Thoughts from the road to Atlanta

Kj in Atlanta

Originally uploaded by Kjirstin.

I drove today from Montgomery to Atlanta–it’s a straight shot up I-85, and keeps surprising me by how short a drive it is. I’m out here for my class this week. I wanted to post a few thoughts I had on my drive up here.

1. Who knew there were armidillos in Alabama? I never would have thought it, but I see them as roadkill all the time, their mini-rhino bodies looking too hard to have been prey to a car on the freeway. They seem to be about as ubiquitous as possums anywhere else that I’ve lived. I’ve never seen one as anything but roadkill, but the number of them on the roads would suggest they’re around . . . somewhere. Hosting drunken road-crossing parties, perhaps???

2. Atlanta is a nice place to be–the hotel where I’m staying is lovely, though the rooms are pretty minimalist. However, the garden area with paths, streams and a waterfall (you can see it in the photo) is almost worth it!

3. I know I had more thoughts but now I don’t remember them! That’s what several hours of travel will do to you!

Well, that’s it for now. I don’t like to take up too much time at the “Business Center” in the lobby, after all. Back to Reading Lolita in Tehran.

I’d better write something here eventually!

I’ve been unsure if I wanted to keep this site up or not, since it does have my whole name on it. However, as I’ve thought about it, I’ve decided that it makes sense to keep this up as my link to friends and family, and then I’ll maybe have a “public” blog to link to and to put up stuff that’s less specific to me and those who know and love me.

At present, I don’t have a lot of time–I’m coordinating a retirement ceremony for my boss, Major Lee, and I’ve got this nagging feeling that I’m forgetting something important. However, this same feeling stays with me most days when I leave my house, so perhaps it’s just something that I need to live with.

Life is pretty quiet at present, with only myself and my supervisor in our section of the office this week (hence why, by default, I got the retirement ceremony coordination). Next week I’m going to be heading off to Atlanta to take a week-long class from Learning Tree about software testing and inspection methods, which I’m sure will be a real thrill. Oh well–it’s working towards certification as a business analyst, and any new certifications you can get tend to be good for your career, even if the topic is less than a thrill!

Well, this will have to suffice as my first entry–I can’t think of much more to say except a list of all the things I need to do over the next days/weeks/months. Of course, a big reason that I decided to have a blog at all is because I’m going to be deploying to Baghdad in October (last estimate I heard was sometime around the 20th), and I want to be able to keep up with people once I’m there, without being a horrible correspondent. So perhaps if I have one central location to keep updated, I’ll do a better job of staying current. We shall see!