Aaahh, yes.... In appoximately 36 hours I'll be scrambling to do last minute packing before we head off to the airport and then to sunny (I hope) Las Vegas. This is the week I've been waiting for for the past 11 months. Anyone who's spoken to me in the past 2 weeks knows that I'm nearly stupid with excitement. Still a little nervous though about the being-in-a-plane thing, as this will only be my third plane ride ever, but I seem to be okay once we get in the air, at least until it comes time to land. I'd also sort of be a bit more pleased if they'd downgrade that terror alert thing back down to "yellow," but I guess I ought to feel safer knowing that the security will be beefed-up. More than terrorists, I worry about whether it will make a difference that my brother's plane ticket will say "Thumbelina Doe" rather than "Thumbelina Doe, Jr." as his ID reads (Hence, "TJ" and no his real name isn't "Thumbelina"). And also what if I forget to take my tweezers or nail file out of my make-up bag? Aah, the hassles, but then I guess the tweezers thing would happen independent of an orange terror alert level. Going back to terrorists, we are on a chartered flight. I guess the hoops that one needs to jump through are a bit less of a hassle on a charter flight than on a regular commercial flight. I'm sure that all of the FAA or TSA or whatever security checks are in place but as my travel agent said, if we'd have made Jeff's reservations under "Jeff" instead of "Jeffrey" to match his driver's license, it'd just be a matter of calling up the charter service and changing the name. In a big airline we'd have had to cancel "Jeff's" reservation and then make a whole new one for "Jeffrey." Things like that just make me wonder a bit, though I'm sure everything will be fine.

Nikki and Kyle were good enough to humor me and come over for a very brief, late-announced pre-New Year's party on New Year's Eve, as was my brother and Tara. I was actually most impressed that everyone was able to come, considering that it wasn't put together until about 24 hours beforehand. It turns out to be better though that we weren't trying for an all-out New Year's Eve bash because TJ had other plans, Kyle came down with a stomach flu and Jeff and I were only able to stay awake until about 12:05. I felt a little guilty because I had given Kelly the impression that we might stop by for her housewarming/New Year's Eve party, but I also told her that we really had no idea what we'd end up doing. Then I find out that the party animal in Jeff talked him into buying a fruit tray and a vegetable tray for our own little get together, plus we were just SOOOO tired. A late party of any sort wasn't going to be a good idea no matter how we sliced it.

Awww damn... I totally forgot about what I intended to write about today. What I wanted to say (in a nutshell) is that 2003 was a heck of a good year for me and Jeff. I didn't want to put that down in black and white until the year had officially ended just in case there was any time left for an unforseen crisis. 2003 was perhaps the best year I've had so far in my adult life and quite possibly the best one I've had since I was about 8 years old. I'm not going to make any predictions for 2004 or beyond, because I've learned better than to tempt fate or challenge the powers that be. All I am going to do is plead desperately with the universe... Please for the love of God.... Please, let us have more years like this past one was. Please let this calm and this peace stay with us for a while. Please let this be more than just the eye of the storm. I'd never say that we're due for some good years or that anything is owed to us. That's stupid and I know better than to say something like that. Just please, please, please... Let this be the beginning of a beautiful and happy and peaceful life together for Jeff and me and any little duckings that the fates might be good enough to let us have down the road.

I am so very grateful for 2003.

Stay Tuned...

Before And After

Would I get a discount if I birthed the baby in the store? - 5/16/05
The end is near? - 5/13/05
The progession of me - 5/10/05
Cleaning update - 5/7/05
Pre-nesting - 5/7/05