along the lines of *Big gulp* "Oh, just fine! This is going to be fun!" *Flash smile (if smile=grimace) for the camera*.

Well, what was I supposed to do?? Sigh. This is all so very ridiculous, superficial, etc. etc. But oh well. Apparently, that's me.

In any event, before I knew it, they'd shoveled that plane door on open so that people could start barrelling out of the plane. GOD! I don't know how people do this!! I couldn't even LOOK as the other people ahead of me started dumping their bodies out the plane door. I mean, seriously- I think I was more terrified for them than I was for my OWN jump at this point. I mean... there was a whole family on-board!! WHAT were they thinking?? I mean, that ten-year-old boy...

But I digress. At the end of it all, I just COULDN'T watch as the people were shovelling themselves out of the plane. It physically pained me. But before I knew it, my tandem teacher was nudging me along to the edge of the plane. And that, my friends, is when the terror reached new heights. I mean, I knew I'd have to sit at the plane door (with my legs hanging down) for a second, as my tandem teacher and I got all prepared (really, I say this like it was a team effort... it was all her, let's be real here).

But, holy mother of all things good and pure. "Sitting at the plane door" was, quite frankly, one of the more terrifying moments of my life. I honestly could NOT look down. And that's when legitimate thoughts of puking/fainting/dying did actually start entering my head.

But oh well. Before I could start dwelling on THAT for much longer, my tandem teacher... well, I'm not gonna lie. She just kind of shovelled us on outta that plane.

And oh my lord. I couldn't even look for the first 2-3 seconds. I just couldn't face the thought of plummeting to my death. I just couldn't. Surprisingly enough, however, my stomach stopped dropping after those first 2-3 seconds... and then it was just freefalling for a whole minute (and for those who don't think that sounds like a long time... in skydiving land, it so is). And man, I really did feel superhuman.

It. Was. Incredible.

The views, the feeling of the air/clouds surrounding you, the freefalling feeling itself... the fact that I was able to remember and maintain the pose they instructed us to use... trust me, as they were giving us these instructions, I just tucked those in the back of my mind, resting under the assumption that I would blank out anyway and just continue to fully rely on my tandem teacher to force my arms up into the Superman look. But no! I was able to actually think clearly and do it on my own! Imagine that!!

Anyway, after the minute plummet (I mean... freefall), my tandem teacher released the parachute so we could just float along our merry way back to the surface of the earth. The views from that high up were IN-CREDIBLE! I really didn't want the adventure to end.

And you better believe she was recording every minute of it. I swear, once my panic subsided after those first 2-3 seconds of jumping out of the plane, you better believe I was back to hamming it up for the camera. Smile was flashing right and LEFT. Also, since she kept on prompting me for how I was feeling, I actually DID start trying to think of really strong adjectives to use to describe the awesomeness I was feeling as I was floating through the sky. But, sadly, at the end of the day, it is me and the best I could come up with was my old tried and true "Christie-ism":

"O. M. G."

God, I swear. i really need to diversify my Christie-isms. Sigh. Oh well. All in all, I have to say this was one of the most INCREDIBLE experiences of my life to-date. After floating lackadaisically for a good 5-6 minutes, we ended up landing safe and sound (kind of with a hard THUMP, but whatever). And that was that! Can you believe it? I certainly couldn't. I just wanted to fly and fly and fly...

Till next time, I guess!

PS- I'm at the mercy of Internet cafes right now, so pictures and/or the video will simply have to wait to be posted. I know you are all on the edge of your seat. But all in good time, my friends :)

Happiness is...

Let's just cut right to the chase. All you need to know about Sydney is that it is happiness... just plain happiness.

Happiness is...

Perfect. Views.

View after view after view of the Blue Mountains...

Across the world reunions with some best friends... aaaand feeling like I'm going to fall off the edge of the mountain... trust me, I wouldn't put it past the two of us.

Did I mention the views?

Tiny kangaroos!

Snakes?! Sure, I guess that can be happiness... I guess. (I swear, the things I do for a blog post...)

Blue skies... blue water... perfect days.

Let's take a look at the skyline just one more time...

Okay, I lied. That was just one more view!

Perfect coastlines...

Across the world reunions!!

Sigh. I don't want to leave.

Oh well. My next options aren't too shabby... off to Melbourne for the next few days! Cross your fingers for some more sunshiney goodness!

