Dearest Rachel –
The last few overseas trips I’ve taken have started off with a ride to the airport first thing in the morning, or even in the wee hours, prompting me to wake up absurdly early in order to catch my flight. Not so today; with the flight scheduled for four in the afternoon, Daniel and I don’t need to be put together and ready to go until about one or so. That leaves us with a morning that’s basically like any other morning, except it clearly isn’t, since we have to finish with our preparations (or, in Daniel’s case, start). But once we have everything together and crammed into our one suitcase, what else is there to be done?
Why, we pretend that it’s a normal morning, regardless of what our schedule looks like. Wake up as early as I’m willing to (it was pitch black – and raining – at five, so I rolled over and got another hour or so of rest, despite being aware that it was already eleven o’clock in London), put in an hour-plus at the gym, wash up, get dressed, and get on with the day as if it were any other.
Granted, there are some differences; there’s no real point in heading to the ‘office’ today. The deadlines pertaining to my ‘work’ are pretty much taken care of (even the questionnaire from the auditors, while lengthy, appears to be almost entirely on administrative and procedural matters, which are not my responsibility). Meanwhile, I’ll be seeing Dad, at the very least, since he’s offered right from the jump to ferry Daniel and me to (and in a couple of weeks, from) the airport, so it’s not like I have to go there for that purpose. And there are a few small things that need to be taken care of as a part of our final preparations, such as a couple of loads of laundry and the like. Then, once those are done, I should be ready to walk out the door. Easy.
***
Did I say ‘easy’? Did I say I wouldn’t have to go to the ‘office’? Well, scratch all that. Suddenly, the auditor is sending a whole raft of questions, just as we’re about to leave the country. It’s actually starting to feel like back when I was in the work farce, where I would have to work to the very last minute before I could head out (I still remember you and Daniel picking me up from the office on a weekend or two when we would go to visit your folks; one in particular when Daniel insisted on bringing his fish with him… in December. Poor guy didn’t make it down there, as even with the car running and the heat on, it was too cold for him to survive the trip – or maybe it was having to wait for me to get everything done and leave the office in the first place). I’ve also had to come in to the ‘office’ in order to copy everything onto one or another hard drive, just in case more questions come up in the next few days.
However, it turns out that this may have actually worked out for the best, as I arrived to find Dad in the back of the house, lying on the bed. It would seem that his gastric tube has been leaking again, and he needed to have his dressings changed. The only problem is, Mom is out of the house; getting physical therapy for something, I think. So while he can take care of the process, it’s beyond difficult to do on his own; I’d shown up just when I was needed, and he walked me through what it is that Mom usually does in situations like this, and he’s snugly dressed and ready to get on with his day… including, of course, dropping by our house to get us to the airport.
So while this was decidedly not part of my plan for today, it turned out to be a necessity for the both of us. Sure, he could probably have lain there, waiting for Mom to get home – and meanwhile, I could have tried to just downloaded everything from the cloud – but this is so much better for both of us. It may not have been what you would have called a ‘God moment,’ where He works a couple of things out to solve each other, but it could easily be mistaken for one.
Still, for all that I came in to the ‘office’ like it was a normal day after all, it’s not one. I still haven’t had breakfast, and there’s a load of laundry in the dryer to get out (and a small load of whites to do). Not only that, but I haven’t put a thing in my suitcase yet, even though it’s mostly laid out and ready to go. I have to get home and take care of all that.
So I’m going to sign off now in order to take care of all that; keep an eye on me, honey, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 