He's Coming Home Today

Tonight my baby returns from Spain.  I cannot wait to see him as he has been gone for months (ok 10 days but it feels like 10 months). It's going to be a great Wednesday!

I kept a list of all the things I wanted to remember to tell him, like how dad tried to pick up a pizza from a location other than where he ordered it... how I finally found the shirt he has been looking for... how the neighbor ticked me off regarding his weeds... the status of the BP clean up... the article on college requirements...how the dog kept his smelly lacrosse socks under the table and would bite me every time I attempted a take over... how his nieces couldn't understand why he wasn't at the party ("he could just go back to Spain after he plays with us").  I don't want him to miss anything we did, or saw or heard when he was gone.

I envision him running from the gate and hugging me with yells of "I really missed you".  We'll  talk non-stop on the way home.  I'll make one of his favorite meals and he will eat like he's never had food.  He'll love the new room improvements.  We'll stay up all night looking at photos and hearing about his adventures.

What will really happen, is a brief kiss in front of his friends.  A few yes /no answers on the way home, drive thru at Mighty Taco, and off to bed.  I am sure he will be exhausted.

But hope survives because I have him all day Thursday!

Cutting the umbilical cord

Today my baby leaves for a 10 day trip to Spain.  I am wearing a happy face, spewing last minute cautions and encouraging him to have a wonderful time.  But I am selfish and don't want him to be gone so far away and for so long.

Last fall he came home from school and asked if he could go to Spain with his classl.  When pressed for details, all I got was "Everyone's going, don't worry Anthony's brother is 16 and he will chaperone us".  Great as along as there is such strong supervision.  Well of course there was a lot more I needed to know, but there was no way I was going to stop him from such an adventurous experience.  I kept thinking how much he will see and how his eyes will be opened to cultures and people that I had never seen.

Besides Madrid is really only about 4,00 miles away, why should I be so concerned?  Well the real fear started when that volcano erupted and every TSA headline included "ash cloud".  Then the images of rioters while the Greek economy collapsed.  How about protestors after Israel's boat strike?  It's not that I think he will be safer in the US and its not like I believe he will be targeted overseas.  It's just that I won't be there.  Maybe this is good practice because in the immediate future I won't be there a lot...I want to be there but let's face it I really can't.

I'd like to say I am going to spend these next several days working on myself; exercising daily, writing more, finishing some house projects.  But most likely I will obsess about his trip.  I will follow him online from Madrid to Burgos to San Sebastian to Barcelona and on and on until he is back at the Buffalo airport.

Safe trip my luv!