Half the Fun is Getting There, Right?

Wellll... I made it! Hello from Sydney!! (How Oprah do I sound?!?!?)

I actually made it into Sydney earlier than expected this morning... how often does THAT happen?! I took it as a good omen, if you will. The travel experience was... well, at least it's done. All I have to say is... to all my friends/coworkers who have flight status and use it for international flights... congratulations.

I'm certainly not bitter in the least. But let me back up.

So, my journey began by being stuck in some godawful traffic on the way to O'Hare. God bless Chicago (I do kind of miss it already!). In any event, I was trying to get to O'Hare early enough to catch a 5:50 PM flight, rather than the 7:30 PM flight I'd originally booked, given the super tight connection (40 minutes!!) I would have in LA. However, I get to the airport and holy mother! International terminal lines galore... and the line to try to get flights switched was ri-diculous (and the attendant informed me that I wouldn't even make it in time to get the 5:50 PM flight as it was). Sigh. Oh well. I wasn't all too concerned... I mean, it would suck if I missed my connection, but it is what it is right?

In any event, I get through security and start heading to my gate... when I spot a United customer service desk. Since I had hours left to kill, I figured it wouldn't hurt just to do a friendly little inquiry about switching my flight... I mean, there WAS no line after all. And... well, God bless United. For a mere $75 change fee, they were able to switch me right on up to the 5:50 PM flight... no wait, no hassle, nothing! Sweet. Success.

So, off I headed to LA. Once in LA, I figured now would be a good time to eat something considering I had yet to eat anything all day long (what?! I had a busy day!). So, what did I choose?

Here's the thing. If you know me, you know I never eat McDonald's (or much of any fast food, really). The idea kind of just grosses me out. But I was S-T-A-R-V-I-N-G. And call me nostalgic, but I figured I might as well get my American eating in while I could.

Shortly after scarfing down what can only be described as chemically processed variations of questionable "meat" (read: chicken nuggets), our flight started boarding. My heart went a little a'flutter in anticipation... I mean, I wasn't exactly looking forward to this longass flight, but my vacation was finally starting!!

Well, this anticipation lasted all of about five minutes. Because once I boarded and realized the space I had to deal with for the next 12-13 hours... well, come on. You'd be a little disconcerted too. To give you an idea of what the space issues were looking like, here is me around hour 7 (please disregard the hair, the glasses... well, everything except for the space restrictions which is what this picture was primarily intended to convey):

Trust me, it was an experience. To say the least. I mean, literally- there was NO. ROOM. I guess that kind of explains why my entire BODY is aching today, but whatever.

No problem! Because at the end of it all... I'm here! I'm in Sydney! As soon as we landed, I was all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready and waiting to begin my Australian journey... really take in all things authentically Australian. So imagine my surprise when, upon exiting customs, one of the first things that was there to greet me was...

Lord. You really can't go anywhere without good ol' America following along, now can you? Sigh. In any event, shortly after making it through customs, I was greeted by one of my high school best friends... the one and only Katherine! (No last names for Internet security purposes! You are welcome :)) It was all very delightful, really.

Unfortunately, it was super rainy when we stepped outside the airport, but after making it back to Kathy and Liam's apartment, I felt as good as new (to an extent, at least)! Today's been fairly low-key... just some coffeetime downtown...

The starts of some sightseeing (to be completed in more detail later in the week)...

And now... some cozy teatime before more reunions this evening!

Till next time! (I know you guys are waiting on the edge of your seats, really.) Happy St. Patty's Day, btw!

Australia, Here I Come!! Ready or Not...

Huzzah! The day is finally here- off to Australia I go for two full weeks of fun, sun and relaxation!

I think the fun is probably the only part of that first statement that will hold true. From what I've heard, the weather in Australia (Sydney, at least) has been rainy at best. As far as relaxation... well, I think it'll (definitely) be more relaxing that life in America (I mean, isn't that what Australia is known for? Relaxation, merriment, all things good and right in the world??), but considering I have yet to really plan for anything, we'll see how relaxing this trip will actually be.

Sure, I have my flights and lodging in my various cities all nicely booked, but I have absolutely nothing booked in terms of tours, skydiving festivities, snorkeling adventures (trust me, even with a life vest, snorkeling will be an adventure given my swimming capabilities... or lack thereof), etc. Oh well... half the fun is the anticipation, right?

