There And Back Again
I flew home from September 4-14 while family, friends, and neighbors got to have time with Mom. I have enjoyed the time hanging out with Mom, and the CrossFit in town has given me a good place to revive and connect with other folks, but gosh, I was so excited to see my people.
Two short flights; from Des Moines to Chicago, then Chicago to Rochester. I was thrilled because my high school best friend, Pippi, was available to hang out with Mom and me, then she and I went out to dinner, then she dropped me off for my flight.
The Des Moines airport is generally a comfortable, quiet home base to fly out of. There was a bit of drama on this day. A 20'ish white kid was on a video call with his mom complaining loud and proud about breaking up with his girlfriend. It was an unpleasant deep dive into his relationship. I wasn't in the area very long, but I made eye contact with a white couple who had been and the woman mouthed to me, "It's been going on for 2 hours and I'm getting angrier and angrier. The girlfriend has cancer, but he felt like he wasn't getting enough affection." 😳 I learned way more about his love and sex life than I wanted, and came away feeling grateful the girlfriend was free of him.
I had forgotten that O'Hare is a beautiful airport when you aren't feeling rushed.
Three of my four people were waiting for me in Rochester. Monkey wasn't feeling great, so she waited at home.
I was a little sleepy after my late night, so a short snooze with my doggo was called for my first day home.
The family kindly left my regular jobs for me; sorting mail, cat litter, laundry. I quickly caught up on those things and we settled into our regular routine.
CrossFit, long bike rides, outings with friends, long walks; I love our every-day life.
This particular bike ride provided a great lesson for us. We use a weather app that we like quite a bit, and it assured us it wasn't going to rain. It looked like rain, it smelled like rain, but the weather app told us it wasn't supposed to rain.
Not only did it rain on us, by the time we got to the park where we turned around, the app now said there was an 85% chance of rain, as we were biking in the rain. A good reminder to use our brains as well as our tech.
Yessa agreed to do a neighborhood trash clean up with us. Our group of 13 people collected around 60 lbs of trash in an hour.
Got to do CrossFit with Buster several times, which was a joy.
Monkey and I toured a facility with independent apartments for seniors near us, just to see how it compared to the ones in Altoona.
Buds and I enjoyed walking around at The Clothesline Festival at the Memorial Art Gallery. The festival was huge, and we also wandered inside the museum, which we had never visited before.
Yessa and I witnessed the solemn 9/11 Memorial Service at MCC as we drove to her class.
We got in some puzzle time and "individual's choice" carryout dinner one night, which had Buds and me walking to three different restaurants to pick up the food for everyone, and grateful to be able to do it.
My last night home, Buds, Yessa, and I went to an event at the Fringe Festival. Buds is working on a lyrical post about that, so I'll leave that to him.
How quickly the 10 days flew by. I am back in Iowa, glad to be back with Mom, back to CrossFit Priority, and ready to be back to writing. It's hard to be away, but I am so very thankful my family understands the importance of this time.
