Road Trip

I live in Buffalo, NY.  The fam lives in Albany, NY.  Therein lies the eternal dilemma.  There is only one of me.  There are many of them.  All things considered it makes sense that I go there for all events.  And seemingly once or twice a quarter such an event arises– Thanksgiving, Christmas, Family Reunion, give or take an off Broadway show like Lion King. (Woot.)  This trip is by no means difficult.  But four and a half hours plus, give or take a speeding ticket, on the 90 alone, makes me a crazy person.  I am cranky the whole week prior to my trip because I’m dreading the drive.  And when I get there, all I think about is how horrible it is that I have to drive back.  Vicious cycle.  I know.

This week was particularly stressful because I needed to work, attend class, pack, and the goal is to make it to my sister’s by Wednesday to see my darling niece and spend the day with her Momma (it’s her birthday.)  Acknowledging my days as a careless, irresponsible college student are (mostly) history, this girl can’t make the drive after work and class starting at 9pm anymore.  I will fall asleep and drive the Tucson into a tree.  Boyfriend requested I avoid all the trees with my car, so I made arrangements to stay with my Aunt (pronounced Aunt not Ant) and Uncle at the mid-way point in Syracuse, making me feel horribly old in the process. 

Last night I managed to get my laundry done, bake some pumpkin cupcakes, and organize (actually less organizing and more consolidating) my life, loading it into the Tucson in preparation for my long day today.  And with that I went to bed – the objective being: get as much sleep as possible before tomorrow.  Well just when I thought everything was going as well as could be expected – a 3am it thundered.  In NOVEMBER. In BUFFALO. A freaking thunderstorm.  To you this might not be a problem.  To boyfriend’s cone-headed dog this is a CRISIS.  He whines, gets kicked out of the room (inducing more whining), runs his head (read cone) into the door, moves furniture, knocks down the baby gates, I think you get the picture?  This makes sleeping IMPOSSIBLE. 

As you might imagine, when my alarm went off a couple of hours later I was in no mood to be getting out of bed.  PLUS. Boyfriend has the day off making me more annoyed - because who really wants to get out of bed alone?  I showered, got my bags ready for the car, went to pack my lunch and on my way stepped in a puddle of dog pee. (There is never dog pee on the floor.) PERFECT. Seriously, perfect.  I didn’t have my tights on yet – luckily.  After a couple trips to the car I was ready to drag myself to work, class (this is the worst class in the history of the world) then begin my journey back to the 518.  I kissed boyfriend goodbye and he mentioned it wasn't too late for me to change my mind - I could stay and relax(!?) with him for the week. (I am going to miss him very much.  But not so much the dogs.)

That’s when I got the email that class had been canceled.   And all my logistical strategizing was for not.  So now, my kind, generous and awesome boss has given me permission to leave a little early and I get to make the trip to Albany all in one shot tonight.  (This is great news.)  Wish me luck.