Home Again! Home Again!!

Be it ever so humble ... I am so glad to be back!

It was a nice, gentle return to earth (at least so far it has been). Before we left home, I had done as much as I possibly could have done to prepare for the return to reality.

Unpacking was easy. One load of laundry was all it took to get caught up. I needed to run out and get a few groceries. I had one phone call to return. Just one!!

The cat hair had been flying in our absence so I had to vacuum up 'a cat' and do a small amount of housekeeping.

I finished cleaning the cat litter and the dryer went off just as that job was done. A millisecond later the power went out. For two hours.

The timing was impeccable.

I folded laundry by the remaining light of day. I got ready for bed. My Son showered (with our own soap and shampoo) and crawled into freshly clean clothes.

Then we sat down in the middle of the living room and enjoyed Our Cats.

I think that we may have missed them more than they missed us. But I could be wrong. You never quite know with a cat.

Junior Cat accidentally purred out loud when I greeted him with a good head and ear massage. Senior Cat curled up in my arms and purred with little prodding. But that was within moments of walking in the door. Three hours later? It was as if we had never been gone.

But it felt good to us.

To be back home. Life back in order and ready to go. And all nestled in with our little furry friends. It just doesn't get any better than that ...

Words to Live By

I just opened up my email and found these words awaiting me:

"The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for." ~ Joseph Addison

This makes me feel very rich indeed ...

Homeward Bound

Sleep has been all-important this last leg of my holiday. I have one last highway trip to make and I must be sufficiently rested and caffeinated before we set out.

It has been a most excellent two weeks. I feel like my heart, body and soul have been revived. I have tended to some of my basic needs and tacked on a little bit of fun, family and friends to boot. It has been a perfect blend of all that I have been lacking.

Goals achieved?

The Book is in the hands of My Uncles as planned. It is no where near as polished as I had hoped it would be. But a copy has been distributed to those who matter the most to the making of this book. I will tackle it one chapter at a time from here on. I must not let this momentum die.

I spent time with myself. I didn't read a book. After at least seven failed attempts, I have yet to make it through the movie that I had hoped to watch while I was on my break. I didn't make it to see a movie by myself. But all of these are little things that can be squeezed into the cracks of my life once life-as-I-know-it resumes. I am okay with that.

I spent time at my mom's. We had a few fun outings when we gadded about the countryside to visit a cousin and My Brother & family. Heading out to places unknown (to me) added a dimension of adventure to our travels. When our visit wound to a close, I left her with a copy of (dad's family's memories) The Book so she has lots of reading material and words to ponder. I think our visit was one of our best.

I spent time with My Son. Granted, a lot of our time was very quiet. Simply breathing in the same air at the same time. Once we got 'plugged in' to the Internet we were consumed with our little gadgets that connect us to the outside world. But this came at the end of our vacation. We had (and will have again) a five hour trip in the car ahead of us. We hung out together. Heavens! We even went zip-lining together (that is THE fastest way to burn up cash that I have ever encountered). We went to a movie together. And we went to a dinner theatre (within a group).

I got my hair and feet prettied up. I had my hair cut fixed. And now my hair must grow. A lot. That was the opposite of zip-lining. Still a lot of money spent. But it felt like I sat in a chair in a salon for an eternity. I can think of better ways to spend my cash. I'm kind of grateful that it will be a very long time before I need to tend to my hair again.

Now? We are a few hours away from take-off. We are homeward bound and we can't wait to arrive. My Son has been missing his black, furry friends (of the cat variety) and I must admit that I am in need of a good dose of cat love. I was anxious to check in and see how they are doing and this is the message I received:

"Junior Cat snuck into (my Second Son's) room in the middle of the night to steal an earplug. But (the cat) walks louder than people do, so he was caught."

It does make me wonder just what mischief he has gotten into without His People around. He is one curious kitty and something tells me that we are in for a few surprises when we get home.

