So my trip to finally get to see Jerry after 2.5 months of separation began on June 5th. I had originally planned on flying out of Savannah at around 3:30 and then catch the flight from Atlanta to Madrid at 6:40. Well, after a quick look at the weather on Friday morning I realized I needed to get the heck out of Savannah earlier if possible. At the slightest hint of bad weather either here or Atlanta, and that flight is the first to get cancelled. It would not have been pretty had my flight been cancelled! So I called Delta on the way in to work and sure enough, I could get on the 11:45 flight to Atlanta (for what was supposed to be a $100 change fee....but they never asked for my credit card at check in!). I had to go in and do a few things before leaving the office, so Mom took Carrie to the Barnes & Noble to check out the books and get some Starbucks then picked me up around 10:30. Love flying out of Savannah - even if your flight is at 11:45 you can pretty much guarantee it won't be hard to get through security or anything. Of course, when I got there and got to the kiosk to check in, the stupid machine had no record of my reservation. Panic ensues (it's what I'm good at), but I finally flagged down an agent and told her what was going on. She was able to pull up my reservation and got me all checked in and ready to go!
By this time it was about 11, so I needed to scoot through security and get settled at the gate. Carrie was fine til I tried to kiss her goodbye and she lost it, which made me lose it. I'm walking down to the security line and I can hear her wailing :( I got through security with no problems, got my Java Chip Frappuchino and got settled at the gate. I called my mom to check on Carrie and she says "Oh yeah, she's fine now. As soon as we left you she spotted a dog in the airport and was totally fine." Gee, glad I'm so easily replaced!!
The flight to Atlanta was fine. Got there and had some lunch at Chilis while sitting next to a rather rude woman. She engaged me in conversation and, when I told her where I was going, she couldn't quite comprehend why on earth I wouldn't quit my job and move to Portugal while Jerry was there. Gee lady, as great as that sounds, I can't really abandon my job and uproot Carrie and all that. I just finished my lunch as quickly as possible and got the heck out of there!!
Let me say that I am spoiled for life now....anytime I fly anywhere as far away as Portugal I'm gonna want to fly first class. It was so amazing!! I actually slept on the plane, quite comfortably actually, and it was just a really nice experience. I mean, it doesn't really make me love flying by any stretch, but it did help the anxiety level.
Got in to Madrid around 9:30am their time (that'd be 3:30am east coast time), and had to do the whole customs/recheck bag thing and went to wait on my flight to Vigo where Jerry was going to pick me up. That flight was uneventful, and I landed around 1pm their time. I was SO excited to see Jerry that I managed to walk right out of the secure area...without retrieving my luggage. Great. I found Jerry and he was like "Um, glad to see you, but didn't you bring any clothes for the next 10 days?" So we had to track someone down that would take pity on the poor brainless pregnant woman and let me back in to get my bags. Retrieved my bags and we were off!
Jerry warned me about the rental car before we even got to it. It was a nasty shade of brown, so I'm sure you can imagine the nicknames he gave it. We piled in and started to head back to Porto. We did stop in one little town (Jerry - what was the name of it??) and saw a really pretty church on top of a hill that had great views. We also managed to see a bride while there. We were there for about an hour or so, then headed off to look for some food. These people eat at weird hours. I think it was like 4pm or so when we stopped at a restaurant and had some pizza. I was pretty impressed with Jerry's Portuguese; that is, until the waitress stopped him at one point and said "You can speak English." I think Jerry felt a little put off, but I think he was doing a great job :)
We made it back to Porto and I have to say his accomodations are actually pretty good. Good thing since he's been there for 6 months. He's got a kitchen area, a TV (with mainly Portuguese channels, of course), a sitting area, and then the bedroom is separate. We pretty much just dropped off my stuff then headed out to attempt to secure reservations on the hotel train from Lisbon to Madrid for 6/8. We got to the train station and that particular one had already closed their international counter, so we had to go one stop up to the next station. Got there, Jerry didn't have his passport so we couldn't get the Eurail passes validated. Go back to original train station to get Jerry's backpack out of the car which has his passport (all the while me doing the mommy thing saying "Why don't you have your passport on you ANYWAYS???"), go back up to the other station and get our reservations and then go back to original train station. Oy.
