I never sleep well the night before a trip. Yesterday evening, too, I made the mistake of having a couple glasses of wine while hanging out with Mark and our college-senior son. So it isn’t surprising that I woke at 2:45 am and only dozed after that. Now it’s 6:30 and I am drinking coffee. Perhaps later I can pretend that the early waking was a preëmptive jet-lag strategy. Perhaps it means I will easily sleep on a plane later today.
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Our local adult son has house-sitting duty, so that part isn’t it. Our new college freshman is installed at school and sounds great on the phone, so that part isn’t it. Our oldest, launched—no unusual concerns there. Our two youngest have proved themselves competent travelers in three recent less involved trips. So why am I feeling anxious this morning?
I think there are a few things going on here.
For one thing, this is the first major family trip that’s only this smaller part of our family: we are traveling as a family of four, not seven. Other than a weeklong trip to Boston in autumn 2019 without our oldest, all our longer trips have involved all our kids. It’s strange to be so few, and also, I’m used to having extra adults and older teens around to help with things.
For another, we have fewer activities planned. Mark has to work some of the time. The boys have schoolwork, with a loose goal for how much to do each day. I have pre-arranged but not pre-scheduled one adventurous activity; I have one side trip in mind; Mark has an idea about a grand day out for himself. But that’s it. This particular trip, we are intentionally embracing the possibility that we will not do very much vacation-y stuff. We are intentionally remaining flexible, open, unscheduled. Which is very much not how I roll.
I guess there’s also all the ordinary travel-day jitters. I know we checked and double checked, but do we really have all the passports? I know I counted out all the medications, but am I absolutely sure I counted out enough? I know Uber is normal and works but will the Uber really show up? I know it’s in the hands of the airline but will we make our connection? I know we have seats assigned together but will the airline switch them at the last minute and put the kids elsewhere? Look, none of those concerns will be soothed until we’re all actually buckled in on the big plane.
At which point (I know from experience) this last part of the fretting will evaporate completely. It’s possible that when it does, it will take the other frets away with it, and I will sink into my seat and truly relax.
So let’s get there!
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