"Going"

At long last! Already! She's on the train headed east and "going" can finally be an accurate if superfluously punctuated title!

This morning Priscilla woke up for the first time in a week or so, maybe longer, without having the jitters or feeling worried or scared-- just ready to take off. Thanks to the providential fiasco last night, she was already packed, yet also had the time to do those inevitable last minute things that usually don't get done.

Here are some of those things that she thus had the time to do:

--Pick up some alcohol swabs at the Hacketts to complete her handy dandy first aid kit

--Walk in the park with Art, Rachel, and Molly

--Buy ibuprofen and I think something else to render her first aid kit that much handier and dandier

--Close an old cobwebby bank account she hadn't touched in years and thus fill her pockets with some cold cobwebby cash (which could also come in handy at some dandy store on the trip)

--Re-enlist the help of helpful sidekick Sarah in writing out & laminating more of Ephesians, Phil, and Colossians

--Call the Zosses, who will be her hosts in Boston

--Make a delicious pizza with zucchini, chicken, tomatoes, basil, onions, and more, and then share it with her helpful sidekick Sarah, good buddy James, and trusty assistant (this was particularly handy for her trusty assistant, who will be having leftover pizza for lunch for the rest of the week)

Soon eight o'clock rolled around yet again, and Rachel arrived. The girls ran downstairs, Priscilla ran back upstairs and then ran back down again, this time with her passport, jumped into the car, and zipped back to Union Station, which looked strangely familiar. Rachel stayed with the car (because she's great like that) and the h.s. and the t.a. accompanied Priscilla inside. Sarah the sidekick was shown the awful ticket lady from a safe distance, and then they scooted through the doors to the gate. There they sat amid the requisite local color of all Amtrak trains (an Amish family, hippie kids with waist-length dreadlocks, noisy Australian boys, cutters-in-line, glarers-at-cutters-in-line, etc.) and talked and Sarah took a few pictures (like the one above) and eventually all three were inadvertantly absorbed into a line.

And then it was time for boarding, with hugs and goodbyes and the helpful sidekick & trusty assistant off to slink across the empty ticketed-passengers-only lounge, now obvious in their rule-breaking, and Priscilla off to a twenty-four-hour train ride and the beginning of her fabulous new adventure.