Then we go park the car at the hotel and start walking. Not really my idea of fun after a long day of travel, but okay. It was very interesting to see everything that Jerry's been talking about for months. We went to the grocery store which was an experience and an education all in one, seeing the different meats/fish they eat. After that we went back and had dinner at the hotel. By this time it was about 10pm! Very late to me, but apparently very normal. The only good thing was that this certainly got me on track for not having jet lag the next day!!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Panic & Separation Anxiety
I know I know...I promised to give blow by blow updates on what happened in Portugal/Spain, and I will. I just had to get this out before I exploded though.
I have those lovely little ticker things on my iGoogle home page. You know, the ones that count down to whatever event you program into it. I have one that happily announces that Carrie's 3rd birthday is 299 days away...and another that says it's a mere 72 days until Baby Reeves #2 arrives. SEVENTY-TWO DAYS, people. And that's assuming this child does not try to make an early appearance (please don't, little one - your daddy isn't back yet!!) Can you say that panic has officially set in? There is so much to be done from my perspective and not nearly enough time to do it (what with me all but collapsing on the couch after Carrie goes to sleep in the evenings). There's so much crap in storage that I need to haul out and start getting cleaned up and ready like car seats, baby bathtubs, swings, etc. Carrie's big girl bed isn't in yet, but when it does come in we'll have to do that little transition which hopefully will go well (note to self - I still need to get some sheets for the poor child to put on the bed). There's all this stuff that I had planned on getting done while Jerry was gone that hasn't materialized yet, like making sure Carrie's baby book is all up to date, photo albums are current, etc. And oh yeah, there's the little thing of us still not having bought our own home yet. I seriously thought we would have by now after selling our FL house in February, and we had several prospects, but we honestly just lost steam on it for awhile and had so many other things going on it got pushed to the side. Plus it honestly freaks me out a bit at the idea of buying a home without Jerry actually seeing it with his own two eyes (yes, I know I can email pictures and video, but it's not the same!) I know all this probably sounds silly to many, if not all, of you, but these are the things that keep me up at night so don't make fun. I just know that two children does not equal twice the work - from what I hear the work grows exponentially instead (how's that for a GT dorkism?). I can't promise I won't have an anxiety attack before this is all said and done! ;)
On another note, poor Carrie does NOT like for Mommy to take her to school apparently. She had a meltdown on Monday for whatever reason when I dropped her off. I think it was a combination of me waking her up early, her not being used to me dropping her off in the mornings, and the final straw was when we got to school and realized Miss Elisabeth (her favorite teacher) was not there. Cue gigantic tears from the wee one, and it broke Mommy's heart too. Yesterday was "water day" so she didn't hesitate at all about going to school since she knew kiddie pools and sprinklers were in her future. Today we had more tears before I even tried to give her a kiss goodbye. She just glued herself to my leg and when I sat down with her for a minute she plopped right in my lap and stuck her thumb in her mouth. Thanks to some quick thinking from Miss Rita, some snacks and a sticker the morning was saved. It just breaks my heart to see her crying like that when I know it's because I'm about to head out the door. I'm not sure if it's just typical toddler behavior or if she's afraid Mommy is going to disappear for awhile again like I did when I went to visit Jerry. Either way it sort of stinks (even though I know she'll be fine)!
