I Can't Wait

A little Paul Westerberg/The Replacements for you on this fine day. For those that are wondering, 21 days out.

Well, on Saturday the OFOMOL will be travelling across the sea (here are some asians playing that song) to spend time here in the states for 5 weeks. Its quite an exciting time. She's had quite a stressful semester and will enjoy time relaxing for the first part of her trip. Good thing, since there's NOTHING TO DO HERE!! Hehe. It's nice because we'll have a chance to experience what its like having a life together. Its little things like doing shopping, cooking, and cleaning together that I'm looking forward to.

The last time she was travelling to the states was over a year ago so its been while since I'm the one waiting for her. I've taken a couple trips there this past year so its a different dynamic. Travelling from where I am to where she lives is quite a chore. Its a 2-hr car trip to Pittsburgh, then there is a connector flight to bigger city to get an intercontinental flight for 8-9 hours, this lands in Germany and then there is another flight to Dresden. Yes, its not easy but you know what the best part is? You get to do it all again on the way back! Whoo!

When I was in Florida with my team this past December, it was one of my kids' first time flying. He was a bit excited to say the least. When we got back I asked him if he enjoyed it and he commented that it was kind of boring and not a big deal. I made a comment that its a lot of waiting, and that is exactly what it is. I don't care where you're travelling, but its all about waiting. You need to get to the airport ontime so you can wait in line to check-in. Then you wait to go through security. Once there, you have to wait at the gate until its time to board. Then you wait in the plane as it waits (kind of waiting squared there) to take-off. The time in the air is spent trying not to go crazy, especially if you're seated next to this guy. After you land you have to wait until it gets to the gate and then you have to wait to get off the plane. If you were oh-so-lucky to check baggage you have to wait at the baggage claim for it to come out. If you're travelling internationally, you've gotta wait as you go through customs and recheck your baggage. So yeah, this is air travel in a nutshell. We can all attest that its not the most efficient system out there.

When you have to go through all this and deal with the jet lag/time change, it can be hard to be excited about the travelling. Since all I have to do is drive 2 hours to Pittsburgh to pick her up, well, I'm very excited about seeing her. We're going to have a fun time. She'll be able to see my life down here and find out what rural America is like. And maybe she'll get a chance to do a guest-blog or two and address the "Mensch" issue from awhile back.