March 29, 2004

• Breathing Again

  
  

  We are safely home and glad to be here.  The trip turned out to be a wonderful time with friends, an amazing exercise in receiving kindness, and I hope even a little bit educational.  I learned some things about myself.  Yes, I can be a bit flaky, but when we had the problem on the road, I handled it.  I was calm, I was clear, I got in touch with Triple A for the towing, called Mary to come and pick us up, dealt with the guy beside the road who stopped to offer assistance.  (Michael says, "Mom, he seemed like a nice guys, but I'm glad you didn't marry him." LOL)  I've been a bit nervous about facing life on my own.  I learned that in the first place, I'm better in a crisis than I'd given myself credit.  And I also got the message loud and clear that I'm NOT alone. 

  
  

  I was trying to respond to everyone who gave me help, but for some reason, Yahoo is flaking out on me.  It doesn't look like some of you are receiving those emails.  Of course, if you are getting them, I apologize for flooding your inbox.    I'm not even sure who you all are.  I mean I know your real names, but I don't know how to figure out which Xangans you are since many of you I only know by your Xanga name.  However it goes, I hope you all know that I thank you for your kindness and generosity.   

  
  

  Although the trip home was happily uneventful, I was very tired.  When I received the gift of the hotel room for Saturday night, I had the guilty thought that I was taking advantage of my friends' generosity, that I should have planned to drive it all in one day.  But I was wrong.  My adrenaline held me up until after I spoke with the service manager to make the final arrangements for my Sable.  (I'm going to miss that car.)  But once I left Cumberland I felt all my energy draining away and the last bit before I got to Athens was excruciating.  We stopped often so I could walk around, drink more water, whatever I could do to stay alert.  If I'd had to drive the remaining 5.5 hours to Indiana that night, I would have been in serious trouble. 

  
  

  I like travel.  Since I already have my airline ticket, I can say with a high degree of certainty that I'll be doing it again next week.  But I have rethought my position on driving my car across country with the kids.  If I'd been in a rental last Sunday, when the mechanical problems occurred I could have just called Hertz (or whoever, it was Hertz that I rented from for this return trip and they were fabulously helpful.) and it would have been their responsibility to take care of the car while we continued on our merry way.  So note to me, when traveling with kids, if at all possible, rent the car.  For most of my life, and indeed probably again now with all the changes that are taking place, travel has only been possible because I could drive my car.  But I was surprised by how inexpensive it was to rent that car even compared to buying bus tickets for three people. 

  
  

  Okay, enough about me and my obsessive preoccupation with over analyzing every step.  I do have photos of the fun stuff.  Mary made it a point to record the week and gave me a disk containing over 140 images.  Plus I have photos in my camera and Faith took pictures as well.  I'll be back this afternoon to post some.

  • 6:53 am
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