Pets Pets Pets

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“We’ll make great pets.” Pets – Porno For Pyros

So, as stated in yesterday’s post, I have some concerns about some things while I’m gone. A lot of these concerns revolve around the animals. We have 5 pets in total:

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Madame Mouffette (my sassy cat)

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Lukkah (my loving and sweet dog)

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Ana and Curley Sue (my dad’s two dogs aka Pee-pants Babies)

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and Seren (my mom’s crochety cat)

Leaving 5 animals behind is hard enough when you know you’ll miss them desparately, but what about when two of them are knocking on the proverbial death’s door?! Lukkah is 12 yrs old and Seren is 13. Just to be realistic, there is a strong possibility that one or both of them could pass away while we are gone. It’s upsetting to think that this would happen while we were gone, but really…there’s nothing we can do about it. I can’t go through life not experiencing it because my animals might die while I’m gone. It’s just a serious concern I have in the back of my mind. I just have to continue to tell myself it will be okay.

I’m also concerned for Moo Moo (Madame Mouffette). She will be alone and by herself in the house. We have a house sitter so I’m not worried about her too much. It’s just hard to be away from her for too long 😉

Ana and Curly Sue are less of a worry because they are pretty resilient with most situations. They’re staying with my Aunt and they will have plenty of good care. I’m not too worried about them.

So you can see I’m thinking a bit much on this. What do you guys think?  Is there something I can do to ease my mind about this?

-Heather

Preparation is Important

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“There ain’t a thing I’ve faced that’s been too much for me.” Inner Ninja – Classified, David Myles

Throughout my day, I have a lot of open area for my imagination to run wild and to meditate on current events as well as future goings on. So naturally the one thing that I am ALWAYS randomly thinking about is this trip! If you can remember back to when you were a child, you would anticipate Christmas day and what that would mean for you. For most people it was exciting and intense. The anticipation of what gifts you would get or maybe Santa Clause had brought some really amazing magical thing would overcome you and so life was barely tolerable until that moment. This is the same feeling I get when thinking about this trip, only it’s not as magnified due to my being an adult. *Enter in Debbie Downer sound effect*

To prepare for this trip, I have kept a checklist in my head and on paper of things I need to do before I leave. Some include:

  1. Showing the animal sitter how to administer flea medicine to my cat. (She’s got an attitude but super cute! You can follow her on Instagram @madamemouffette *the cat not the sitter*).
  2. Bathing my dog Lukkah.
  3. Preparing his sleeping quarters.
  4. Paying Bills.
  5. Going to the doctor.
  6. Exercising more.
  7. Contacting UNCG about educational matters.
  8. Paying a speeding ticket. Uhg!
  9. Shop for appropriate clothing.
  10. Making a list of what to pack for the trip.
  11. Ordering items for the trip: camping supplies, normal toiletries etc.

Some of these could be purchased or done on the trip. However I really feel more comfortable being prepared than having to do it later. A control thing? Maybe? A woman thing? Maybe. Either way it’s who I am.

I haven’t begun to imagine how to pack my bag. I really haven’t. But, the one thing I AM going to do before I leave is put my logo on my luggage! One thing I have noticed while traveling is that most everyone has the SAME luggage. This isn’t a new thing and people have taken lengths to try to distinguish their luggage from others. What better way to identify mine, than to put my logo on it. It’s a hard suitcase on rollers so I originally wanted to just take a Sharpie to the whole thing and do some creative design to it. Unfortunately I envision it getting worn off before I even get to California and frankly, as a designer I’m not interested in the end product becoming a mess, so I’m going to put my logo, in vinyl, on the suitcase. When I’m finished with it I will post a pic for you all to see!

I have some major concerns about specific things when I go on this trip, though I will save that for tomorrow.

If you all can think of some helpful tips on how to prepare for a two month trip, PLEASE let me know! I’d love to be as prepared as possible! 🙂

-Heather

Introduction

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about me pic

“I am everyday people.” Sly & The Family Stone

As an introduction, my name is Heather Wilkins. I’m 33 years old and am currently a part-time instructor at a local community college and teach Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign to Graphic Design students. You were wondering if I love my job? I ABSOLUTELY love my job! Every day I am teaching, I’m learning. It’s a great feeling and I’ve learned a lot about myself through my students. Being a graphic designer for 6 years has opened up a world to me that I never would have known and I attribute so much of my growth to that. Unfortunately this will be the last semester that I will teach because this fall I plan on attending the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for Interpreter Preparation Concentration (Interpreter of the Deaf)! I’m really stoked about that. In one hand I’m sad but in the other I’m excited and happy that I’m finding a new path. You’re probably wondering why I’m leaving something that I love…well…I have so much more of me that I want to give and more I want to learn. I’ve always been interested in sign language and recently became more interested in the Deaf Community. I think being an interpreter will open up a whole new world for me. I won’t quit designing – NEVER! I will always be a designer. Just veering off onto another path. 🙂

  Now, about the trip. So, if you haven’t read about it in my, “About This Journey” section in the menu, I’ve started this blog to document a cross country trip that myself and my parents are taking in May. We will leave May 14th by plane, land in California and stay with our cousins in Penryn for about 4 days. After that we will purchase a Nissan Quest minivan from them and drive it up the coast and arrive in Aberdeen Washington. My sister lives there along with my nieces (of whom I’m SO excited to see). We will stay there for two months (give or take a couple of days) then drive ALL THE WAY back in the Quest to North Carolina. For the journey back we are taking the middle route. So this is how the trip looks from start to finish:

Belhaven NC –> Penryn CA –> Aberdeen WA

Aberdeen WA –> ID –> MT–> WY –> CO –> KS –> MO –> IL –> KY –> TN –> Belhaven NC (You can also view this visual in the photo on the homepage.)

There are many sites we will visit and things we’ll do. One of our main purposes of taking this trip is to watch my 18 yr. old niece graduate high school! My heart swells when I think of her being so grown. 🙂 We will visit a couple of National Parks, visit Canada, go camping in Washington and several other things that I will share! We don’t have everything written down and nothing is set in stone. We have ideas and plans to go to certain places and we’ll let other events waft in as we go.

We’re just trying to have a good time and take it all in and really enjoy this trip. I mean, how many opportunities do you get to travel across this great nation?!