3 Weeks

I would like three weeks off from my life - a true vacation. That would be nifty. More than nifty, it would be fantabulous! I can see it now (imagine wavy lines)...

Day One - Wake up, stretch, realize that there is someone else who is going to be responsible for mom's comfort (to the best of their abilities) for the day. Slow realization that this will be the case for the next 20 days as well makes me anxious and lighter at the same time. Since I am still here in the house, though, I know that I will find myself checking in with mom anyway. Sigh. As the day passes and I don't have to worry about making lunch for mom, checking on her eating it, getting her pills, making sure she has tissues and bandaids and toilet paper, I feel a few little knots of tension dissipate. That night, I might actually take myself out to dinner and sit in a pub for a few hours without thinking that I am neglecting mom, that I ought to have brought her to out to eat, that she might be just sitting in the house pretending to read.

Day Two - Wake up and smell no coffee! Not my business. The day stretches forth in front of me with no mom-sibilities. Yay! I decide that I probably ought to pack to get ready for my escape. Just an aside, I am not one to pack days and days before I leave on a trip. I have packed so often for myself, that I am pretty quick and efficient at it. Two pairs of pants, three t-shirts, a couple of long sleeved shirts, 8 pairs of socks, five pairs of underwear, toiletries and maybe an extra sweatshirt or sweater and that is about it. Since I am wearing clothes when I leave (usually), that means I have three pairs of pants, four t-shirts, some sort of extra layer, 9 pairs of socks and six pairs of underwear. If I am traveling for more than a week, all or parts of this can be easily washed. Yay! I am not averse to wearing the same thing a few days (or a month) in a row. I go out for lunch, do a good bit of walking places as I don't need to worry that mom has fallen down or anything. Out to dinner too again, and more pubbing. I do enjoy just sitting in a pub, most times.

Day Three - Off into the wild blue yonder! Woo hoo! Freedom! I can go anywhere, do anything! (Well within reason - sadly financial concerns need to be taken into account) And I am not as young as I once was, so extreme sports are most likely out of the realm of likelihood. Since my flight leaves from NYC, I impose a smidge on the kindness of relatives and head to Kingston, NY. I get there after lunch, head to one of the local pubs and relax. Dinner with Ernst and Betty. Out again to explore a bit after dinner.

Day Four - E&B help me get to the train to get into NYC to catch my flight. Where am I going? Someplace else. Doesn't really matter. Someplace new-ish to me, most definitely. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy going to places I have been before. There is always more to experience and explore. I also, though, love going to places I have never been. Am I going to cruise - not opposed to cruising - take a guided tour - I have done this at least once and enjoyed it - go someplace and rent a car and toodle around on my own - possibly. All I know is that for days five through sixteen, I will be someplace far removed from Geneva and my mom-sibilities.

Days 5 - 16 - Travel and explore and experience and unfold. Will mom be in my mind (and heart)? Sure. Will I call every day? I don't know. Part of me says that I could do that, part of me says that I don't want to. Which will win out? Maybe some happy medium - every other day? Maybe once every three days? How often is often enough? Will she completely forget me while I am away? Who knows? I will send a postcard or two for sure. And take lots of pictures.

Day 17 - Back to NYC and then Kingston. Start to unwind from the trip.

Day 18 - Visit someone or someplace not too far from Kingston. Using Kingston as my home base for one more day.

Day 19 - Back to Geneva. Yes, I feel the weight begin to descend upon my shoulders just a bit.

Day 20 - Head off somewhere for a massage and one more full day of no mom-sibilities.

Day 21 - Back to the house, wake up, know that tomorrow all the mom-sibilities will be mine once again. Pass through the day, starting to get my ducks in a row - figuring out what the next few days will look like. Planning dinners, shopping, Smith time, mom time, me time - oops, that come out fifth on the list. Hmm.

Day 22 - Get up and check on mom...

Travel Day back to Raleigh

I do so enjoy traveling. Even when things don't go well. True, I don't know how I would handle being stuck in an airport for three days, but I don't think the experience would turn me into a monster. Heck, you never know who you might meet. If one wasn't stuck in the airport with a significant other, one might meet one's significant other. Hope springs eternal.