I have those lovely little ticker things on my iGoogle home page. You know, the ones that count down to whatever event you program into it. I have one that happily announces that Carrie's 3rd birthday is 299 days away...and another that says it's a mere 72 days until Baby Reeves #2 arrives. SEVENTY-TWO DAYS, people. And that's assuming this child does not try to make an early appearance (please don't, little one - your daddy isn't back yet!!) Can you say that panic has officially set in? There is so much to be done from my perspective and not nearly enough time to do it (what with me all but collapsing on the couch after Carrie goes to sleep in the evenings). There's so much crap in storage that I need to haul out and start getting cleaned up and ready like car seats, baby bathtubs, swings, etc. Carrie's big girl bed isn't in yet, but when it does come in we'll have to do that little transition which hopefully will go well (note to self - I still need to get some sheets for the poor child to put on the bed). There's all this stuff that I had planned on getting done while Jerry was gone that hasn't materialized yet, like making sure Carrie's baby book is all up to date, photo albums are current, etc. And oh yeah, there's the little thing of us still not having bought our own home yet. I seriously thought we would have by now after selling our FL house in February, and we had several prospects, but we honestly just lost steam on it for awhile and had so many other things going on it got pushed to the side. Plus it honestly freaks me out a bit at the idea of buying a home without Jerry actually seeing it with his own two eyes (yes, I know I can email pictures and video, but it's not the same!) I know all this probably sounds silly to many, if not all, of you, but these are the things that keep me up at night so don't make fun. I just know that two children does not equal twice the work - from what I hear the work grows exponentially instead (how's that for a GT dorkism?). I can't promise I won't have an anxiety attack before this is all said and done! ;)
On another note, poor Carrie does NOT like for Mommy to take her to school apparently. She had a meltdown on Monday for whatever reason when I dropped her off. I think it was a combination of me waking her up early, her not being used to me dropping her off in the mornings, and the final straw was when we got to school and realized Miss Elisabeth (her favorite teacher) was not there. Cue gigantic tears from the wee one, and it broke Mommy's heart too. Yesterday was "water day" so she didn't hesitate at all about going to school since she knew kiddie pools and sprinklers were in her future. Today we had more tears before I even tried to give her a kiss goodbye. She just glued herself to my leg and when I sat down with her for a minute she plopped right in my lap and stuck her thumb in her mouth. Thanks to some quick thinking from Miss Rita, some snacks and a sticker the morning was saved. It just breaks my heart to see her crying like that when I know it's because I'm about to head out the door. I'm not sure if it's just typical toddler behavior or if she's afraid Mommy is going to disappear for awhile again like I did when I went to visit Jerry. Either way it sort of stinks (even though I know she'll be fine)!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Made it back!!
So I've made it back safe and sound from my whirlwind Portugal/Spain trip. I will provide more details later (i.e. when I can upload all of the pictures that will help me to remember what I did on this trip, cause there was a LOT!), but I just wanted to say hi to everyone and let you know I'm back on this side of the pond. It was sooooo good to see Jerry. I hold it together fairly well these days with him being gone, but I miss him more than words can say. There were definitely tears in the Madrid airport (and not just on my part, although I was responsible for a marjority of them...sorry Jerry!)
Two transatlantic flights gives you a lot of time to think, and one thing I realized during this trip - I am one incredibly blessed and lucky person. I mean, I already knew that, but trips like this really bring it back into perspective for me, you know? I have one amazing husband and one really cool kid (about to have one more really cool kid!!) My parents and in-laws are the greatest people on the face of the earth to pretty much drop everything they are doing to take care of Carrie so I could go have this experience of visiting Jerry and getting to mark two more countries off my "to visit" list. I have a lifestyle such that I can go to all these great countries and have all of these wonderful (and not so great) travel experiences (just wait till I blog about the hotel train, folks). I have been to many more countries than most people will ever get to go to in their lives, and I'm only 32. For the most part I have my health. There are people WAY worse off than me, although I confess that sometimes I have to remind myself of that when my Crohn's is flaring and I feel like whining. I still have a job in this economic climate, and Jerry was able to land one.
All in all, I think I'm a pretty lucky gal.
Two transatlantic flights gives you a lot of time to think, and one thing I realized during this trip - I am one incredibly blessed and lucky person. I mean, I already knew that, but trips like this really bring it back into perspective for me, you know? I have one amazing husband and one really cool kid (about to have one more really cool kid!!) My parents and in-laws are the greatest people on the face of the earth to pretty much drop everything they are doing to take care of Carrie so I could go have this experience of visiting Jerry and getting to mark two more countries off my "to visit" list. I have a lifestyle such that I can go to all these great countries and have all of these wonderful (and not so great) travel experiences (just wait till I blog about the hotel train, folks). I have been to many more countries than most people will ever get to go to in their lives, and I'm only 32. For the most part I have my health. There are people WAY worse off than me, although I confess that sometimes I have to remind myself of that when my Crohn's is flaring and I feel like whining. I still have a job in this economic climate, and Jerry was able to land one.
All in all, I think I'm a pretty lucky gal.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Random thoughts
It's been awhile since I posted so there's lots of random thoughts running around in my head. Here goes!
