Riding on a roller coaster

It's always rather funny the things that come to mind once that "keyword" is triggered. As I typed the headline for my blog, the song Roller Coaster started playing in my head. I'll probably be singing it all day now. But the headline in no way refers to the roller coaster of love. Instead it refers to all of the lows and highs that were my weekend.

I'm not even really sure where to begin this saga. Most roller coasters have a beginning point, the place where one embarks on the ride, and things are much less clear cut as to where things really started. So, I guess I'll begin with my trip to the airport on Wednesday.

It was difficult getting ready for this trip for some reason. I'm usually the sort that will pack a week ahead of time. It gives me plenty of time to get remember all of the little things I ordinarily would leave behind and miss if I packed last minute. I really tried to start packing early for my trip to California, and I even packed a few outfits, but I just couldn't figure out what to pack everything in. By the time all was settled as to where I was going to put everything, it was late Monday night. Tuesday night I saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Wednesday was the day I was flying out, and while I had most things packed before TSO's show, I still had quite a bit to do before leaving. As it happened, it was about midnight when I returned home. I had to check myspace and the RK forums to see if there were any last minute submissions for Dave's scrapbook, check e-mail, finish packing, pay a bill, wash dishes and do a load of laundry (so I would have underwear), print my boarding pass and ... let's just say I decided just to stay up the entire night.

Normally I leave insanely early to the airport because my biggest fear is missing the flight. I always allow way too much time to get to the airport, and this time I didn't got quite as early, although I should have had plenty of time to get there. I left the house at around 6 a.m. for an 8:40 flight. The drive is normally about 1/2 an hour. At 6:30 a.m., I was still only 5 miles from home. I began to panic. I cannot tell you how many desperate prayers I said along the way. I was totally stressing. My husband said complaining wasn't going to do much good, and I told him I know, but I was really stressed and I had to let it out somehow. I kept telling myself that it was silly to stress so much, and that God has always worked out the timing in the past. It didn't help much. I wanted to get out of the car and just walk (which really wouldn't have helped much either.) We thought maybe there was an accident ahead, but never did figure the reason for the huge slowdown. I finally called Travelocity (who was great by the way) and they set it up so I could take another flight a couple of hours later IF I missed my flight for $50. At least that was doable. Traffic did speed up even though it stayed slow for most of the drive. I almost left my phone when I went through security, but then someone warned me and I didn't. I also ran into a "cart lady" and she took me to Delta so I didn't have to walk and I was plenty early. Then I spent the rest of the time looking for the cell phone that still managed to turn up missing even though I was saved from leaving it in the plastic bin. I checked at the information desk, they checked the carts and never did locate it. Seriously, I can lose anything.

Finally the plane boarded and I was able to find my seat and settle down a bit. The pilot greeted us and explained that we would be leaving the terminal and going to an area to be de-iced. I had been through that process before and thought it was rather cool, and the plane was a bit larger. I was curious to see how it looked from inside a smaller plane. I never found out. I woke up as we were heading for the runway. It took a very long time to get there. Salt Lake City airport is not THAT big. LOL I thought maybe we were just going to drive to Sacramento. LOL But we did finally take off. The cutest little girl sat behind me and I could hear her talking most of the way. Finally the plane landed, and I met my mom there, picked up my checked luggage and headed for her place. Along the way we stopped and had lunch at Lyon's in Stockton. Finally we arrived at my mom's place and I could unpack a little, get ready for the next couple of days and just relax. I got online and checked my e-mail to see if there was any word on a photo pass and there was. I also wanted to see if anyone had sent anything else for Dave's scrapbook, and they hadn't. My mom got online and decided to check out Jingle Ball and seats 14, 15 &16 in Section 107, Row 9, were soon our seats for the Dec. 1 show. I was in for 3 days of concert mania.

End of Part 1

More to follow....