Our December Travels

For the last three weeks, Spencer and I have been traveling:

We spent a week in Honolulu, HI for the Pacifichem 2010 conference.  While I was presenting and sitting through symposium sessions, Spencer got to check out Waikiki beach and downtown Honolulu.  Our last two days we spent sight-seeing.  We went up to the Polynesian Cultural Center (amazing!), visited Pearl Harbor, and stopped briefly at the Dole Plantation (pineapples) and a macadamia nut farm.

We were home for barely 24 hours before heading off to Virginia to visit our families for Christmas, but we had a few hiccups first.  At 10pm the night before we were supposed to leave, Spencer started having chest pains.  We called an on-call nurse at the university who told us to call 911.  We did, and the EMTs showed up shortly after.  Although an EKG of his heart looked normal, they still recommended a trip to the ER, so I drove Spencer there myself instead of letting the ambulance take him.  Another EKG and blood tests came back normal enough, so we left with a list of symptoms to look out for.

After a few hours of sleep, we were off to VA, or so we thought.  Not 5 miles from the house, Spencer's car broke down.  At least we were close, right?  A good friend (who we are very indebted to) came to pick me and the cats up while Spencer waited for the tow truck.  We had the car towed back to our house, repacked everything in my car, and finally got on the road.

We had a very nice Christmas Eve day with my parents, my brother, and his girlfriend ending at church.  All day Christmas was spent with Spencer's family.  It was the first time I started dating him that all the siblings were home for Christmas.  Nine (and a half) people plus seven cats makes for a full household, but it was a lot of fun.  On the way back home, we made a short stop in KY to see my grandparents, cousins, aunt, and uncle.

We made it back home just in time to spend New Year's eve with our friends, then zonked out for a good 10 hours or so.  Yesterday we spent doing nothing, which was nice, but today we need to get back with the program!  I'm trying not to stress and worry about everything that needs to be done, and remembering my therapist's advice to keep it to four things or less per day.  So, here are my TODO's for today:

1. Go to church
2. Go to Hypnobabies class
3. Meal planning
4. Grocery shopping

I'm hoping much more gets done today, but that defeats the purpose of this whole exercise.