Don't Bring Me Down, or Maybe Do

So turns out I'm not going to California after all.

First off let me say that my mother is just about the most wonderful person you would ever want to meet--kind, sweet, patient as the day is long, and totally good. Even her daughters' husbands can't find anything to complain about in their mother-in-law.

However. If ever you have something in your life about which you are excited or hopeful? Don't tell her! California? Isn't that an awful lot of travel time to spend just a couple of days? And it's February, so what if there's bad weather (which can mean a blizzard here at home which will prevent me from taking off on time, a blizzard in New York which will prevent me from connecting properly, or blizzards in either or both of here and New York on the way home which will prevent me from connecting and/or landing as scheduled).

And there you have it. A mere 30 seconds of well-intentioned worry changed the whole thing for me. She didn't even have to mention the money.

Truthfully it's really difficult to remain positive about a trip like this, at least after the initial glow of excitement wears off a day or two in. I went once before and it was a LOT of work. I travelled overnight both ways, resulting in a lot of lost sleep; the kids were with my mother-in-law half the time and my mother for the other half, which included two school days, so just trying to type up their schedule for the four days I was gone was dizzying, nevermind packing 6 different bags (one for each of 3 kids times each of 2 places), and that didn't even include my luggage. (As a matter of fact I lost another entire night's worth of sleep to the Packing Project.)

Prior to that trip, a little over a year ago, I had only flown once in my life (well, twice, if you count there and back separately), and that on a chartered flight direct from Rochester to Denver--so I had never wandered lonely a massive airport in a strange city desperately seeking the Magic Gate to my connecting flight, and was inordinately nervous about the whole thing (which, unsurprisingly, turned out to be no big deal) until Karen helpfully pointed out to me about a week before I left, "You know, complete idiots do this every single day. You can handle it." I realized immediately that she must be right, and calmed down considerably. But all in all the trip was a whole lot of work and no small amount of stress either.

So was it worth it? Uh, yeah. First off I'd really never been anywhere before and was dying to get out of town. (My husband has been everywhere. Around the US and Canada more times than even he can count, all over Europe so many times he doesn't even want to go back, and once each to Mexico, Japan, and Australia. All work trips, not a whole lot of fun or tourism by any means, but still. He goes places, sees at least some sights, and meets some people. I stay home with the kids. So this trip was kind of a big deal.)

Secondly you can't discount the value of a few days together in the middle of 10 or 12 weeks apart. And third, we had a great time. California, in case you've never been, is beautiful. The traffic is as bad as they say, if not worse, and Brian has mostly stopped trying to talk me into moving there since we rented a car and drove around LA, so that's actually another plus. But the weather. The scenery. The palm trees, the landscape, the sunshine, the architecture-- did you know the streetlights on Rodeo Drive are actually chandeliers? It's true. The place we stayed for the two days Brian had off was amazing. And a Starbucks on every block. So while I still don't want to move there, I definitely want to go back.

But maybe not now. True, the trip would be easier this time--I definitely feel like a more confident traveller this time around, plus the kids are on February break and nobody at home would need to worry about bus times versus drop-off times, wearing boots and being sure to bring sneakers especially for gym days, etc. And with the money Brian earns on tour and the fact that Jet Blue flies between Rochester and each of my prospective destinations, we could afford it. But honestly, it would take so much effort to talk myself into the trip, I just don't think I'll have enough emotional energy left over to talk my mother into babysitting.