I awoke a few hours later with Joey yelling, "IS ANYONE UP WHO KNOWS HOW TO FIND THE AIRPORT!!!!!" Lynda yelled back, "NOT ME!" Then I heard Brenda getting up. Apparently she was elected to drive, since she was the only one who had actually gotten some sleep the night before. About 5 minutes later I heard them outside getting in the car to go. Lynda screamed something about now being able to have our way with Geoff now that Brenda was gone, but apparently Brenda didn't hear it. I tried closing my eyes and sleeping a bit more, but didn't have any luck. Lynda figured she better get up and call her husband at his hotel to come pick her up. She still had a 10 hour drive ahead of her to get to her mother's house where she and her family were headed. I finally conceded that I wasn't going to get any sleep so I got up and headed downstairs for coffee. By this time my stomach wasn't feeling too well. I wasn't even sure if I could stomach some coffee but tried anyway. Chrissy was asleep on the couch, and Lisa was busy cleaning up all the bottles and mess from the night before. She truly is a "super mom"! I thought about helping her, but it all looked too overwhelming to me, so I didn't...sorry!
It wasn't long before Brenda returned from the airport. Apparently Kim and Joey made it safely and on time. Everyone was pretty quiet. I think we were all still fairly tired. Lynda's husband and two of her boys came to pick her up. We all gave her a big hug goodbye. She was worried about what we might say about her in The #!Parentsroom, as she would be gone for 3 more weeks. (Don't worry Lynda, I didn't spread any nasty rumors!) I checked my plane tickets to be sure of what time Karen and I would have to leave. The flight was for 12:15. Brenda said we could leave by 11:30 or so, and get there on time. That gave us just a few more hours left. I personally was feeling not ready to leave yet. The weekend had gone by so fast, even though we had stayed up most of the time. As tired as I was, I was glad that we had stayed up so much. It seemed that we were all trying to eke out every last minute of time with each other that we could. I was surprised that a whole weekend hadn't seemed like quite enough time. I think perhaps it was because there were so many of us there. There wasn't enough time to actually get to know everyone in that short period of time. It's interesting, because before I left, I was worried that a "whole weekend" might actually be TOO MUCH!
Not a heck of a lot happened before we had to leave for the airport. I packed up my bag, and needed a plastic bag to put my wet clothes in from the "dip" in the pool the night before. Karen was missing a pair of shoes. I showed Brenda how she could play the song Jewel song, "I Was Meant for You" on her computer now. She was not impressed! We basically just talked quietly for awhile. Karen and I were to be the next to have to leave. Chrissy had driven, and could leave whenever she wanted to. Same for Lisa and her mom. Jeff's flight was not until the next day. Brenda was even considering letting him sleep in the house that night! Todd and Gill were still at their hotel, and they weren't scheduled to leave until the next day either. Todd called up on the phone to say goodbye to me. He was one of those that I felt I hadn't had enough of a chance to talk to. I think that because he was at the hotel instead of the house, there was less time available with him. The day before, he had shown me his custom wooden pool cue case that he made, which was very impressive. (His company makes similar cases for musical instruments.) That was really neat to see, and it was obvious that he took a lot of pride in his work.
I helped Karen to find her shoes, and she had come down with her bag. While sitting in the living room talking, Brenda noticed Geoff rifling through Karen's bag. She looked at him and said, "What are you doing with her bag?" He looked her straight in the eye with a serious face and said, "I'm checking their bags to make sure they didn't steal the silver!" Brenda was aghast! She believed him and started to berate him. I was a bit surprised that she didn't know that he was kidding. I didn't know what he was doing either, but I was fairly certain that he wouldn't be checking to see if we had stolen stuff! As it turns out, Karen had asked him to help her cram all her stuff in her bag. At home, her husband had done it for her, and she just couldn't seem to get it all back in again! We all had quite a laugh over that one.
Finally, Lisa insisted upon a "group hug." She had waited the whole weekend, and couldn't stand to wait any more. It was my first experience with such things. I wasn't impressed. The time to go to the airport had just about come. I asked Brenda if she was going to take us, and she said that she would. Karen and I hugged everyone goodbye and I felt a certain sadness. I had to remind myself that we would all be back in The #!Parentsroom that week to continue our on-line chats. I had always known that after that weekend it would never be the same in the channel. The good thing was that I felt our on-line relationships would actually be enhanced. Before the party, I had feared the opposite might happen. Karen and I got in the car with Brenda, and Lisa's mom came along for the ride. It wasn't long before we arrived at the airport. Brenda got out of the car with us, and we got our bags from the trunk. The moment had arrived that basically signaled the end of the party for me, that being saying goodbye to Brenda. She was another one who I didn't feel like I got to spend enough time with. Karen hugged Brenda goodbye first, then I did. I told her she was welcome to come visit me in Massachusetts any time, and hoped she would take me up on the offer. I was sad as we walked into the airport terminal and Brenda drove off, but I pushed it to the back of my mind to get to the task at hand of checking in and catching our flight. We had to wait about 10 minutes as some family was checking in ahead of us and seemed to be having some problems. By the time we checked in, it was just about time to board our flight.
I won't bore you with all the details of the flights home. Suffice it to say that Karen was becoming an old pro, and on the last flight she was actually calming MY fears! (She was practicing being the strong one for when she takes a trip with a friend who's even more scared of flying than she is. I think she's got it down pat!) On my bus ride home from the airport, was totally exhausted. I tried to sleep, but it never came to me. I only had to wait about a minute, when I saw my husband drive up to the bus terminal. Once I hopped in the car, the familiarity of my "real life" was back, and I knew my trip was now just a memory.
Before going on this trip, I had much anxiety about what the people would be like, and how I would interact with them. I've always considered myself a very shy person. Growing up I was painfully shy. It's funny how once you get a certain image of yourself in your head, it's hard to shake it. Being shy, I thought, was one of my natural traits such as having green eyes. It never occurred to me that I might actually "grow out of it" one day. I'm not sure exactly when I did grow out of it, and I'm not sure there was actually any specific time when I did. I do think that becoming a parent may have been the start of my overcoming my shyness. I know for certain that chatting on IRC has been a MAJOR factor in overcoming it also. I have always liked to write (can you tell?), but never much liked "talking." I often have tons of things I want to say floating around in my head that never get said unless I put it down on paper. Chatting on IRC has allowed me to say all the things that are in my head that never used to get said. If there is one thing that has contributed to my own personal growth in the past few years, it would be this kind of chatting. It has enabled me to be able to say the things in my head out loud, and that is very empowering. I've still got a ways to go, but I find I have a new image of myself. I'm starting to see myself more like the people in The #!Parentsroom see me, and not that shy little school girl of long ago. Thanks Guys!