Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Back to Earth

As we were driving the two hours north through the pouring rain from Duck Key to Miami on Monday morning, Quinn asked us where we were going. 

"We're going home," I said. "To our house in Phoenix."

"Oh," he responded. "We're going back to Earth?" 

I laughed, but it does feel like we landed with a thud squarely back on planet Earth Monday night. We woke up yesterday morning to a conversation with our contractor about replacing the chipped countertop in our new mother-in-law suite, to an empty refrigerator, to Quinn's jet-lag at 5:15 a.m., to ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN DEGREE TEMPERATURES. Way to welcome us home, Phoenix.

We were in the Keys for two of my best friends' wedding, a couple of people I've known since I was seventeen and we were all freshmen at Hopkins together. A couple who finally -- FINALLY -- realized they were more than best friends and finally -- FINALLY -- got engaged at my brother's house in Idaho last winter. So, this was also in part a college reunion, albeit in a locale a teensy bit prettier than Baltimore.



 

Chris and I got to have our first date night in months (months!), even if it meant paying exorbitant resort-priced babysitter fees. In my next life, I'm going to spend my twenties on an island making millions watching movies while other peoples' kids sleep upstairs. But it was worth it. We needed it.


And if we thought Quinn was a water baby before, this trip just solidified that notion. We could not get him out of the water for more than five minutes during the day -- not to eat more than a bite or two of food, not to take more than a sip of a virgin strawberry daiquiri, barely to go home to sleep at night. Our saving grace was that we were sharing a villa with another family whose two girls are just older and just younger than Quinn, and peer pressure to eat dinner/brush teeth/wash the sand out of your hair works wonders. The kid is stubborn. No idea where he gets that.




We're all having a rough time adjusting to being back on planet Earth, back from island time and planet Florida and time with some of the best people I know, these friends who've been my friends for nearly two decades and who I don't see often enough even when I see them at three out of four weddings in two months. Cancer has amplified this point: there never seems to be enough time.

Congratulations, Beth and Shanon. The weekend was as beautiful as you two are. As an added bonus, you finally -- FINALLY -- got Quinn to nap, he was so worn out yesterday. I owe you for that.


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