Goodbye

Goodbye comfortable full sized bed.

Goodbye complete wardrobe, and shoes... oh, the shoe collection.

Goodbye car.

Goodbye Target and Wal-Mart and American-sized grocery stores.

Goodbye Mexican food, Old Bay, and grits.

Goodbye live American television (White Collar, Glee, Big Bang Theory, various embarrassing addictions like Teen Mom 2 and RuPaul's Drag Race...)

Goodbye friends and family stateside.

It's time to head back to Scotland.

License and Registration, Ma'am

It's now down to just a couple of days before I head back across the pond, and of course, there are whole lists of things that I need to get done before then. Could I have done them sooner? Yeah, probably. But that's neither here nor there. One of the things on the list? Spending a lovely afternoon at the MVA.



For those unaware, that would be the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, a wonderland of... standing in lines, waiting for your number to be called, only to realize that you didn't pay attention and the person behind the counter who's looking at you like you're insane isn't just being cranky, it's because you're sitting at the wrong window and completely didn't pay attention to the call screen (I got distracted! It wasn't my fault! Okay, it was completely my fault but... yeah, I have no excuse).

Once I got to the right window, it was easy enough to get the ball rolling, get all registered in the great state of Maryland, and... surrender my out of state paperwork.

I didn't think it was going to be as hard to hand over that license as it was. I haven't lived in Maryland in years, but as I no longer have a permanent residence outside of MD, it made sense to go ahead and change all of the paperwork now that I was on break. Yes, I realize I spend my time in Scotland now, but it felt like closing a big door when I handed over my North Carolina license.

I loved living in Raleigh for the most part. And I've lived there for the better part of ten years, with the occasional shift back home before going back. I don't know if I'll go back -- that's all going to depend on who wants to give me a job and contribute to this gainful employment thing I'll be eager to get back to at the end of this adventure. But I do know that I made friends with some awesome people, had some fantastic adventures, and almost sort of considered putting down roots. Haven't quite gotten all of the adventure and wanderlust out of my blood, but Raleigh would be in the running once that happens. Of course, there's also the question of 'is it the people or the area that I fell in love with?' Even if I entertained going back, there are people who made it awesome who are still there and who are probably not going anywhere, but there are also a good number of them who have left on their own adventures or who I hope leave to go on adventures.

Every big move comes with questions, and none of them have to be answered right now. As it stands, I still have that wanderlust in my blood (hello Scotland), and even though it has meant next steps and adventure, it's still hard to close that door and hand over something as silly as a driver's license for a new one.

Well, that and my picture on this one isn't nearly as good as the picture on my old one. I looked good today, too, but man, that did not communicate well on film.

Lazy

The family cat, who thinks he's people. Or thinks he's better than people -- we're not too sure on that. But he sure does have the lazy option down pat.

The last Saturday before I head back across the pond to the UK, and how do we spend it at my parents' house? Lazy. My sister and my niece are hanging out, I think only two of us actually bothered to put on anything other than pajamas today, and we've done a whole lot of... nothing.

Delightful, relaxing nothing.

Classes are going to start up quickly once I get back, and I'm already waiting on a book for next semester to show up from Amazon so that I can start before the first class. But for right now? I'm going to be lazy. And I'm going to enjoy being lazy.

O Christmas Tree (3 of 3)

We've seen family, we've seen snow, and now it's time for...

Christmas Tree 3 aka The Santa Tree



My mom has collected Santas for as long as I can remember. You knew it was Christmas time when the Santas started coming out. So, when selecting themes for the skinny trees we wanted to theme decorate, there was no question that one of them would need to be a Santa tree.



Skinny tree with red glass balls, glass Santas in antique designs, and assorted other fun Santas we had. All wrapped up with candy cane ribbon.



I was bummed that I didn't get the chance to put up a Christmas tree in St Andrews this year, but I just didn't have the cash lying around to bother getting a tree and all the ornaments to make it as epic as the ones I've done before. But I was bummed because for me, the tree is the holiday. I love my tree. I love the gaudy ornaments, I love the fakeness of it so I don't have to worry about a dead tree rotting, and I love that when I set a Christmas tree up, it automatically feels like the holidays. Christmas trees also remind me of my mom, since that's our thing over the holidays. And it's nice to have something of family at the holidays.

Next year my epic tree is going up no matter what country I'm in.

O Christmas Tree (2 of 3)

Now, we go into the decorative trees. These are my favorites. One of the big fundraisers in my hometown is the Festival of Trees -- different people/groups decorate Christmas trees to be auctioned off to the community to raise money for Hospice. It's always fun to walk through the tree display before they go to their homes in offices and businesses and homes. They're always decorated in a theme and I just thought that looked like fun.

A few years ago, my mother, who digs a good Christmas decoration with the best of them, decided the house could use a big more festivity. And so we pulled out a few smaller, theme decorated trees.