I can't wait to get there ... now if only we could zip-line our way back home, that would be money worth spending!

Bewitched and Beguiled

We have just returned home from a fun-filled evening. My Son and I joined My Friend (and her family and friends) for an interactive dinner/musical theatre event. It was wonderful.

Something strange and wonderful happened from the moment that we sat down at our table. It happened ever-so-slowly. It was barely perceptible.

Was it the pre-dinner musical numbers that started drawing us in? Was it the cast of characters that interacted with us and took our orders and intermingled with each of us? Was it the ambiance within a room full of strangers that were also cast under this spell?

I don't know when it happened or how. But before long, I was captivated by the entirety of the evening.

Live entertainment of any sort fascinates me. I am bewitched and beguiled by those that are performing and creating a world where I forget about everything except the magic that is unfolding before me.

This dinner theatre went above and beyond. Our waiters and waitresses for the evening were in character and changed costumes with every course. They were back-up dancers and part of the cast and crew.

Our play was based on the music of the late 1950 and 1960's. It was all familiar, fun and oh-so-catchy!

The story line was one that anyone who has had a childhood crush, could relate to. The characters were little bits and pieces of all of us. The little insecurities that we all have were magnified and personified so completely.

The play we saw was based on a ten year reunion. They flashed back to ten years ago, which set the stage for the beginning and end of the play. Those flashbacks. They tugged at my memories and drew me right into the storyline.

I will be attending my high school reunion in seven weeks. I can feel the school girl within me starting to resurface as the weeks progress. Watching this play at this particular time makes me feel that dreams can make wishes come true.

I will come back down to earth and walk with mortals tomorrow. But for tonight, I am going to dream the impossible dream. I will face reality when I open my eyes. But for this moment in time, I'm going to revel in the memories that resurfaced within the music, the expressions and the characters that enveloped my world tonight.

Hair SOS

I made every attempt to avoid this. I took preventative measures. I tried. I thought I could do it. But I did not succeed.

Welcome to my summer holiday 'hair-rescue-while-on-vacation-2013'.

My hair cut and color disaster of one week and one day ago did not improve with time. Or washing. Or sleeping on it. Or rewashing it. It was bad.

The hair that I had quietly considered trying to grow out (one week and two days ago), is short. Ultra short. I will like it in about two to three weeks. I can feel it.

But once again, I wasted precious holiday time and money on my hair. This was not the plan. I tried to save on the hair budget by getting my hair cut and colored by a student at a hair school. This experiment is not best suited to someone with my personality type.

I'm certain that the hair school would have made every attempt to fix a bad hair cut. In fact, I would imagine that they would almost welcome it. Welcome to the Real World. This is the most true-to-life experience that they could hope for. But I couldn't do it.

I didn't want to hurt the feelings of the student cutting my hair. I was running low on patience and time after spending three hours in their styling chair. I was not brave enough to pursue it any further. I walked out with a feeling of impending doom. Here we go again. Another cycle of bad hair cuts, here I come.

I really and truly wanted to brave my way through this hair cut and make it work. But I was looking at those who wear saris and head covering with great awe. I wanted to adopt a new culture so I could wear veils throughout this bad-hair phase.

I did not have time to convert my heritage and religious beliefs, so I forged onward.

If it was a world without mirrors, maybe I could have succeeded. If I didn't have to leave the house for six to eight weeks, I would have endured.

Call me vain. Color me cowardly. Say what you must. But I had to do it.

I have just returned from my Annual Holiday Haircut. I may as well simply plan for this. Allow myself extra time and money and just call the Annual Hair Event part of my summer holiday.

It still isn't pretty. But it will be. I can feel it.

Now to go and avert the next crisis that is headed my way. If this is the worst of my troubles, I am very lucky indeed.

Fire!

My Youngest and I were sleeping soundly when the alarms went off in our hotel room this morning. Lights flashed, sirens wailed and there we stood.