-I hate flying. HATE. IT. Like, so much so that I tend to generally try to take benadryl or something similar when flying so I can just hopefully fall asleep and wake up on the other side. It never happens that way, but if I take the benadryl I generally don't have a panic attack at every slight turbulence. I got the go ahead from the doc today to take some benadryl or tylenol PM for the upcoming flight should I need/want it. Can someone tell me again why I insist on wanting to visit all these places that require such long flights? I never regret it when I get there, but man....the getting there part sucks sometimes. I'm not sure where I got this irrational fear from, but maybe first class seats will help me get over it :)
-I finally finished up most of my packing tonight. I was halfway done on Sunday, but got derailed by Carrie. She was "helping" me as she so often likes to do these days, but disappeared for a minute and came back dragging her little rolling backpack announcing that she too was going to pack for Portugal. Can you say Mommy turned into a puddle?
-Got another dose of Remicade last Friday. This stuff works crazy well. My last GI doc in FL used to joke with me and say it's my version of crack. Why yes it is, and I'm not afraid to say it. I hadn't gained any weight at my last two OB appointments which was starting to concern my doc, but I went back today and I'm finally up to having gained 10lbs so far for the pregnancy. Never thought I'd be excited about gaining weight people! I also got to have another peek at the little guy/gal, which was great. Everything's measuring right on, so yeah for that!
-Work's been tough this week. Staff reorganizations are never fun, especially when they include eliminating positions. It's times like these I really don't like being in HR.
-Carrie and I took our first solo road trip to Atlanta over the Memorial Day holiday, and I am excited to say it went quite well! We didn't have any major breakdowns (vehicle or Carrie-wise), and it was great to see family. We were supposed to have a repeat trip last weekend for a friend's baby shower, but alas, it was not meant to be. Carrie got snotty and coughy on Friday, then on Saturday thought it best to get some sort of stomach virus....which I apparently picked up starting Sunday night/Monday morning. Ugh. Thankfully both of us are done with the getting sick thing, although I'm still hacking up a lung.
I think that's all for now folks. I can't make any promises to post while I'm in Portugal/Spain, but I'll try :)
-I hate flying. HATE. IT. Like, so much so that I tend to generally try to take benadryl or something similar when flying so I can just hopefully fall asleep and wake up on the other side. It never happens that way, but if I take the benadryl I generally don't have a panic attack at every slight turbulence. I got the go ahead from the doc today to take some benadryl or tylenol PM for the upcoming flight should I need/want it. Can someone tell me again why I insist on wanting to visit all these places that require such long flights? I never regret it when I get there, but man....the getting there part sucks sometimes. I'm not sure where I got this irrational fear from, but maybe first class seats will help me get over it :)
-I finally finished up most of my packing tonight. I was halfway done on Sunday, but got derailed by Carrie. She was "helping" me as she so often likes to do these days, but disappeared for a minute and came back dragging her little rolling backpack announcing that she too was going to pack for Portugal. Can you say Mommy turned into a puddle?
-Got another dose of Remicade last Friday. This stuff works crazy well. My last GI doc in FL used to joke with me and say it's my version of crack. Why yes it is, and I'm not afraid to say it. I hadn't gained any weight at my last two OB appointments which was starting to concern my doc, but I went back today and I'm finally up to having gained 10lbs so far for the pregnancy. Never thought I'd be excited about gaining weight people! I also got to have another peek at the little guy/gal, which was great. Everything's measuring right on, so yeah for that!
-Work's been tough this week. Staff reorganizations are never fun, especially when they include eliminating positions. It's times like these I really don't like being in HR.
-Carrie and I took our first solo road trip to Atlanta over the Memorial Day holiday, and I am excited to say it went quite well! We didn't have any major breakdowns (vehicle or Carrie-wise), and it was great to see family. We were supposed to have a repeat trip last weekend for a friend's baby shower, but alas, it was not meant to be. Carrie got snotty and coughy on Friday, then on Saturday thought it best to get some sort of stomach virus....which I apparently picked up starting Sunday night/Monday morning. Ugh. Thankfully both of us are done with the getting sick thing, although I'm still hacking up a lung.
I think that's all for now folks. I can't make any promises to post while I'm in Portugal/Spain, but I'll try :)
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