Headin' Out

I generally like to travel, but today I’m really not feeling up for this trip. Whatever this affliction is, it’s getting worse. For the past few weeks, I feel like I can’t get a full breath, I have a deep chest cough that won’t go away, and I’m tired – bone-tired. Fortunately, SeaTac Airport is as dead as I’ve ever seen it, so people are relaxed and friendly, which really makes the whole process easier. The shuttle picked me up this morning at 6:30 – which was really 5:30 because we “sprung forward” last night, an earlier-than-normal switch to daylight savings time. I think such a change is a good idea… good for the environment and good for the psyche. Well, except for my psyche on this particular early morning!

I’m leaving rainy Seattle (we’re currently experiencing a “pineapple express” – warm, heavy rains) for sunny Santa Cruz, California for five jam-packed days of training and schmozing, and a company-wide brown-bag lunch in which I’ll be the featured speaker (yikes!), addressing educational media – in particular educational computer games and videos. I still don’t know if this will be a formal presentation or a casual, collaborative event. I’m hoping for the latter… because I'm much better at casual than formal, and because I certainly haven’t prepared for anything formal!

Work starts in Monday morning, but today's schedule is all play. My three brothers and their families and I will be getting together! Why is it that my three brothers, all of whom live within 30 miles of each other, only see each other when I come to visit, and when I arrange it?! We’ll get together, along with nieces and nephews, at the home of a dear, dear friend of ours in Berkeley. Kristin, who lived with us for a year in the 60’s when she was a student at Cal, was diagnosed three years ago with pancreatic cancer. She went through hell that first year, paying out-of-pocket for a surgery that Kaiser refused to provide… or at least refused to provide quickly enough to save her life. Pancreatic cancer has a survival rate if about 1 - 5%, so for Kristin to still be alive, and even feeling fabulous, with no current sign of the disease, is such a huge gift! But this is Kristin, the most positive, loving, happy person on the face of the earth… so it stands to reason that she’d still be here. She willed it!

So it’ll be a busy day, filled with happy kidlets and grateful adults. And then tonight I need to get into a work mentality.