Made it . . . (24/60)

Holy Hannah.

Yesterday . . . a beautiful blur.  Got up at 4:50am after not sleeping, tried again to arrange it so that I could get to the reception, but no luck.  At all.  Took a deep breath and decided to accept that I couldn't change this situation.

I ran 5.6 miles with John and our friend Sarah and talked about how INSANE this situation makes me, but how, in the long run, this is small.  There are much more things in the universe to worry about.  I can't tell you how comforting I found that run and conversation.  I felt like I could breath again.

I threw my clothes, computer and a few other odds and ends in a bag and head off to the wedding . . .
which was beautiful in every way.  Love was everywhere.  And joy.  And laughter . . .

Me, the mama of the bride, and my dear friend Lynsie

Pretty much everyone here is GORGEOUS!

And then for an hour and a half, I got to help with the reception prep . . . oh, my heavens!  This place, the White Shanty, was sooo beautiful.  I could not think of a more perfect place for this reception . . .

The outside . . . yard . . . could it be more darling?

The inside (the lights were going up) magic only half way done . . . 

And then, at 1:30pm, I literally ran out the door of the White Shanty, dived into my car, changed into my sweats and sneakers in thirty seconds flat, called John and begged him to grab me some lunch and meet me just off the highway pretty pretty please because I was LATE.  And being the best husband in history, he grabbed me lunch, biked his sweet little fanny to the closest exit and hopped into the car . . . and drove me, while I sort of finished packing.  I got to the airport 30 minutes before boarding . . .and was at the gate with 15 minute to spare.  I had time to fill up my water bottle . . . then in 

Which I deeply regret . . . 

Me . . . and my bags . . . as my water bottle was leaking

When I sat down in my window seat, I thought, Oh man, I am so thirsty . . . so, I pulled out my water bottle to take a big drink.  Only . . . it was empty.  I sat there and literally this was my thought, Hey . . . who drank my water?

And then . . . I looked at my bag . . . and like a mad woman began yanking my phone and computer and my books out . . . and flinging water in all directions.  

My whole water bottle had emptied into my carryon.  A pint and a half.  

The poor son and mama sitting next to me were getting a shower they didn't expect to get.  I turned to them, my eyes huge I'm sure, and said, Excuse me, but I have to grab some napkins or something . . . my water bottle . . . 

I didn't even have to finish, they scooted right out of the way like perfect angles and pretended not to notice as I was grabbing wads of paper towels from the bathroom and soaking up the water puddle from the bottom of my bag (and I used like 29) and wiping down my wet computer and books . . ..

Thankfully I caught it sort of early.  I climbed back into my window seat with 29 more napkins and tried my best to dry out everything else.  

The sweet guy next to me, looking at my mess, said, I'm pretty sure if you sort of hang them out, they will dry.  We have a four hour flight.  You'd be surprised what dries out.  Seriously, could I have sat next to nicer people?  So having no shame at all . . . and being somewhat soaked myself . . . I hug out my computer bag and my electronic bag . . . Like so (see picture to the right . . . ) for the whole entire flight.  And guess what?  He was right.  They dried enough for me to use them.  

But that was just the beginning.  Have I mentioned I do not like to fly?  I know, I go on lots of trips which I enjoy.  But flying is not my favorite.  Turbulence, makes me feel ill.  And very very scared.  And no matter what, when I fly alone, there are always freak storms or whatever, and I get tossed two and fro.   John never uses his seat belt when he flies.  I always do because if I didn't, I would literally get tossed out of the seat.  I promise.

I looked at the weather, and happily told Phoebe, Hey guess what?  There is supposed to be smooth flying.  No storms.

She laughed and said, Mom, you never have a smooth flight. Trust me, a thunder storm will come up.

I yelled, No, take that back, you will hex me!

She didn't.

She hexed me.

Literally, the turbulence was so bad the sweet man next to me (the one that already had a shower from my water bottle) had his coke literally splashing all over the place.  No one got up to pee.  No one got up period.  I saw the wings flap and shake and jerk.  The whole plane groaned.  Honestly, I made my peace with God twice.  The mother and son next to me (fully grown man son)would periodically just grab each other and hold on tight.  I swear I heard them praying.

Me?  I just held my hand with the long life line and kept looking at it . .. it stayed LONG so I thought, Not tonight, Lord. I've got a long life line here.  Not tonight.

And until we landed (which I will say was the scariest landing in history . . . and I've had some doozies) where everyone screamed and shouted and held on to each other.  For reals . . . could we just have a good landing?  Nope. Sliding all over the place and nearly skidding off the runway, then almost breaking my nose hitting it agains the seat in front of me with the breaking.  Glory be.  I was so happy to get off that plane.

Of course, there was another one to get on to.  And this one to Florida.  I've flown through typhoons and tropical storms.  I decided against eating dinner and looking at all at the weather.  I didn't need to know.  I would just fly. And recite prayers.

But . . . it turned out it was like flying on glass.  Not one bump.  Literally smooth sailing.  I slept the whole flight.  I touched down and there was Doreen at the end of the walk way to hug me and welcome me to balmy, muggy Florida.

We got home at 1:30am.  Bed by 2:15am.

The best part?

I slept in until 10:30 am.  Then took a nap at 1:30.  Beautiful deep deep sleep.

And then . . .  the beach.  

Doesn't get better than this

The water is as warm as the air.  It feels soft (except for the seaweed--that hurts) and comforting.  The sound of the waves breaking on the shore literally lulled me to sleep again.  A walk, and a swim (despite seeing a small shark swimming through the shallows), and a quiet sitting/reading as the sunlight faded.  A warm welcome.

After three crazy days, I am so glad to have made it.

There is nothing like coming home.