Actually, for a good portion Joel and I fought. A lot.

We’re alike in many ways but sometimes the ways that we are different irritate the crap out of both of us. I guess that’s called marriage, huh?

The thing is, I am not always ready on time. I’m very rarely late to things but that’s because I have getting-ready-at-the-last-second-because-how-did-it-get-to-be-that-time-already-ohmygaaah-I’m-going-to-be-late down to an art form. And then I’m not late. But I cut it very close.

Joel, on the other hand, would just as soon be somewhere an hour early. For no reason whatsoever. I mean, why would you get somewhere an hour early when you could have spent that hour sleeping? Why?!

As you can imagine this causes quite a few fights. Because he’s all huffy and tense that I’m not ready on time an hour and a half early. Then I get annoyed at the sighs and the “casual” mentions of the time and the standing at the door with coat and shoes on while I’m still in the bathroom drying my hair.

::sigh::

It’s the way we were raised. His family was always painfully early to things. Mine was always embarrassingly late. Neither is the ideal obviously. But we’re both pretty stuck in our ways. Me because I enjoy sleep way more than is probably healthy and Joel because he likes to eliminate even the possibility of the possibility of stress.

So, I was ready about 45 minutes after we agreed on. We weren’t in any danger of missing our appointment but it caused some tense words. For a decent amount of time.

Then? We both took deep breaths, apologized for being ridiculous (because we both so were) told each other how much we loved each other and moved on.

I believe the best quality we both posses is the ability to forgive quickly and easily. I’m positive we wouldn’t be together still otherwise. We’re both too dramatic for it to work out any other way.

Thankfully, by the time we parked downtown we had kissed and made up and were back to being ridiculously in love again. We grabbed some Intelligentsia (which, not even going to lie, those baristas make waaaay better coffee than me. I have a lot of practicing to do) and were still 30 minutes early for our appointment.

(Not going to say I told you so. Not. going. to. say. it.)

Oh right, the appointment. We turned in our applications for our Indian visas. Which makes this whole trip start to seem very real. I’m not going to get truly excited until we actually have the visas issued though. And plane tickets purchased. Although a very exciting offer was made that if it works out would mean we won’t have to mess with flying standby. Which would be AHmazing. We’ll see. I’ll definitely keep you all updated.

At the application office there was a lady who tried to apply but wasn’t able to because she didn’t have a birth certificate. Her and another women we were waiting in line with us and were talking about how excited they were about the trip. The look on her face when the lady told her her naturalization papers weren’t acceptable was heartbreaking. She was born out of the country. She had no way to get any kind of other paperwork. What she had the Indian consulate would not accept. It’s unclear if there’s any way around the issue. Her friend applied for her own visa while she just sat in a chair wide eyed and sad. I wanted to hug her. I hope she finds a way to fix the problem. I hope this doesn’t mean she can never travel to India. I guess I’ll never know.

So, my nervous excitement was dampened just a little by that poor woman’s problem. Just a little though.

Because oh my goodness I just applied for an Indian visa.

Since we were already downtown we decided to use our Living Social deal that we got to see Avatar at Navy Pier’s IMAX theater. The movie was fine (we’d both already seen it) but the best part was just being downtown. It was so unbelievably gorgeous today. Just perfect weather and bright blue skies and…. ah I love Chicago. As soon as we get a decent camera I plan on spending a day downtown trying to capture my city’s essence. It won’t be possible of course but I’m going to try as hard as I can.

Chicago is just amazing.

I wish we could have spent the whole day downtown wandering around and enjoying the perfect day but since I have to wake up at 4am we headed back home after the movie. Why don’t I live downtown again? Oh right. Stupid money. Bah.

Aaaand, that was my day. I’d say the title was pretty accurate. This post was just my thoughts pouring out of my head filterless. And now that my brain has emptied itself onto this page I’m feeling very sleepy.

Which is perfect because now that I work so early in the mornings I have the bed time of a three year old.

One time, as a working crew member, they apparently didn’t stamp my passport. I found this out as I was trying to leave because the customs officer starting yelling at me about the fact that I didn’t have one. I wasn’t aware I was responsible for supervising German immigration. ::eye roll:: Thankfully he let me leave since I was standing there with a crew badge in uniform. And I said I’d only been there for 24 hours. Likely a liar would say slightly longer. I assume. I’ve never lied to immigration. Really.

