Gearing Up for Iowa

Today is Tuesday. That gives me today, tomorrow and the next day to get geared up to fly to Iowa City for the International Ponseti Symposium.... I couldn't be less ready if I tried.

I haven't flown on a commercial jet since I was a teen ager. I don't want to talk about how long ago that was but every bit of two decades ago. And I've never had to fly with my children. None of them have ever been on a plane either, except when Brian and I flew back and forth on little Angel Flights. I guess the only real difference between a jet and a little piper is the number of people screaming as it goes down, but I am nervous anyway, and that has frozen me in my tracks with a sense of denial so I haven't washed or packed or even called the airline yet to see just what we can or cannot take on with us... are the boys considered carry on luggage? Can they be?

It is going to be insane to say the least. We must leave home Friday morning around 3 o'clock in the morning to get to the airport on time. Our flight departs at 7, providing there is no delay. Then there's a layover somewhere; then to Cedar Rapids where I hope our luggage arrives with us. Speaking of luggage I've been meaning for two weeks to run by Good Will to see if they had a suit case instead of taking our duffle bags. From Cedar Rapids we will rent a car and drive to Iowa City, getting there I hope as early as 1 PM to our motel.

Then it's the insanity of finding lunch, getting cleaned up and finding our way to the event by 4 PM for a fund-raiser meeting, then the party part of the night starts at 5 and who knows when it will wrap up but I expect kind of late in the evening. The next day we'll have just enough time to check out of the motel and run back to Cedar Rapids to catch our long flight home.

It hasn't helped a bit that yesterday was my birthday. That wouldn't be so terrible except my mother's birthday is today and for all my life we've shared our birthdays with each other and she died two years ago. Last year wasn't quite as bad because I had my mother in law to think of, as her birthday is the 9th (mine the 10th, Mom's the 11th), so I still had someone there to dilute the day a little for me. This year we are in Florida, Mom is gone and my mother-in-law is a thousand miles away so it all hit me hard with loneliness. And even that would have been tolerable except then my Aunt Sally sent me a small box of personal items from my grandmother who passed away just a few weeks ago - so that came yesterday. It was a sweet thing to get on my birthday but it broke my heart none the less, the loss of Mom, the loss of my grandmother...... Oiy.

Husband took me out for dinner. We dressed the boys nice and he dressed nice and I put on this little blue dress I found at a 2nd hand store recently that i had no reason to buy whatsoever except it was sexy and I thought what the hay I'll buy a sexy dress for six bucks and maybe someday I'll actually wear it. Everett and Garrison fell asleep on the drive to the restaurant so when we got there we carried them in and laid them on the seat of a booth. Both slept until dinner was over, giving us an almost-private dinner with Brian. I drowned my sorrow in fajitas and margaritas then came home to the birthday cake Chriss had bought which was simply beautiful.

And now here we are at today - three days to get the laundry done, organize a hard whirlwind trip for five people and try hard not to chicken out of the whole affair which is really where my mind is at with it. I've been concentrating on getting my website cleaned up as a diversion, which is sort of what I'm doing right now instead of laundry and organizing...guess I really should start to get all that done. I hope I see some of you at the Ponseti Banquet!