Flying the Coop

Every once in a while I take off without the family. Sometimes the trips are for pleasure and sometimes I’m off to help a friend (or family member) in need. This weekend I’m flying south to see EN’s youngest sister get married.

We talked a long time about this trip: should we all go, should EN and I go, should just he go? When you have a house and kids and pets, traveling isn’t as easy as it used to be. There’s endless coordination of caretakers, school schedules and kennels, plus the expense of it all.

The decision came pretty easily when we realized that EN might be able to get ONE day off, which meant we’d leave Friday and come back Sunday. Given that you can’t really get there from here, which would have meant that we arrived there around 10 pm Friday, only to fly home Sunday morning. I’m too old for that shit. Plus EN’s company has started to force people to work on weekends… So it was decided, for sanity’s sake, that I would fly to Alabama to represent our portion of the family.

Fortunately, this is a casual wedding (leather bustier and daisy dukes were approved as attire by Stepmommy just this morning! No not really!!) and a quick trip, so there isn’t a lot I need to worry about. Except…

Except that I am German and unable to leave a dirty house. I am unable to leave behind mountains of laundry. So tonight, after I feed the girls and attend an orientation meeting at Spice’s school, I will be cleaning and doing laundry. Of course I couldn’t start the laundry any earlier than today, the baskets would have refilled already.

And I will need to pay bills. This is always done on the last day before I leave as well. It’s my theory that if something dreadful should happen to me while I’m gone, EN will have approximately one month to get his shit straight and figure out who needs to be paid and when. By then, perhaps the life insurance will have kicked in as well and he’ll be on easy street.

I will also need to make lists for EN. He’ll need to know what’s going into the lunch boxes, when sneakers and musical instruments need to go to school, who has birthday parties this weekend, homework. Holy crap, until I started typing this, I didn’t realize how much information lives in my head now that we have two kids in full-day school.

I spent part of the week contemplating what to bring and have a list in my head. I had my nails done and hit the drug store for a few items today. I impressed myself by remembering to buy a wedding card.  Last time I flew to a wedding I made a last-minute panicked trip to Walmart to buy a card.

So tonight I prepare, tomorrow I pack. Tomorrow night I’ll be with EN Senior, Stepmommy and my favorite sister-in-law. The bride and groom will arrive on Friday and the wedding is Saturday. Sunday will be relaxing and Monday I fly back home. 

There have been a flurry of texts and emails this week as we talk about the upcoming nuptials and how excited we all are to see each other. I sent this to my sister in law:

She said, “I’ve never had a mugshot taken before.” I said I hadn’t either and that I thought it would be a nice “first” for us to experience together. A good time is bound to be had by all... 

xoxo

Ice Princess