*Souvenirs*

My father traveled to Asia on a fairly regular basis when I was a child. I recall that though it was tough to see him go, it was always tempered with the satisfaction that when he returned, he came bearing gifts! I lived for these sorts of physical evidences of his love for us. A souvenir was his way of showing us that even when he was across the globe, we were there in his thoughts. I recall him bringing home paper fans, seaweed candy sticks (also known as yucky I taste like death sticks) and mega pumped up business class travel kits. I loved it when it was my turn to get the little black travel bag stuffed with mini toothpaste and toothbrush, sleep masks, floss, etc. This is something that I still look to see as an adult. Brian learned long ago, that when he goes on a trip, I delight in seeing (and have sadly come to expect) a token of his affection upon his return. In high school after a trip to Mexico, he came back with little rocks he collected over the week in every color of the rainbow. I would have never known it was possible to find a blue rock, or a yellow one let alone a perfect pink rock. After we were older and married, he went on a business trip to a work convention and knowing how obsessed I am with quality ink flow pens, he brought me home, to my utter glee, two gallon sized Ziploc bags of nothing but quality pens. It is now roughly 6 years later, and I still have an enormous box full of them, even after allowing a few sisters to raid my stash. Now that I am taking trips on my own, I have elected to continue this tradition myself. I have come bearing chocolates, books, and then most recently, a gecko.

Don't worry, you read it right. I returned from my latest romp to the humid land of Houston, and marvelled at the little critters that I just don't see in Utah. I was wooed by the lush grass, completely forgetting that in Texas, the grass fights back with an invisible terror-chiggers. I remembered that I was once again in the land of the cockroach and lizard. When I know that though I am in their territory, it is a temporary situation, I am able to enjoy the exotic nature of their existence. After returning home to my dry life in Utah, imagine my utter amazement then when I opened my suitcase two days after getting home, and something odd caught my eye. Right there, on top of my patent leather stilettos was an actual living creature. A gecko just ran onto my shoe and watched me, likely just as amazed that he had made it through the non-pressurized stowage cabin of the airplane as I. When I finally determined that I was in fact lucid, and this creature was here watching me, I went to get a glass to remove the new found friend. Returning just a moment later, he was gone. He may be in a nook of the still untouched suitcase, or perhaps scurried off to create a home for himself in the living room, maybe is is now fast friends with Mary Morey. Ooh, poor thing. I have a house of four bored kitties who love to chase flies and bugs.

*My only thought to my new house guest is good luck buddy*