'twas a dark and stormy cliche...

i've decided that, since i'm still within a month of christmas, i'm posting my christmas updates in a perfectly timely manner.
(kind of like the 10-second rule, except it's the 1-month rule!)

today's christmas update has nothing to do with carols, festivities, presents, family, or the hypostatic union. it's about the holiday tradition of mortal terror.

joel's friend from waaay back was scheduled to be married in orange county on the 27th, so we decided to drive down, have christmas with joel's family (all in southern ca), and support the impending nuptials. due to the spitefulness of the fates (plus work conflicts) we had to leave at noon on christmas day.

the 24hr drive was a delectable potpourri of white knuckles, driving rain, terse conversation, lightning storms, ice, occasional nervous laughter, pea soup fog, snow, sheer terror, and total absence of any bathrooms in northern california.

maybe we could have found a bathroom sooner, had i been willing to stop at towns with names like "lost man's creek" and "cape sebastian" ... at midnight in the fog and ghostly trees in the middle of nowhereohmygoodnessifwestoptheAXMURDERERSWILLGETUSANDWEWILLDIE!!!

so um, no.
we finally found a bathroom. this one.