Exhausting Start to the New Year

New Year’s Eve passed without a stir from me. I was in bed by 10:30 that night, and I feel old. It was the first time that I was not awake to great the new year. However, I knew that I had to wake up at 5:00 a.m. in order to leave for a training trip to Florida with my swim team. By 10:30 I could no longer keep my eyes open. I told you I am getting old.

We were due to arrive back in New York at 1:00 a.m. on Monday. If you paid any attention to the weather in New York this weekend, I am sure you have an idea what happened.

The arrival time was pushed to 1:30, 3:00, 4:30 and finally our flight was cancelled. My team cheered. They did not mind missing school on Monday. I wanted to cry! Many hours of chaperoning later, the head coach was still negotiating with JetBlue, who had completely dropped the ball. We realized that we were not going anywhere that night. In fact, they were telling us that no one was going anywhere until Thursday and could not guarantee that our entire group would arrive home before Friday. One of our swimmers was interviewed by a local news crew.

The other assistant coach and I took the kids in taxis to a new hotel since we had already checked out of ours. We spent a good portion of the night trying to come up with a plan. I had slept little throughout the trip, but Sunday night I could not settle down. It is stressful to be responsible for a group of teenagers, especially when fate conspires against you. I slept fitfully that night and woke with a migraine that did not go away for the rest of the day.

Fortunately, our story has a happy ending. Someone was able to pull some strings and get us out of Florida on Monday. I will be forever grateful to our anonymous benefactor. I arrived home at 10:30 p.m. Douglas was not as lucky. He had to go pick up the truck at JFK airport, since we flew into a different one. His 1:30 a.m. Tuesday arrival was still preferable to Friday as we had been told earlier.

Monday night I could not fall asleep until after Douglas made it home. Even then my mind was racing with everything that I needed to do in the morning for school. I had already missed one day of classes. I did not sleep well, and the school day felt long. Swim practice after school dragged on even slower.

Now, I am finally home and ready to get some rest. I hope that you will forgive me for not having anything renovated, crafted or documented for you. I promise to update you on the positive aspects of our trip as soon as possible. Right now, I am going to bed to dream that I am back on the beach.

Happy Homemaking!

Update: Florida 2014 tells the rest of the story of our trip to Florida. It was really a great trip!