Snow, Flights, and Hot Food

I'm in North Dakota right now, sitting on the couch of my mom's cousin. I'm so tired I feel like I could just shut down any moment - my mental and social battery is getting pretty low.

I know this is the first time I've told you that I'm out of state. I'm sorry, but the last week has been unbelievably busy. My great grandpa (who is 97 years old) is very sick, so we decided to come out and see him one last time before he's gone. I won't elaborate on that much here because I'd like to devote an entire post to him.

My aunt drove us from our hotel near my great-grandpa's farm to where we are now - and thank goodness that she's an experienced driver and has snow studs on her tires. It was completely white outside - snow all over the place. When snow was blowing in front of us, all I could see was a few feet of road right ahead of us.

Boy am I glad I'm not driving yet.

North Dakota is COLD. I don't even want to think about how cold it is. Even though I'm getting sort of tired of winter, I would have been happy if it would have snowed like this at home. That would have meant sledding, snow days, hot chocolate, lots of reading in front of the fire...but here it just means our flight being delayed and getting home later.

I don't like flying in the first place. But especially when things don't work out the way they're supposed to, tons of waiting has to happen, and good food is impossible to come by.

Yes, food. When you're on vacation, and you're a vegetarian, and it's cold outside, and you're tired - hot food is the BEST. We stopped to get hot drinks a couple times during our trip - I got a chai tea latte. There's something about drinking something hot that just fills you up from your heart all the way through your toes. We stopped for Chinese food too, and I wasn't that hungry, but just eating some wonderfully tasty, hot food brought me away from my normal nauseous -headachey-ness of riding in the car and made me soo happy. Then tonight, when we arrived at my mom's cousin's house, she fixed us a delicious hot meal, and it was the best thing ever.

Nothing like it.

With that, I'll end. I wish I could write more, but I am soo tired right now that nothing I write or think is very thoughtful. The new version of Alice in Wonderland is on the TV right now, and I'm very much enjoying it. So I think I'l just go to sleep to that. Looking forward to a good night's sleep...