The Best Laid Travel Plans
Sometimes it's hard having friends who are in different places in their lives than you. They can remind you of what you used to have or long to have or, worse, thought you were supposed to have by now.
Today, for example, one of my best friends e-mailed me to say she can't meet me for lunch next week because she's taking a last-minute trip to Barcelona. In Spain!!!
I was supposed to go to Spain when I was in high school, but the trip got canceled because of terrorist activity by Basque nationalists. Then I was going to study abroad there for a college semester, but I didn't want to leave my boyfriend, who promptly left me after graduation.
I got another chance a few years ago when my church group arranged a pilgrimage to Portugal and Spain. I was sure I'd be pregnant by the time the trip was to be scheduled and didn't want to risk it. (One of the church ladies told me never to make plans about being pregnant until you really are pregnant. I should have listened... )
Now I'm 38 years old and never set foot on Spanish soil. My husband and I spent all our money on Hendrick's adoption and we are saving again for another child, so I won't be running with the bulls any time soon.
I guess I'm feeling a little envious today.
Maybe that's what happens when you spend five days cooped up in the house with a sick child. Everyone's life seems more glamorous than yours, and you kick yourself over everything you didn't do before baby.
I jokingly responded to my jet-setting friend that I couldn't stand to be her friend anymore because her life was too exciting.
She shot back with her usual quick wit: "Well it is only exciting when it is - otherwise - it is like watching paint dry."
Raising babies can feel like that - thrilling on some days and uneventful, even tedious, on others. But, in the end, those babies can take us to places we never dreamed possible.
It's funny how a little boy like Hendrick can keep me away from major tourist attractions, and yet, still, give me the world.
Today, for example, one of my best friends e-mailed me to say she can't meet me for lunch next week because she's taking a last-minute trip to Barcelona. In Spain!!!
I was supposed to go to Spain when I was in high school, but the trip got canceled because of terrorist activity by Basque nationalists. Then I was going to study abroad there for a college semester, but I didn't want to leave my boyfriend, who promptly left me after graduation.
I got another chance a few years ago when my church group arranged a pilgrimage to Portugal and Spain. I was sure I'd be pregnant by the time the trip was to be scheduled and didn't want to risk it. (One of the church ladies told me never to make plans about being pregnant until you really are pregnant. I should have listened... )
Now I'm 38 years old and never set foot on Spanish soil. My husband and I spent all our money on Hendrick's adoption and we are saving again for another child, so I won't be running with the bulls any time soon.
I guess I'm feeling a little envious today.
Maybe that's what happens when you spend five days cooped up in the house with a sick child. Everyone's life seems more glamorous than yours, and you kick yourself over everything you didn't do before baby.
I jokingly responded to my jet-setting friend that I couldn't stand to be her friend anymore because her life was too exciting.
She shot back with her usual quick wit: "Well it is only exciting when it is - otherwise - it is like watching paint dry."
Raising babies can feel like that - thrilling on some days and uneventful, even tedious, on others. But, in the end, those babies can take us to places we never dreamed possible.
It's funny how a little boy like Hendrick can keep me away from major tourist attractions, and yet, still, give me the world.
Labels: Spain
