how much is enough?

so today . . . i replaced the lotion that the evil tsa agent stole from me, and it ended up costing me almost $30!

call me obsessive/compulsive if you must, but i just can't let it go. i was going to replace it while we were in portland, but then i saw the line at the cash register in bath and body works! not even the "50% off" and "only $3!" signs could entice me to stand in that line! so i came home, lotionless.

and then today, when we got done eating lunch (at rubio's, of course,) i stopped in at the bath and body works at the town center. the "50% off" and "only $3" signs were there, but thankfully, the long line was not. my first thought was, "great! $3! i can replace my lotion for just a few dollars." i looked at the selection of lotion i could buy for only $3, but i did not see white citrus (which was the scent of the lotion that was taken from me.) so i kept looking. at the 50% off table i found some delicious smelling stuff. and at 50% off, it was only $2.50--an even better deal!

...and it would have been a better deal, if it had been lotion. but it wasn't. it was anti-bacterial soap. this was not the first time i had mistaken soap for lotion. and it is not something i want to ever do again--it makes a big mess! (just ask diandra.) so i put the soap back in the bin and moved on...

i had left rollie in the car. i had told him i would only be a minute. i had told him i was not going to shop--i was just going to go in and buy a replacement bottle of lotion. i knew exactly what i was looking for. it should only take me a minute...

...but i quickly realized that it had been a loooooong time since i had been in a bath and body works store, and a lot had changed. they don't just carry lotion and shower gel anymore. they have shampoo and conditioner and body butter and spritzes and sprays and aromatherapy and LIP GLOSS! really. lip gloss. (somehow i think lip gloss belongs at ulta or sephora, not bath and body works.) and so it wasn't quite as simple as just running in, grabbing a bottle of lotion, and getting out. decisions were going to have to be made. and you know how i am about decisions...

i continued on... and then i found it--the white citrus lotion. and it was not on a sale rack--it was on the "new arrivals" rack. this did not bode well for my wallet. i picked it up, flipped it over, and looked at the price.

$10.50.

oh nonononono. i am not paying $10.50 for an 8 ounce bottle of lotion! now i was really annoyed. i hadn't had a $5 bottle of lotion confiscated--it was a $10.50 bottle!!!

in my mind, i was out $10.50.

but i was already in bath and body works, and i did need lotion, and i was surrounded by sale signs. so you know what happened next.

yes, i bought lotion. from the $3 sale rack. and it is the most wonderful smelling lotion i have ever had--"night blooming jasmine!" before i knew what was happening, four bottles had jumped into my arms. and then two bottles of body spray followed them! i decided i should go to the cash register before anything else took a flying leap toward me...

...because really, how much would be enough. my intent was only to replace the ONE bottle that was now in the possession of my favorite tsa agent. but they were on sale! really, really cheap!! and that made me think that maybe they would be discontinuing the delicious scent that i had just discovered! so maybe i should stock up... definitely i should stock up! but how much would be enough?

then i turned around and saw a whole bin of "night blooming jasmine" lotion. a whole bin!! i didn't have the last four bottles of lotion after all. now what was i going to do?!?! i couldn't afford to buy them all!

i decided i could spend my emergency $20. (i keep $20 hidden in my wallet for emergencies--you know, if i need gas or if i need to contribute to something at work or if i get unexpectedly asked to go to lunch... but i am finding that usually my emergencies are shopping related...) i was already holding four bottles of lotion and two bottles of body spray. i decided that would have to be enough. for now.

i went to the cash register and handed over my emergency $20. as i was walking out of the store, i walked right past the $10.50 white citrus lotion. i mentally added that to what i had just spent, and decided that my confiscated lotion had now cost me $30. because if they had just let me keep my lotion, i would not have had to go into bath and body works...

of course, that means i would also not have four bottles of lotion and two bottles of body spray of the most wonderful smelling scent either.maybe instead of a bill, i should send my tsa agent a thank you note!

ah, flying...

so today . . . we are headed home from our christmas trip to oregon. usually this means packing all our stuff the day before we leave, getting up before dark (but not really waking up,) dragging our sleeping bodies into the car, and then sleeping for several hours while rollie drives.

but this year we flew :) and we didn't have to leave for the airport until the middle of the afternoon. so we slept in, leisurely packed our stuff, and then ate lunch. rollie watched football, and i watched some HGTV (i don't have HGTV at home, so i'm sort of obsessed when i am anywhere that has it. i mean really, have you watched "house hunters?!?!")

