Time for a Change of Pace...

...and it couldn't come fast enough. 

5 Days

Yes...the countdown is on. Well still on to be more precise. Technically I've been counting down the days left in Alpha since we pretty much got here and I started cleaning toilets and waking up at 5 in the morning but now the countdown number is exciting rather than a tragic reminder of how much time I had to endure before really starting some hardcore traveling. So there it is. Five days. 

And what may you ask will I be doing in five days? To put it simply-getting the heck out of Alpha. Now I'm not saying Alpha doesn't have it's good qualities-friendly people, new experiences, money saving opportunity-all good things. However, I haven't left a two mile radius in three months. THREE MONTHS. Here I am supposedly living the exciting life of an international traveler whilst in reality stagnation has overtaken my life. Fortunately no longer. On Monday, June the first, I will be boarding a bus headed to...drumroll please...Longreach. Okay. Not REAL exciting, but it is the heart of outback Queensland and there's a couple of sights I want to see so I figure while I'm in the area, I might as well take advantage of the proximity factor.  After two nights there my traveling companion and myself will rock the bus again, this time back to Rockhampton where there is a confirmed sighting of a cinema. Unfortunately my movie obsessed boyfriend has gone through major withdrawals not having access to a movie theatre for 12 weeks. I'm afraid we might blow a small portion of our savings on movie tickets for a few days to catch up on the glory that is cinematic art. Like WatchMen apparently. And Wolverine. You know. Real Oscar worthy material. Hey if it keeps him happy I'm all for it. That and fast food. Chris is suffering KFC withdrawals as well so we'll have a couple of really healthy days stuffing our faces with disgustingly greasy food and holing up in a dark cinema. I'm so glad we're in Australia.

Now for the really exciting part. After our stopover in Rocky, we'll make our way down to Brisbane, catch up with a friend there, change over some luggage, and board a plane for MELBOURNE. Let me tell you, I've been going through my travel books and I'm very excited to see Melbourne. As far as big cities go, I wasn't very impressed with Brisbane, I enjoyed the sights in Sydney though it's a rather sterile city (from what I remember from my trip five years ago), but Melbourne seems very interesting. There's loads of art galleries, museums, ethnic influences, historical architecture, and one of the most famous open air markets in the world-the Queen Victoria Market. There's only one downside: since it's winter here, and Melbourne is on the far southern tip of Australia, it will be cold. That's an odd concept huh? Usually you go south for the winter to warm up-this whole southern hemisphere thing really throws you for a loop. You know the toilets flush the opposite way? Sorry. I got sidetracked. Well being as I came to sunny beachy Australia I didn't so much bring a coat. Or really any warm clothes. Translation: you will be seeing a lot of pictures of me in Chris' giant hoodies. Let's hope they're warm enough. If not I'll just have to keep myself warm with enthusiasm! 

Goodbye Alpha...Hello Travels!

Current Location: Alpha, Queensland

Destination: Melbourne, Victoria

Mamma Mia

My entire life, I've been surrounded by strong, independent, beautifully passionate women, most of whom also happen to be mothers. I know what most people would say: 'You are one lucky girl.' And that's true, I am. But personally I don't think luck has as much to do with it as the fact that these special individuals make the conscientious, deliberate decision to live their lives by their own standard.

Growing up though, I never realized how blessed I was to not only know these women but to have them as major influences in my life-never knowing any different, in my naïvety I assumed that all mothers and grandmothers must act the same as mine-protecting their loved ones, putting family second only to God, making countless silent sacrifices, teaching important life lessons not through their words alone but through their everyday actions, and most importantly leaving an unmistakeable imprint on the lives of those around them. Yet with all of these remarkable attributes to choose from, do you know which is my favorite? Their individuality. They are all completely and utterly different in the best ways possible. Having three strong, unique female role models is incredibly inspiring to a young woman such as yours truly as I strive to find myself and become the person I want to be.

Unfortunately I haven't always appreciated how great I have it and my ignorance to my blessings in the mother department definitely reared its ugly head. I distinctly remember being a brat on many occasions over the years from telling my poor mom I hated her over a pair of tights (preschool-I've always been a picky dresser) to snapping at her for accidentally repeating information she'd already mentioned to me (just a few months ago). Honestly-the woman has to keep a family of seven up to date; you'd think I could cut her some slack for not remembering exactly who she told what and when every single time. I recently did the math and realized that except for a nine month period, my mom will have a teenager living under her roof consecutively for a span of 21 years. TWENTY ONE YEARS! That's craziness! The statistic alone is a testament to her patience and tenacity. My little sister recently sent this reply after I mentioned I missed our mom in an email: 'I completely understand missing Mom.  As a matter of fact, I can't imagine missing another person more.  And you know why?  Because no matter what you are talking about she is always interested to listen....I guess that's just another part of the "mom" job.' But it's not her job. It's just who she is.  For that and so many other countless reasons, when, at some point down the road, I wake up one day and think to myself, 'Oh my gosh. I've turned into my mother' I will be nothing but proud.

All in all, I just want to say that the contributions made by my grandma, g-mom, and, most of all, my mom will continue to stay with me as I enter the next phase of my life and, hopefully I will one day pass them onto children of my own. So to all the amazing women in my life, Happy Mother's Day.  

Caught Up

I've been sitting here, feet up, slightly distracted by the news of Oz, catching up on all my emails/facebook/blogging, and it feels good to be caught up. For some silly reason I go through periods where I won't even look at my laptop for a week and then it starts to build up: the stress. How an inanimate object can cause stress to a (hopefully) sane person's life is beyond me, but that's not the point. It does. All I can think about is how many emails are piling up, or how my internet to do list continually grows, or how I should be a good friend/daughter/sister and blog so people know I'm safe and what is happening on my side of the world when out of nowhere I start to get that feeling that isn't unlike hyperventilating  and I do the healthy responsible thing-throw a blanket on top of the thing, grab my i-pod (thankfully never a source of stress), jump under the covers, and play a calming song. Effective, but not exactly tackling the problem. But not this time.  I bit the bullet and acquiesced to the inevitable pile-up. That's the thing about procrastination-it's horribly nagging while you indulge it and virtually nonexistent once you tackle it. Why do we as humans do this? Pretty silly actually. 

Well now I've spent just about all the cyber energy I have at the moment, so I'm afraid that's all I have to offer in the way of a blog for now. Well, there is just one more thing. I read this on my delightful friend Ivy's blog during all my 'catching up' and experienced a real sense of calm once doing so. It's something inspired from an important woman in her life so thank you Momma Ikpeme for this truth that always rings true:

"Give it to God. All of it. Every burden."

And now comes the peace....