Flightplan

In roughly five hours, I will be heading North to Iowa to spend the holidays with my family. I love traveling and have no qualms with traveling solo - I actually prefer it. But the one thing I hate about traveling is airports. I try my hardest to remain calm and low-key. I've been traveling by plane for as long as I can remember - flying alone since age fourteen - and nothing has ever gone wrong.
No lost luggage. No missed flights. No absurd turbulence ... it's always been smooth sailing. But I know better. I know my time is coming. That's why I almost always never sleep the night before my flight. For instance, it's nearly 2:30 AM and I'm still awake. I have this minor paranoia about missing a flight or being unable to get through security.
But as I said before, I try my hardest to remain calm. I especially like to wear sunglasses once I've reached my gate and people-watch. I'm not big into karma, but I laugh too much at the crazies sprinting through the terminals for it not to happen to me sooner or later.
Well, this upcoming flight has me a little more worried than normal - it's currently snowing in Iowa. And all forecasts suggest it doesn't plan to stop.
My connecting flight to Cedar Rapids is in Dallas - and if I'm stuck there, Rachel and Renee, get ready because I'll be spending Xmas w/ you!

A couple winters ago, on Christmas Eve, my grandparents hosted an extended family Christmas gather and a blizzard kept everyone from leaving. Luckily my grandma is always stocked, supplied and prepared. We watched movies, made so much food and it actually ended up being a fun time reconnecting w/ family.
So long as I arrive in Iowa safely, I'll be okay w/ any other winter weather - I miss the snow and really want to go sledding and skiing!

A little about my hometown of Manchester, Iowa:
The population is 5,500 - about the same size as some of your high schools.
The tallest buildings in the community are silos - they dry corn.
There's a single-screen movie theatre - it operates on a volunteer basis.
The community is totally involved with the school, named West Delaware Schools - the mascot is the hawk and our fight song replicates the University of Iowa's.
Strangely enough, the best Chinese food I've ever had is in Manchester - Choung Garden is downtown, my sister works there. Order the Princess Chicken w/ a half-order of crab rangoons.
Allegedly, there's meth labs. IDK.
Good luck finding paved roads outside city limits. Gravel, baby.
Remember dial-up internet (this kills me)?

As small and boring as the town may be, I still really enjoy coming back.

I have three family Christmas' to attend, otherwise my time will be spent with the siblings and catching up w/ a few good friends - and eating all the homemade food I can pack in!!
I told everyone I didn't deserve gifts this year, so I'll be sure to share what I received - if anything! Honestly, the plane ticket was enough for me.

More to come about my holiday week up North!

Clare

Alright, so this is a tad bit late, but Saturday, December 19 was my sister, Clare's 18th birthday.
Girlfriend did not celebrate by heading down the the corner gas station to pick up some Virginia Slims and a lottery ticket ... she got inked! She's so brave.
I already called to wish her a feliz de cumpleaños, but this entry will be completely dedicated to her.

Clare ...

You've always been the prettier of the two of us. Even that time I had to pull you out from under a table at daycare in Des Moines because you cut your hair - and to salvage your horrible cosmetology skills, Mom gave you some kind of bop haircut. You're gorgeous, and I'll always be here to tell you so.

Remember when we moved to Manchester and started adding on/renovating the house? You and I had to share that North bedroom, in that huge used-to-be-waterbed ... I always made such a big deal about having to sleep in the same bed, but you were so cute and never complained - even when I made my weird mouth noises in my sleep (I am still not admitting to it though!!). Then we had to sleep in the dining room while the bedrooms were getting carpet, and I made you listen to the 'Anamaniacs' CD all the time.

You and I loved to eat sliced cheese. When a commercial came on, we would run to the kitchen and try to skip over the tile entryway, grab a cheese slice, then run full force onto that plaid couch. And after watching some gameshow on Nickelodeon, we made states out of our cheese slices. And we played 'lava' a lot - Mom always had an annoying amount of throw pillows.

Before the basement was finished, we built some of the craziest forts ever. They had multiple bedrooms, a living room ... some real architectual oddities were built in that basement.

Oh! We hung out in the old barn so much! We would swing from that rope and chase around all sorts of kittens. Remember breaking all those florescent lights of Rick's?? We stomped on them because a cool white smoke came out ... I guess we never realized the hundreds of dollars we just wasted. Haha!

We drove around Grandma and Grandpa's farm on that huge, green lawn mower. And one time, I shifted it into drive too fast and you flipped off the back! Ahhh. You barely cried! Just went inside.

Whenever we went up to Dad's place in Minnesota, we would ride our bikes around the blocks forever - just encircling that park was our entertainment. Weird, right? Until you got rollerblades and a scooter - then we used a jump rope to pull each other behind the bike!

I was such a Nancy-boy in high school and you're this crazy, rebel-like young woman. You are so much further along in life than I ever thought about being when I was 18. It's weird that we became closer after I left for school. And even closer yet when I moved out of state.
I think about you all the time, Clare - but I'm never worried. You are so strong, confident and smart. You have a strong direction within you and I am really proud of you.
I miss you very much and truly cherish each time we're reunited.

I promise to always be here for you. And you know I'll make that 17 hour drive in 14 hours if you ever need me ASAP. This 18 years went by so quickly ... but I cannot wait for the next 18 and the 18 after and the 18 after and so on.

I love you, sister.