Ups and Downs

Day 1

It’s 10:40 PM, and we’ve been in the air for almost 4 hours. I was hoping to sleep—had a glass of wine, a lovely cup of tea, but sleep eludes me. Big surprise, that one! I guess because this has been the most exciting day.

Over the past couple of days we’ve had our ups and downs. God forbid everything go perfectly as planned. Let’s start with me waking up on Thursday knowing that something isn’t right with my tooth. Got a dentist appointment right away (that’s an up!), and after an x ray I found out I have an infection in an old crown (that’s a down). But I was immediately put on Amoxicillin 500 and had high hopes of the pain going away. I have an appointment at the endodontist’s office when we return.

That night by accident we gave Sadie one of my Amoxicillins instead of her allergy meds. Andy was heartsick and immediately got online to figure out what to do. Then began the process of making her puke—who knew hydrogen peroxide is the prescribed method? So there we were at midnight, Andy forcing the clear liquid down her throat, me flipping out thinking she’s going to die, and Sadie NOT throwing up! That was a down.

We made a call to the vet who said she wouldn’t be poisoned, would probably have diarrhea or vomit, and would be fine the next day. So we went to bed. Sadie is absolutely fine, never puked, didn’t have a lick of diarrhea, stubborn little doggie. That was an up! She looked like she was suffering with a hangover the next morning though.

Saturday morning I woke up with a swollen jaw, still in pain, apparently the antibiotic isn’t in full effect just yet. After a call to the doctor he told me to wait for a full 48 hours, and to give it a chance—I’m not one for patience. Down.

This morning—the day of the trip! I wake with a mini bouncy-ball size lump at my jawline. REALLY? I call the dentist, again, and he calls me back to say that I can have the tooth extracted (no time), go to the ER and have an IV antibiotic which will really kick it out (again, no time!), or he’ll give me a stronger antibiotic which may or may not make me have tummy problems, give me the runs, and perhaps even a yeast infection. DOWNER!

I go with the new medicine and am currently drinking cranberry juice and eating yogurt like you read about!

So we’re almost packed—I really need some strappy shoes to go with my formal dinner dresses, so at 1:00 I decide to run to the Bon Ton to see what they have. Yesterday I had gone to every other possible shoe store in the mall and DSW and there was nothing! Did I tell you we were leaving for the airport today at 2:30?

Guess who had super success at the Bon Ton? Me! Up!

So we get in the car and I looked at Andy and said, “Hey, how about we go to Spain today?” He replied, “OKAY!”

We arrived at the airport at 3:20. Nick and Juliana took us so we didn’t have to leave the car/pay for parking. Yay! Up! But the best part was when Andy told me to look at the departing sign. There it was: Barcelona- ON TIME!

Cirullis met us there at about 4:00. We got through the check-in pretty quickly, went through security—who knew we had to sign our new passports (J), and who knew that women with their hair up in buns and turbans had to undo them in order to pass through! At the gate we sat and chatted for a while, then decided to grab a quick bite. Chickie’s and Pete’s crab fries! Yummo! BIG UP!

Finally at about 5:50 they began to board the plane—we got on at about 6:15. It was so exciting! I was absolutely beaming (seriously, I was sitting there with the most ridiculous ear to ear grin) listening to the directions being given in English and then again in Spanish. The plane is a biggie- I believe they called it an airbus—so we had a pretty long runway ride to get off the ground. At least if felt longer. Up, up, and away!

After an hour we were served dinner. Choices were tortellini with a cream sauce or chicken and Spanish rice with veggies. Both came with salads and rolls and a brownie—I had half the rice, half the roll, and the whole damn brownie. So much for low carb! Tomorrow?? Hopefully the scale won’t go up!

I had two firsts: one was flying over the Atlantic, and the other was Andy and I toasting and drinking wine over the Atlantic. Lovely! I highly recommend it!

I read most of my People magazine, watched Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (awesome!) and now I can’t sleep. And I have 3 more hours to go. And my butt is killing me! Down. (I figure it’s because I’m 14 pounds lighter and there’s not as much padding!) UP!

So those are the ups and downs of the past couple of days. I’m up in the air flying to a fabulous destination. And when we come down to make our landing I know my feet won’t touch the ground. I’ll be flying high for the next 16 days.

UP!