Here I Sit

If you think my fear of storms is irrational or that my fear of flying is crazy or my fear of grass should cause me to be locked up (really it's sinkholes I'm afraid of rather than the actual grass itself, however, most sinkholes happen in grassy areas, hence my fear of grass is actually quite legitimate and perhaps even ... dare I say it ... scientifically based) ... wait a sec ... where was I going with this? Oh, yeah ... if you think all my fears make me seem like I'm a few fries short of a Happy Meal, then it's a really, really, really good thing you've never been at my house when I'm getting ready to go on a trip. Yep, I'll admit it ... my behavior in the days leading up to me traveling could easily reside in the over-the-top crazy person category. I make myself even crazier than I already am with all the things I feel I must do before I head out of town ... things like shampoo the carpet, make an encyclopedia-worthy list of instructions for the young fellows who stay at my house to care for my dogs, mow the yard, clean the garage, completely freak out about leaving my dogs, clean parts of the house I haven't cleaned since I last traveled, pack and re-pack and pack at least a dozen more times, worry myself sick about getting on the airplane ... you get the idea ... I take insanity to a whole new level when it comes time for me to take a trip.

I'm finally heading up to Canada to snuggle my newest granddaughter and engage in some super serious playtime with a certain little two-year-old. On top of being in my normal full-blown pre-trip crazy land, rather than pay the exorbitant shipping costs to send Christmas presents in a couple of months, I'm taking all their presents with me in my luggage which means my pack and re-pack and pack at least a dozen more times sort of resembles ... well ... Santa on crack is probably the closest analogy that comes even remotely close to giving you a vague idea as to how seriously crazy my pre-trip behavior really is. I spent most of Saturday working on things inside the house since it was like a bazillion degrees outside with humidity in the gazillion percent range, and Sunday was yard work day since a cold front moved through and made for a completely beautiful day. Yesterday was total freak-out day ... worked until 2, came home and finished all the rest of the things on my list of 5,329 things to get done before I leave, told my dogs how much I'm going to miss them (5,214 of the things to get done before I leave), and finally crawled into bed at 1:45 ... yep, that means I'm flying today on 4 hours worth of sleep.

Now here I sit at the airport waiting to board my first plane of the day ... sweaty palms, churning gut, nervous twitches, I've peed like 18 times already ... have I ever mentioned before how much I'm terrified of flying? But if I survive, in about 6 hours, I'll be meeting little Amelie and getting tackled by sweet Coraline. I can't think of very many people other than my kiddos and grandgirls I'd get on two planes in one day to go see ... well ... except Ellen, I guess. I'm not sure how much I'll post over the next couple of weeks ... depends on how exhausted I am from a ton of Ghee-ing. And how many funny stories I have to tell ... or sweet stories ... oh, heck, we all know I'm probably going to post a few times while I'm in Canada.

It's time to get on the plane ... I need to breathe ... breathe ... I can do this ... there are babies waiting for me!!!