Christmas Tree 2 aka The Snowman Tree



Ah, the Snowman tree. The one I suspect is my mom's favorite. And, if I'm honest, mine too. (But only because I didn't get to put up the tree I've slowly collected for a decorated for the past few years in my townhouse down south when I was, you know, employed -- that thing has feathers on it. You can't beat a Christmas tree with peacock feathers. It's epic.)



But the Snowman tree is a favorite, decked out with a few sets of glass snowmen, individual snowman ornaments we've collected, sparkly snowflakes, sparkly... curly cue... thingies... that are awesome and I don't know the technical name of, and bows made out of snowflake ribbon.



It's a pretty safe bet that a new snowman ornament would always be an appreciated gift.

O Christmas Tree (1 of 3)

With essays turned in I can finally relax for the last little bit of my stop at home. Which probably means that I should do some cleaning up in my room because there's still the tell tale explosion of Christmas around. Although it makes me feel better that it's not the only sign of Christmas still around.

In true family tradition, the Christmas tree is still up. Oh, we've taken the ornaments down and packed them away, but the tree itself it still sitting proudly in the middle of the room because it hasn't made it back up to the attic. When will it get up there? Well... maybe before I head back to Scotland. Or maybe not. I'm taking bets on 50/50 at the moment.

So, I thought that I'd share a few pictures of one of my favorite parts of the holidays -- my trees -- since I didn't during the ACTUAL holiday season.

Christmas Tree 1 aka The Family Tree



The main event. Ole Faithful. The tree cluttered with family memories, handmade candycane ornaments, and year after year collectables. The one that sits there and says hello as we gather round and open presents on Christmas morning.



It's less cluttered this year as my sister has taken her box of ornaments to her house to put on her Christmas tree, and I wasn't here to put my entire box of ornaments on as I didn't get into town until a few days before Christmas. But homey all the same.



The pile of reindeer under the tree. The pile of awesome reindeer that we got from Burger King back in the late 80s/early 90s and have made Christmas appearances ever since. They are a favorite of both the niece and the cat for obvious reasons.

Next time: Decorative Trees

Do You Miss It?

I went out to breakfast with two of my very best friends from high school this morning, which is always a treat this time of year. Two of us live out of town (one in Vegas and one in, you know, Scotland) and the other just had a baby, so getting schedules coordinated in order to see each other is always a struggle. So it's usually once a year, around Christmas, when we're all back in town.

One of the questions asked was "do you miss it?" Do you miss being away from home? And yeah, I always miss home when I'm away from it. And I've also discovered, for all our fails and foibles and what not, I like being American. Be it ever so humble, and all.

But now, as I'm back here, I find myself missing things back in Scotland. One of the big ones is that I miss hearing people talk. And yes, it's a mixture of Scottish and assorted other British, mixed with the range of Greek, German, Eastern European, Chinese and Scandinavian from my course, but I miss hearing people talk. Which has me finding I turn on BBC America to fill in the noise.

Today's noise is brought to you by Law & Order: UK, which aside from being awesome and comfortingly formulaic as Law & Order (one go to tv badass is Olivia Benson from SVU -- she will take you down and be awesome doing it), adds in accents and wigs. Plus it has the fantastic Freema Agyeman from Doctor Who (Martha Jones) and the almost too beautiful to be real Jamie Bamber from Battlestar Galactica (Lee 'Apollo' Adama). Seriously, school girl crush. Honestly didn't know he was British until I stumbled on one of the BSG behind the scenes and heard him talking in his real accent. Be still my heart.

It's familiar and foreign at the same time, and just what I needed after working on my essays today.



In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups; the police who investigate crime, and the Crown Prosecutors who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories...

Snow. Buckets of Snow.

You know what I really wanted? I really wanted blizzard-like winter weather to follow me from the UK back home to the US. The East Coast is lovely this time of year, but you know what it really needs? It really needs the type of road closing, flight canceling, wind howling, grocery store mad dashing snow that I had back in Scotland this past month. That'll help me not feel so out of place!



Thanks, weather gods! That backpack I got for Christmas pales in comparison to the sheer joy at having traffic snarled here, just like in St Andrews.

Christmas Eve

My luggage finally made it back to the States and into my loving arms at 2am this morning. Considering that the flights into Baltimore from Heathrow had been sacrificed on the altar of 'we can only fly 1/3 of our normal schedule because holy crap the snow is killing us in the UK' I have nothing to complain about. And it doesn't look like anything was thiefed from my bag either, so again, nothing to complain about.

It made it back by Christmas Eve. Which means I had time to do that inevitable holiday task -- wrapping.



As the dining room table had already been cleared off for dinner (which for my Southern family means barbecue, coleslaw, and mac & cheese among other amazing foods -- turkey can wait, the eve belongs to pork) my bed becomes wrapping central for all of us who waited till the last minute (or who had no choice because their luggage was on another continent). Which while I wish wasn't so, usually means not them doing their own wrapping, but knocking on my door with a pitiful 'Rebecca... since you have the tape out, could you...'

They keep saying I'd miss it if they didn't ask. I reply they've never given me a chance to miss it.