Evac Day 3: Good to Go

We bumped into another family we know in our hotel lobby last night. The mom and dad were somewhat upbeat, though mom’s hair was a little more disheveled than normal. Their teenage daughter and son dutifully stood there silently while the adults chit-chatted about when the evac would be lifted and where they’d gone out to dinner nearby. At one point I asked, “So how are you guys doing?” Mom and dad gave chipper, “Great, great, we’re great.” Older daughter, when I looked at her, said, blushing, “Oh, I’m good.”

But then quiet, polite, feet-gazing younger son let escape, “I hate this!” And all three of his family members instantly shushed him and patted him as if to say, “No, we don’t say that, you don’t mean that.”

Well, I’m with him. And I’m gonna say it, and I mean it. I Hate This! I hate this. It’s day three and it’s stopped being novel. I’m good to go home now. A few crappy nights of sleep, the tortellini I brought are gone, we’re out of muffins, and I miss Cleo.

And I’m deciding to be at peace and at ease, no buts. And it would be inauthentic nonsense to say all is dandy. We are not supposed to complain, we evacuees, and I really should not complain because our evac sitch is way more comfortable than many an evac sitch might be.

But I gotta make an exception or some kind of distinction between complaining and being truthful about one’s feelings and internal experience. There’s a difference between whining and acknowledging that yeah, it is hard to be away from comforts we’re used to.

And we’re so lucky that we have those comforts and will, hopefully return to those comforts, and we have a whole lot to be grateful for even now. But yeah, it’s challenging.

Heck, it’s challenging for Ax to simply exist in big rain that’s keeping him from his standard dose of outdoor play and sunshine. I don’t like the grey days either, just in themselves, let alone now with their association with ... all they’re associated with.

So I’ve moved my AA meeting to our evac location for tomorrow morning, and decided that chocolate croissant is an okay Ax snack during evac. And I’m keeping my sinuses moist and that’s the report from the quasi-frontlines.

I’m gonna keep going.

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