I'm in Arkansas!

That's right! Over the weekend, I packed up my things and moved to Arkansas. Actually, I didn't move permanently, but I'll be here for the next couple of weeks. My grandfather is sick in the hospital, so my family pretty much dropped everything and went as soon as we could. Our cars aren't that reliable, so we rented this:

It's a Dodge Grand Caravan. It's a pretty nice car. I swear, it has everything. You can even open and close the trunk using your key. (Which, actually, doesn't even look like a key. It has no teeth!)

And, of course, we couldn't just leave our two cats at home while we went on vacation for a couple of weeks, so we had to take them with us. I don't know how many of you have owned cats, but traveling with them is just not a good idea. We realized this before we left and therefore had to come up with a solution for spastic behavior. We thought for a while, and then it came to us. How do you make a crazy person shut up and be happy? Drugs. We got this pheromone stuff that is supposed to make cats calm. That's all fine and dandy, but we knew that we'd need something a little stronger. We went to the vet and got some heavy-duty knockout drugs for the cats in case of emergency. (And by emergency, I mean the cats meowing until our ears hurt.) We left Charlottesville at about 10:00 in the morning on Sunday. By the time we got to Waynesboro, everyone in my family agreed that we needed to use the drugs. We gave each of the cats half a pill, and before long, they looked like this:

We put them back in their cat carrier and didn't hear another sound from them all day. We stopped just outside of Nashville, Tennessee for the night, found a hotel that took pets and gave out free cookies, and fell instantly asleep. (The cookie was good.)

Of course, the cats sleeping all day meant that they were awake and energetic all night. The rest of my family got woken up multiple times by the cats, and barely got any sleep. I, however, wasn't even disturbed once. I don't know how that happened, but I wasn't complaining. The next morning, we gave them another dose of the drugs and set on our way. It's been a while since I've been on a car trip, and I forgot just how boring the actual trip is. It's just hours and hours and hours of this:

We finally got to Siloam Springs, Arkansas in the late afternoon on Monday. One of my grandmothers lives here, and we're staying with her. She's incredibly nice. When we got here, she already had a batch of her world-famous fudge waiting for us.I had some and it was delicious. (Much better than the cookie.) I would bring some back to share with everyone, but I would eat it on the way.

Unfortunately, I started feeling a little sick to my stomach later that night. I thought that getting some rest would help, so I went off to bed. I woke up at about midnight, went to the restroom, and barfed my guts out. (Not literally, but I wanted to give you a nice mental picture.) After my violent episode of vomiting, I felt much better, which makes me think that it was something I ate. (Apparently, my body isn't built to run on sausage, quesadillas smothered in hot sauce, mountain dew, chicken sandwiches, and Frostys.) I got a glass of water, and went back to bed.

This morning, even though I felt fine, I decided it would be best for me to not see my grandfather today. His immune system is trashed and I wouldn't want to risk exposing him to any extra germs.

I miss you all, and I hope to be back in Charlottesville soon!