Diary of a Vacation: New Orleans - The Departure

I am filled with an almost giddy sense of anticipation as I sit in the airport terminal awaiting my flight. My bags have been checked, my boarding pass is in hand, and my dose of Dramamine has been consumed; I am ready to go. Now all there is to do is wait.

The anticipation is killing me. This has been a trip 11 years in the making, that is a lot of time to build up expectations. Both of us are expecting so much that it would seem that it could so easily be crushed by the slightest fault in the trip. As we were getting ready to leave this morning the husbeast began to have small temper tantrums that I have come to associate with him while we travel or really prepare for any social engagement. He got tuna fish on fish Saints shirt and his tablet didn’t charge over night resulting in him ripping his shirt off and declaring he wouldn’t take his tablet at all. I had to use calm voice, but I soothed his momentary outlash of anger and got him redressed and his tablet and charger packed.

Now that we are at the airport, his tablet plugged in and happily charging, he is finding other things to fuss at. The coffee he got at the in terminal Starbucks is too strong. He has gone to make his second trip back for cream and sugar to try and salvage it. I on the other hand am sipping my hot chocolate and killing time in the near hour to our flight.

Now he has spilled his coffee all over his tablet and everything else. Twice. This is like a comedy of errors with him. All I can do is be the calm voice of reason and help him clean it up. I have to assume that it is nervous energy built up over the years while waiting to go home again.

For me this is just a vacation, for him this a homecoming 20 years in the making. I do not think vacation compares to that in any way. He also desperately wants me to love his home city as much as he does. He wants me to see the magic and fall in love with it in hopes that someday I will let him go home for good.

It is a lot to expect and a lot to anticipate. I am just hoping to have a good time and see the joy in his face as he gets to show me where he is from. Once the flight is over and we are in New Orleans it should be better.

For now it is just a matter of sitting back and relaxing and maybe trying to keep him from wearing any more of his coffee.