My Bags Are Packed, I'm Ready To Go...

Okay, that's not completely true. My bags are partially packed. I'm rather proud of myself, actually for how well I'm doing with the "packing light" deal for a 10 day trip.

Anyway, YES, tomorrow I step on a plane with Micah and Melody, fly to Houston and then ship off on a long, long flight down South to fulfill a promise I made years and years ago to my very, very dear friend, Mr. Gui Buso, and will visit his home in Brazil.

It feels like a lifetime ago, yet also like just yesterday that Gui set foot into Casey County highschool my junior year. He was the automatic "hottie" the day he agreed to step out on the football field to try his hand at being their kicker... Brazil=soccer=kicking=duh ...of course he was a great kicker! That was something new for Casey County! I cannot really tell you how I came to know Gui (except that our school is quite small so of course "everyone know everyone".) I'd say it helped quite a bit that many of my closest friends were on the football team, which I traveled with keeping stats. Then, being involved with the girls' basketball team kept me in close with the boys' team, of which he was also a part of. Then when spring rolled around, being the all-around-athlete that Gui is, he decided to join my track team as well. (Yes, I consider it MY track team.)

I remember upon Gui's arrival, hoping that when he left eventually that I would have at least become a close friend--someone he'd remember when he left the Bluegrass. No doubt that happened. After his departure, the two of us did a great job of staying in touch via email. (Ah, the days before Facebook when email was so much more important!) Although he went back to his big city of Sao Paulo where "cold" meant 60-degree weather; he had come to love the people of the tiny community of Casey County despite our cold winters.

Since leaving Gui has been back to visit Kentucky about four times. He also spent about six months in Florida about five years ago working at Disney World. Myself and four friends made a Christmas Break road trip to Orlando to visit him which resulted in possibly the best vacation to date. He was most recently here last September when I finally got to meet his girlfriend, Carla.

Carla and Gui have been amazing in this planning process. With two great hosts, no doubt a trip with my long, long time goofy friend Micah will nothing but fabulously full of adventure!