On The Way To Mexico City
Saturday, Jun. 15, 2003

030615 In Flight To Mexico

Well, I'm on the flight from DFW to Mexico City. I've got Alison snoozing to my left and Paul King, also on our medical mission, snoozing on my right.

Everywhere we've been today has been hazy or foggy. We had to be at the church at five in the morning. Since Alison and I didn't want to leave our cars at church over the entire week, we borrowed Alison's mom's car on Saturday and showed up at her house with it at 4:45 this morning. I drove us to church and then after dropping us off, Alison's mom headed home.

Since I've never been out of the Estados Unidos before, and I'm not really sure what to expect on this trip, I'm in a rather heightened sense of awareness. That's a nice way to say I'm a little jittery and edgy. Now, I'm pleasant, mind you. But even normally, I�m not the best in a group situation with no clearly defined leader.

I suppose I'm a little doglike in that respect. If I'm not leading, and I rarely am, then I prefer that there be a leader that I can follow. It's the old relatives are in town and we can't figure out where to eat thing.

You know what I mean.

Ever have ten people, all trying to be polite, and no one is bold enough to pick a place to eat? Sometimes it can happen with fewer than that. Well, we're not that bad, but as a group, when new variables are presented, we move rather sluggily.

Yesterday was all preparation for today. In fact, this whole week has been a little differnet.

Sunday, Alison's birthday was called off because Tom was still miffed at me since I emailed and told him that the check to Virginia didn't get their before my trial for my Judgement. I was just giving hiim the news, but in my discouraged state, I wrote the nebulous and pouty phrase at the end "The rules have changed." Tom didn't know what this meant and it bugged him. He got mad at me since he thought I was saying something, and also thought that I was blaming him for the check not getting there.

But nope, I'm keenly aware of how deadbeat his insurance company is. After all, they didn't pay Virgina for that guardrail back in 1998 or about six months ago when VA tried to take my Drivers License away.

Well, that little bit o' drama was over by Monday when the check was logged in. The nice lady from VA who checked it in was good enough to call Alison and let her know that I was not officially off the hook. Yay!

Also on Monday, we went to church at six and packed boxes until around 8:30. Afterwhich, Alison and I were starving and we went to eat at Pepito's, on of the best Mexican restaurants in Huntsville.

Tuesday night was also not free. We did an early father's day and late birthday thing with my parents. We got Dad a "sharpshooter" shovel. I don't know any other name for that type of shovel and the label on the shovel didn't really say what kind it was. If you know what I'm talking about, good. If you don't, then go ask a construction worker.

We showed up at la casa de mi padres at five thirty. They'd picked Top of the River in Guntersville to go to. That's about an hour drive each way, but that allows us to get some bonding time in.

It seems that Aunt Ina, my favorite aunt, has gone a little odd after my Uncle Ken divorced her. She's angry when she sees him driving over to the house of his secretary, who he wants to be his girlfriend (but she has more sense), even though their not married. She also calls him to fix stuff in the house. She needs to get out of that town. She's already retired from her job recently. She's supposed to move down to the coastal city that her daughter, my cousin, Robin, lives in.

Well, it's a pleasant enough evening.

Wednesday, we had church, but before that we had to stamp teddy bears and little (worthless) pillows with indelible ink which said Iglesia de Cristo and the address of the church we'll be setting up the medical mission at. It was quick.

Around that time, in my few hours of spare time a day, I started playing Grand Theft Auto 3 again. I really like 3 better than Vice City, mostly due to the feel of the game and I like the story lines in 3 better.

Thursday, Alison had an awards banquet after hours but did managed to get home at around six thirty. After that, we went to Wal-Mart and spent around $70 on supplies for the week and whatnot.

Friday morning was great. I'd been waiting for it. Since the allotment for this week isnt' needed, I blew it on a Nintendo Gamecube with free Metroid Prime. I had already bought Alison Animal Crossing and given it to her as a birthday present. If they never have another game for the GC, I'll still be happy with just these two. Probably with just AC.

That afternoon on the way home from work, something very freaky happened. I like taking the cloverleaf from the Parkway to 565 at speed. My Miata can easily do it at 55 with just me in it. Well, I never get to make that turn at speed due to the traffic density. Well, that day, I had a free lane.

Or so it seemed until a Ford Taurus of all things came speeding from the traffic behind me. He was clearly headed to get in front of me before exiting. However, there is no way a Taurus could keep up with what I was going to do, so I wanted to stay in front.

A little gas and I'm staying even with him. He floors it and I realize that he's going to get in front of me if it kills both of us, so I let him.

He takes the corner too fast and goes into oversteer. He tries to correct and walls his car. After he limped his taurus with the crunchy left side over to the inside of the cloverleaf, I went on by. That big dummy.

That evening we had our birthday party for Alison over at her mom's place. We didn't stay long and didn't really play cards or anything. Tom and Brad, his son, did bring over the PS2 and we played the 2-player demo of War of the Monsters and then, as usual, it was Timesplitters 2 time.

I really like TS2 in concept, but since Tom and Brad have played tons of it, they are really good. I really suck. I'd need to play it quite a bit to get used to it.

Saturday morning, we ate at Atlanta Bread Company, which seems to be in some pejorative mode lately. Then we were off to Wal-Mart again. When we got back, Alison mowed 80% of the yard while I packed. Then I mowed the rest while she tried not to drop dead.

We slept very poorly last night. I would look at my watch every once in a while and the only hours I don't remember seeing were 10:30, 11:30, and 12:30.

At one point I dreamed that I was diseased with something that made red lines on my chest. Steve from work was there and he didn't want me to get on the plane (we were actually at some office building, not our work, so that doesn't make much sense). When Steve got a phone call, I zipped over and got checked in for the plane.

Zapato woke me by barfing up a hairball on the carpet. I wish she could to it quickly and quietly like the cats in the movies.

The alarm went off at 3:30. Alison told me to have it snooze for 10 more minutes. Then she got up and showered. I wrote a note about how to take care of the cats, even though Alison's mom and Leeann were shown the day before, but now Tom insists that he do it. There are only a few quirks about Zapato.

And now you're up to date.

While I was writing this I got a little bag of pretzels and Alison is now reading.

We're so high and it's so hazy that you can't see anything out the windows really.