YAH! I did it!

All month I've avoided a task I needed to do. I've avoided it with the amount of avoidance energy I usually reserve for things like doing my taxes or tackling my garage or cleaning my desk. I avoided it like it would be BAD, although really, it was a task that most people would envy getting to do, or rather, at least getting to USE once they'd done it. True, I discovered that my fears weren't all unfounded, the actual task DOING was pretty difficult and exhausting. It ended up requiring many MANY hours staring at a computer screen, several bouts of hair pulling and stomping and slamming of innocent furniture and doors, and the liberal and loud use of any and all swear words I could dredge up from memory.

I kept avoiding it because I thought that if I waited long enough someone would point out to me that it was a huge joke, or mistake, and then I'd be sooooo relieved I hadn't actually gone and done it and had to explain, to everyone's confusion and my complete and utter embarrassment, that I didn't understand that I wasn't supposed to take the idea SERIOUSLY. I kept avoiding the task because it was a huge commitment and apparently I have huge commitment problems.

But finally, I did it. It's done. It's official. I am now the proud owner of two sets of round trip tickets, one to New York and back, where William and I will stay with friends, see the sights, and get our feet wet on this whole tourist - nay, that sounds too American, let's go with traveler - this whole TRAVELER thing. And then we'll use the second set of round trip tickets to, starting from New York, fly up and over the big blue wet thing and land in London, where we'll have just over three weeks to get the accent down well enough to bring it home with us again.

Whew! I know, laugh at me if you will, but this was a huge, huge, HUGE thing for me to do. It's not that I'm not adventurous at heart. I most certainly AM. I go off on round-abouts all the time and I'm even adventurous enough to do it without making reservations ahead of time. But apparently my brain has gotten old and sort of creaky and didn't quite believe me anymore when I told it I was up for adventure. It also didn't believe we were actually going.

But finally, it's done. I've bought the tickets. NON-refundable tickets. Gulp. We also have our passports, which I also dragged my feet at getting, but they were cheap enough for me to play along with everyone even though I knew it was all gonna turn out to be make believe.

Now all I have left to do is - let me count off on my fingers - get hotel reservations (for the first night or so), an international driver's license, some British Rail passes, perhaps British Heritage passes, some universal chargers so my phone and camera will work, and a bazillion memory cards and extra batteries for aforementioned camera, appropriate footwear for stomping through castles, clothing that will scrunch down to approximately the size of a cookie (or as they say over in England, a biscuit) so that we're not hauling around luggage the size of an small elephant, and those little traveler's sized toothpastes and.......... I've run out of fingers. I think I'm gonna need pen and paper.

Fortunately, I just discovered that I should be capable of all these tasks, and more, even saving the world from apocalyptic ruin if necessary, because I took an online test today and discovered my true Superheroine self is......

You Are Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"We saved the world. I say we have to party."

What Superheroine Are You?

How cool is that! I'm Buffy. Makes sense. Y'know, I've always told everyone my ex-husband looks a lot like Angel. Dark and brooding like him too, although, unfortunately, not in a fun way. But I'm not one of those Buffy/Angel fans. I'm definitely in the Buffy/Spike club. Which probably explains why my ex is my ex, eh?

Well, okay. Enough gibbering. I have to go off now and use my superheroine powers. I think I'll start by saving my fragile, old card table from being crushed beneath mountains of evil fabric and several villianous (not to mention FAT) felines.

P.S. Another amazing thing happened today

Equally worthy of comment, William vacuumed today. And by this I mean, he vacuumed not because his father or I told him he had to, not because someone said they'd take him to Taco Bell if he did, not because he was trying to butter anyone up to ask if they'd take him to Taco Bell, not because anyone was coming to our house that he would be embarrassed if they saw our rug unvacuumed. No. He simply vacuumed.

He did this while I was gone at Walmart. He'd called me there to see if I would buy some sodas. I said yes. I also told him he had to wash the pots in the sink, one of his regular jobs (at least in theory a regular job) before I got back home. That was all. Very ordinary. No hint of anything unusual about to happen.

I came home and the house seemed .... different. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. A few minutes later, after helping me unload the bags of groceries without complaint, and after offering to put the dandruff shampoo in the bathroom for me and...... oh my..... now that I think about, it's even more bizarre then I had first imagined...... after all that strangely compliant, unusually helpful behavior, he was heading back to his room to play video games and paused midway down the hallway to toss back at me -

"Oh, by the way. I vacuumed."

And then he was gone, his bedroom door clicking quietly as I stood there in shock, unable to speak, unable to move. Eventually I regained motor functions and went and looked in the livingroom. It was vacuumed. That's what had looked different about the house.

I guess it was a day for amazing tasks.