TANZANIA, AFRICAN ADVENTURE

I have no idea where to even begin. This was, hands down, the coolest vacation i have ever been on. I can’t even figure out how to outline it here on the ole blog. i think i’ll go 2 days at a time, because that is kind of the flow of the vacay. We spent 2 nights in each hotel/camp, and roughly 2 days in each park. so this recap i suppose will be a 4 part monster (5 if you include this lil intro).

Hang onto your hats.

Actually that is my first piece of Africa Safari advice: Literally hold onto your hat, make sure to buy one with a super cool chin strap. It’s vital to survival. Rest assured Dana and i have them on those hats, we just hide them when we take pics cause they are super dorky looking.

2nd piece of Advice:

TV: Fail……Charity: Win

Soooo, my week of limited TV started so strong! I made to Thursday night having only watched 1.5 hrs of TV! Then….Disaster Struck!

In the form of a 24 hr stomach bug. aka, the anti-TV plague. My body went through such serious TV withdrawal, it summoned a stomach bug to confine me to the couch and force me to watch TV. Serious stuff right there. Or, you know, i caught one of the 437 bugs going around right now. dealers choice. what did i learn, besides that i am allergic to no TV? That yes, i am more productive (well hello there Captain Obvious!) and it is more zen living in the quiet. buuuut, it’s pretty boring. so, it’s a toss-up.

Where i have been productive is in the charity realm.
2 Charities in 2 Months!

#1: Community Cares for Kids– NEPA charity that helps children in needy countries (mainly Ecuador for now) that are born with birth defects or have deforming injuries. Each year a team of Doctors goes down for a week and performs surgeries and take necessary medicines. It’s pretty awesome.
http://communitycaresforkids.org/about.htm. This year i attended their annual fundraiser, which was a Carnivale themed event! So i get to help children and wear a cool mask? Done and Done.

#2: Tunkhannock Public Library– Made it to super-ultra-platinum- adamantium member status and got to go to the pre-fundraiser wine tasting/selection party.  In case i have some freakishly young readers out there i will inform you thusly: a library is where you go to borrow real books, like ones made of paper. it was a great pre-fundraiser.  i got to taste 6 wines, eat copious canapes, and watch a video of a guy take down an elk in Wyoming.

Gym update: Still no TVs, despite my vigorous, one-woman, mostly silent campaign.  although i was lucky enough the other day to grab the one perfect cross trainer machine with a functional TV* AND there was an episode of Cougar Town just starting.  it was a gym miracle.

*there are 10 machines with functioning TVs: 4 stairmasters, which i heartily dislike, but will do if all else fails, and 6 cross trainers.  of the 6 cross trainers: 4 have TVs that work, of these 4 one is always broken, of the 3 one squeaks enough to annoy the whole gym, of the 2 one has a loose leg that kind of wiggles as you speed on, so that leaves one perfect machine.  it’s basically the holy grail of Browns gym.