Countdown 'til Freedom

In exactly one hour and thirty-nine minutes, I will be leaving this place to take a much needed five day vacation. That's right, One Ring and I are hitting the road again, and this time, any interruption will be met with deadly force. We're that serious!

One Ring finished her papers on Friday, and I accomplished the impossible by preaching in a church without it (or me) bursting into flames. Strangely, Governor Sarah Palin's Church did. Very ironic. So after all the angst and trauma accompanying those events - as well as the usual work and life stress - we are bailing on reality and heading off.

In other news, I seem to have acquired a stalker. Good news is that this stalking has only taken place online, and has yet to break into the real world. I just checked, and there are ten people listed in the state of TN who bear my name or a close proximity thereof, so even if the individual in question managed to get that far, hopefully they won't be able to find my front doorstep. Still, this event has caused me to reconsider my online presence. Should I continue blogging, or should I try to remove references to me that can be found on the net? Is it even worth it to try?

In case you're wondering, yes, I do know who this stalker is, and yes, it's a person who was once connected to my family. And no, there can be no reconciliation or even reasoning with this individual, as there are not enough years of life left to accomplish the amount of therapy necessary for normalized behavior. The last time I went through this, I was in graduate school. It was 14 years ago, and it really messed with my head. Now I'm obviously a mature professional, but it's still more than a little on the unnerving side.

So now I have yet another good reason to head off on vacation. Barney and Kona are already in the kennel, the bags are mostly packed, and the tickets are standing ready. The only thing left is for me to complete the paperwork and get our tails to the airport in the morning. Hopefully when I get back, the world will be a little bit better. At least Christmas will be closer. All my Christmas shopping is done, except for One Ring's stocking stuffers. So my stress level in that department is relatively low.

One hour, twenty-two minutes and counting ...