Bye, Baggies!

 

As we stood for about ten minutes in the aisle next to our seats waiting to deplane in Spokane last night, I watched the lady in the window seat of my row pull out a plastic zip lock bag, grab some kind of pill and pop it into her mouth. 

I chuckled to myself, thinking that it's easy to recognize your own ilk while traveling as a golden girl:  the arthritic knuckles, the weathered skin, the weird shoes with two-inch soles and those aging fingers popping a pill from a zip lock bag.

Suspicious activity, probably to some, but totally familiar to those of us who are there, doing that.  

Although I usually don't pop my pills on the plane, I know the drill.  

Long before leaving on a trip, one of the first tasks  is to count out enough glaucosomine/chondroitin, Vitamin B complex, Calcium and Vitamin D supplements to last through every day of the upcoming trip. I often throw in a couple extra of each, just in case we get stuck in an airport and have to sit for extra days somewhere. 

That baggie project is one aspect of packing that I have down to a science.  

What clothes to take, what clothes not to take and all the other little items that keep us senior citizens going (for me the fiberglass shoe horn my friend Chris gave me a few years ago is tantamount, thanks to my fiberglass orthotic which requires my left foot to be wedged into a space that I swear every single day is not adequate for my foot and that draconian brace). 

It's all an ongoing, stressful aspect of pre-trip planning, but that planning is really nice the last day of the trip.  

There's a very satisfying adrenalin high to pulling out the bathroom items at trip's end, popping the last set of pills and throwing all baggies into the hotel wastebasket, hence lightening the load to a suitcase that no longer needs to have its load lightened cuz you're done with the trip and the constant fear that your bag is going to weigh in at "overweight." 

Of course, the hotel cleaning lady who finds all those leftover pills probably feels a sense of suspicion.  But my baggies are all labelled with those red and white mailing labels, so she knows not to call the police and report the ancient "drug addict" who stayed in Room 238.

Anyway, I've thrown my baggies away.  I don't care today what I put in my suitcase (which weighed only 44 pounds in Seattle last night).  I took a little extra time this morning enjoying "luxury" living at the airport Hilton, even lounging in the bathtub while cleansing with the Hilton body wash and then dabbing the body lotion on my pasty, dried-out legs, feet and hands. 

All the while, I knew it would be a long time before I once again step into any sense of luxury that goes along with our typical last night on the road. 

Three years ago, I decided the last night on the road after our Ireland trips no longer needed to require a fully exhausted Bill to drive us home to Sandpoint after a 30-hour, 6,000-mile, two-jet plane trip  for two more hours in the pre-midnight darkness fraught with deer waiting to meet their master.

And, so we stay at the Airport Hilton Garden.  

This morning we're living life at a leisurely pace because Annie won't be flying in to Spokane Airport (probably not loaded down with zip lock bags full of stuff) until 9:30 this morning. 

Bill wondered a few minutes ago if we were going to just grab breakfast or if we would go downstairs for a full "American sit-down breakfast, minus the beans, tomatoes, black and white pudding of a full "Irish sit-down breakfast."

Yes, by all means, I said to him, adding that we were going to enjoy every single moment of this last-day "luxury" existence before re-entering life as we usually know it. 

And, we are very excited about that re-entry which means picking up our daughter Annie, then tearfully and happily greeting our dogs at the Pet Lodge and finally driving to our home in beautiful Selle to see the new driveway.  

While we were gone, Scott Wood and his crew from Woods Crushing redid our driveway AND paved most of us.  Everyone in the neighborhood watched the process and saw the finished product.  

Some have even  sent photos because it seems they are just as proud and happy as we shall be once we turn the car in to the Lovestead entrance and resume life as we know it and love it. 

So, a big day ahead, to say the least, and it's already gotten off to a great start with the dispensing of those baggies and their remaining residue. 

Life is good, and arriving home will be Heavenly, even after an amazing flawless and meaningful trip to Ireland.  Hard to believe, but in my mind, there is actually one place that I consider better than Ireland, and that is HOME and all that encompasses it at the Lovestead. 

Finally, we are all really excited, as a family, to cheer on our beloved Debbie Love and her amazing Food Bank team as they pull off this year's second annual Bonner Community Food Bank fundraiser tomorrow night at the Bonner County Fairgrounds. 

Best of luck to Debbie and the team who have worked so hard because success means lots more ways to help those in need in our community. 

GO, Debbie!  We are, as always, proud of you!

Happy Friday.