welcome to my mind ...

6 years ago today, I drove in to Kirkland, WA. It was around 8pm, and I'd been driving since around 6am the day before, with several stops for food, bathroom, and an overnight rest. I think I clocked in 14 hours of driving the first day, and about 9 hours the second. Needless to say, I was tired.

I didn't actually see Seattle until the 22nd, which is why I normally celebrate the anniversary on that date. But this one has a much larger significance than literally any other anniversary date.

This marks the longest I've ever lived in one place, my entire life.

The longest I ever lived in one place prior to this was in MD, from Feb 1991 though November 1996. That's it. Even combined moves, FL and NV still only came out to about 5 years, total, each. Washington is the longest I've ever lived in one place my entire life.

It's kind of surreal, thinking about how long I've been here. Like how with many things, time can be perceived strangely; it goes back and forth between thinking I've been here longer, and thinking I've been here shorter. Only every once in a while does it really hit me how long I've actually been here. Even in this apartment, I've been in this little tiny pod for almost 5 years. Aside from MD, that's the longest I've ever held a single residence.

I feel like I'll have to get sushi tomorrow as kind of a celebration. Sushi was the first decent meal I had once I actually got in to Seattle, so to celebrate this occasion, I feel like sushi would be a good choice. Although, sushi is always a good choice ...

Anywho, I wanted to talk briefly about my trip back to DC in December. One of the things I was told I absolutely needed to do was visit the brand new National Museum of African American History and Culture. Which, at this point in time, is by ticket only. The tickets don't cost anything due to it being a Smithsonian Museum, but they're in high demand so they're hard to come by. My Aunt was able to obtain several, but they're not until December.

When I got back last week, I was curious to see how much PTO I'd have saved up, and I needed to know exactly what date the tickets are for, so that I could see if it was even feasible to get the time off, considering how close to the holidays it is. I'm not nearly high enough on the totem pole to get approved for time off directly around the holidays. When I found out the date, I checked staffing, calculated the PTO I'd have accrued by then {since I have zip now, from using 80 hours of it on the two weeks I was gone} and realized it would be almost guaranteed for me to get the time approved for a few days just before the influx of people taking time off.

The second task was to see what the cost of an airline ticket would be and, with the exception of today, it's been sitting a little lower than the plane ticket I'd bought for the two weeks. I'd take a connecting flight heading out, then a direct one coming back, since I'm only bringing a duffel with me this time, not a suitcase.

The third and fourth tasks would be to see if I was welcome to crash at my Aunt's place again, and make sure that I had transportation to and from the airport. Since this trip is much shorter than the last one, I didn't really see the point in renting a car. I also felt like it would be nicer to get that extra time with my relatives by them chauffeuring me to and from places. I'm sure if there's a time while I'm out there that I'll need a vehicle, someone will be nice enough to temporarily lend me theirs. I'll even put gas in the car, whether they like it or not.

All the cards lined up rather nicely for this, and I'm hoping that the cost of the ticket goes down a little bit tomorrow, since statistically speaking Friday is the worst day to buy a plane ticket. Either way, I'm making my purchase tomorrow. Unless it suddenly blows up to like $600. Then I won't be. Which would make me terribly sad...

So here's to hoping tomorrow goes well! That would be kind of the ultimate anniversary gift, actually, if I were to get reasonably priced airline tickets to go to the place I want to go. . .

Keep your fingers crossed people. You'll find out on Sunday how things went.