June 7, 2015

I was drugged last night – I just know it.  Despite knowing what was taking place today, I couldn’t get out of bed.  Even Mabi – who had somehow snuck in and was my bed companion for the first time ever – wasn’t moving a hair.  I’m suspecting there was thing placed in the AC vents (there aren’t any AC vents, but it sounds terrific).  I had received word back from an old high school friend who had recently moved to Costa Rica that it was pouring rain.  HOW DID I MANAGE THIS???  I called the hotel – who said that it had just started raining yesterday and only at night, but several reports showed rain all week.  Tiffany, my friend, said if all failed, she could get me a house on the Pacific side.  We shall see….

Eventually Ethan walked in to my room, which meant it was time to get moving. I rolled on out of bed, already on my third cup of coffee, and went to wake Mags.  There was stuff to do and things to get got.  The first place was Get the House in Order.  Somehow we fare better under pressure – except for Ethan, my beloved little sloth.  He is on his own time frame, especially as of late.  That kid is a trip.  Since he had left his phone at his dad’s house, we needed to get down there, but first, a trip to AT&T to pay a bill, figure how the hell I keep getting texts that “I have gone over my allotted GB amount again and to move up to 6 GB.  Sure enough – I was given a different story yet again at the store.  I give up.  We headed to another store to get an SD card for Mags, earbuds for Ethan & a neck pillow for me.  Off to go pick up Ethan’s cell phone and we are Good.To.Go.

Once home, I was amazed at how Maggie had straightened the kitchen, counters, house, etc.  I know – it is, theoretically, an easy concept, cleaning, but I get caught in such a never-ending circle of emotion and memory.    It’s a tricky thing for me.  Plus, there’s the “where does this belong.”  At the last minute, I remembered to print out boarding passes and then off to drop Lizzie off so the installation of the new <whateverit’scalled> could be installed.  I met Gary, the man who has semi-adopted Lizzie (he is the mechanic who works on her the most), and my heart was happy.

The trip to San Francisco was short – I drove (80 mph) and traffic was fine until we hit the Bay Bridge.   From there on, it was touch-and-go, due to an accident but WAZE convinced us we would be there shortly. We exited at the Delta terminal and said our goodbyes.  It wasn’t until we had checked our luggage that Ethan realized…he had left his backpack in the back of the car.  Fortunately, we still had 2 hours until takeoff, the trick was seeing if Carolene would answer the phone or text.  I had faith.  We decided to head on through security – Ethan was searched (they must not rust his new “yes Ma’am” attitude, wither, and had JUST gotten to our gate when Carolene texted!!  I got the kids to a different terminal where there was a wider food selection (and some really good food), got them dinner and headed back to the gate we were dropped off to wait for Carolene.  I had no idea how long it would and was trying to establish when she had first responded when I saw her pull up.   With gratitude pouring out of my mouth, I handed her money for gas, etc and grabbed Ethan’s backpack – snaked through security and found the kids, e njoying themselves in the kid’s zone.  Kids are kids.  Boarding would take place in 7 minutes, so with half of my burger eaten, we walked back to our terminal.

The flight to LAX was terrific – we were in back, I got a whole row to muself, we had an amazing flight attendant named Laverne (!)  and I secretly created a story about the guy sitting across from me – he was a back[packer who had gone on a solitary thruhike.  I think I’ll create a short story about him.  LAX was in her shining glory and we didn’t wait long until we were boarding our next flight – where I was surrounded by bodybuilders.  The kids and I exchanged glances as dread coursed through my body.  “Dude” next to me was talking far too loudly – his phone kept going off and then he played the first notes of the well-known Frank Sinatra song.  It was the Four Stooges as they treated all of us to their plans for the next few days.  While filling out the immigration form – he announced that he had put his home address under “Place you are staying.”  Thank god it is only a 5 hour flight.

Pictures:  The kids playing in SFO's kid area; Ethan and his jaw-breaker, L.A. at night - miles of city; Costa Rica the next morning.