Anyway, I had a fun travel day. Got up and got on the road in a timely manner. Uneventful drive back to Syracuse. Found a gas station after a few wrong turns (darn, I miss my GPS) and returned the rental car. Funny, the only counter that had someone at it was the Enterprise counter - so I got to wait five minutes before it was my turn. Sigh.

Went to security, teeny line. My waterpik made me have to get my bag re-checked. I love my waterpik and will surely write a blog about it one day. Had a nice chat with the TSA lady.

Got to the gate and it was crowded. Apparently the plane to NYC was late - ended up being two hours late. But I got to meet a nice couple, the Ryans, Jim and didn't get her name...And there was free internet in the airport. My friend Jeanie helped to keep me entertained by commenting on a lot of my pictures. Thank you my friend Jeanie!

Got on my plane a smidge late but made it to Phillie in plenty of time to get a piece of pizza and get on. $4.10 for a piece of pizza. I thought that was a bit high. Just as I was thinking that thought, an announcement came over the PA saying that the airport had a "Street Prices" program in place - the prices one pays at the airport are the same that one pays "on the street." Hmm.

Cate picked me up at the airport and now I am home. All in all a great trip! Happy I went, happy to be back. I doubt I will be as prolific on the blog as I was during the trip, but who knows.

Happy happy!

Day one Trip to Geneva

Travel day! I do so enjoy traveling. Even when it doesn't go as smoothly as one could hope. All in all, it wasn't a bad travel day. I did have to get up pretty early for me. Cate and Daniel do it all week long - getting up around 5 or so. Eeek! We all got up and got ready and got out on time - we chose 6:15 as the leaving time so that Cate could get to work on time. I hope she did! I zipped through the security check with narry a difficulty. Oh, I think I did lose a pen. 1 down, 250 to go (I have way too many pens). I found the gate and sat down to wait. By waiting, I mean napping. Napped and napped. And then got on the plane. Teeny! I couldn't even stand up straight in the aisle. But it was a jet, instead of a turboprop. Found my aisle seat - I like the aisle for the view of the plane that they afford. Got my elephant pillow and my sound canceling headphones out and was getting comfortable when a couple got on the plane. Their seats were separated, so I agreed to swap. Still an aisle seat. And proceeded to nap. I hope I didn't drool on the doctor flying to Burlington in the seat beside me. Anyway, I napped and napped and kept looking out the window to see that we weren't moving. Apparently we didn't move for an hour! No window of opportunity to land at Reagan National in Washington. Oh well. More napping.

The flight was uneventful. I got a glass of water and napped some more. When we were getting close to landing, the steward starting asking about people's connections. Turns out that most of us were going to miss ours, since we were an hour late. at least 6 of us were going on to Syracuse. I bonded with a woman and her two lovely college daughters. Their answer to the question of what they were studying sounded practiced: Daughter one (Meredith College) Psychology, Daughter two (Elon College) Psychology, Mother "Just plain Psycho!" She was great, though. When it came time to get our boarding passes to the next flight, she convinced the agent to give us all a free lunch! Woohoo!

So, I sat in the airport for more than two hours. Napping. Ok, not all napping. I did some people watching. I love people watching. Did some writing - started maybe four blog entries that may or may not make it here. Helped out a man from Jamaica by lending him my phone. We commiserated about the state of the nation and talked about all sorts of things. Including Marijuana. Ate my lunch - from 5 guys - still not thrilled with their food - really don't like their french fries at all. The ten dollar voucher was almost entirely used up on that meal! Eeek! I also texted with a friend for a while which helped to make the time more pleasant.

Finally got on another teeny plane and flew to Syracuse. Yippee! Lovely, overcast Syracuse. I used Enterprise for my rental car company. My mom's Discover card was declined and I ended up having a nice chat with the security people. Turns out that there is something wrong with the card's data strip. Not going to worry about it. The car I got (a picture has been posted to Facebook) is some sort of Chevy. Reminds me of a PT cruiser but larger. The drive was pleasant enough, despite blowing snow for the first 20 minutes.

Got to Geneva safely, which is always a good thing. Mom and I decided that the first night I would not cook, so we got Pizza hut pizza - I like their pan pizza - and a few chicken wings. Then off to the movies to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I think I read those books 41 years ago. Weird! Fun movie, though. I wonder if they are making a version of The Last Battle... Then home to bed for me. Long day! Today - shopping!