Sizzle Says

I like to travel. It’s just the getting there and getting home parts that I can do without. Begin whining:

Attempt to fall asleep at 9:30pm hoping to catch some Zzz’s before having to get up at 2:30am for flight home.

Wake up at 11:30 to discover Mom on couch, not in her bed, giving herself a neck ache by the way she is sleeping. Try to coerce her into bed to no avail.

Fall back to sleep for a couple more hours, bounding out of bed at 2:30 to turn off the alarm. Manage to put on clothes in minimal light.

Offer to drive the hour and a half to the airport in the dark because my poor, tired Mom who slept on the couch has to turn around and drive back home. In the dark. In the fog.

Start to feel nauseous mid-drive, thinking it must be due to exhaustion. Change drivers once we get over Highway 17 because I am JUST not feeling very good.

Arrive at airport at 4:30am, two hours ahead of flight departure as is recommended, but the gate is not yet open and no one is at the Alaska Airlines desk. WTF?!

Feel more sick. Wait and wait.

Lose our place in line because people are greedy, pushy bastards. Swear about annoyance to my sister while standing next to a very chaste woman who Doke later discovers reciting the rosary as she waits for our plane to board. Ooopsy. Maybe she was praying for me and my potty mouth.

Board plane. See there are no air sickness bags. Begin to worry. Doke gives me a plastic bag “just in case.” She quips, “At least they gave us a row with an empty seat. You know, for your breasts.” (I always claim that my breast are too big thus making sitting in the middle seat very uncomfortable because I am holding my shoulders in trying to be smaller than I am for the entire flight. It’s extremely uncomfortable.)

Right before take off I start to feel REALLY sick. I give my sister that look. Finn is busy playing with a spoon. I grab the plastic bag and proceed to hurl three times into it. At least I didn’t make a mess. And we were surrounded by boy scouts (on their way to a camping trip) who were being loud and boisterous (way too loud for 6:30am) so no one really heard me. At least I hope. How mortifying. I felt immediately better though. That lasted for about an hour when the sickness came again.

We land after 2 hours. Track down the stroller (it’s over-sized and never where all the other luggage is). Load up the car. Drive to Double B and Doke’s house. Load up my car. Drive 15 minutes to my house. Greet my cats. Pull back the covers and fall asleep for 3 hours, intermittently waking up to the singing of the Baptist church across the street.

I am awake now, just barely. I have no food in my house except cereal. I feel so queasy I can barely make my way around my apartment. And the Blue Angels are flying overhead about every 5 minutes making sleep basically impossible.

Welcome home me!

End whining.

“Well everything that’s come before us leads us to where we are now/And that’s simple, I know so why can’t I let go of the feeling/That I’m lost somehow/I’m just a ghost looking in/Out of my own life just visiting/In search of a body to have and to hold and to keep and to sleep./I wanna lay my head down on you/Because you’re the only solid thing in this room/A room full of missed chance, slow dance, cold fate heartache/I showed up for a party and saw my life story full view/And I wanna lay my head down on you.” -Lay My Head Down, Indigo Girls