packing to go back home on an airplane, after christmas presents and post-christmas shopping proved to be a little challenging. especially since diandra was also wedding shopping... she bought mosaic glass candles and purple christmas beads and heart-shaped ornaments and big round sparkly placemats for centerpieces. she kept coming into my room and saying, "mom, do you think you have room for this?" and mostly i did. but then a couple of times i had to say, "rollie, do you think you have room for this?" and thankfully, he did.

and then there was my wedding dress...

i think my wedding dress is one of the most beautiful dresses i have ever seen. timeless. classic. and a little bit sparkly (of course!) several years ago, my mom took it and had it all cleaned and preserved and packed in a pretty box. but the box is pretty big, and we have never had enough extra room to bring it home with us.

until we flew.

which is odd, i know, because you would think it would be easier to find room to take it home when we drive the suv. but when we drive the suv, we pack like we have unlimited room--even though we don't. when we fly, we know all our stuff has to fit into our suitcase (no extra bags of stuff can be stashed around our feet) so we pack lighter. and we flew on southwest, which let each one of us check two bags. for free! and since we only each brought ONE bag, we could check the dress.

this seemed like a great idea! until we got to the airport and tried to get our 3 suitcases, 2 carry-on bags and 1 dress box inside... (thankfully we didn't have a partridge in a pear tree.)

we schlumped all our stuff to the ticket counter. i admit that there was some rearranging, some tripping, and a close call with a revolving door, but we got there. we started checking our bags in. rollie's suitcase. my suitcase. diandra's suitcase. and then the box.

"what's in this box," the check-in person asked. we told her it was a wedding dress. "oh," she said, " it would be better if you could carry it on." that might be true, but the box was too big to carry on--why would she even suggest it?!? was she trying to get me into more trouble with the tsa?!?!

and then she said, "has this dress already been worn in the wedding?" it sounded innocent enough on the surface, but what it said to me was, "how terrible will it be if somehow the box gets crushed and pops open, and the dress gets caught on something and comes down the luggage shute in shreds?" now i was worried. she slapped a couple of orange "fragile" stickers on it, made me sign a waiver that said they were liable for loss, but not for damage, and sent it out to the plane...

i almost started hoping they would lose it...

on the way to the gate, i kept seeing oregon duck stuff. (in case you somehow didn't know, the ducks are playing for the national championship on january 10th. you should watch. they will win.) diandra had already acquired a duck sweatshirt, but i still didn't have one. we saw them all over the mall when we were shopping, but i had my eye on other things... now, though, we were in the airport headed home. and i was pretty sure if i didn't get a duck shirt before i got on the plane, i was going to be watching the championship game in the one green sweater i own. and it doesn't have a big yellow "O" on it! i was suddenly worried the ducks might lose if i didn't get a shirt. they might think i had no faith in them, or worse yet, didn't even care. so i walked back down the concourse, compared the different designs, and finally chose this one.now i was ready to go home. (and if by some fluke, the ducks lose, it is on them--i've done my part...)

as we were sitting on the plane, waiting for our flight (which had already been delayed for an hour,) diandra saw them loading the luggage. they were not all that careful with our suitcases. our suitcases were flipping and flopping and smacking onto the luggage conveyor belt. but they respected the fragile stickers on the dress box, carefully laid it on the conveyor belt, and it arrived at lax in good shape. which is good, because we have plans for that dress!

i've decided i love to fly! i don't love wrestling my bags through the airport. i don't love going through security. i don't love delayed flights. i don't love peanuts (oh, for the days when you got a real snack!) but i do love to fly. i love being in the airport. i love checking out the food options. i love getting on the plane and having someone bring me a drink. i love getting to my destination in just a few hours. i love not having to worry about car trouble, roads closed due to snow, and sleeping in the pretzel position.

in fact, i think we may have started a new tradition this year :)

it's christmas eve!

so today . . . is my second blog anniversary. it is also christmas eve.

in hindsight, perhaps that was not the best time to actually start a blog. because now, every year on christmas eve, i feel this pressure to produce an amazing anniversary blog. but by the time i sit down to write, my brain is all full of christmasy thoughts instead of bloggy ones.

if i was more organized, i would write some sort of yearly retrospective a week or two before christmas and have it all ready to post on christmas eve. but clearly, i am not that organized.

so this year, i am just going to leave you with a picture of my mom's tree. because i am sitting here in her living room, looking at her beautiful tree, and enjoying this moment.i know this moment isn't going to last. in a few days i will go back home, pick up my real life, and move on. but tonight, i am enjoying the feeling of contentment that sitting in front of my mom's christmas tree always seems to bring.

i hope all of you are able to find some peace and joy during this holiday season.

happy christmas eve!

a travel day...

so today . . . we flew to portland. for christmas :)

we have never flown to portland for christmas before. usually we drive. even though we moved to southern california, which is about a 17 hour drive away, still we drive.

