Road Trip - Ensign

With all the belly-drama the week before, concern had been expressed by friends and neighbors about the wisdom of driving 9 hours to see my son graduate from Officer Candidate School. I wasn't going to miss this - would have gone there crawling if I had to.

I had planned on driving up Wednesday - graduation ceremonies were on Friday - but Dame Fate smote me with appendicitis forcing me to use up the remainder of my meager sick AND vacation allowance. I decided to leave Thursday.

I had it all planned out; Monday I would start to straighten the house. Tuesday; laundry. Wednesday; pack the car. Thursday; leave at 4am getting into Newport at 1pm. On your mark; get set; PARTY.

You remember Monday was my first day back in the office after the appendix fest. Crashed. Too tired and in too much pain to breathe. Well I still had Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday I got slammed at work, I was just as exhausted when I got home, but I had no choice - if I didn't start prepping now there would be no way I would be ready to leave Thursday morning. I got home and started to walk Buddy and began thinking

about-everything-I-still-had-to
get-done-and-how-I-had-no-energy
to-do-it-and-whythehelldid-I just-come-home-Monday-night-and-do-nothing
because-now-I-had-to-do-everything
and-Meg-was so-busy-and-I couldn't-aska-her-and-I-didn't-know
how-I-was-going-to-get-it-all-done-and
-I-was-starting-to-pa-nic.

Meggie pulled in from play rehearsals and started her typical jabberjabberjabber about school. She noted my wired face and offered to clean the whole apartment that night.

I burst into tears. Meg looked on in horror. Neither of us was expecting that.

What can I say - I was tired.

Anyway, Meg got it all done. So much and so well that all I had to do was throw in some laundry. She's a good girl and I am blessed.

Every road trip, I plan on packing the car the night before. Every road trip, I leave everything until the last minute and am usually still looking for clothes to wash. Every road trip, I leave 1.5 hours behind schedule.

This time, we packed the car completely Wednesday night, went to bed at 10pm, vowed to get up at 4am and hit the road.

4:20 am broke silent and condemning. F******************CK! Up I jump, wake up Meg, tell her to walk the dog while I get dressed and ensure everything is packed and ready to go. Something to be said for racing around at the last minute - the adrenaline sure flows.

To our credit, we were on the road by 4:34 am. We turned on the borrowed GPS system, which was amusingly programmed to the Korean language, thank you Guest Blogger and as is our tradition, we turned on Sirius Radio Classics and enjoyed "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" and a drama called "The Empty Chair" that starred Agnes Moorehead.

The ride was perfect. We stopped in PA to stretch ourselves and Buddy and enjoyed the crisp cooler air of the north. We reached RI by 2pm - found our hotel with some difficulty. Adam came out to meet us in his dress whites.

I choked up. It wasn't going to be the last time I did that.