We drove Fiona down to Seattle last night. She slept over at her college roommate's house there, and is in the air on her way back to New Jersey as I post this. We had an awesome 4 week visit with her, and while I know I'll miss having her here at home, I feel none of the wrenching sadness at separation this time. This is partly because Andy, Alex and I will fly to New York mid-February to see her perform in a musical at the university, so we'll see her again in less than a month. Then she'll fly home in March for Spring Break. More importantly, we know that she is very happy at Montclair, with her courses, her friends, her accommodations. She's in the right place, doing the right thing. This is exactly what she should be doing. While I'll miss her, I am over-the-moon happy to know that she is happy and doing well.
I have been enjoying 3 weeks of vacation, planned so I could be at home with the family over Christmas, and make the most of Fiona's visit. It has been lovely to have that stretch of time, with few commitments and lots of room for improvisation. Mostly I have relaxed and responded to opportunities as they have come up. This last week I have been available to tend to Fiona and Alex while they mostly rested up with bad colds. This isn't what I would have wished for them, but they've got through it okay, and I am glad that I've been here to help make them comfortable.
Tomorrow I will return to work. I've been around the office a bit while on vacation, because I've been going to the rec centre to work out. My wonderful co-workers have been taking care of business, but I'll have a bit of catching up to do, so I anticipate a hectic week. I don't dread returning. I love my work, and I'm going back very well rested. We'll celebrate Chinese New Year with the seniors, and start up all of our winter programs, and work on the brochure that advertises Spring and Summer sessions, and also work on our annual budget updates. I also have an Insights team session to facilitate, and an on-call week leading right up to the day before we fly to New York in February. I'm looking forward to all of it.
For fun, I'm looking forward to seeing Red at the Vancouver Playhouse next weekend. Then Andy and I have tickets to the Ovation Awards at the end of the month (that's the Vancouver musical theatre award night). On Feb 2, I'll be part of a wonderful birthday celebration for my friend, poet and author Irene Livingston. So many good things coming up!
While I'm not one to worry (much), I do have a bit of a laundry list of those going on. They are, in part, why I am looking forward to resuming my regular routine. Once I'm working again, I won't have time to waste on worrying. For the record, here they are: Did Fiona's suitcase weigh more than 50 pounds?/Will Fiona be allowed to carry her new ukulele on the plane or will they try to make her check it and put it in the cargo hold?/Will Alex's cough finally go away?/Will Fiona's ears hurt on the plane?/Will Alex be able to drive to work safely in the rental car that has only all-weather tires or should Andy and I drive him to work and back in Andy's car with snow tires?/Will snow make my Monday morning walk to work slow going so I should get up extra early?/Will I need to cancel programs at work Monday morning because of snow?/Where is my car?/Will I accidentally sleep in on Monday morning?/Will Fiona and Shannon have a smooth journey from JFK Airport to the university with all of their luggage in tow?/Do we have any more soy sauce in the pantry or do I need to buy some? Okay, when I start to worry about soy sauce you can see that things are really okay.
question: are you worrying about something today?
mompoet - teeny weeny worries, big happy life
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