The Eagle Has Landed

It always makes me feel like a little girl again when I come to Florida where my mom and Gran live, along with my cousins, aunties and uncles. This is where I was born and where I spent the majority of time before the 2nd grade. So, after a sleepy red-eye flight from SFO to Orlando, I was promptly greeted by my Uncle Frank and Auntie Nancy. Frank flew jets in the Air Force before he flew commercial jets. He's retired now. After a breakfast of grits and eggs, we drove the hour out to the family "compound" in Oxford, just about 20 minutes from Ocala. Here is where Gran lives, surrounded by 3 of her daughters and 4 if you count Auntie Terry who just moved out from Idaho last year. Anyway, it's a fun time to hear all the stories about when I was young, what I was up to, who babysat me, etc. I guess everyone is coming out on Sunday to see me off and that will be nice. I promised my mom if/when I go to Europe I would stop here first and frankly, it's kind of fun. I don't have much family out West...just a smattering of cousins in Idaho and of course my dad and sister out in Modesto area. They must be so glad I'm gone, I totally took over the house, the computer, the pool, the laundry, the kitchen and my poor car is still sitting in the driveway, waiting to be fixed (or vandalized again, whichever comes first.) I wasn't really able to blog all that much at dad's house because we were busy downloading my I-pod (thanks Mr. B) and downloading pictures onto Kodak gallery, and packing/running errands, etc. I'll have more time here at mom's for that and I'm teaching her how to upload photos so that I can have some graphics while I post. I figure if I can meet people with cell phone cameras, I can get some updated graphics. If nothing else, I have a few archives that should fill the space. I'm going to lay out my stuff and get a packing list together and then bless the backpack with my new St. Anthony medallion so hopefully, I won't lose everything. More later on life with dad, Kate and life after Cali.