I didn't get to sleep until about 4 or 5 a.m. Friday morning, so it was a bit jarring to be awakened at 8. I stretched it as far as I could, by closing my eyes while packing...sleeping standing up. But I was eventually alert enough to shove all of my belongings into various sized bags. (I filled my sleeping bag case full of shoes, haha.)
As I was filling one of my smaller bags with goodies (crap, really) I realized I hadn't put my new cell phone in my purse yet. I looked around for it and realized I had no clue where he had gone. I scoured the kitchen, then my bedroom, and lastly the bathroom. Where in the world could it have gone?! I know I had been sitting on the bathroom counter when Ryan called the night before...so I checked there again. Where had I gone after that?! Downstairs, on the computer (of course.) I checked all around the desk, in the cupboards, and listened for my sweet ringtone song while calling from the home line. BLAST! Still couldn't find it, so I left without it. (I later realized I had gone into Meridith's room and talked to her in there for about fifteen minutes, and probably had left my phone in there. The ringtone is easily muffled by the cushions in her overstuffed chair.)
I piled my huge suitcase in the back of the truck, as well as one of my smaller laptop carrier bags. I shoved my backpack (filled with PopTarts, Diet Coke, and various popcorn-like goodies), sleeping bag, purse, baseball cap, two pairs of sunglasses, a pair of shoes, a 12 pack of Diet Pepsi, as well as three books into the backseat of the truck's cab.
I shouldn't have been then surprised with the lack of legroom, but I was. I have freakishly long legs (ok, maybe not freakish...but annoyingly long at times) and my knees were pressed into the back of the drivers seat. If my father shifted positions I felt it through my entire lower half.
I started the drive by reading Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers (one of my favorite books, I'm a total forensic science nerd), but quickly fell asleep with my neck awkwardly kinked. I woke up a few hours later in absolute pain from the thigh down. I couldn't get my leg stretched into a less painful position, and wanted to scream. We stopped at a Wendys in whoknowswhere (maybe Nephi? Beaver?) and while my parents and Meridith went inside I stretched myself across the entire cab of the truck. Ahhhh, relief. Unfortunately my mother doesn't like to have my foot in her face, so I was forced to return all of my extremities to the backseat.
I fell back to sleep until we got to Cedar City (although I thought we were leaving Mesquite, but then again I also thought I was on an airplane and the man seated next to me brought his pet elephant...so I can't really be trusted for correct information in my barely conscious state.) After stopping in Cedar my sleep was erratic until we pulled into Las Vegas.
I played with Caroline, Emma Kate, and Luke for a while until I had to leave to my house to exchange my Utah things for my Mexico things. (Lighter clothing, less shoes.) I took Care to my house and she helped me pack. (For about three minutes, when she then decided to play on the treadmill and throw my aerobic ball around the house, knocking over DVD racks, until I was finished packing, hahaha.)
Luke is so sweet. Meridith and I sent him back into the bathroom to wash his hands and I realized he was crying. I called out to him and he cried harder and asked me to come help him. I walked over to the bathroom and I realized the door was locked, so I asked Luke to unlock it so I could help him. He cried harder and yelled that he just couldn't do it. I told him that I couldn't help him until he let me in... after a few seconds of struggling we got the door unlocked and opened. Little Lukie was standing near the sink with dripping wet hands and a dripping wet face. He wrapped his arms around me and said, "I tried to wash my hands and I couldn't get the door opened!" Awwww, so sweet. He had been struggling with the wet door handle for several minutes before he called out for help. Awwww, I love that little dude.
I finally finished Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (which I have restarted about seven times in the past few weeks.) So I started on The Last Crusade.
Which reminds me... The opening sequence of The Last Crusade, when Indiana is played by the late River Phoenix, is set in Utah in the early 1900's. After the opening fight scene, Indy runs home to his father. Dude, INDIANA JONES IS A UTAHN! Hahaha, I laughed for about four minutes solid when I came to this decision at 3 a.m.
I wandered into Luke's bedroom in the wee hours of the morning, to see if there was room in his large bed. (I usually end up falling asleep on the couch while watching TV, but I've been trying to break this habit.) I was a bit surprised to find both Meridith and Luke in Luke's bed, hahaha. Meridith looked up at me and asked, "What's up?" I replied, "Uhh, I don't know." hahaha. I laid on the floor near the bed and Mer tossed me the pillow Luke was no longer using.
I woke up with a sharp pain in my ribs (apparently my body doesn't like having all of my weight on my ribs on a hard floor, who woulda thunk?) so I climbed onto the now empty bed and slept for a few more minutes. Luke called out my name a few times, which woke me up. He had been looking for something in his closet when something fell on top of him and he was pinned against the wall. So cute.
Caroline asked if she could ride in the truck between Meridith and me, and everyone said yes. I love the little chica, but I just wasn't sure if I could squish in the already small truck cab with everyone. Thankfully Elizabeth invited me to ride with them.
I soon realized I had left my little pink bag on my bed. The pink bag that has all of my electronics in it! Two digital cameras, an iPod, all of the chargers and USB cables. Oh no!!! My gracious siblings promised to swing by my place on the way out of town, and I was able to get my bag as well as the things I'd gotten Deborah from IKEA.
