My Barbie paper is completed and emailed off to my professor! Hurrah! Although I don’t think it’s my best work, the important thing is that it’s complete, and turned in. Now I have the chance to turn to Laramie Project, start looking into what I need for the video work I will be doing for the show.

It’s so nice to find a broadband access point when travelling. It’s almost like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! It’s been about three weeks since experiencing the joy of broadband, and I’m finally connected again, if only for a few hours. Nirvana!

I’m hanging out at Kevin’s house this evening, and he’s got a cable modem, so I’m able to upload pictures and movies! Hurrah! I’ll be caught up again on my picture struggle, and just have to put them in galleries, thanks to Jim’s wonderful mtGallery 0.1b app he developed for me. I guess that makes me *drumroll* The Beta-Tester! *oooh*

I didn’t realize how much I would miss broadband until I had to rely on dialup. EEEK! In a nutshell: Broadband=Good, Dialup=Bad. Any Questions?

So as I wait for my pictures and movies to load in a matter of minutes rather than hours (a total of 14 hours in Atlanta waiting for uploads) I can check software updates and email. Hurrah! I feel like a junkie who’s just scored a hit of pure stuff……. *grin* And so I’m off to enjoy romping in the land of broadband while I have a chance……

We’re trying to do too much in one trip. The trip’s too long. Next time, two weeks (unless we go to Europe) and one location. I vote for the beach somewhere. Hilton Head is tops on my list right now. I can’t imagine how much cooler Key West will be!

It’s about time Sheridan and I both lived up to our astrological signs. After all, I’m a Cancer, the Crab, The Moon, a strong Water sign; Sheridan is an Aquarius, The Water Bearer….. I think we’re both missing our calling NOT living on a beach somewhere. I wonder if there’s a decent drama department somewhere near here? (Hilton Head, that is) I could teach at the beach. Gee, I sound like Dr. Seuss! *gryn* Now where is the real estate section of this paper? (The Island Packet, it’s called!)

Right now I’m beginning to think that this long trip may not have been such a great idea after all. It’s way too stressful, when it’s supposed to be relaxing. So far Sheridan has broken her DVD player, spilled so many drinks in the car that I’ve banned drinking in the backseat, poked holes through the vinyl upholstery with toothpicks, had a meltdown in the middle of the hall at the UGA drama department (in front of my prospective advisor!) because it was time to go to lunch and she was busy playing Legos, forgotten things twice at hotels that I’ve had to double back to get, complained that there’s nothing to do, complained that there’s too much to do, stayed up until after eleven then complained that I sent her to bed, turned the TV on at 6:30 am at full volume, or rolled around in the bed (we have to share a king in Atlanta) talking, kicking, poking me, until I kicked her out of bed with a swat on the bottom.

I’m just so frustrated because nothing’s ever good enough, nothing’s ever “enough” enough, no matter what I do. She has been so disrespectful and selfish, and thinks she can make it all better by saying “I love you Mommy”…. not even an “I’m sorry.” Am I being too harsh? Or should I be able to expect her to not deliberately destroy things, or to take better care of the things she has? I just look at all the money I’m spending on this trip, and all she does is complain. Why bother? Why not just stay home and not spend the money? She wouldn’t complain any more than she is now, and I’d get my work done.

*sigh* I’ve already told her that the next trip I take will not include her. I’ve threatened, swatted bottoms, taken things away…. What else can I do? This is driving me crazy. Vacations are supposed to be *fun*, but I’m beginning to regret going on this one. It will be a looooooong time before we do this again.

Atlanta overwhelms me. It’s too big. I don’t want to drive down to the center of town to look for SciTrek and the Children’s Museum because I’m afraid of the traffic. Sheridan wants to go, but I just don’t think I’m up to it. Am I crazy?

If it were just me, I wouldn’t think twice about hopping in the car and just driving around until I found something interesting, take about a week and explore a bit at a time, stopping, doubling back, driving in circles, until I felt more comfortable about the area. But I can’t do that with Sheridan in the car. She’s distracting, and not very patient. So I don’t feel free to just explore with no pressure, like I would really need to do in somewhere as daunting as Atlanta Metro.

