Making plans

My tickets are purchased and I can't wait! In less than five weeks I'll be flying to Las Vegas to see my daughter and her husband. J & T have invited me to come spend a month with them while J's casino remodels--and bought me the tickets as a birthday gift!

I don't actually have any vacation time until December, but my boss was kind enough to let me take a one-month leave from work. I think he'll be glad to get rid of me during that month of hellish Tokyo summer heat and humidity because all I do is complain about it. This will be my third Tokyo summer and I didn't think I'd live through the first one! Coming in late May from the cool Pacific Northwest, where the temperature rarely gets over a comfortable 75F (around 23C), it was a very difficult transition. Maybe it's my Irish genes, but I just don't think I'll ever adapt to the steamy heat of Tokyo in the summer. Once the temps hit 65F (18C) here, I'm a sweaty mess.

So, off I go to Las Vegas, where the temperature has already broken heat records! This week it hit 108F (42C) and it's only early June! Usually, it doesn't hit that temperature until mid-July. J thinks I'm to blame. She said that everywhere I go, the temperature rises. I'm beginning to think she's right! It's uncanny how that happens, and I'm the person who can't stand hot temperatures! What am I going to do with global warming?

The day after I arrive in Las Vegas, we'll throw our bags in the car and drive up to Seattle to visit friends and family. It's a 2-day drive, so J, T and I will have lots of time to yak. J's husband is one of the funniest guys I've ever met, so I know it will be fun driving with him. Well, actually, now that I think about it, we're all pretty funny, so it should be a real hoot.

We'll spend a week in Seattle and then drive back down to LV where J and I will get to hang out together for at least two more weeks. We're not like most mothers and daughters, I think. In our case, we really, really enjoy hanging out together! We're so close that we actually have this freaky psychic communication thing going. For example, she was just recently talking to T about hummingbirds and their tiny eggs. Out of the blue, with absolutely no discussion of that conversation, I sent her a link to an amazing pictorial of the birth of two hummingbird babies. We do this sort of thing all the time! T says the hair rises on the back of his neck when we do this kind of stuff.

So you're probably going to hear the countdown for my trip in future blog entries.