Sometimes You Just Gotta Know When To Runaway

I've been a bit of a funk lately. This probably comes as no surprise to those of you who have read my blog for a while. I haven't come out and said it, in fact it's what I haven't said--or more accurately, what I haven't written. My blog posts have been pretty sporadic and just not me.

I had planned to go to BlogHer in the end of July. I bought a ticket before they sold out in March. I reserved a room at the uber expensive Chicago Sheraton. I thought by spending all this money I couldn't really afford to spend it would get me "back in the groove." But the more I thought about spending all that money the worse I felt. And when I really thought about going to BlogHer and what excited me the most, it was the train ride from the airport to the part of town where the hotel was located. Uh, yeah. Not a good sign. But in my defense, I've never rode a train so it was kind of exciting.

Of course, it doesn't help that Julia has left me for 2 weeks. She flew to Nashville on Saturday to go see her bestie in Franklin and to attend an arts camp for kids. I'm thrilled for her but I miss her when she's gone. As full as our house is, when one person is missing I really notice it.

So on Saturday afternoon I was standing in the Southwest airlines check in line with Julia with Emma and I could feel something deep inside me stirring. What in the world? As we got closer and closer to the check in counter it got stronger and stronger until I realized what it was. I wanted to go somewhere. I needed to go somewhere. I must truly be part gypsy because after I've been home for awhile I need to go somewhere new.

You get to go somewhere in July, I told myself. You get to go to BlogHer.

I don't want to go to BlogHer came my reply.

Thank goodness Southwest airlines didn't know they were providing this self analysis or they might have charged us extra when I checked Julia in.

Julia got checked in and Emma and I escorted her through security with my pass to take an Unaccompanied Minor to the gate. Showing my id, taking off our shoes, putting our stuff through the xray machine didn't help my need to fly away somewhere (seriously, who gets excited going through security???) As I sat and listened to Julia's exited chatter about her trip I realized what I needed. I didn't need to go to BlogHer to get my groove back. I needed to go on an adventure.

So how does a mother of six with no money do this? Where there's a will, there's a way. And I knew where I would go. I would go see a friend.

I went home and promptly emailed Carey from Life in the Carpool Lane. We had talked about getting together this summer and we had left off with Carey probably coming to see me in August. I emailed: What if I come to you? I could come the weekend of BlogHer. A phone call came next, and another phone call to my mom, and before I knew it I canceled my BlogHer ticket and my expensive Chicago hotel and bought a plane ticket to Los Angeles for June 18.

I'm leaving in 3 days.

Emma's coming with me and turns 2 in July. It made sense to try to go before her birthday and not buy her a ticket. With any luck at all no one will want to sit next to the screaming child on our Southwest flights. You see, I plan to pinch her as everyone is boarding. (Okay, not really, but you have to admit it's a good plan.) So to go and come back before July 10th I had to go this coming weekend. Everything just fell into place so easily for this to happen. My mom is watching Jenna and Ryan who want to go to Grandma's NOW, Julia is in Tennessee, the boys are self sufficient and Emma's coming with me.

Talk about sudden! But I'm so glad it's working out this way. I don't want to wait, I want to go now, I need to go now. Although There's Always Room For One More is my motto, I have another less publicized one as well: If it ain't crazy, it ain't Swank. The suddeness of it all does seem crazy, but it also seems so right. I am beyong excited and it now seems obvious that this is what I really need.

I'm bringing my laptop, my camera, my USB cord to transfer my pictures and I'm bringing Emma. Enough said. Expect some blog posts while I'm gone.