Raining, Chicken Pox and My Trip

May 7, 2008

It's raining today. I love it when it rains. The way it sounds when the raindrops hit the roof. The smell of wood stove fires (I live where a lot of people have wood stoves). The trees swaying slightly in the wind. I want to wrap up in a warm blanket and curl up on the sofa with a good book and a hot cup of coffee and read until I drift off.

For those that knew, there was a slight "issue" with Aaron's coat. He had forgotten it somewhere and by the time I knew about it, it was too late to call the school. Aaron was close lipped about it with everyone here and I wasn't able to talk to him on the phone to find out what happened. Now usually when a child is tight lipped about an issue, it's because something bad happened. So I was imagining a bully taking his coat or that he had torn it and didn't want to tell us. My imagination tends to run in overdrive so I was imagining all sorts of things about what happened to his coat. So this morning, before leaving for the bus stop, I asked him what had happened to his coat. Apparently, it had gotten too warm on the bus and he took it off. Then, he found it too difficult to remember both his school bag AND his coat. And rightfully so - that's a LOT for a five year old to remember! Happy ending to the story though - the bus driver had seen Aaron's coat and kept it safe until he could give it to me. Yay!

Do you remember when you got the chicken pox? I do. I was sick for two weeks. Fever, chills, itchy pox all over my body. All I wanted to do was sleep. I didn't want to eat, play, walk or drink.

When Aaron got the chicken pox, we didn't know about it until the pox came out. No fever, no change (except for a slight rise in whinging), no anything. I sent him to school one morning, spot free and happy. So it was a complete surprise when the school called and said that he was covered in pox.

Today, I'm surprised again. Adam, being his usual cheery self, was completely spot free this morning. We even went outside for a bit. Now, at 12:10 (or 1/6 past noon) Adam is now covered in spots. The only difference between him and Aaron is that Adam IS feverish now. He's laid up on the sofa watching The Kratt Brothers, under a blanket and drifting off. I hope he takes it as well as Aaron did. To him it was nothing, a mild irritation.

Changing subject again. Have you noticed that I do that A LOT? Anyway, I changed the dates for my trip to the UK. I'm shooting for July 14th departure date. I'm just waiting for the travel agency to call me back so I can book it. I can not wait to go. I have never traveled before and I've no idea what to expect. What do I do when I get to the airport? What do I pack? Will I be searched? How big is the airport? What if I get lost? What if? Stoopid what ifs.

I'm really looking forward to this trip because I get to MEET people. Face to face! People I've talked to for so long and know so well. I've looked forward to this for so long. I'm excited!! I don't think there's a word I can use to describe how excited I am about this. Plus I'm going to the town where my family came from. I'll be walking on the streets where my ancestors once walked. Ok, so things have probably changed and chances are that those aren't really the streets that they walked on - but you know what I mean. I plan on going to the cemetery there and finding where my ancestors are buried. I've never been all that interested in "touristy" stuff, but I do plan on going to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. I mean, I think it's a crime not to when in France. Besides that, there are no real plans in the works. No regimented schedules or anything. It'll be "I feel like...." and then off I go kinda thing. It'll be FUN.

67 days! Sixty Seven!