All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go.

My life has come to the point where having 4 days off in a row is a vacation. I feel like I'm taking off to somewhere tropical and relaxing, that's how excited I am to have this time off. In actuality I only have one extra day off in addition to what I normally get off every week, but this week I'm leaving Abbotsford for my days off! I'm already packed and I don't leave until tomorrow afternoon. But I don't care. My packed bags by the front door are not a fire hazard because roomie's small so she can fit around them. It may or may not look like I'm actually leaving for 10 days based on the amount of luggage I have. I'm only gone for 3 nights. My mother will roll her eyes at me. She likes to constantly remind me I'm not actually a celebrity. She should feel privileged since she's the one that gets to ride with a celebrity for 3 hours in the car. I picture myself wearing my oversized sunglasses whether it's sunny or not, sipping iced coffee, flipping through a trashy gossip magazine. I picture her either turning up the music extra loud hoping it deters me from looking at pictures of my fellow celebrities reading, or turning off the music completely with the hopes of me talking her ear off. I'm a fantastic multi-tasker, I can talk and be a celebrity at the same time. She should know this.

So where am I going, you ask? Back to my old stomping grounds. To relive my childhood via Cherry Lane Mall and Tickleberry's ice cream parlor. To possibly cry myself to sleep every night I'm away (and for another 3 nights after I get home) because I want to live there again. It is...PENTICTON!!!!! I was born there. I was mostly raised there. I'm from there. I miss the Okanagan with all my heart. So when I get an opportunity to go back for a visit I get more excited than when the people that live above me leave the house. It's my grandparents that the whole fam is going to visit. The. Whole. Fam. (Minus MiniSis) (*that's a lot of the same letters for two words) Easter is almost as big as Christmas in my family, so let's refer to it as spring Christmas. Getting all six of us to all have the same time off to all take a road trip is an almost miracle. But at g-pa's request, we part the waters to make it happen.

My g-pa is my world. We have a mutual adoration for each other and I hate that we're so far apart, so this weekend I plan on attempting to make up our distance. I also plan to make up for his angel getting inked. At least it's pretty, nice, feminine ink...? This was the last conversation the g-rent's and I had:

G-ma: Don't forget to bring your bathing suit so you can go in the hot tub!
Me: Ohhhh...about that...I won't be able to go in the hot tub...I'm getting a tattoo...*winces in anticipation for response
G-pa: Har har har
G-ma: Oh...of what?
Me: Explains
G-ma: I'm just about done getting my tattoos.
Me: Uhh, what? What tattoos?
G-pa: Har har har (he's a man of few words)
G-ma: I just need the last line of my eyeliner done.

Oh right, I had almost forgotten the g-ma got her eyebrows tattooed, and then decided she needed her eyeliner tattooed as well. Because being able to just get up and put on some lipstick was convenient. I guess I can't argue with that, but eyeliner?! Let's not forget my aversion to eye touching. I could not imagine a needle coming within a foot of my eyeballs. It makes me want to die.

So in 26 hours I will be en route to the beautiful, [hopefully] sunny Okanagan to stare at makeup tattoos and cling to my elders. I hope I don't return from my vacay wanting my eyes tattooed out of pure convenience.