A ride on the midnight train.

So here I am. Still on the train. We passed through Montana today, and let me tell ya, that state has a lot of hill. As in tons. I tried to pay attention to the scenery, but we must have passed through the deadest part, cuz all there was to look at was vast farmland. There were practically no trees. Nothing to decorate the countryside.



My first henna tattoo



It was kinda sad.

 Today was spent mucking about. I played with Henna (thank you Anna Carlson!), and I swear, I got the weirdest looks from people who passed by my seat.

I played with my hair and put a red and a gray wrap in - decorated with tons of beads and coins, of course. Once again – weird glances from onlookers.

I wrote 3 more pages to my never-going-to-be novel.

I journaled, worked on Miss. Sweazey’s summer reading (Romeo and Juliet. I mouthed the words as I read, and Shakespeare’s humor kept making me laugh. Guess what that got me??? If you guessed something I’ve already said, then you’re right ) ;)

Hmm… I ate dried mangos (the best food ever), beef jerky, and two apples.

Around 7:30pm, I began to get really tired. It was to be expected, considering I got the equivalent to about two hours of sleep last night. I figured, "I’ll just take a short nap. I couldn’t sleep last night, so why should that change now?"

Wrong.I was out like a light, and when I woke up, everything was black. What time is it? I wondered, reaching for my phone.

No signal.

No signal = no time.

It’s probably around 9 or 10, I figured. I grabbed my face wash, toothbrush, and hand towel and washed up in the sink. I came back upstairs and checked my phone again.

It was dead.
Okay, fine.
I pulled out my handy-dandy laptop…
                          … and came to find that it was 12:11.

All right, I wasn’t expecting that. I plugged in my phone, then checked it for a signal. I currently had one, and it said it was actually 11:11.

Riiiggghhhtttt… Montana is an hour behind. I knew that...

I had nothing better to do, so I figured I’d share my wonderfully exciting experience of being confused with you all.

Gol. I’m suddenly starving. But I already brushed my teeth! Poopy…

12:37 (which is really 11:37) - August 20th

Illumination…

Tossing and turning, switching positions and switching again. Cramped backs and cricked necks.
That was me last night.

I finally dozed off around 1 in the morning, and I’m actually really glad that it was a light sleep. If it would have been sound, I would have missed the thunderstorm at 4:30 in the morning.

It wasn’t even a thunderstorm. It was more of a lightning storm. Talk about a light show! It was cooler than any fire works presentation I’ve ever seen.

I woke up, not sure I’d ever fallen asleep, and suddenly I became aware of a continuous flash of light out my window. At first I thought it was another train passing us, but then I saw the black trees illuminated from the white sky.

Whoa, I thought. This is so cool!

I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m not sure I can accurately depict a picture of it. It was as if with every flash of lightning, the darkness was peeled away, layer by layer. The sky would flash a dim white-gray, then suddenly a white flash, greater than the one before it, would make everything seem surreal – just for a moment.

If I listened hard, I could hear a deep, resonating sound, and for the first time I understood the term "rolling thunder". It was cooler than any drum I’ve heard, and I doubt the sound could ever be created synthetically.

I sat, curled up with my Mexico blanket, pillow, and stuffed animal (Silver!) and watched for about 15 minutes before the rain came. It was slow and light at first, just drizzling the window with tiny tap tap taps…

Then it came in waves. A million tiny tap tap taps turned into a loud chorus that would twitch from loud to quiet when queued to do so.

I watched and listened, squinting from a particularly bright flash.

"God, you’re amazing."I whispered that to the sky, a smile on my face. My heart felt like it was laughing.

I was listening to God’s symphony.

The sunrise the morning after

6:45 am - August 19th

Could this be it?

We have finally started to move again. We’re doing the jerk, move faster, tip to the side thing again. The floor is vibrating… It kinda feels like going up a roller coaster – you know, when you’re going up the hill. It reminds me of that. I even have that little tingling feeling in my stomach. The one that says,

"oh boy oh boy oh boy! This is going to be so awesome! Just wait till I get over that hill!"
And at the same time it says,

"oh boy oh boy oh boy! This is it! Maybe it’s not too late to turn back… Am I ready for this?"

That’s what my stomach is saying to me right now.


We’re picking up speed. We’re going faster than we have before.
We just went over a bridge and passed over a freeway. Warehouses and houses and apartments are passing by my window, illuminated by street lamps.

I wonder when we’ll get out of the city.




Well, I think it’s safe to say that my journey has officially begun.



See you on the other side!

12:28 am - August 19th
　

“We have lift-off”

Well, we’re not a rocket, but we certainly are moving.

Super slow….

But we’re gaining spead! Probably about as fast as I can run right now…

　
umm…

actually, maybe that was a false alarm.
Dang it.
We’ve come to a complete stop.
……

No wait! We’re moving again!
The car is steadily jerking, the engine working to get us all moving…

faster….

