aftermath

It’s 6:45 am and I am awake. It’s a holiday here – Woman’s Day. I don’t like getting up early especially when I don’t actually have to be anywhere. The last 3 weeks have caught up to me and decided to hit me with a nice little cold. Yesterday I had ambitions to go to work and get a few things done with our new volunteers and then I just decided that I should take care of me and try and tackle this cold before it got worse. I stayed in bed the entire day and read an entire book – Marley and Me (this is the ultimate indulgence which I will long for one day when I am back in the “rate race”), started another book and watched 3 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. Despite my efforts, I feel as though a truck has run me over this morning. A hacking cough woke me up and then my nose decided to stuff up. I have been eating fruits, drinking water and sucking down vitamin c drops but I guess my body just needs to get some things out. I am not a huge fan of medicating but we’ll see how long I can last before I really would give half a lung for some Nyquil or Dayquil.

My mom’s trip was enjoyable and I didn’t think overtaxing but maybe all the driving I did was a bit. Normally I LOVE driving and since as a PCV I’m not allowed to, when I’m on holiday I take advantage if I have the opportunity (and loving parents who are paying for the rental car). Mom was sweet and was content to sit in the passenger seat the entire time even though we both got confused and tried to get in the wrong doors – they drive on the right side of the car and the left side of the streets here just in case you didn’t know. But let me tell you, road signs are terrible here, worse in Swaziland and an absolute nightmare in Johannesburg when we’re trying to find people’s house, there are 2 streets named Main but the one you want actually isn’t labeled. By the last night I was so over getting lost and not being able to rely on signs (my internal navigation system doesn’t always point the correct way either. This is when having Jason around comes in handy – his is way better than mine and my mothers as it turns out) that I sort of started crying.

What I was a little bit afraid to admit was that part of the reason for the tears was my mom was leaving. Or actually, I was leaving my mom the next day because I had to get back to work – she wasn’t actually leaving till the day after that. I had just spent almost 3 weeks with her, sometimes she was typical mom and I just wanted to roll my eyes (if I did mom, I’m sorry, I tried real hard to just let you be my mom!) but most of the time she was amazing and patient with me (especially while in the car, being lost and not having found the lunch destination – she was a saint then, really!). I had a wonderful time with her – it was fun making unexpected stops and just taking our time about things. But traveling for 2 weeks can be stressful and all parties are desperate for some alone time by the end, and then knowing that my mom was leaving and not really being sure when I’ll get to hug her again, that just made me a little sad. And me, I have a hard time talking about it so I’ll get stressed about little things instead, like missing the turns and driving in the complete wrong direction and really have no idea where to go! And sometimes it’s just hard to admit that Miss Independent who traveled across the world to seek out her dreams and live her life by her own standards, is still a little girl that needs her mom sometimes – her whole family really but her mom being the representative this time worked just as well.

But I got off on a complete tandem there – I decided to bring out the computer and type this morning because I wanted to share my funny, crazy dream. I have a lot of them and I love either writing them in my journal or telling someone the moment I wake up. This one was odd, the presidents were changing and there was a party on the outside lawn of the white house. I had been working with the whole office and I was sad to see it end except I wasn’t because I knew the Bush administration was on the way out. I said something about being sad and Laura Bush heard me and said I should feel happy because her new administration was coming in. All of the sudden I was hanging out with the new administration party but it was George Bush and Laura and Bono and other random people. We were having a grand old time, I was schmoozing with people, even George himself trying to win them over so I get a job in the new office. I couldn’t wait to tell everyone that I had met Bono and George and we were all becoming good friends. Then George (we were on a first name basis in my dream) went up to make a speech in this little tower thing that had just been constructed and he fell backwards but no one could find him. Sue McLean was there and there was a group of us searching and then someone came up to tell us his plane had to leave and the transmission was cut short – evidently it was just a projection of himself, not actually him. That’s about the time I woke up but earlier in the dream I had been at kruger park hanging out at Dr. McDreamy’s rondavul with some friends and hottie was totally flirting with me. I knew that he was Meredith’s but how can you refuse to flirt with someone that is that hot! This part probably had to do with the fact that I watched Grey’s Anatomy before I went to bed – thanks family for that birthday present! I am a little disappointed that I was so excited about the new Bush administration because that is not what I am hoping happens at all – not that it could anyway – I am not a supporter of his anyways in real life (newsflash for those that did not have a chance to talk to Teresa after the last election). But I won’t start talking politics now – it’s just ironic that in my dream it was backwards – those psychologists out there feel free to interpret.