Will try to make it short, even though, as you all know, we, of Latin origins, are long to get to the subject 
The trip was emotionally charged with sadness for 2 close family members who are fighting with illness: you already know about my cousin, stage 4 breast cancer. At least I was there for her for a couple of Dr’s appointments and helped her change her Oncologist for someone more compassionate. In addition, my mom’s younger sister is probably facing stage 4 bladder cancer, not all results are in, but it is what it looks like today.
The return flight out of Munich to Boston was cancelled. We have been re-routed to fly out to Newark, and after 8 and some hours of flight, we did not have a gate, so we had to wait in the same chairs for another hour or so. Stressing out we’ll be losing our connection to Boston, we “ran” through customs, and back through security, just to find out our flight was delayed, first by 1 hour, then 2, finally 3 hours. We arrived at my son’s home on Saturday at 3 am instead of Friday evening 8 pm. The last leg was good, to the point mom even took a nap during the 5 h direct flight to Phoenix.
Will you guess how many times I had to say NOPE during the trip? If not, no problem, I can’t either, but it was many, many times.
Once home, it felt incredible to fall back into the old, comforting habits of cuddling with my pets, using my own shower, finding things where I left them.
And so I thought many times, how good would it feel to fall back into the addiction, to inhale deeply, the way too comfortable smoke…but they were all fleeting thoughts, not really staying long with me because I had the answer ready: “I don’t do that anymore” and that was it. Difficult or easy to accept, it does not matter because that is what I do today, I do not do “that” anymore.
I apologize for not staying in touch; I will not say I missed connection completely, but I was depending on a neighbor for access, and my phone did not work in Romania, and now you know where my focus was while at home, along with being at mom’s beck and call.
So here I am, needing a vacation from my trip, looking forward for a potential reunion for the West Coast EX!!!
For the newbies, NOPE means the same thing wherever you are, whatever languages are spoken around you, whenever you travel, please take it with you!
