Tomorrow I am off to San Francisco and then seven days later to Connecticut. Four days after that I return home. During the last six months I have flown to Berlin, Hamburg, Milan, Bordeaux, Amsterdam, Amsterdam again, Cincinnatti, New York, Hartford and now here I go again. I am tired of all this travel and yet I have to do it in order to see family, visit friends and funnily enough, relax. I wish there was an easier way.
Sometimes I worry about my enormous elephantine carbon footprint so I recycle another egg carton, but I still fly everywhere. I am getting so used to packing and unpacking that it seems to get easier each time. The toiletries stay in the same bag. The passport is easily found and the ironing is endless. Anyone watching my behaviour from outside would think I love all this jet-setting, but I don't. This time I thought that seeing my kids first would make seeing my father easier. We'll see.
The problem is also that I am a large woman. I cannot afford to fly business class so I have to take all these trips in economy class. The airline I choose to squeeze myself into on Wednesday for 11 hours has a seat width of 17 inches. I am hoping that I sleep for a great deal of the flight and that the person next to me is tolerant!
Before all of this happens on Wednesday, I can report that yesterday was a funny, sweet and delightful day. I have noticed lately that when I lose my temper (often) my long-suffering husband is more and more able to see the funny side, or at least ignore the tantrum until it's died down. I am starting to do the same thing and I also see that the snappiness we have with each other is lessening. For me there is no secret to this, we just love each other and what lands on top of that love needs to sometimes be scraped, shoveled or moved away so we can get to the love again and remember why we are in this madness called marriage. It is always worth the trouble and that felt particularly nice yesterday.
Ralph and I have always had similar interests and one of the greatest joys is our love of art and all things related to that. We both draw and paint and can spend time together sketching - some of which we tried to do in Bordeaux. Yesterday, We went to see Sistine Chapel tapestries by Raphael in the V&A museum. Quite splendid and just about the best thing about the old bigoted Pope's visit. The Vatican lent the tapestries to the Brits in honour of the visit and it almost makes it worthwhile that it has cost me, a British taxpayer, over £20 million in security arrangement fees to protect the Pope. In the name of religion there have been some horrific acts, but also some truly inspirational art. I guess I can dismiss the religion and appreciate and delight in the art. I actually have no choice in this anyway.
So, that was yesterday, a quick time out from packing, washing, ironing and playing Stepford Wife. The freezer has a week's worth of homemade food, the bread is baking, the shirts are ironed. I almost don't feel guilty about leaving, but I'm not there yet.
Here we go again...
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