ESCAPE

Here I sit, all alone late at night and delirious from lack of sleep, and I'm just happy to be exactly where I am. I feel like the last several years of my life have been one long lesson about how the grass is NOT actually greener over there...wherever there might happen to be...and how I need to appreciate whatever good stuff there might be wherever I am.


And, right now, that is coming very easily to me.

I'm in Las Vegas, where - far away from the Strip - there is pretty landscaping everywhere and the traffic's not bad. The sun's been shining AND we have even been blessed with a minor cool spell...it's in the nineties rather than over a hundred. I can handle the nineties. I'm USED to the nineties.

I ran around all day, doing errands, went out to lunch with my mother and her sister. But the next 3 days are pure vacation. I'm going to drift on a raft in a pretty pool in the afternoons and go out to dinner Friday and Saturday night with my daughter and 3 nephews. Other than that, I'm just going to relax in my aunt's lovely apartment and visit with her and her children, as they drop by. Eat when I feel like it, nap if I feel like it.

I still have to do everything for my mother that I did back in Louisiana, but I am so much laid back here, it doesn't feel nearly so overwhelming.

I'm seriously just reveling in my location.

The last few days before we left were just brutal. I finished by pulling an all nighter. I got done with the house just before daylight and had the car loaded by 7 a.m., by which time I could barely move. I was rearranging suitcases and the wheelchair for literally hours before I had everything fit in. After showering and getting ready, I went to get my mother up and get her ready.

I had booked a room across from the New Orleans airport. Check out was at noon, we checked in at 10 a.m., and I had to pull over and take a 10 minute nap on the way over. They wouldn't give me a late checkout, so I had a two hour nap then ran around town until it was time to get to the airport. I left the car there and will pick it up in about 10 days to drive it back to Carson City. No auto transport company would take it filled with all the stuff we're hauling back here.

In the time before going to the airport, I managed to cross the river and obtain one more crucial document in our quest to get Italian passports. I struck out with another, but there's still a slim ray of hope we can find it elsewhere. And I was amazed I was able to get the one that I did.

I fell asleep as soon as the plane took off, and didn't wake until about a half-hour before landing. It was then, looking out at the clouds, that it finally hit me.

I had gotten away.

I had escaped my least favorite location, and if I have any control whatsoever over where I go in the future, I will not willingly go back there.

And not only that, but my first stop was the best of the last few places I'd lived. I was thrilled to be back. Vegas certainly has its share of drawbacks, but none of them are currently affecting me. I am soooo very grateful to be here.

But I had been so busy finishing everything I needed to do before i left, that I hadn't given a whole lot of thought to where I was going. And looking out at the clouds from the plane's window, I just felt filled with joy and excitement as I thought about where I was going and the fact that I didn't have to return to where I'd come from...except to pick up the car and drive it back.

I have to stop now, because I am literally dozing off as I type. But I am so happy right now. The last time I was this happy was the last time I moved here, right after my mother's stroke when I moved in with my daughter. I went from there to Carson City to stay with my mother and sister, until I moved my mother back to Louisiana...never dreaming I'd be there for so long.

Now we're working our way back in reverse order, from Louisiana to Las Vegas, back to Carson City. One of the things I do have to do while I'm here is personally check out some assisted living places. Because, if we get our wishes, my sister and I will bring our mother back here to get settled into one before taking off to see the world. So, ideally, we'll take one more trip here..and then off we go.

Location, location, location. I can adapt pretty easily to almost anywhere I happen to be, but I am very grateful to be where I am right now. My aunt's son dropped by tonight and he loved living where I just left. So it's all a matter of personal preference.

But I am so happy to be right here, right now.

Really gotta get to bed now, though.