Haunted Dreams

Today was another beautiful, sunny morning as I lie in bed debating on sleeping for another fifteen minutes, oblivious to the cruelties of the world.  My innocence was about to end.  Rolling over to put on my glasses, I saw what had been sleeping with me for who knows how long: a giant cockroach.  That got me out of bed.  The poor fellow didn't appear to be moving.  Had I crushed him in my sleep?  If so, would all his buddies come and tackle me tonight?  Or, did he see this beautiful creature, and knowing he was about to die, crawl into bed in order to have one last perfect memory?  Where did he come from?  Have I been sleeping with an unknown male for the last four nights?  The thoughts kept rolling into my head until I grabbed a bowl and whimpering, scooped the little bugger up and tossed him down twenty floors onto the asphalt below.

Couldn't have made it without....

"There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings." ~Hodding Carter, Jr.

Leaving my family was by far the hardest thing I've ever done.  It doesn't matter what needed to be done, my family was there to help me move all my stuff to storage, run errands, provide Bella and I with a home for the last week, and much more.  The late-night talks, games and wine helped to destressify my hectic days until departure.  Without their support, there is no way I'd be sane at this point.  

 Many people believed I was crazy, of course, for bringing Bella, my cat, with me.  They may have been right, but she was a trooper for over 15 hours stuck in a tinny little living space.  The greatest trouble came when I occasionally let her stretch in the airplane bathrooms and her not wanting to be squashed again in the carrier.  It would take me at least ten minutes to shove her head back into the carrier, and that was only after dealing with splayed legs and claws.  

Explore. Dream. Discover.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover."  - Mark Twain