Road Trip

In honor of leaving on a bus tomorrow (sadly not a jet plane), I thought I'd attempt my first Top Ten list to get pumped for the 24 hours of awesomeness awaiting, so, here goes:

Top Ten Things to do on a long road trip:

10. Watch movies

Thankfully there will be TVs on the bus and I raided my brother's movie collection (thanks Mark!!) and am bringing about 15 movies. I know that's a lot, but it'll be about 48 hours total in the bus on the way there and back, so...yeah, the more the merrier I say.

9.) Eat!!

Thankfully some of our amazing alums are making us snacks for the ride there and we'll be stopping for food along the way. It'll all be fast food though...but what are ya gonna do? At least I'm getting fed. I can be quite cranky without food for a long time....as my brother knows full well :)

8.) Look out the window absentmindedly

This is a favorite past-time of mine whenever I was a kid going on long trips. Basically it involves looking out the window, preferably with a slack jaw, and daydreaming about something or other, for example, thinking about that colorful flower I just saw --> so many kinds of flowers in the world --> what if flowers took over the world? would they be kindly rulers or vicious dictators? --> ahh, I remember dictation in 7th grade french --> I wonder how Ms. Rahme is doing? She was a great teacher --> I remember the video assignments I had to make for that class --> I wonder how Annie is doing? --> etc., etc., etc.......

7.) Read

Might as well start War and Peace because it's going to be a looooooong ride...

6.) Go to the restroom

Least. favorite. thing. to. do. on. the. bus. The bus bathrooms are small and smelly, and everyone *knows* what you're going to do when you start walking towards the back of the bus. It's basically a walk of shame. Ugh....

5.) Get on the loudspeaker and talk about all the beautiful scenery...at 3am

This would be funny if it didn't actually happen. My freshman year we took the bus to New Mexico and the bus driver thought nothing of telling us all about the desert landscapes at 2 in the morning. Most people didn't hear it because they were asleep but I was blessed with the ability to not be able to sleep on anything that moves, so I heard everything she said. She actually used the words, "and on your left we have..." when it was PITCH BLACK outside!!! My boss even went up to her to get her to stop while people were asleep but she stuck to her guns and said it was all part of her job to do that. Thanks.

4.) Drool on people

Again, this would be humorous if this didn't actually happen to me. I wouldn't recommend this option, but it is there. My senior year of high school we went on a class trip to the Kern River and did white water rafting, rock climbing, etc. It was only 3ish hours away so we were all in a bus for the ride. I sat next to my friend Janet and on the way back she wanted to talk to one of our guy friends. Well, the guy who sat next to him then came and sat down next to me. He wasn't a friend of mine, but eh, I could deal. We were all tired from the week and I was watching Top Gun on the TV screens, when all of a sudden, this guy, we'll call him Bob, falls asleep and leans on me. Ehhhhhh...not happy about it but whatever. Then after about 5-10 minutes I feel something wet and sticky on my arm. He had drooled on me!!! EW EW EWWWWW!! I pushed him away, but that didn't phase him at all. He stayed asleep! Gross gross gross...yay for fun memories on a bus right?


3.) Sleep

Ahhhh, that most elusive of friends on a long car ride, at least for me. Yes, this is really the best possible thing to do. Too bad I can never do this, because I'm usually the last one awake on trips like this, be they in cars, buses or planes, so I then proceed to the next thing on this list...

2.) Be angry that I can't sleep

It's rather disheartening when I am the only one awake in the entire car, bus, plane. I can't tell you how many times on a plane, if it's a red eye, that I am the only one awake while everyone else is asleep. At about 2:30am I look around the cabin and my light is the only one that is on. Awesome. Same goes for a car or bus, so then I embrace that quality and do the next item on the list :)

1.) Take pictures of people sleeping

This is actually from 2 years ago, the last time we took the bus to our spring break conference, and yes, I am the photographer :) I had some other ones, but I thought this gave a nice picture of everyone else being asleep while myself the photographer was not. Ah well, at least it makes for some good pictures right??


I won't blog next week because I don't even know if the place has internet or how often I'll be able to get on it, so I shall say later until the week after next!!


As it will be St. Patrick's Day next week, I shall leave you with this: