Preparations continue

Our Tennessee trip is only a few days away now. I wanted to announce that Steph took a big step out of her comfort zone and is actually starting the packing a few days ahead. Usually she's unable to stomach the thought of packing the clothes until the night before, but this time she's getting a great head start and I'm proud of her.

The RV is already at dad's, so we can start loading things up as we get them ready. Looking forward to a lot of things on this trip, but the one I'm most selfishly anticipating is that the big girls (at least on the way to Pigeon Forge) are riding in the RV with G and Z, while the babies ride with Steph and me in the Camry. Why is this such a treat? Steph and I will be in charge of the music the whole way down there. We won't be subjected to Strawberry Shortcake, Kindermusik, and Backyardigans the whole trip. And let's be honest. Even when we get to listen to our own music in the car (which we make a point to enforce regularly) it's not like we really get to listen much.

And this is truly a rare treat for me. I'm a music guy, okay? It's my job, it's my hobby, it's the one passion I have that's not my family. My iPod is LOADED with almost a month of music. My favorite gift is an amazon or iTunes gift card so I can get more music. It's my simple, free pleasure to sit down with headphones or alone in front of some good speakers to just sit and let the music work on me. And sadly, the reality of my life is, I don't have time to just sit and listen anymore. My only time to enjoy music without interruption is before bed, and guess what? I can't even make it 10 minutes any more before I have to take the headphones off and go to sleep. So the thought of 5 hours of real, adult, quality music time is like a little slice of heaven.

I also love to share my musical discoveries with Steph - and of course she's worried that I won't let her choose anything the whole way down, but that's not true. I know she's excited about this too, so I'll let her partake equally. I just hope she stays awake for a FEW minutes of my stuff.

Anyway, posting has been sparse and probably will continue to be so. But once we get down to Tennessee, we'll post daily (provided we have reliable wifi).

So long for now,
Matt