Well, here I sit in a lounge chair in a sunny lobby in New Jersey after being
booted out of my hotel room by housekeeping. Life is so tough. I could have
asked them to leave, but that would just be too many days without the bed being
made, so I acquiesced.
Dave is training in helicopter simulators here for over a
week, so since my parents, my boys and Anya’s teacher all felt they could
handle her if I left, I did leave. A real live vacation after 15 straight months
of servitude to the girl. Willing servitude, but draining servitude as well. The second morning I woke up here I still felt like
I’d been hit by a truck. My muscles, my mind and my soul were all really tired.
I am glad to say that I am finally getting energized again.
Tomorrow is my birthday and I concocted a plan to celebrate.
Dave will train most of the day, so I am on a commuter train to Manhattan for a quick
overnight trip with a friend. AND we are going to a Broadway show to see my
favorite stage actress, which I have been wanted to do for about 10 years. We will
see Anything Goes with Sutton Foster and I just found out she is only with the show
for more 5 days after my birthday! I’ve given you the link to my girlfriend’s
blog-it is a hoot to read and she takes tons of great pictures. Hope there is a
really good one she takes of me in NYC. I’ll link to her blog again once she contrives a
story about our trip from her pictures. She is up to see anything in NYC and
her only possible request is to go to a hot dog place she saw on a TV show
once!
This morning I went to the front desk to ask about the
shuttle to the train station. The lady that worked there tried to be nice, but
said, “You mean the one, right there (pointing to the left)?” I said yes. After
all, I am from California,
it is cold in the morning here, I hardly walk anywhere the way city folk do AND
it’s gonna be my birthday. But, she shamed me into walking and I passed it
today on the way to Staples. Okay, so I timed it-a literal 10 minutes. I guess
it will be good for me. I am mostly just annoyed at having to pull my little wheeled
briefcase/suitcase over all the clickity, clackity, rickety, rackety streets. I
need to bring my bag with all my getting-ready-for-a-show-on-your-birthday-stuff.
Maybe I can convince Dave to pick me up in the car the following afternoon…
Anya was pretty good about me leaving. We did a few things
to help and I did one thing that did not help-gotta ease her into being a
Nordquist somehow. First, I asked her to give me a small stuffed animal to
bring with me. I take pictures of it in different places and post them on Facebook,
tagging either my parents or a brother, whichever house she will be at when I
post. She has been wearing a dog tag Dave gave her from when he packed boxes of
gifts for soldiers. So, I gave her a dog
tag that I have from a friend (she’s been eyeing it since she first saw it) and
she decided we should swap them. Each time she started getting nervous about me
never coming back (that is still an issue since her birth mom never came back)
I make her feel the necklace. She KNOWS I’ll come back for my dog tag, since
hers is so very important to her.
I took a direct flight after taking Anya to school and staying
for a bit. Didn’t realize how late I’d get back, nor did I remember that I told
her I’d call her when I got to the hotel. I was wiped out, it was late and I
didn’t think about how important that would be to her. Whoops. Sorry Mom and
Dad. Got a message from my dad the next morning asking me to PLEASE call my
daughter. She was sure something bad had happened to me.
I did apologize multiple times and try to explain time
zones, uh yeah, and then taught her a little about her mom’s motto. “No news is
good news”. I told her that if the plane had crashed, the police would have
come to her and if I were in hospital, Papa would have called. I hated to be
crude (although she does respond well to examples like that), but unfortunately,
I tend not to check in. I am a bad mother to all of my children and bad wife to my
husband. Perhaps this will change my ways. But, I wanted to prepare her anyway
for the inevitable. I have been very faithful to call her at least twice daily
since that initial 43 minute conversation about me being safe and her being
scared.
Maybe one of these times, I’ll post about Matt The Dog and
his adventures in New Jersey and New York.
Here’s to resting and rejuvenating!!!!!!!!!!!!
~Monica
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