I am trying my best to live in the moment. In truth, I would like to curl up in bed and just be sad. I miss Pumpkine and Storme. I cannot stop thinking about how they made my morning special every morning. I cannot stop thinking about how I used to think that it was impossible to have a bad day with two sweet kitties sitting next to me all day. My heart is so sad. The thought of their fate devastates me.
Back to living in the moment. The boys and I are on our last vacation before Brainy Bird heads off to college. Right now, Little Chirp and I are sitting in first class. We got a free upgrade. Brainy Bird is in the first seat in coach. Because of Covid, our special meal was a tapas box, but we still enjoyed it. We are enjoying the special treatment, and I am enjoying the extra leg room.
Years from now, I will look back on this vacation, just as I look back on all our past vacations, and I will wish I could relive these days. Letting my sadness cast a shadow over this week will not bring my sweet kitties back.
While we are away, Potatoe and Trooper are both staying at high end pet boarding places. They each have their own suite. Potatoe gets to go to day care during the day, which he loves. Trooper is getting the pampering package, which includes two play times and a special treat each day. I am spending more on their nightly accommodations than I am for us humans.
I am really trying to focus on the positive. There is so much to be happy and thankful for.
This is day one of six vacation days. It is our travel day. We left midmorning, and we will arrive in Baltimore in roughly three hours. We will grab a rental car, and then we will head to our hotel in Bathesda. The only thing that I planned for tonight is dinner at a moderately priced Italian restaurant near the hotel. We will likely grab snacks and watch a move back at the hotel after dinner. We will also get ourselves organized for the rest of the trip.
Our check-in process at the airport this morning ran smoothly with little waiting in contrast to our more than two hours wait to check bags on our last trip from the same airport terminal. Little Chirp and I were both TSA pre-check, so we zipped through the security line. When we got through, I sent Brainy Bird a text message to let him know we were headed to the United club. As I looked up from my phone, I noticed that Brainy Bird somehow made it to the front of the long line for the standard security.
We waited just a moment for him to catch up with us. He was smiling. I asked how he got through the line so quickly. He said they announced, “All adults traveling without children can proceed here.” He then moved quickly to the be the first person in the newly opened line. Adulting continues to go well for Brainy Bird. Most of the travelers this morning were families with younger children. Nothing moves through an airport security line slower than families with small children.
I enjoyed hot coffee at the United Club and the boys had some snacks. We assigned each person two vacation days, and then we headed to our gate to find out that Little Chirp would be joining me in first class. I had been notified of my own free upgrade the day before.
On our vacations and holiday weeks, everyone gets days assigned to them. Whoever’s day it is gets to decide what the rest of us all do. Basically, any arbitrary decision rest with that individual. If you think about it, most family argument stem from disagreeing about what to do. We have never had a family argument while on vacation with this system that I put in place more than a decade ago.
Today is my day, so I get to decide what we order for dinner tonight, and then I get to decide what we do after dinner.
I am going to divide the ordering privileges up at dinner. We usually order two appetizers, two salads, and two entrees for a nice dinner out. I am going to let each one of them pick one of the salads, and then Little Chirp will get to pick an entrée, while Brainy Bird picks an appetizer. I will then pick the other appetizer and entrée. This may sound like a lot of food, trust me, I will eat very little, and ALL of the food will still be gone. Little Chirp will be looking around for dessert.
Tomorrow is Brainy Bird’s day. The boys are going by themselves to Fiesta Texas America, so he will get to decide what rides they go on, how they spend their fun money budget and what they eat. He will also get to pick the paella at the Spanish restaurant that we are going to. I will be spending the day with my friend Lyn. I look forward to hearing all about their day when we reconnect at dinner.
As I said, there is so much to be thankful for. I may never stop missing Pumpkine and Storme, but missing out on these special days with the boys will not bring them back.