Just another day...

This being on the road stuff is kind of exhausting. For real. Last night, I got everything finished up and it was about 8:15 so I was just hanging out in my hotel room watching tv and was too tired to keep my eyes open, so I went to bed. Yes, at 8:15. And, to make this even better (or worse?) I slept clear through the night, and didn't even have to get up til 7. That's 11 hours of sleep--more sleep than most human beings find necessary, but holy cow did I feel a thousand times better this morning when I woke up!

I started the day re-energized, despite the cloudy sky and the rain that drizzled ALL day long, and my high school visits were awesome! The students I talked to had great questions, and I had ample opportunity to share stories about how great my Simpson experience was. After I told them about: how much fun I had studying abroad in London, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, Greece, etc., how great and friendly my professors at Simpson were, the wonderfully dynamic classes, all the different majors and opportunities for students, May Term, all the student groups I used to be involved in, how lovely the campus is (come visit, you'll see), all the different sports offered, awesome internships, intramurals, the fine arts opportunities, Greek life, how easy the application process is, our on-campus housing, the close proximity to Des Moines and the opportunities therein, and a bunch of other stuff...well, after I told them about all of that, I was pretty much out of time, so I answered all their questions and went on my merry little way.

I finally made it back to my hotel, did a bit of work and went to grab a bite to eat at this little restaurant close to my hotel. The food was awesome--grilled chicken salad and a side of turkey and wild rice with almonds soup! In the words of Rachel Ray, Yum-O!

Now, I should probably go clean my car. One of the hazards of being on the road for work is the mess that your car becomes. As I was looking over in my passenger seat today trying to find my map, I also found my purse, both cell phones, a couple water bottles, my travel binder, my book, a banana, my calendar, list of high schools, a half drank bottle of Diet Coke, pens, paper, publications, cds, need I go on? Thing is, the car is a MESS! And, that's just the passenger seat. The floor of the backseat contains remnants of many meals on the road, pop bottles, cups, napkins, a random shoe or two, clothes, an umbrella, several binders...it's just insane. And, frankly, to the random outsider looking in, the urge to throw up would probably be quite uncontrollable. It's darned ridiculous, and on the verge of disgusting. The worst part is, I don't have tinted windows so any Joe Schmo can walk by and look in my windows and pass silent judgement due to the current state of my car...Yeah, I should go take care of that.
*But it's getting dark, and cold, so I will probably stay right here in my hotel, warm and growing ever-more engrossed in the television...