13 Days
For the next 13 days my life will be normal, comfortable, ...the easy level with unlimited ammo. Then my wife and baby will board a plane for Japan without me. No, they are not leaving me. But it is the first time in her short life that I won’t be able to see my daughter, or hold her or talk to her or make her giggle, ...you get the idea.Family gone, me sad.
I’ll be catching up with them in Japan 12 days later, staying for a week, then we’re all coming home together, …but the time away is really bothering me and weighing on me. I alternatively obsess about it and try not to think about it. I have yet to contemplate what I will do with myself while they are gone. Looking at my calendar now, those empty white squares look bottomless.
Family gone, me selfish.
I easily forget that the wife has left behind her entire family for me. I know she can deal with her mother and father being far away, but she’s very close to her sister. I see how much my sister adores my daughter, and I do realize that my wife’s sister has yet to even meet my daughter. And I know that must be difficult, ...but that didn’t stop me from trying to shorten her trip.
The other part of this is that she is using a big wad o’ yen for this trip. The stereotype about Japanese dwellings being the approximate size of American cubicles is true, at least as far as her family goes. All of their homes too small to house 3 guests, therefore we need to get hotel rooms for the entire trip. Not to mention that we’re buying an extra seat on the plane for my daughter because my wife is flying there alone, ...let’s just say that I could buy the flat panel, wide screen, 46” DLP HDTV of my dreams for the price of this trip (and don’t think I don’t have one picked out). And guess what? I get to pay for this trip once a year for the rest of my life!
Selfish selfish selfish
During their absence, I’ll be heading out to San Diego for our annual week-long, company-wide, team-building, waste-of-time-and-money thing. Although, I think this will be the last year we’re expected to leave on 3 weeks notice, live in a hotel room not entirely funded by the company, have no transportation to leave the secluded hotel unless we are lucky or rent a car at our own expense, and spend each morning, noon, and evening with our co-workers. Yes, they even plan pointless events for the evening, preventing us from maybe going out and enjoying ourselves. And the catered food. Don’t get me started on the food. Let’s just say that I didn’t know chicken could be so dry as to actually suck all the moisture out of a human being upon being touched.
But, it’s only a week out of my life that I could spend doing other things, ...y’know, like actually getting some WORK done.
Like last year, I’m heading out to Japan straight from the conference. Instead of taking the red-eye back to O’hare and leaving from there, I’m taking the little Buddy-Holly-killing-plane from SD to LA, then on to Japan.
In an NFL sense, the timing works out great. I’ll watch Pittsburgh and Philly advance to Superbowl while packing on the 23rd, then be back in town to see the big game. I missed it last year, ...I was actually getting married at the time.
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