first of the year

Sixty-eight posts in 2007; 101 in 2008.
One in 2009, so far.
It is Saturday night. I am battling, through sheer force of will, the family stomach flu that has been circulating for the last week and a half (Russian has a word for one and a half that is really convenient). It involves feeling sick, puking, etc. I have succeeded in feeling sick today, but haven't barfed. In fact, I haven't thrown up in ten years, so I'm not looking to break the trend. But this comes at an inconvenient time.

The New Year celebration was pretty underwhelming. Here in the former USSR people set off fireworks, and in Kazakhstan it was pretty huge. The celebrations were somewhat disappointingly subdued here, but that's okay.

Anyway, on Monday I leave here to embark on my six-day journey. Here is the run-down: leave around noon, take a van to a nearby city. There I get on a train to Saint Petersburg. I arrive FORTY SIX hours later, Wednesday noon. Some friends from church are picking me up at the station, and I fly out at 6 the next morning. This may include staying the night at the airport. I take three planes to get to Nashville, where I get on a shuttle that takes me to Monteagle, TN. There I am picked up and driven ten minutes to Sewanee. A few hours later the brother flies in also. We go to bed at 2 am, spend the next jet-lagged day hanging around Sewanee or exploring Nashville, and I get up next Saturday morning and make the 12-hour drive to Norman, OK, at which point I am HOME!

It is a marathon. I'm not looking forward to it a whole lot. The biggest problem in being bored, not having a cell phone, and being on a train with a disgusting bathroom for two days.

But just over a week from right now I will be pulling into Norman, and it will be over.