adventures of jhani and emily.

Hello beauteous friends.

Where to begin? Saturday night was Emily's last night in Burlington and Sunday night was mine. Both nights for me were fun and pleasant but full of tears and a feeling of heaviness. Despite the sadness surrounding everything though, I couldn't have asked for a better last week. I could write a novel on how much I love all you guys and will miss you, but the the truth of the matter is, I know we will all see each other again. So, we move on to the positive.

Emily drove from Burlington to Chicago on Monday in one straight drive (that's 17 hours in a small little jetta with a sailboat trailing behind. I'll let her tell you all about that). My mom and I left Monday morning for Clifford, PA, where an old family friend lives on a beautiful piece of property (she has her own lake in her backyard with bald eagles, beavers, and geese, oh my!).

The first thing I noticed that night was how "ok" I felt about everything. When we left that morning, I had just said goodbye to Nick and once those tears had started, it was hard to get rid of them. Even an hour later, I was still getting teary-eyed every twenty minutes or so behind my sunglasses. The drive on rt 7 and 22A was GORGEOUS to say the least, and although I'm glad my last visual of Vermont was so stunning, it made me that much sadder to leave!

Later that night though, the sad feelings had left and if anything, I felt like I was in denial. I kept reminding myself that I wasn't on vacation, that I wasn't going to be back in Burlington just a few days later, but it didn't feel real. In the few days since Monday, that feeling comes and goes, and I don't think reality will truly set in until I actually arrive in California and unpack my life's belongings.

Tuesday was uneventful to say the least. Sylvia and I left Pennsylvania at 8 a.m. and despite making no stops other than filling up the gas tank and using the loo, we didn't arrive at Emily's house in Winnetka until 8.30 p.m. (but Illinois is on central time, so technically we drove until 9.30 p.m.). Sylvia, Sue, Gary, Emily, and myself have been having a time. The parents are getting along beautifully (I think Sue and Sylvia might have been best friends in a past life) and Emily and I are having a relaxing time until the road trip "really" begins. All of us, sans Gary, went into the city yesterday to visit the Art Institute of Chicago and walk around Millenium Park. I finally saw the bean! Gary came in and met us later and we went out to dinner (it was his birthday!) and saw a sketch comedy show afterward.

It is now Thursday morning, and it is GORGEOUS outside (it definitely wasn't yesterday). We are meeting up with Carly and Kelly (yay!) and unloading Emily's things from the trailer. Tomorrow, after Sylvia hops her plane back to the Golden State, we will try and head halfway to our first destination in Estes Park, Colorado...does that mean we will spend the night in Omaha, Nebraska? Uh, haven't quite figured that out yet. Any suggestions?

Here's Em:

So let's start with my ride back to chi-city. It was pretty uneventful and boring for the first 8 hours, but things changed around Cleaveland. About 10 miles outside of the land of the Cleaves (what is a cleave anyway?) I was straight chillin in the Jetta. I had it set to cruise control, I was blasting some No Doubt and talking to a friend on the phone when all of the sudden THE BOAT CAME UNHITCHED FROM MY CAR. Sparks flew, I screamed and hung up the phone. I was in the left lane of the highway and as I watched the boat float away from my car "I couldn't help but wonder" what would happen to that innocent hobbie cat. Would it fly into traffic, cause a HUGE accident and seriously fuck some people and cars up (which is not funny at all and slightly disturbing). Or would the hobbie cat catch some lake erie air and fly into hobbie heaven? Well my friends, none of those things happened. After detaching from my car, the hobbie swiftly turned left into the flat grassy medium and came to a hault. I quickly turned left off the highway towards the medium. FUCK SHIT OH MY GOD MY DADS GONNA KILL ME IM DEAD

..oh the boats fine. NO big deal. Now somebody tell me how the HELL that happens. I gathered my strength (thanks to the winooski Y), put the boat back on the trailer and got back on the fucking highway only to have 8 more hours to drive. fun fun fun. SO that, my friends, is how a boat falls of a car and survives. mmmmk.

love you? miss you? NEXT STOP NEBRASKA.

P.S. Here is the only worthwhile thing jhani has found in my house. A story by elementary school emily.

"A Turkey That Was Lost In the Forest"

There once was a turkey who was trying to find peanuts. He went to the forest and he lost a feather. He was busy looking for the feather and some peanuts. He was lost. He tried to find his Mom and he found his Dad.

The End.

and you thought Jhani was the poet?