Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy

I hear that it has been the coldest, longest, grossest winter since 1978, nation-wide. I think all those people who cheerily say how much they love winter are even down in the dumps about it. So I’m a little shy to say that I skipped out on the last two weeks – missing snow and minus-double-digit temperatures – to go on vacation.

I flew home on the red-eye last night and I’m playing the Eye of the Tiger in my mind to JUST KEEP GOING. So far, on VERY little sleep, I’ve managed to unpack, put away the suitcases, buy groceries, get the boys to school for the afternoon, go to the bank, pick up the dog, do some laundry, and return a few urgent phone calls. Is it me or does anyone else find it strange to answer phone calls in this day and age? Don’t we just text?

We got home to a depressing icy grey fog in the air, the grey sky matching the grey ground and my hands are already cracked and peeling. However! It was a wonderful vacation in the sun, the best yet, and I feel very blessed to have gone. It was wonderful and warm, and this is the vacation that the children will remember that their mother a) boogie boarded, and b) swam underwater. I know! Crazy talk. Evidently I need to do these things more frequently not only because they are fun, but also because my boys were amazed at my mad swimming skilz. “I didn’t KNOW you could swim!” they kept saying, like I had just crossed the English Channel, rather than swam under their legs in a pool.

I’ll have lots of things to share with you but quite frankly I’m having a hard time stringing two words together. We got to the Maui airport at 7:15 last night and were in line for an hour waiting just to drop our bags, since we’d already checked in online. The lineup for people checking in was insane, and one sunburned man in a pink golf shirt with a giant fanny pack emblazoned with the Masters logo tried to cut the queue. He was sent back, much to his chagrin, and then started yelling at the OTHER people in the lineup to GO GO GO when it was their turn. Later I saw him screaming at an airport employee because it erroneously said that our flight had already boarded and departed, although clearly it had not. Imagine my alarm, then, when that same man sat in the seat next to me and Jake. However he was extremely cordial and jovial with me, which is when I could smell his breath. He was obviously very drunk which really explained his erratic behaviour, although it did not lessen my alarm. Whenever Jake shifted in his sleep and got too close to Mr. Goodtimez, I startled awake to ensure that he didn’t accidentally kick him or raise his ire in any way. It was not restful in the least, especially when Mr. Goodtimez fell asleep with his hand clutching a drink. I couldn’t imagine the results being very pleasant if Jake happened to wake him up by accidental elbow nudging. In fact closer to our arrival at YYC, he ate a couple snack bags of Cheezies, licked his fingers grossly, then threw the empty balled up bags at his wife in the row ahead of us to get her attention.

I was very happy to land, although I am now exhausted. My to-do list for the day is mostly done, however, and part of it is that I packed lightly so naturally there is not much to unpack. Of course, my definition of “pack lightly” is a bit different than my husband’s.

Can you tell whose pile is whose?

And I did not buy either of these shirts, but I wanted to, so very badly.

Oh! And I had an Elvis sighting.