S is for Singing. Or Singing Along.

I'll be the first to admit that my vocal skills are lacking. In the 8th grade, someone told me my singing sounded like a dead cow. Ouch.

This has never stopped my love of music.  My dream house has speakers in every room so no matter where I go, I'm listening to something.  I love all kinds of music: Barry Manilow to System of a Down, The Killers to The Blues Brothers.  Gypsy punk, 60's folk, 80's pop rock - I'll listen to almost anything.

Before college, when my parents bought me a beautiful new computer with a CD burner, I learned the glory of Mix CDs and I've been making them ever since.  I have a few fans out there (Mom, Ryan, Miranda) and a nay-sayer or two (MATT, who hates every CD I make).  I consider my Mix CDs an art (Mom says its my spiritual gift) and you know I like you if you've got one.

My favorite thing about the CDs is throwing them in the sweet 1994 12-disc cartridge in my Toyota Windom and driving around the island singing my brains out to something I (sort of) created.  With no one in the car to tell me I sound like a dead cow.

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As a side note:  I have quit quitting Facebook.  But I deleted between 40 - 50 friends, so I'm hoping it willbe less annoying.  So if you made the cut and I'm still FB friends with you, consider yourself lucky.

Vacation, Part 4: D.C. and West Point.

Okay, okay...  I know.  I never finish things.  I promise to be better about that.  And I'll finish the alphabet I left off on over a year ago.  But really this time.

So, after a lovely sunny stay in Florida, Matt and I flew to D.C. to see his very pregnant sister, brother-in-law and nephew.  We got to see their beautiful new house for the first time and taste tested several flavors of Wegman's Ice Cream.  Carrie is the ultimate hostess and I always love staying with them. 

After our brief stay in D.C., Matt and I took Carrie's car and drove through five states to be at Andrew's graduation from West Point Military Academy.  How flippin' cool is that?  The commencement speaker was ...  President Barack Obama!  Pretty neat.  Super-pretty neat.

If you squint really hard you can see itty-bitty President Obama with his hand on his heart.  --->

Now, let me just state for the record, that, despite my disgust towards Glenn Beck and the fact I can barely wait Fox News without screaming, I am a conservative Republican, through and through.  But hearing Marine One fly by, watching the caravan drive into the stadium and seeing the leader of the free world walk out was pretty doggone exciting.  I got chills.  Gosh, I love America.

Also, let me tell you first:  I paid attention to the President's speech.  I really, really did.  But, for me, it was not as interesting as the fact that I had just told my mother-in-law about photo-bombing, and she thought it was a hysterical concept.  We took turns photo-bombing each other and other people.  It was pretty awesome.  But we were paying attention.  Most unfortunately, all of those fun photos are on her camera.  I got this one, though:

<---Sorry ladies, he's all mine.

After the ceremonies and sufficient family time, we hopped back in the car to drive back to D.C. to catch our last domestic flight - back to Travis AFB.

From here to there.

Driving. Definitely not my most favorite thing to do. In all honesty, I enjoy my visits to the Dentist more than I enjoy a long drive (no offense, Crystal!). For the entire three years I’ve been driving, I would often (not too often) have minor panic attacks when driving on a two lane road alone at night. “Am I on the correct driving side??!! Ack! I don’t know. Oh, whew, there’s a car coming towards me on the other side of the road. Whew.” The dread of having to learn to drive on the left side of the road ate away at me for months before the big move. Fortunately, getting adjusted to left-side driving has been a whole lot easier than I thought it would be. Seeing drivers on American TV and in movies is still a little mind bending though and sends me into minor panic. Good thing I don’t drive and watch TV at the same time.

After the whole “other side of the road” thing, the biggest difference is that Okinawa is metric and slow. It’s island life, right? The fastest you will ever go (legally) on the island is 80 km/h (about 50 mph) and that is only on the Expressway. Most roads are between 40 and 50 km/h (about 25 and 30 mph). Pulling off to the side of the road (whether there is ample space or not) is also a common Okinawan practice. That is great for us Americans because we can sit on the side and scour a map to figure out where we are. Due to the hilly nature of the island, there is no semblance of a road grid here. Happily for Japanese non-readers, the roads all have numbers for names.

Shortly after arrival on Okinawa, we had to take a driving class to learn the differences driving here. First off, the signs are all the International road signs. They are super-easy to understand and this knowledge should come in handy if ever we are somewhere else overseas. There is no cellular phone use allowed while driving here. The strangest rule, to me, is no left turns (think right turns) are allowed at a red light! I sometimes cheat on this one when I’m turning onto the Base… Don’t tell!

Overall, learning to drive here hasn’t been too scary. I’ve always been a cautious driver, so I’m sure that helps. I might actually enjoy driving here more than driving in the States. It will be interesting to see how it goes readjusting to driving in the USA in three years.