Riiight. In any event, I can't wait! I only started getting really excited for the trip when I awoke this morning. I flew in to Chicago last night, literally dreading coming back to my apartment, because I knew what was awaiting me... laundry, cleaning, packing, administrative duties, and tying up some loose ends with work. Kind of a long list of things to look forward to at 7:30 PM the night before you are leaving for the other side of the world.

So what did I do? As soon as I walked in my apartment, put my stuff down... and napped.

In all fairness, I had a KILLER headache throughout the day yesterday, that only progressively worsened on my flight back to Chicago, so I simply had to take care of that. Believe me, when it comes to headaches, I am the world's biggest wimp. After gorging on some Advil (okay, two capsules, as indicated), I HAD to nap in order to help the headache alleviation process along. Obviously.

And it worked! Imagine that! I woke up after about an hour and felt as good as new... well, kind of. But much better than I had prior to the grand nap- and that's all that really matters! In any event, I ended up getting to my laundry last night, but... well, that's about it. What? I was tired!

So, I definitely went to bed last night still feeling incredibly unprepared for my across the world trip... I did, after all, had yet to BEGIN packing.

I assumed that I would dread waking up this morning, given the annoying task of packing (and CLEANING! MAN, was my place a disaster or WHAT?!) looming ahead of me. But surprisingly enough, nope! I woke up with literal butterflies in my stomach... I'm (FINALLY) so excited!! Thank goodness... I was wondering when the whole excitement feeling was going to start kicking in. I mean, over the past week or so, what I've been feeling has been anything but excitement (I have no idea why... trust me, it was all very perplexing). But thankfully, no worries now! The natural excitement factor is back in full SWING!!!

AND! Imagine that, this morning actually went as smoothly as could be expected (that's not to say that it actually WENT smoothly, but whatever). I finished cleaning AND packing* AND went to the doctor AND finished up some work stuff... and now, I'm just waiting for my beloved Maria Thomas to arrive for her weekend in Chicago before I finally head off to O'Hare!

Not like the adventure or suspense really stops here. I mean, you're looking at a girl who took it upon herself to book her flights such that she has a mere 40 minute connection in LA to catch her Sydney flight. Awesome. In any event, we'll see how this goes- fingers crossed that I can just board an earlier flight from O'Hare... fingers. crossed.

Catch you all when I get to the land down under! You better believe I'll be blogging while down there!

*Special thanks to Urmi for her handy dandy backpack! Lifesaver.

High Tea at the Drake

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

It's been a while since I've caught up with a few close co-workers, so I was quite delighted when one of them decided to arrange an afternoon of high tea at the Drake.

Fancy, right?!?! I'd heard about high tea at the Drake before but, quite frankly, it's never been something that I have really given a second thought to. I don't really know why, because it totally sounds like it would be right up my alley... a total cozy, cultural experience, if you will.

I love going to the Drake hotel. Have you ever been? It's one of Chicago's historical landmarks... one of the grandest, most majestic hotels I've ever seen. In short, it's a (highly recommended) experience. High tea at the Drake? Also a (highly recommended) experience. I couldn't believe how packed it was when the four of us headed in on Saturday, late afternoon.

I seriously could NOT stop taking it all in as we were guided to our little table- everything was just so tastefully elegant and SO not what is standard in my life, let's be honest here. I mean, how often do YOU do activities/events that involve a harpist, of all things?


Once we got settled at our table, we got right down to business. Gossip and tea. In that order. (Well, what? The waiter coming to get our tea orders was a little slow... we had to fill the time with some good old-fashioned gossip!) All of us decided to really go outside our comfort zone and order... the Bombay chai tea. It was actually quite entertaining- what else can you expect from three Indian girls and our token white friend? :)

But MAN, that TEA!


So DELICIOUS!! I was highly impressed, actually. But the tea was just the start of it... soon after our cups were filled, our waiter graced us with... well, this:


Tier after tier of, well, just plain deliciousness. Such a fine balance of savory with sweet... and all of it was just so darn tasty. From scones to tartlets to mini-sandwiches... let's just say that the four of us were Happy (yes, with a capital H).


