Of course, we all know the panic the US has been living under for the past few weeks about COVID-19, and how the idea of flying has been collectively giving us all the willies, so as Steve was beginning to pack for his new trip, I casually mentioned that it was too bad he wasn’t driving. He’d done it before, lots of times, and although it’s a roughly 9 hour and change drive, he never seemed to mind it. Plus...being in a car alone reduces the chances some germ laden stranger would cough on him. I also, just joking, said that if he drove, I could go too!
To my surprise, he warmed to the idea! Well, we warmed to the idea of driving, and almost immediately decided that would be what he’d do. Then, slowly, we started circling the idea of me going as well. Going along on someone else’s work trips can be a bit tricky. They will be working, which leaves you on your own during the day, usually without a vehicle. Plus, if there are meetings, or client dinners, that can cause some issues after work hours. We talked about me going along for while and, although he seemed amenable to the idea, I asked him Pointedly if he wanted me to go to make sure I wouldn’t be in the way, and he said “You can do it if you want.”
Ok, let me stop here for a moment and go on a tangent. If there is a phrase used in the process of making plans that I hate more than just about anything, it’s “you can if you want to.” That is as frustrating and non-commital as you can get, and if a person (like myself) wants to know how someone else feels about a particular idea, that phrase is completely loaded. Of course I can go if I want to. We live in America! I can do almost anything I want! However, I want to know if YOU want me to do something, and that is a completely different thing. I recognize that the other person is giving me the freedom to make a choice, which is good, but I also need feedback. I live in perpetual fear that I am going to end up someplace where I’m not wanted. That is not a joke. It is one of those weird glitches in my brain, but I have an actual, deeply instilled fear of intruding into things/getting other people involved in things they don’t want to do. I may be one of the few people in the world where you can say you don’t want me someplace who won’t get wildly insulted. Seriously, about ten years ago I went to a wedding that I asked if I should come, was told “you can come if you want to” and against every instinctive had, I went, and I haven’t ever been able to shake the feeling I crashed it. You can ask the groom if you don’t believe me. It plagues me!
Anyways, Let’s circle back to the subject. Hehe!
I did consider not going along, to be quite honest. When Steve goes out of town, there are certain activities I enjoy having the freedom to do. I can watch whatever I want on TV, eat when and what I feel like, go to bed at 7:30 just to watch Netflix under the covers until I fall asleep, as well as other stuff that I guess would fall under the category of guilty pleasures, but let’s be real, I don’t ever feel guilty about the things that give me pleasure! :) I’d even sent some feelers out to a friend about getting together, but hadn’t heard back from them yet. Sometimes it’s nice to have the house to yourself for a couple of days, but also, I do love a good road trip! I also love to visit other places and try new stuff, and although I would be visiting Disney World (*Forrest Gump Voice*) AGAIN, I decided that a trip was just what I needed.
So that is how I found myself in the passenger seat of a rented Camero, driving south, and on an adventure! The drive somehow felt simultaneously fast, and as if it took forever. With our busy Saturday and losing an hour, I was running on three hours of sleep and in a state of half asleep almost the whole way. We stopped quite a bit for different reasons, and of course we washed our hands at every place we visited. My go to washing song is the chorus to”The Gambler.” If sung at tempo, it lasts 23 seconds, which gives you time to rinse! I was going to learn “Jolene” but that song makes me too angry. Gurl, if your husband is in love with Jolene, it’s your husband you need to talk to. Oy.
By the time we got to our hotel, I was on the edge of exhaustion. We went out for dinner (at an excellent Mexican restaurant with a mariachi band, and while the music was great, it was so loud. The trumpet player was right by our table, and I felt like he was slapping me with music!) and came back to the hotel* and went to bed. It was a long, but fun, day!
*The family in the next room have what sounds like twelve screaming kids in there. We called the front desk and complained because we could clearly hear everything they were saying through the walls. I felt like a jerk to complain, but it was either that, or try and sleep while their three year old screamed directly into the vent that went between our rooms. Thankfully, after someone from the front desk went to talk to them, they quieted down. Whew.
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