Since, in my first six months of working, I was assigned trips to Frankfurt no less than 9 times you can imagine how boring it is to look through my passport. A whole lot of AMS and FRA, a French and Chinese visa and a few US stamps just for good measure. This has left me with very few pages left. Thankfully I have just enough room for my Indian visa which I will be applying for next Wednesday.

Yep, you read that right. I’m 90% sure this trip is actually going to happen. I’m in shock and shaking from excitement at the same time. Despite the fact that I’ve been hoping and praying to go on this trip since I was 12 years old I still feel completely unprepared. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that we didn’t raise enough money to buy tickets from the US to India. We’re going to have to fly standby to Europe and fly out of there.

Considering my last standby experience to Europe that kind of scares the crap out of me.

The cheapest tickets we found were out of Frankfurt which as I mentioned earlier is a city I’m quite familiar with. The only concern I have is I realized it’s right smack in the middle of Oktoberfest. Now, Oktoberfest happens in Munich but it still worries me that we might not be able to make it.

Our next option is Amsterdam which should be a breeze to get in and out of. The only problem is it’s going to cost like $700 more. ::sigh::

We have to decide soon but we need to get visas before we buy non-refundable plane tickets because the last thing we want is to be denied visas and just throw money away.

And now you can see where I’m stressed.

Not to mention I have barely any room in my US passport.

There’s plenty of room in my Swiss passport but something about the fact that I live in the States means I can’t use it. Lame.

We thought we could get extra pages put in but it turns out it costs almost as much to do that as to get a new passport. Super lame!

But we’re going.

I think.

I want this so bad it makes my heart ache. I wish we had raised enough to buy our plane tickets all the way from ORD but I guess that makes it even more about faith.

All I know is I’ve already heard about the children we’re going down there to help. And it makes me want to cry thinking about them. I can’t wait to play with them and read them stories and make their home a better place.

We’ve already sent money down to the home ahead of us. Today I found out what they’re using it for.

Toilets.

They’re putting in toilets so that they’ll have them when we arrive.

I told Joel I don’t need a toilet! I’ve used a squatty-potty before and we’re going to be in the middle of the jungle, I honestly didn’t expect anything other than a hole. Joel said it was already part of the improvement plans so I don’t feel guilty.

Imagine being exited about getting a toilet.

I can’t tell you how badly I hope to make it there. They are anticipating our arrival already and I know they will be very disappointed if we can’t make it for some reason. This is one of my biggest life dreams and it just seems unreal that it may actually happen.

Please send good vibes as we apply for visas and finally purchase plane tickets.

I’m so nervous but I’m starting to think we’re actually going to make it.

As always you can find out more about our trip at our HelpSend.Us site.

1. Travel to India. This is so close to becoming a reality I can taste it. Really it deserves it’s own post and I will work on one in the near future. Basically it’s been my dream to go on a mission trip to India since I was 12 (half my life) and we have one set up to go in October.

We are working on fundraising right now. We’ve had some very generous donations from some amazing people. We’re still a ways off from the total needed though. If you have any ideas for fundraisers please send them my way. You can get more info at HelpSend.Us

2. Become a mother: Still not ready for this one. I have time ::grin::

4. Read all books on Time 100 best novels list: I have a few books marked off but honestly they’re ones I read prior to making the list. I need to step up on this one.

5. Run a marathon: I’ve taken the first step. Or steps. Check out Running Between Tweets for updates on mine and all my fellow tweeps progress.

9. Visit every US state: I have 12 more to go. I still have my flight benefits so getting to the states isn’t a problem. The main thing is having a place to stay once I get there. I don’t have tons of cash but I have so many wonderful blog/Twitter friends spread all over the country.

Would any of you from the states that I’m missing be willing to host me? Even just over night so I could meet you and buy a spoon (yes I collect spoons. What?) I don’t need anything fancy. A floor and a blanket would be more than enough. Who’s first? ::wink::

10. See all movies on Time 100 best movies list: I’ve gotten about a quarter of the way through the list thanks to our Blockbuster online membership. I’ve loved some and been bored to tears on others.

14. Earn an award with Phoebe: I’m entering us in our first rally obedience trial the middle of this month. I’ll let you know how it goes!

