I know what you are thinking. You’re thinking what the hell, Missy? You never told us all about your awesome New Year’s vacation. Well here’s the thing, I planned on telling you all, in parts, but I didn’t want to bombard you with too much too fast because I care about you, and because there was much more pressing stuff to discuss, like my neighbor Randy. But here it is, the beginning of the New Year’s Vacation story. It is long, and it is sordid, but I promise it is fun, so let’s just dive right in.

A couple of months ago our friends Dave, Beth, and Morgan asked if we would like to come visit them this winter in Rhode Island. Now I know that seems like a shitty thing to do, at first glance. Like, “Hey, we live up North, where the snow comes, and the cold comes, and the frostbite is likely to set in, would you like to come up and slowly die with us?” But, because of global warming, and because we have never visited that area (and they have been to Atlanta a lot) it turned out to be a nice invitation. So we accepted.

(This could all be wrong. We could have forced our way up there, I just don’t remember. I think I was drinking wine when the idea came up.)

Anyway, they have a group they celebrate New Year’s with in Syracuse, so we were also invited to join that group, which meant we would be leaving Atlanta for Syracuse on or near the 28th of December. Well I started Googling things, as I do, and realized that we have never been to Western New York, and you all know how much I like Buffalo wings, which led me to Buffalo, which led me to Niagara Falls, which led me to Canada, which led me to Toronto, and I know what you are thinking, “That’s too much, Missy, stop, you’ll kill your family!” Ha, you’re right. Also, here are pics of us in Buffalo eating wings, in freezing weather at Niagara Falls, and in downtown Toronto.

No worries, they are still alive.

I’m feeling scatterbrained about all that we accomplished in one week, and honestly, honestly, it was a really fun trip, though incredibly advantageous. And Jerimiah and I had the flu the whole time which made things not as lovely as we would have hoped, but even through all that, through 3,000 miles, 15 states, two countries, four hotels, 15 friends, a train ride, and a partridge in a pear tree, we had a superb time and we would totally do it all over again! Whew!

All the cool shit we did is going to have to wait now because I am tired just writing it all out. I will however leave you with a video. I do this fun thing wherein I sing a geographically-actuate song to Jerimiah on long road trips. He really, ahem, loves it. And believe me I had a lot of songs to sing this time around. Please enjoy.

M.