One part serious, one part funny

Liz and I went to the beach yesterday afternoon and we got back today. It was the last time we will see each other before I leave. We had a great time and pictures will be up on facebook tomorrow afternoon, right after I pack and meet with the Pacific debaters one last time before I abandon them completely. I don’t want to complain about this any more than I already have, so all I’ll say beyond that is this whole “leaving everyone you love” thing is pretty hard. I know these sacrifices are worth it and that joining the Peace Corps is absolutely what I should do. I’m also fairly confident that I’ll look back on my time in the PC as one of the best experiences of my life and as something that changed and defined who I am. However, at the moment, I’m just kinda sad that I’m leaving everyone on Wednesday morning and that I’ll be 5,000 miles away in a week.

OK, here’s the funny part of this entry. Anyone who has driven through rural Oregon knows what I mean when I say that the road signs alone are worth the trip. Lots of yokels live out on the stretches of highways between places people go to on purpose, and many of them have backyards the size of Cleveland and in those backyards, many post signs trumpeting their views on the United Nations, gay marriage, and the Oregon Department of Transportation, among other things folks get worked up about outside of NASCAR season. However, my favorite sign on this particular trip wasn’t in a backyard at all—it was on one of those “adopt a road” signs. Apparently, a particular stretch of Highway 6 on the way to the coast has been adopted by the “Rent a Wife Cleaning Service.” I’m pretty sure that if that company could put on some shoes and waddle out of the kitchen long enough to pop out a few kids and print some business cards, they would read “Rent a Wife Cleaning Service: Knee-Capping Gender Roles Since the Mesozoic Era.”