but this year, because of some last minute scheduling issues, we realized that we were either going to spend most of our vacation riding in the car, or we needed to get on a plane...

so i spent last saturday on the internet, trying to find a flight that would work with our time schedule, had three seats available, and didn't require us to sell a car in order to purchase the tickets! considering that it was just a week before christmas, this proved to be an almost impossible task, but finally, southwest airlines came to our rescue.

we got tickets. but that was just the first of several problems... the next problem was packing. because when we drive, we drive our suv which has lots and lots of room. and we take way more stuff than we need. and we have plenty of room for bulky presents. and we take lots of snacks (because we are in the car for 17 hours!) but when we fly, we have limited space.

do you remember what i bought my nephew for christmas?

yes, this was going to be a problem. probably the decision to drive or fly should really be made before any of the shopping is done. because if flying is going to be the mode of transportation chosen, we either need to buy small gifts (dvds for everyone!) or shop online and have everything delivered to my mom's house (thus requiring her to stay withing 50 feet of her front door for a month, just in case something has to be signed for...)

and then there is the issue of boots and coats. in southern california, we wear boots and coats for fashion. but when traveling to the north, boots and coats become a necessity if we don't want to turn into popsicles. and so packing becomes a battle. we are conditioned to think, "these boots go with this outfit, and these other boots go with this other outfit..." and pretty soon we are looking at taking five different pairs of boots for a week long trip. which is ridiculous. especially since we also have to make room in our suitcase for a warm coat. and five scarves.

i managed to narrow it down to only two pairs of boots. but the turtle pillow pet still had to fly to portland in rollie's bag...

this morning we arrived at the airport, checked our luggage, and headed to security. let me just say, security is a whole different ball game than it was last summer. we took off our coats and shoes first, which seemed reasonable to me. and then the tsa agent said to diandra, "do you have a shirt on under that sweatshirt?" i thought that was a little personal, but they told her she either had to take off the sweatshirt or get patted down. she took off the sweatshirt.

then it was my turn. they made me take off my extra sweater AND the scarf around my neck. really? what could i possibly hide in my scarf?!?!? i guess i am not creative enough to be a terrorist, since i couldn't think of a thing... but apparently this was not obvious to the tsa agents. i made it through the scanner without incident, but my carry-on bag did not. "they have to search your bag," diandra said. "ok," i said. i wasn't worried. i figured i was just passenger number 25 or something. but that tsa agent opened my bag and went into it like he had a treasure map! he held up my brand new bottle of hand lotion--the new bottle of lotion i had just received from one of my students as a christmas gift. "this exceeds the acceptable limits for liquids," he said. i couldn't believe it! he was going to confiscate my brand new bottle of lotion! i said, "but i just got that!" "do you have any checked luggage," he asked? "you could put it in there." well yes, of course i have checked luggage! it is christmas! i am traveling to oregon, where the high temperatures in the next week might not exceed 60 degrees!! i had to pack boots and coats and sweaters! and christmas gifts!!!! besides, that wasn't going to help me--my checked bag was probably already on it's way to the airplane...

i had no other option than to say good-bye to the lotion and be glad they weren't confiscating my apple bread...

we still had a couple of hours to kill before our flight left. we went to our terminal, laid claim to a couple of chairs, and then rollie and diandra went off in search of food. i tried to sleep. i had only slept two and a half hours the night before, so i put my purse in my lap, my feet on my carry-on bag, my other arm through rollie's back pack, and used his coat for a pillow. no one was going to walk off with our stuff, even if i fell asleep!

i didn't fall asleep.

i was soooo tired, but sleep just would not come. maybe it was the incessant security announcements ("don't leave your stuff unattended, blah, blah, blah...") maybe it was the crush of people trying (some with limited success--there were a lot of delayed flights) to get home for christmas. maybe it was the hunger signals my stomach started sending me right after rollie and diandra left. maybe it was my brain, which would not shut up!!! maybe it was all of the above. but my nap never materialized...

when diandra and rollie came back to guard the stuff, i went for food. i almost stopped at mcdonald's. but, being me, i had to see all the options before i made a choice. so i walked clear to the other end of the terminal. back past security. and there was my favorite tsa agent. with my lotion. he was tossing it up into the air and catching it. tossing it up into the air and catching it. tossing it up into the air and catching it. over and over again.

clearly, it was not a bomb...

it was quite a day.

our plane was late.

our luggage was wet.

our flight attendant was bald. (but it's ok, because he had a selection of hats--santa hat, reindeer antlers, and a lighted christmas tree with micky mouse santa ornaments--yes, he wore that on his head!)

but we made it home safely. and quickly.

and the good news is, at least in portland, it wasn't raining...