Big Trip.

Sam is leaving in the morning for CHINA.  wow.  A big trip.  Definitely.  He will fly from Atlanta to Toronto. Toronto to Beijing.  Air time alone is over 15 hours.  He'll stay in Beijing overnight and then catch a train or a boat to the next leg of the journey.
He is going to Ningbo, China to tour a piano manufacturer's plant.  I just looked at all the hotels he'll be staying in.......they have a very distinct exotic style.........all the facilities look very nice.  While he's there he'll be visiting the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City.  It's gonna be a hectic exhausting week.......yup, he'll be there a week and return next Friday.....or maybe Saturday.....depending on the change back to US time.  (i have tired excited confusion,lol)
Pretty exciting..........I asked Sam to bring me some dirt.  Or rocks or sand, leaves......whatever is ok that is natural and kosher to bring to a Mom out in the country in these southern United States.  I have a thing for authentic bits and pieces.......shells, twigs, anything that I can treasure that is not like anybody else's souvenir.  I have funny odd bits from my own and from the kids travels.  I don't want no stinking tee shirt.  That is just not the sort of thing I treasure.  Nope, just gimme some native dirt. 
(once when Sam was 14 he went with his buddy Chris & Fam to NYC......I asked him to bring me grafitti, Sam found a piece of chipped concrete curb with splattered paint.........loved it then, love it now!!!!!  )
PLEASE PRAY for Sam's trip to be safe, productive, fun and again SAFE.  It will be a very different culture, not many people will speak English.........and it's also a great opportunity.  I hope he has a wonderful time, gets to take pictures, has some fun, doesn't stress and enjoys the food.  I am looking forward to hearing about his trip...........ok, that's really all I have to say for now.  At some point he will be in Shanghai.......this is gonna be very different from say The Waffle House down the road from my house.  I wish I was a youngster with grit and a plane ticket..............how incredible to go to a vast place like China..................my Dad would trip that his grandson is heading there tomorrow.
ok sweet cookieheads.........i'm excited for him, hope i can settle down and get to sleep.  my new hair is tripping me out, i brushed it today and it felt so weird, not to have the part Brielle cut off.........nice that hair grows right???!!!!  I like the new shorter do, but it's an adjustment.  i think i will go look at wigs online, maybe someday i will get a short silver wig............or maybe there is a place a girl can go to try them on first????  maybe baby.......ok nite nite!  oops, forgot to hug yer neck......now nite nite!