Faster…!!!

Whoa. It’s kinda nerve racking. The car keeps swaying sharply from side to side…

We’re passing an old freight train covered in grafitti…
darn. That would have made a cool picture…

We keep going faster, then slower, then faster again.

Time to kick off the shoes. =)

Hmph. We’ve stopped again. We’re probably about a half a mile away from the station…
I cant see anything out my window, even when I press my face up to the glass.

Okay. Now we are litterally inching along. Slower than a snail can run.

11:28 pm - August 18th

HERE WE GO!!!

I am sitting on the train. Second floor, not first like I thought. I have two seats to myself, right behind the stairs. It’ll be noisy in the morning, when everyone is going up and down to use the bathroom and go to the food car, but there is nothing except a wall in front of me, so I don’t have to worry about kicking anyone’s seat (plus, it’s really roomy) =)
It’s pitch black outside. I am the third car from the end, and when I tried to see down to the first car, it was nowhere in sight. This train seems to stretch a mile long…

Maybe I’ll get some exorcise in and try to walk to the very front tomorrow ;)

Oh boy.
This is so great.

I have my laptop light dimmed super low so that I don’t annoy any of the other passengers (though I don’t know how I could. My car is almost empty – YES!).

Cool! I just figured out how to let the seat back, and get the footrest up.
This is actually really comfy =D
It kinda reminds me of sleeping in Ashley and Kelly’s circle chair… Only, it’s not a circle.




Ugh.
I packed WAY too much.
As in LOADS of extra stuff I probably won’t even use. I swear, if someone weighed it all, it would add up to more than a hundred pounds.

No joke.

Oh well. Too late now…

Another train is pulling in beside us. It’s loud rumbling kinda startled me, as I couldn’t see it at first (remember what I told you – Its pitch black outside).


I am actually getting tired. Maybe it’s the sound of the air conditioner running so steadily…
BUT!!! I refuse to fall asleep until we are well on our way. I am .NOT. going to miss this.


11:15 pm - July 18th

EEK! It's almost here!!!

The title says it all.

Two and a half hours and my train will depart from St. Paul, Minnesota, and be on it's way to Portland, Oregon, 1800 miles away.

EEK!!! Sorry to reiterate myself, but I'm so excited!

I must apologize, though, for I will not be able to blog for the 36 hours I am on the train (Why not? there's no Internet, duh!). I will however, be writing my posts on a Word document, recording the time, and will copy and past as soon as I get access to some Wi-fi =)

Sorry this is so short, but Anna Carlson just came over and is going to help me pack (or just watch as I pack... keep me company, ya know?)  =)

The start of the sinking in...

I think it's starting to sink in.
That I'm leaving in about 20 hours...

That I still haven't started packing.
That my room is a mess.
That I'm leaving things unfinished.

That I'm leaving things behind.

Maybe it's bad to say.... but I think that, while I'm gone, I'm gonna miss my animals the most.

This is Romeo. He's the one that I hate to leave behind the most. He's around 16 years old, has asthma, and is my bestest friend (in the animal world!). He looks young, and often times I forget that he's an "old man".  From the very start, he's always been my cat, following me and sleeping with me... When I'm gone for even a few days, I've been told that he sits in my room and "cries" for me, and when I don't come, he curls up on  my bed and waits for me.
And here I am, leaving him for a whole month.

Golly. Just that mental image makes me wanna cry ='(

 This is ChaChi. She's also around 16 years, and is just starting to show her age. She has cancer and was abused before we got her, and I spent weeks helping her become used to people picking her up and moving around her. For the longest time, I was the only one she trusted. I am still the only one she listens to half the time... I worry about her.  She is second on my list =(



Wolfie-grey    Moses-brown



These are "The Boys". Brothers that came to live with us several years ago (I think they're about 6 years old...).  Moses I'm not worried about at all - He's my grandparent's cat and pretty much lives his life in their room (he's spoiled rotten... and he loves it). Wolfie (short for Wolfgang O'Malley) is my cat and, though he can be a bit of a stinker and has an annoying, whiny meow, I get worried when I leave him alone for a long time, too. Mainly because once, he escaped from our house and was gone for 9 days before finding his way back to us - whether he was catnapped or ran away is uncertain. Also, he tries to beat up on Romeo every once in a while and tries to take the place of "King"....  I love the bugger, though.

24 hours....

The countdown has begun.

24 hours starts now.



Think of all the things that can happen in 24 hours! Plans can change so quickly... My train could get cancelled. My computer could break. Someone could die. I could become the next Jack Bauer and save the world from certain destruction... Your fate would be in my hands.

Ugh. Scary thought.... For you, I  mean. ;)

So, anyway, here I am. Typing away on my laptop when I should be packing or cleaning my room or something... Finishing things I need to finish before I leave for an entire month...

Yep. I'm a procrastinator. I can't help it. Its just my nature (sorry, teachers!).