The Atlanta Metro Area has a population of just over 4 million! Up to now the biggest city I’ve actually driven around in is Toledo, with around half a million. No wonder it intimidates me. Well, if we move to Athens, I’ll have plenty of time to get used to Atlanta. But not on this trip. *grin*

Do you remember those shift-a-piece puzzles where you have to move the little car from one side of the board to the other amid all the other cars and trucks and stuff? Combine that with the scene from Clueless where Cher ends up on the Santa Monica Freeway by mistake, and you have an idea of how I felt driving around Atlanta during rush hour. *Breathe* I would tell myself. *Just Breathe*…

At one point I remember heading South on I-85 from Athens to Atlanta, which is six lanes plus a carpool lane each direction, *trying* to go about the same speed as the cars around me (over the speed limit, of course, but not as bad as Toledo) and coming up behind some schmuck going about 40! Like the Red Sea before Moses, cars were parting to each side of this bozo, going around him, and because I hesitated, I ended up stuck behind him! I was sure I was going to get rear-ended! *sigh* But I figure I got used to Toledo, I’ll get used to Atlanta.

Toledo drivers really suprised me when I first moved up there. I mean, I was used to driving in Tennessee, where the speed limit is 70 but everyone drives about 74. In NW Ohio, the speed limit is 65, but everyone does 80! A car length between you and the guy in front at that speed is a guarantee that two cars will try to get between you! Of course, Toledo is only an hour south of Detroit, and everyone knows about Michigan Drivers!

f it ain’t one thing, it’s another…. Just as Jim got the mtGallery software put together, my digital camera died! I found an Office Depot and decided on a Nikon Coolpix 2100 for a very reasonable price. So, new camera in hand, I headed off into Chattanooga….

I’m playing with the camera, figuring out what all it will do, so I have lots of pictures to upload. Unfortunately some of them will suck. I have to go through about 400 pix and work on getting them online, a project I plan on working on while I’m in Atlanta.

Well, now that I have *at least* 47 8×10 colored glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to use as evidence against us (Thank you Arlo Guthrie)….

I am finding that my previously chosen method of photo album management (namely, a separate page for each one) is rapidly becoming unwieldy! *For those of you unfamiliar with HTML or site maintenance, trust me on this one…. 300+ pages for the first week alone, even with templates! So I’ve decided to stop posting pics until I find a better way to manage them…. Hopefully this will only take a couple days. In the meantime, folks will have to enjoy my usual colorful descriptions!

I’m not going to write about my trip here in the Journal, since I’m covering it pretty thoroughly in the Tour de South section. But here I’ll write about other stuff, like the fact that I’m turning 35 in less than a week….

It’s funny, I don’t think about my age most of the time. I spend most of my time around friends several years younger (anywhere from 6-12 years) and usually don’t think about the difference. The guy I’m dating is also quite a bit younger (more about him later) and neither of us have issue with it. But I look at myself at 30, just five years ago, and realize how much my life has changed since then.

I realize, though, that I’m at a good place in my life. While I didn’t choose how I got here, I did choose how I dealt with the tragedies of the past few years, and I find myself much more centered and sane than I have been in a long time. I’m doing what I love, with people I like, I spend time with my daughter, and while we both mourn the loss of Shawn, and there are always moments when it all comes crashing down and I have to cry, overall I feel mentally and spiritually healthier now than this time last year (we’re still working on the physical health part!).

Anyway, that’s enough for tonight. More later!

I got sunburned today at the pool, even though I put on sunscreen, so I’m sitting here feeling a bit like a steamed lobster, and looking like one too. I’m at Jim the TechGod’s condo, waiting on the fireworks (he lives behind Freedom Hall in JC and has a great view!) and enjoying communing with a fellow technogeek. I have to admit, though, that I’m a mere amateur when compared to Jim…

It is, however, *very* nice to walk into someone elses house and in under a minute have wireless access to his cable modem, not to mention his boundless knowledge. “Hey Jim, I can’t get the search function to work in my blog.” Three seconds later, it’s fixed.