The four of us couldn't even finish this entire thing- there was just too darn much food and, quite frankly, we were quickly getting full from the limitless tea they were offering us (I can't believe how frequently they would refill each of our little teapots with hot water)!

Overall, I would rate this experience as one big, fat A+. Thanks for organizing this, ladies! As always, a delightful reunion. Can't wait for the next one!

Another Twitter Success Story... c/o the Mayor of Ithaca

Oh, Twitter, it's so good to be back.

The past couple of months have been so crazy, that I've had little to no time (especially during the week) for some of my favorite things in life... yes, including Twitter. That's right, Twitter's totally made it onto the shortlist of "some of my favorite things in life". I mean, you have to admit, Twitter's been pretty good to me in the past.

As per usual, I was traveling for work this week. Typically, while on the road, our team doesn't get back to our hotel rooms until about 9 or 10 PM (since most of the time, there's some sort of a team event going on after work). This past Wednesday just happened to be slightly anomalous in nature- there was a freak snowstorm going through Connecticut, so most people in the office were leaving earlier than normal in order to minimize the risk of the quickly worsening road conditions. In any event... sweet success! I actually made it back to my hotel room at a reasonable hour and was able to catch up on some good old-fashioned television-watching... and discover Rock Center on NBC.

Have you seen this show?? I mean, I've heard of the show before, but I've never actually sat down to watch it... a little surprising considering how much I love all those "news magazine-y" types of shows (i.e. 20/20, Dateline, Nightline, etc.). In any event, I was so pleased with how Rock Center was panning out... I mean, you can't really go wrong with Brian Williams (and I just realized, Meredith Vieira is a special correspondent?!?!? Yep- you've just 100% won me over!).

Anyway, one of the stories on Rock Center this week involved a profile of Ithaca's newest mayor... who just happens to be the ripe old age of 24. Isn't that crazy?!?! I was immediately intrigued. And rightly so- Mayor Svante Myrick's story is incredible. From growing up homeless to graduating from Cornell to, oh yeah, becoming Ithaca's mayor at the age of 24... it's clear that this guy has a very bright future ahead of him. But that's really not what struck me the most... sure, he sounds good on paper, but so do like 75% of the other Ivy League politicians out there.

Nope- what really sticks out about Svante is how GENUINE and humble he is. Of all the things that he interviewed about, the one thing that has stuck with me is the amount of respect and credit that he gives his mom and grandparents in raising him (during a very difficult childhood). Let's be honest here... heartstring-tugger.

Anyway, I was so pleased with my first viewing of Rock Center (in no small part thanks to stories like this), that I decided to take it upon myself to get right on Twitter and let those Rock Center folks know that they just won over a new fan... gotta spread that sunshine and happiness at any and all life's turns, right? Right.

And would you look at that? Shortly after tweeting them, Rock Center totally FAVORITED my Tweet!! (I don't really know what that means, but I got that notification in my Inbox and, quite frankly, was on cloud NINE!) Not only that, but a supervising producer of NBC primetime news totally mentioned me on Twitter as well!! You'd think that would be the end of it, right?

Well, it wasn't. Because, that's right, the next day... Mayor Svante Myrick replied to my Tweet!!! As if that weren't enough... umm, that's right. He started FOLLOWING me on Twitter as well!!!! lkjlkjlkfajdlkfajdslkjfdslkj!!!! Not gonna lie, it was a little hard to concentrate at work that day as I was seeing those notifications coming through my Inbox... I mean, YOU try maintaining neutral expression as you read (and re-read... and re-read) your Gmail notification that the mayor of Ithaca is now following you on Twitter. alkjfdslksajflkjdslkfj!!!! Come on!! I know I have NO poker face whatsoever, but even people with the BEST poker faces would have trouble containing their excitement with such monumental news, right?! RIGHT?! Right.

(Watch Svante Myrick actually read this post and proceed to unfollow me. I guess I should be a bit more concerned at the prospect of potentially being unfollowed, but, quite frankly, as this thought just crossed my mind, I got a little more distracted by the thought that... oh. my. Lord. What if he actually DID read this BLOG POST?!?!?!?!? Dare I DREAM!)

Sigh... chalk it up to yet ANOTHER Twitter success story. #happiness doesn't even begin to describe it. All I can say is... lesson LEARNED- never again will Twitter fall to the wayside, no matter how crazy life gets. Priorities and all that.