Almost Too Tired to Travel

One more day. Just one more day. Then we get to head north with Dr. Vet-Friend Two, her husband, and two of her other friends and their husbands or boyfriends. It's her birthday weekend, so we'll spend two nights at Giant's Ridge in Biwabik, Minnesota. "Biwabik" is the Ojibwe word for "valuable" or "iron," or "valuable as it pertains to iron." It's in Minnesota's Iron Range (go figure). Click on the map to see where it is; it's too tiny in this image, but my formatting gets all wonky if I make it any bigger.

But to get there, we first have to - well - get there. You know I've been having a majorly hectic time at work since Memorial Day, and it's only just begun to settle down. I was in a meeting for six straight hours yesterday with my former Dream Applicant for the reception spot. She had turned out to be so wildly overqualified (she and her soon-to-be-ex-husband own a very successful veterinary practice about 30 miles away) that we knew she'd be miserable in such a position. She's been running a practice for so long, though, that she's agreed to do some freelance practice consulting for us, helping us improve our own service, efficiency and growth. Very important, sure, but I am so overwhelmed. I've finally narrowed down the focus for us to start, and we're meeting again next week.

Now I just have to survive tomorrow, and I do plan to leave an hour or two early since I didn't even get a lunch break the last two days.

There's a very important reason that I need to get out of work a bit early tomorrow. Every bit of my trip preparation will have to be done tomorrow evening. Why? Because I'm too tired right now, and since I have one more day to procrastinate I do not yet feel the urgency to force me to work through my tiredness.

It's been raining and/or storming all day today, and I plan to sit here with my four damp dogs (one of which is also slightly muddy due to his Bog being fully rehydrated) and read. I would watch TV, but the guide shows nothing of interest. Really. Not one thing I'm even remotely interested in seeing. I'll probably turn on NatGeo and the show about the "Moon Landing Conspiracy," though I think those people are all absolute nutjobs, and read. Maybe soak in the tub for a while. Possibly with Darwin, since he needs a bath far worse than I do. (Kidding! I have yet to actually share the tub with any of my dogs. Well, not since Pepper, the cockapoo I had growing up. I used to put on my bathing suit and get in the tub with her when she got a bath. Yes, I was a strange child.)

Tomorrow, I will have to do laundry, pack, make up the spare room for Auntie T who will be here dogsitting, make sure things are tidy, that she can actually find the computer on the desk in my room, that she won't catch anything incurable in the bathroom, and that there isn't too much disgusting and/or embarrassing stuff sitting out in plain sight.

Packing is a bit of a problem. The weather says it should be in the mid to upper 60s while we're there, but the nights will be in the upper 40s. I bought three pairs of shorts last weekend, yet it sounds like I'll be more likely to want to wear jeans or sweats. (I don't like being cold.) So I have to pack twice as much, just in case. It also says 30% chance of rain, which isn't good news for every other person going, because they have a round of golf scheduled at 8:00 AM on Saturday on the famous Legends course. I shall await their return, reading a book in the hot tub.

If you look at the map, we're about 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis, so we have about a 4-hour trip. However, we will break this up into parts. Dr. Vet-Friend Two suggested we stop at the Black Bear Casino, south of Duluth, for a couple of hours on the way up. Tom has never passed up an invitation to a casino since, well, ever. He's still bitter that we had to leave Las Vegas in February after only six days.

Even if it ended up being 40 degrees and rainy the whole time, I'd be fine. Hot tubs are heated, we have a gorgeous two-story tall stone fireplace in the villa's great room, and I'll have a stack of books. (A two-day trip, with a four hour ride each way, requires I have at least four books on hand.) Plus, one of Dr. Vet-Friend Two's other friends loves to cook, and has a marvelous menu planned, none of which I shall have to cook.

Let's review... A gorgeous four-bedroom villa. My adorable honey-bunny. One couple that we really like, and two others who are their friends, so presumably they're OK, too. If it's hot, I have a beautiful beach on a northwoods lake. If it's cold, I have a hot tub and fireplace. I shall have plenty of books, and another guest who will cook many yummy things for me to eat. Very, very hard to find anything wrong with any of that.

But I did just have an alarming thought.

No dogs. I always have ten times as much fun up north if I have at least one of my dogs with me. I'll really miss the big, furry goobers. I guess I'll survive, though.

As long as I survive tomorrow at work.