Just in case you were wondering, the insanity didn’t stop when I went to bed, all my stuff collected, my alarm set for 0400 (ick) and myself calm in knowing I was prepared.
Yeah, right. Couldn’t sleep, almost couldn’t get up, got downstairs to let the dog out and my ride to the airport was there, half an hour early…
Got there, got on the plane. Remembered that while the view is incredible, I don’t much care for flying. Slept a LOT, yay for that. Had a layover in Atlanta and lost my ears about half an hour before I got there, spent two hours in Atlanta hoping they would catch up before I caught the next flight…
They didn’t, not till long after I was in Canton. But I did find a Starbucks (thank God for the ubiquitous Starbucks) and rode a train from Concourse T to Concourse D and enjoyed texting my friends with updates.
Bear in mind, for as much as five hours, I could not hear properly. It was like I had my head in a jar. I could hear, just everything was far away. And, of course, my head felt like it was imploding. That was uncomfortable and very disconcerting.
Along the way I had all the usual worries and some that were downright silly. What if this co-worker I’ve known for a year isn’t who I think she is and makes off with my kid? What if my cat knocks the bird cage over again and gets the bird this time? Last time he spent the next three hours hiding in terror from the noise he made, but that doesn’t mean the dumb cat won’t try it again. What if someone finally decides my car is worth stealing?
What if I get to Canton and Bly isn’t there? What if she doesn’t recognize me? What if I don’t recognize her? What if we don’t like each other anymore?
I said some were stupid. We are still, as expected, great friends. Her mom seems to like me, and her friends admitted me into the group. We packed and panicked and talked and then went to a Mexican restaurant for supper. (yes, flew all the way from Tucson to Ohio to eat Mexican food…) It was pretty good, though. It was actually run by Mexican people who knew how to make the food.
Make a pretty damn good margarita, too.
After dinner, more packing and panicking. The U-Haul is seventeen feet long, and I think that’s just the bed. I had a car that was seventeen feet, the truck is bigger. Not to mention the clearance is 11 feet. And she wants to tow a mini-SUV on a trailer. Neither of us has driven anything so big before, and neither has ever towed anything.
Not sure this is a great idea.