Wednesday March 20th, 2013

The exercise:

Write about: the road trip.

We're off tomorrow morning, heading for Vancouver. On Sunday we're planning on heading over to Vancouver Island, before making our way back to Vancouver for Thursday night. Which means, if all goes to plan, we'll be back here next Friday.

I'm going to schedule posts for tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday before I go to bed tonight. Because I was in the mood for it, they'll be sharing a theme - your posts can relate to each other or not, the choice is yours.

I might get to replying to some of your comments while I'm away, but I expect the majority of them will have to wait until I return. See you then!

Mine:

We've been planning this trip for quite a while, yet the day of departure still managed to sneak up on us. The days are just flying by and all of a sudden we're hitting the road tomorrow.

This is the first trip away from home we'll be taking with Max, so there have been a lot of extra considerations and preparations for this. I'm really looking forward to it, as we'll be seeing a lot of friends and some of Kat's family who will be meeting our little guy for the first time. He's just so fun to introduce to people, he has such a great personality for it.

I'll also be seeing some friends for the first time in a long while, a few of whom have had kids of their own since last we were together. That's going to be a real treat. A bit bizarre, I'm sure, but lots of fun too.

So. Tomorrow we wake up, pack the car, and off we go. It's probably dangerous to say so now, but I figure we'll forget only a few items, none of them particularly important. If anything I'd say we overpacked.

But that, I think, is to be expected when taking a four and a half month old on his first road trip.

4 comments:

MosesMalone said...

Being in the military, we road trip to do practically everything. Want to see some grandparents, we road trip. A sibling gets married, we road trip. A hurricane is coming, we road trip. One road trip was more meaningful than any other.

Bassinet? Check. Baby tub? Check. Bottles, detergent, diapers, wipes, clothes, etc? Check.

“Alright, Sweets. Lets sleep the whole way there. If you can’t, lets only wake one time. Don’t lose that binky, Doll. It’s almost time to meet your Daddy.”

It wasn’t the first time I took my new baby on a 6-hour road trip. A month ago, I drove her from my parent’s house to my house because I couldn’t spend one more minute in their house. What was I thinking? Women are perfectly capable of having children all by themselves. I don’t know why I thought I needed to move back in with my parents to have this baby. I swear to God, if I’m ever in this position again, I will take a taxi cap to the hospital to have my baby. I will never rely on someone else again. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but this pretty much sucked. My mom was supposed to be my helper, but she has spent this entire time consumed by my brother; He is pretty banged up from a motorcycle accident. So I drove all this way to have a baby all by myself. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I think my final days of childlike expectations are over. You can’t really rely on people more than yourself. They were not put on this earth to take care of you while you act like a child. I’m not mad about what happened. Maybe I am disappointed. I am. I am disappointed that I thought I could come home to have help while I had this baby, and I am disappointed that they promised help that they never had any intention of giving. I have really grown up in these 7 months. It’s my responsibility to be the parent now. I do the taking care of. I love it too so why did I think I needed help or even want help? Anyway, so I drove my new baby 6 hours away so I could take care of her all by myself for a few weeks. I loved every minute of it. I didn’t know I was so capable. I didn’t know I could be so naturally good at something I had never done before. I had to go back to get the rest of our stuff, but I could have stayed in my house forever. I hated driving back to my parents to get my things.

This trip is different. I’m driving back yet again to my home with my 11 week old baby so she can meet her Daddy for the very first time. I can’t imagine what it must be like to not meet your child. I can’t imagine what it is like not knowing that you have the most amazing, loving, kind, strong, and handsome father in the whole world. They are going to love each other so much, and I can’t wait to see it. My home is my husband. I didn’t know that prior to this deployment. I am homesick for him. I missed him for our daughter that doesn’t know her Daddy. I am sad that he misses us, and he doesn’t know his baby yet. I can’t wait to get home to my husband. I can’t wait for our family to finally be together.

Marc, Good luck driving with your son. Let him be the focus and the priority while he's out of his element. Strangers are exhausting for babies.

morganna said...

Ready to go
Oh, surely we've forgotten something
Absolutely not, we've
Definitely got it all
Toys, snacks,
Reading material, maps
I'm sure we're set.
Pa, you forgot the kids!

Greg said...

I think with this one I'm all caught up now! I think all trips end up being a lot of work at the last minute, if only because if you packed everything a week earlier you'd keep unpacking it to get at stuff you still needed. It's just easier to put it in the bags when you know you've finished using it until you arrive.
Hope you have lots of fun en route! And I hope Max enjoys it too :)

The roadtrip
The smell of cooking fish drifted across from Wesson Street to where Lissajous was sat on the kerb of the pavement. He sniffed, and his stomach growled. A few feet away from him Leo stopped plucking guitar strings for long enough to ask him if he was hungry, then went back to tuning the guitar. A little further away Dax suddenly went very still.
"Dax?" The woman next to him was someone new, someone Lissajous had only seen this morning and not yet spoken to. She reached across to touch his arm, but stopped, clearly halted by the look on his face.
"Roadtrip," said Dax eventually. A little of the tension drifted out of the air. Leo cursed softly as a guitar string, wound too tight, snapped. "There's a place we'll need to be. The Names are at stake."
Now Leo laid down the guitar and starting paying attention. The Names were the nine thousand names of God, engraved on each of the bullets that Dax loaded his guns with, and they exorcised oni, demons and any people stupid enough to get in the way.
"When do we leave?" asked Lissajous, his voice slightly high with nerves.
"I leave," said Dax. "You've got another job. Take Leo with you, he'll be useful. Find the quantum prison and get word to Charlie. We'll need him before this is all over, is my guess."

Marc said...

Mo - thank you for sharing this. And I can't imagine what it would be like to not meet your child until he or she is 11 weeks old. That's crazy hard.

Morganna - nice acrostic, and I think I made a similar joke just before we left Osoyoos :)

Greg - yeah, it's the last minute packing that drives me up the wall. Makes me want to have doubles of everything :P

Fascinating setup here. Great details, as usual, and you know I love the characters you create.