Said goodbye to H and the kids this morning - they're heading to Oregon to stay with the grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins while I'm in NY. I'm bummed I'll miss S's birthday on Saturday, but it was fun to give her the bike yesterday. She was really excited about it and loves the basket and handlebar tassels. Can hardly believe she's turning 5!

They have some fun stuff planned - staying at the coast, going to Otter Beach (a water slide park) - and they just love going down there anyway, but we all miss each other very much when separated. I think we all said goodbye to one another about thirty times this morning....

Off to NY tomorrow - Jon is driving me down to the airport as part of his contribution - we're leaving around 3am to get down there in time for my 6:30 flight. Feeling excited and nervous and some other things I'm not quite sure of....

Hopefully I'll find time to blog while in NY doing all the other stuff I'll be doing: working with Radical Reference, volunteering at the Indymedia Center, participating in the big UFPJ march on the 29th, doing another march to represent the unemployed - a long line of marchers all waving pink slips - on 9/1, and probably lots more besides once I get there.

I'll be so busy that I'm sure the time will pass pretty quickly.