Bon Voyage

Well with a few minor crises settled in the past few days and….we’re off in the morning. The past two days have been more than 24 hours it seems with last minute vacation details, wrapping up at work, visits to ER, a hair cut and brow waxing, birthday celebrations etc. I haven’t had time to be excited yet.

As I mentioned I had an irritated left eye which I noticed late Wednesday night. So it was a trip to the Emergency Dept. at work on Thursday morning to get it checked out. The Dr. on call said it was likely a speck of something I’d rubbed in my eye (likely fiberglas dust I’m guessing from the boat shop) or the uveitis (inflammation of the iris) which I’d had years ago returning. He wanted to wait to see if anything developed (so I had visions of sitting in the ER on Good Friday for hours then the pharmacy) and I could be rechecked. I was relieved to wake up this a.m. with the redness faded. Just my old dry eyes I guess.

So this morning I was off to Yarmouth to meet a classmate home on vacation. Had a wonderful visit and got caught up on all the class news. Then off to Universite Ste Anne to pick up the birthday girl (daughter # 2 was 21 today) and home in time to pick up the ice cream cake, walk the dog and get supper ready for the family. We numbered 10 with all of us and a couple of extra family friends and grandparents. Had a nice Easter supper, birthday celebration and bon voyage party all in one. Don’t get together often enough.

However, in between the all the visiting, packing and generally getting things in place to be away 10 days there was a transportation crises. The travel partner had left a frantic voice mail saying that her car had no brakes and couldn’t be repaired until Tuesday due to the holiday weekend. We had planned that she would drive and leave her car at the airport so my car would be available for the daughter needing to write her exam, and attend dental appointments etc. She was unable to think of anything other than renting a car each way. So the crises was solved by daughter # 2 and her boyfriend chauffeuring the two vacationers to and from the airport. Now since there is a winter weather watch with 15 cm of snow for tomorrow (I swear to you - read the date) night they have strict instructions to drop us off and make straight for home, unless it starts early and they end up spending the night in Halifax.

But the most unnerving situation of the past two days has been that the life partner did not seem to be aware I was leaving on a trip. He asked Thursday morning if I had Easter Monday off and when I gave him a strange look and said “yes” he said “that’s good” so I’m thinking ‘I’ve been a bit too discreet with my preparations so I didn’t upset him, I’ll have to have the discussion with him’. So this afternoon I said “you do realize that I’m leaving tomorrow on that trip I mentioned and you agreed to a while ago don’t you?” and he said (with a very surprised look on his face) “oh, I thought you’d give up on that idea because you didn’t say anything about it” I assured him he was working so hard on the boat I didn’t want to make him feel bad, so he says “oh so you waited until today to do that did you?” I told him it was better than him wondering where I was on Saturday night. But of course I’m leaving with a healthy dose of guilt as he’s not accompanying and he is a good travel partner.

With daughter # 2 in place to run the household, things should go smoothly enough. She was telling me about her feminist studies class this term and how she was explaining to the professor that she was care taking of her father as he was working hard and wouldn’t have to come home and make supper and she said her prof said “and if your mother was working and he went away would someone be sent to make sure she didn’t have to make supper when she came from work?” Talk about a teachable moment eh? We both giggled at that one and it has relieved a bit of the aforementioned guilt.

At any rate, here it is almost midnight and I’ve finally finished packing, weighing suitcases and getting supplies ready for a proxy Easter Bunny on Sunday morning. We’re off at 8:45 a.m. so I must crash. We’ve decided we’re not going to make any attempt at emailing while we’re away so it’ll be April 16th before you get a WOW we’re back email with a trip briefing. Enjoy the snow while we’re gone!