berlin in ten

Besides the obvious reasons (monkeymonkeymonkeyscientist), I'm really excited to be traveling next week (Urk! Must get shots! Shoes! Hostess gifts for friendly Ukrainians!) because I haven't been anywhere since 2001 and the Great Ramen Museum Pilgrimage disguised as a trip to Japan. Well, Detroit and St. Thomas and Black Rock City. But really traveling-traveling. I caught the bug at 25, and try to go somewhere cool every other year. And I'd fallen off my schedule. Good to be back on.

And the whole family-village thing with my mother, well, I've sort of been taking that for granted as something a girl and her mom do, but my catering coworkers are all agog. If only they knew how badly I abuse her when we travel together. There was an episode with a Thin Mint on an airplane once, and the night in San Diego when we wondered if our hotel room came with a complimentary baseball bat for dealing with the cock-a-roaches. This time I'm threatening to make her eat borscht and pig fat spread on black bread, and since I'm the one who's been learning some Ukrainian, she's relying on me to order. Heh heh heh. Fortunately we have the same sense of humor.

We may not have visas yet, but we have the same sense of humor.