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I’m finally home!

Yesterday when I text J from the airport to tell him I’d landed, he text back, “Thanks for letting me know, I’ll start stripping down,” which made me smile the whole way there.

I live over an hour from the airport, so I rolled down the windows, put Bob Seger’s “Fire Down Below” on repeat up loud, set the cruise control and hit the open road.

I took in the lushness of a beautiful 74 degree Minnesota day and sang along with the music, enjoying the moment of coming home to the fullest.

I was that mf’er driving sixty-two in a sixty, not speeding up no matter how much someone tried to entice me into it with their front bumper. I was in the middle lane, and they had two or three other lanes at all times, so I turned my radio up louder and lit a cigarette.

Ya’ll are in a terrible hurry. I was pissing people off left and right, I could tell by the way they shot out around and past me that they wished I would get off the roads. I just smiled and kept singing. It was seven thirty at night, what’s the rush?

It made me think of a news story I saw a few weeks ago that said 43 babies had died this year in the back seats of hot cars when their parents forgot them.

“How does anyone forget their baby?” I asked out loud to J, who was watching it with me.

Babies have definitely fallen asleep in the car on my Michigan vacation with my sisters each year. You let sleeping dogs lie! You roll down the windows, and you make sure you’re close enough to hear when the baby cries. But not once, for one second, did any one of us forget where the baby was.

“People are so busy these days,” J answered.

But still. It’s a baby, not a gallon of milk you stuck in the back seat. When Bunny was a baby my whole world revolved around her. I still had to get stuff done, but she never lost her rank as more important.

I switched to Bob Seger cd number two (yes I still listen to cd’s) and sang, “Turn the Page” and “You’ll Accompany Me” and “Tryin’ to Live my Life Without You”.

I don’t let people bully me on the freeway. I’m not speeding up, and you can bet I say, “You’re Welcome” out loud to them in my rear view when we pass a speed patrol and thanks to me they’re not speeding.

I was anxious to finally be home, with as good of a reason as any to want to hurry, but I was enjoying every minute of the journey.

When I got home, J was building a campfire in the back yard. I put my imaginary “do not disturb” sign up, and let him welcome me home.

I hope you slow down, and have some moments to REALLY enjoy today.

Nic