Weekend Getaway

Every mom deserves and earns a weekend away! At least that is my firm belief.
I had my 2008 "mom's weekend away" this past weekend. I chose to go to Clarksville, Tn to visit some girlfriends.
Before leaving the house I finished the laundry (not that it is ever actually done), made sure the dishes were all clean, swept the floor and vacuumed. My hope was that tidying the house before leaving for the weekend would make cleaning it upon return a little easier. I'm not sure if that plan worked. Upon return it was quite the mess.
So, I headed to Baltimore to catch a early morning flight. The first hour of my trip was already quite rewarding. After traveling through airports with two kids in tow for the past 3 years, traveling alone was great. I arrived at the airport 1 hour before my flight. I parked the car in the long term, put my ONE very small bag on the courtesy shuttle and was off to the terminal. I checked my bag (since the 3-1-1 rule is just irritating) and headed to security. As I stood in line I found myself people watching. I have no time to people watch when I am ensuring my kids don't cause a security breach, so this was truly entertaining. On one occasion I watched a lady take note of the TSA agent yelling to "keep your boarding pass out" and then continue to put her boarding pass with her shoes on its way to the x-ray machine. Now, this became a huge ordeal when she approached the metal detector without it. They wouldn't let her through so she went back to her stuff which, was already on its way through the machine, to retrieve her ticket. Long story short, the ticket got lost in the x-ray machine and she stood there baffled with 30 angry passengers behind her. Just a note: take off your shoes, and your belt, take the money out of your pocket, put your cell phone in the container, your laptop in a separate container and KEEP YOUR BOARDING PASS WITH YOU! Come on people it isn't too hard.
So, once through security and no more free entertainment I picked up a magazine that I would actually be able to read during the flight and headed to my gate. On the plane I had the privilege of being entertained by the older lady setting next to me. The flight attendant announced that she would be coming by to offer us drinks and peanuts. She announced the beverage selection and then headed down the aisle to take our order. It was pretty clear she was taking orders because she had a pen and pad of paper in her hand. When she reached my row I said "I'll take a Coke", then she looked at my fellow passenger and asked her "can I get you something to drink?" The lady replied "yes". This began a conversation between the two going back and forth "what would you like?", "what do you have?", "this is what we have . . . ", "yes that sounds good", "which one sounds good?" "do I have to tell you?"
At this point it is everything I have in me not to laugh out loud! Of coarse you have to tell her what you want! So, the lady then needed the list of offerings read to her again before replying that she wanted "juice". Unfortunately, for that flight attendant there were about 6 different juices being offered. Finally, they agreed upon orange juice. It was great.
I found that when I am not consumed with taking care of my boys I have so much time on my hands to appreciate all of the humorous everyday life things that are going on around me.
The bonus of the flight was that we had an early arrival into Nashville. Great! This never happens to me. However, since we were early there was a plane at our gate and we had to wait on the runway for 15 minutes . . the exact amount of time that we were early. Hmm.
Once in Nashville my friend Katie picked me up and we headed to a local mall for coffee, shopping, lunch and a lot of talking. I happened to be in Nashville for Fan Fair which is the country music event of the year in the city. Just about every country music group pops in sometime during the three day event to do a little diddy. The weather was great so Katie and just found a nice park bench in the shade, listened to music and enjoyed being together.
I also had the chance to visit my friend Sara once I got into Clarksville. We spent the day together catching up and solving world problems, like the trade deficit, the weakening dollar, and watched Hilary Clinton PAINFULLY concede to Obama the democratic presidential candidacy.
It was such a relaxing, wonderful weekend. I am so blessed to have met these ladies so many years ago and to have maintained a close relationship despite the distance that is between us.
I appreciate that Matt didn't even flinch when I told him I was going away for the weekend and my sweet friend Rachael's willingness to help watch the boys and shuttle Eli to school on Friday while Matt was at work.