Today has been quite an eventful day. I awoke at 3 this morning after having slept only 3 hours. Told myself I was going to be packed early, but of course I procrastinated a bit….go figure. Anyway, somewhere around midnight I finished and then fell into a rather fitful sleep. Folks…nerves are a real thing no matter how old you are..

So..it is 4 am and Brad is there to pick me and bring to the airport. Imagine his surprise when I managed to pack 4 days worth of clothes, toiletries, a pair of tennis shoes, hoodie and a bit of jewelry into one suitcase. Anyone who knows me knows that 4 days of travel would be 4 bags. One bag is usually just for shoes…(not one smirk from anyone!). I told him that was it and we loaded up after I said goodbye to my pups. I must say that on the drive I was very keyed up. The combination of nerves and no sleep had me a bit hyper. But I managed to keep it semi under control. We got to the airport in plenty of time. I checked in and proceeded to the security spot.

Security is very good at the airport, but I kinda felt a bit exposed. You had to open your suitcase, take off your shoes, take out your tablet or laptop, open your purse…lord the list is endless. So Brad leaves me at that point because he figures all is well but noooooo… so first thing..I walk through the X-ray and my pouch for my illeostomy shows up and then the little wand picks up the clips in my hair. Good grief. So he pulls me aside and calls a female officer over..at this point people are staring and I am starting to feel very self conscious. You know what I mean, like when you are in the store and put in the wrong PIN number and the checker says declined and people stare and whisper…well that’s what I felt like. They had to examine my hair and then made me rub my hand across pouch and swabbed my hands, I was starting to feel like a terrorist. Finally they let me go and I got dressed…again..and went to wait at my gate.

We finally boarded and we were off…I must say, I really do not like take offs..but I managed to not lose it and just read my book. My fellow teacher travelers, Carla, Heather, Kathryn, were all sitting close by. They are all very nice and it has been really great talking with them and getting to know them. We made our connecting flight to Savannah and thirty minutes after take off, we were touching down again.

Now the fun begins. We had to wait for luggage. Everyone’s came out except for theirs. (I checked my bag at the gate.). Finally luggage came out, then we had to figure out where to go. We followed a group of teachers outside and lo and behold there were the Marines! We handed our bags off once again and boarded buses. Now guys, we are not talking charter bus, we are talking white buses, the kind that looks like thd ones prisoners are ferried around in…one can only imagine what people thought when they saw us. But even that was ok, although the exhaustion was starting to creep up on all of us.

We made it to the hotel, retrieved our luggage, which go figure, were the last ones off the truck. We grabbed our bags and retreated to the hotel to get our room assignments. Carla and I are rooming together, Kathryn is with a very nice administrator from Opelousas. Heather is by herself, I think they found out about all the shoes she brought…lol. We all put our bags away and then went to grab lunch at Firehouse sub, where as usual, my order confused them. I just wanted a club sandwich without the bread or veggies. What I got was the meat cheese and bacon on a bed of lettuce, tomato, and onions…Hmmmm…I said no veggies. C’est la vie…such is my lot to bear at restaurants.

We went back to our room, rested and then it was off to the officers club for supper. We had a marine join us for supper at our table. She is very nice and is the one who handled our itinerary. We enjoyed learning about her. Carla and Heather are both Mom’s of marines. I must say it has been a very nice day. We are all back at hotel, my alarm is set for 4:30 because we start bright and early tomorrow.

This educator is whipped. Wishing all a good night..people keep saying have fun…not sure what we are in for tomorrow, but I am not sure all will be fun. But I am hopeful.

Good Night