2 Days.

I'm sitting in my room. My bags are packed. I've said my goodbyes. All my last-minute items have been bought. I even bought and downloaded a map of the Parisian metro system onto my iPod touch (it was only $0.99, don't worry). Now I just have to wait for my flight. All in all, not a bad place to be. I've also managed to keep both my big black bags under 50 lbs. That's quite an accomplishment considering my bigger one started out at 67 lbs. I'm pretty proud; I'll be honest.

I love Samantha Brown. There's currently some sort of marathon of one of her many shows on the Travel channel. She was just camping in Minnesota with a dogsled team. Now she's in Memphis for the weekend. I looked her up on Wikipedia and then on this site about people from New Hampshire (where she grew up). I've always had this impression that people who host things on the Travel Channel are these very accomplished journalists who have spent hours and hours researching all the places they go. Samantha, however, was a major in Musical Theater and was discovered by the Travel Channel as she worked with an off-Broadway sketch-comedy group in Manhattan. Excuse me? I guess you shouldn't underestimate how far having a winning personality and a megawatt smile can take you in life.

Something very exciting and unexpected happened over the weekend. My family got reconnected with some long lost friends that we haven't talked to in about seven years. First some background: My parents have been, for as long as I've been alive, self employed. They've had a lot of different people work with them over the years, several of whom, have become very close family friends. This is especially true of this family. Aunt Marianna and Uncle Chuck are about the same age as my parents, and their kids, Blake and Amanda, are my age. We grew up together. They were the closest thing I ever had to siblings. The one day, around the time I was in 8th or 9th grade. There was a misunderstanding between Marianna and my father and feelings were hurt and the relationship between the two families was severed. Blake and I, being the same year in school, graduated high school and went and graduated from college. Either me or Amanda contacted one another through Facebook and decided that we wanted to get together and just have lunch or something last summer. Then I went to their house and had dinner and then with jobs and school starting and what not we just lost contact again until last Sunday. I was near their house with my mom and decided I wanted to just say goodbye as I was leaving for France. I went to their house and only Chuck was there (Marianna was at work) so I just went in and talked to him for a while. My mom waited in the car because she didn't want to create an awkward situation for anyone. So I talked to Chuck for a bit just catching up and then mentioned I should go because my mom was in the car and I had stuff to do back at the house anyway. He decided to come out to the car and he and my mom had a long talk and just caught up. So we went home and then two hours later, Marianna, for the first time in seven years, bravely showed up at the house and she and my mom had this really emotional reunion and they hugged and then went upstairs and talked for about an hour. They both told each other that during the seven year absence they had continued to write birthday cards, Christmas cards (though they were seldom actually sent) and had been continually praying for one another's families. My mom said that it was like nothing had ever happened between them and everything was just back as it had always been. What a great story. They're already back to emailing one another and letting each other know what's happening.

Just thought I would share something completely unexpected with you, whoever you are.