16. Join a book club: I get to mark one off! Woot! I’ve written about my book club a few times so you already know I have met some really neat girls there including the one who invited me to be on the soccer team.

I don’t know that I expected to have so much fun. I love reading but the book club is so much more than just discussing books. In fact, as we’ve gone on I could almost care less about the books that I’ve read. None of them are probably ones I’d pick out myself. The great part is, it doesn’t matter because the group of friends we’ve built is priceless. It’s just what I didn’t know I needed.

26. Keep a blog or journal daily for one year: That is where the title of this blog comes in. As of today I have successfully completed six months of that year on SkyWaitress.com. I’m actually really impressed that I’ve come this far.

Before this I was always a sporadic blogger. I would post several times a week for awhile and then go for months with nothing. I felt like if I didn’t have anything big to blog about I couldn’t post.

Now I’ve realized that isn’t the case. Granted, all of my posts haven’t been stellar but I feel like I’ve learned so much and improved as a writer and blogger by making this commitment. There are days when I have no idea what to blog about but I sit down and start writing anyway. And sometimes? Those are some of my best posts. Apparently my brain has a lot rolling around in it.

I don’t pretend to be a professional blogger or to have everything figured out. I am having fun though. I’ve also gotten more involved with Twitter and have made some wonderful friends out of it. I seriously wonder what I did without all you guys. I look forward to the next six months of blogging and beyond.

I am so excited about how far I’ve come. I have a long ways to go and a lot to accomplish in the next 5 1/2 years but I’m confident I can pull it off. I’m doing really well. Working through this list has already improved who I am as a person. I am much more focused and excited about life. I have goals and I am working towards them. I highly recommend everyone make a list similar to this. It can fit where ever you are in life and drive you to where you want to be. You’ll be surprised how inspiring it is.

Letting myself dream and get excited is the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s already taken me places and I can’t wait to see where I’ll be in six months, a year and on my 30th birthday. I have a feeling, it’s going to be somewhere amazing.

Let me give you a little tour so you don’t miss any of the new features:

1. I got a brand new favicon. Don’t know what that means? Look up in your browser window right next to my url. See the little picture of me? You may need to clear your cache or reopen your browser to get the full effect.

2. Drop down menus. Check under my 30 by 30 page at the top. There are now links to the Time best 100 movies and books lists that I’m working my way through.

3. Look to your right. See that button? That’s to our HelpSend.Us website. We are currently raising money for a trip to India where we hope to work with a children’s home and do other humanitarian aid work. Any help, whether it’s financial or help spreading the word makes a difference.

4. Comments. I installed Intense Debate so now you’ll be able to reply to specific comments, subscribe to comments and a whole bunch of other useful features. Check out Intense Debate’s website so you can take full advantage.

Feel free to let me know how much you love it. Or if there’s something broken you can tell me that too, either way.

Dear Joel,

This last year was a good one. We’ve grown so much together and I have fallen more in love with you than ever. We had many adventures including a last minute weekend trip to The Netherlands. It was the first time we’d been there together in almost four years. It was so fun revisiting the country with you and watching my Dutch family love you just as much as ever. I love how spontaneous we are together.

Speaking of spontaneous, our biggest adventure by far was our trip down to Australia to see the premiere of Star Trek. That was one of the best trips of my life, I’m so glad we took it together. Thank you for being such a big nerd that you traveled to the opposite side of the world just to see a movie.

We tried going to Africa together but couldn’t get the funds. Don’t worry, it will all come together when it’s time. In a way, I’m kind of glad it didn’t work out since we  have decided to try to go to India next year instead. This has been my dream since I was young and there is no one I’d rather go with.

Our newest adventure has been our puppy dog. I love watching you love on her and play with her. I know it’s been a challenge and she’s tried both of our patience but she’s turning into a wonderful dog. Thank you for sticking it out with me and not selling her on ebay.

You are my very best friend and I love you so much. I even looked forward to standing outside on a freezing cold November night waiting for the midnight release of the Star Trek movie on Blu-ray. See, I love you enough that I’m turning into a nerd with you and I even like it. How appropriate it is that Star Trek is released on your birthday. I’m pretty sure Star Trek doesn’t have a bigger fan.

I wish you the happiest of birthdays. I look forward to celebrating many, many more with you.

Live long and prosper my love.

-Abigail