I immediately went to check the temperature of our door and peeked out the peep-hole in our door to see what was happening in the hallway. Not much (most likely everyone else was peeping out right along with me at that time).

I expected the sirens to stop and be advised that this was only a false alarm. Instead, they persisted.

Calmly and ever-so-slowly, I made moves to evacuate our room. I put on my sweater, slipped into my shoes, unplugged my phone that was charging and slipped it into my purse and saw that My Son was still standing on the spot. He has been known to sleep walk through his early-morning rituals. So I had to prod him into action.

By the time we made it into the corridor, others were starting to do the same.

My cautiousness was aborted when we made our way to the stairwell. I forgot to check to see if the door was hot before I opened it. As you can tell by the fact that I am sitting here writing this, the stairwell was fine. But this was a good lesson for me.

We made our way outside, along with all of the other guests in the hotel. This all happened in slow motion and no one was in the slightest bit alarmed.

We waited outside and eventually (I hate to say how many minutes later) we heard the wail of sirens in the distance. The fire truck parked at the entrance to the hotel and the fire fighters slowly ambled up the driveway and walked into the hotel. This was followed by another set of emergency people entering on stage left (at this point, I can't remember if they were police, security people or more fire people).

We waited.

You just knew that it was all going to end well because of the way people moved and acted. No one was in a hurry. No one was upset. We were all just 'one of the crowd' who had been ousted out of a sound slumber to stand out in the dark and wait for the all clear signal to return to life-as-we-knew-it.

Eventually, the security guards made their way through the crowd to tell us what they guessed may have caused the alarms to go off. His words were (something to the effect of) "We think that (this) is what happened ..." The lady I was chatting with said exactly what I was thinking - "I'd feel better if you knew what happened". He assured her that they knew that all was well and we were safe to return.

As we stood outside gazing at our hotel, I couldn't help but wonder at the devastation one would feel if they were watching flames engulf their home. As I stood outside with My Son, my purse, phone and car keys I knew if  all was lost, we would simply lose what we had packed for a five-day vacation.

Visions of my work on our family book project going up in smoke were dispelled by the fact that I had a copy of The Book at home, as well as a saved copy on a USB drive in a separate location.

When I packed for this vacation, I knew that I must safeguard my work on our family's book project. As I stood outside of our hotel last night, I was satisfied that a contingency plan was in place.

In the whole scheme of things, it is that which lives and breathes that is of utmost importance. If we can safeguard other treasures, we should. But when it comes to placing importance on material matter? In my books, that which can be replaced should not be idolized.

I will never become rich, but I am rich in that which takes priority in my life. I can still lose what is important, but I hope that the pain of that loss is lessened by knowing that I placed great value on that-which-cannot-be-replaced while I had it.

Our false alarm was just that. But it helped reaffirm that my values are still where I want them to be. And for that ... I am grateful.

This is the Life

We are on the last leg of The Best Vacation Ever (at least in my books) ...

Can I say this just one more time? This holiday has been absolutely everything that I needed. It is now winding down to a close.

The only downfall? I'm losing steam. My mom quietly sat back and watched me fall asleep in my chair while 'we' were talking this morning. I felt myself drifting. I fought it. I fought it hard. The next thing I knew, my head fell forward and woke me up.

When My Youngest & I arrived at our hotel this afternoon, I was beyond exhausted.

We have been without an Internet connection for three days and My Son had a backlog of YouTube videos to watch. While he did that, I did a little 'catching up' of my own. I woke up two hours later.

We then headed off to check things out, have supper, do a little preliminary planning for tomorrow and we went to see a movie. And I stayed awake for it!!

We have settled into for the night. It is quiet. We are each caught up in our own little on-line world at the moment. It is simply ... nice.

I'm revelling in the quiet that I feel simply by breathing in the same air as My Son. Tomorrow is a new day. We will fill it with words, activity, food and entertainment. But tonight? I just want to sleep....