I watched a few of the Mickey Mouse cartoons from the DVD Elizabeth bought for Luke, but I soon fell right to sleep. I woke up only long enough to switch positions and stretch out over the entire back seat. Lovely! I woke up when we stopped in Barstow, California, for lunch. Afterward I mostly read Stiff and listened to Emma Kate tell me how much time we had left until we reached our hotel. ("Now it is 64 minutes, Auntie! That is like an hour!"..."Now it is only 62 minutes, Auntie!"..."Are we almost there yet? Oh we have 58 minutes still."..."Auntie, only 43 minutes left!!!"..."Are we almost there yet?!")
When we got to the hotel I checked in (as I am the patriarch of my Susannah/Meridith/Caroline/Abigail family) and then wandered up to Elizabeth & Jayar's room. We went up to Richard & Suzanne's room, where we were soon joined by Deborah & Aaron. Everyone parted ways and I brought Caroline and Abigail back to our room with me.
I showered and dressed while the girls watched Evan Almighty on TV. Meridith came in and found that her bottle of sunblock had leaked all over her luggage, and especially into her digital camera. Oh no! I've dropped/broken/messed up enough cameras/iPods/phones to know how devastating of a feeling that is. I felt so bad for her.
While Meridith was walking to the beach with Deborah, Aaron, Hyrum, Ezra, Suzanne, and Ella, I tried to clean up her camera as well as I could. At one point it would not even display the pictures on the memory card! When I came to the decision to give Meridith my (mostly banged up, but still occasionally workable) red digital camera I finally got hers to open the lens and was able to wipe off the partially solidified lotion that was holding onto it. It has since refused to acknowledge our attempts to power it up. Grrrrr.
We collected Parker and wandered down to the swimming pool. Care, Abby, and Parker sat on the edge of the hot tub with their feet in the water, while I took pictures. My big brother Aaron came walking through the gate, followed by the rest of his family. Awesome. Meridith stood out on our balcony and asked if I had her camera, so I asked her to keep an eye on the girls while I came back up. After I gave Mer her camera and explained what I'd tried to do to it, and gave her my camera, the girls knocked on the door. Hahaha, with Meridith no longer keeping an eye on them from the balcony my brother Aaron suggested they go find their parents, haha. We looked out the window and saw that Elizabeth and her family had gone out to the pool as well. So we headed down there.
I soon found out that Clarke, Aliesha, Alexa, and Sophia had gone out there as well! Had I not just showered I would have totally gotten in the pool with everyone, but alas. Instead I sat near the edge with Aliesha and Elizabeth, taking pictures of everyone. When my camera proclaimed it had run out of memory I quickly began deleting all of the images I had already uploaded in preparation for this trip. I went into autopilot and glanced down to realize that I had accidentally pushed the up button twice, and was DELETING EVERY SINGLE IMAGE. Each one. My entire trip thus far. Ugh. I quickly pulled out my memory card and shoved it into a small pocket in my purse. I was so completely annoyed that I'd done this again. AGAIN! You'd think after going through the many strong emotions of losing half a gig of images I'd learn to watch what I'm doing while deleting, but apparently not. Ugh. I was so relieved to remember I have a second memory card tucked away, ready for use. I'll have to order and download some restoration software for the other one. (So. annoying.)
Caroline walked past me so I grabbed her and threw her in the pool, hahaha. Aaron reached for me, but I avoided his grasp. I followed Care around the pools edge, but she refused to acknowledge my apology, saying that I was lucky she knew how to swim! Hahaha. I looked up to see Aaron pulling Meridith closer and closer to the water. Mer was on the ground, grasping on to anything that could save her from Aaron. HAHAHAHAAA
Meridith: "He drew blood."
Susannah: "Where? There? That is not blood, it's just skin."
Meridith: "It went away."
Susannah: "'She turned me into a newt.' 'A newt?' 'I got better.'"
Abigail, Meridith, and I walked down the street to Subway for dinner, which was a lot of fun. Afterward I collected Caroline from Liz's hotel room and both she and Abigail were highly annoyed that we wanted them to *gasp* SLEEP TONIGHT!So Meridith and Abby are asleep in one bed and Caroline is laying across our bed, while I'm now watching Monty Python clips and playing on Meridith's PhotoBooth, hahaha.
Tomorrow we board the boat! I probably won't be able to update until we're back from Mexico. :(
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Random Memorable Quotes
Susannah: "Hey, Mer, want a popsicle?"
Meridith: "I don't really like things on sticks."
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Susannah: "What is with this severe lack of legroom?! Did you know that on JetBlue you can pay extra and get a seat with more legroom."
Meridith: "Did you?"
Susannah: "No, I got the Latino-In-My-Side seat."
Meridith: "How much did you pay for that?"
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Abigail: "You mean the attractive man with the big...ya know?
Susannah: "The what?"
Abigail: "The attractive man with the big thighs."
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Meridith: "If you're gonna be my roommate you're gonna have to deal."
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Susannah: "Could you just stop staring down my shirt then, Abs?"
Abigail: "It's gaping!"
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Abigail: "I'm drinking water, dang it!"
Susannah: "That's not all you're drinking."
Meridith: "Or smoking, for that matter."
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Abigail: "You're gaping again."
Susannah: "Your mouth is gaping."
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Caroline: "Push hard, like you're pulling the whiskers off a cat!"
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Subway promo sign: SOUPerior, SOUPendous, SOUP!
Susannah: "Soupendous?"
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