Anticipation

Okay - I've been home almost two weeks from the most fabulous trip of my life to bella Italia.  It's not easy to come home and get back to work. There's jet lag to contend with and once you get past that, there's still the issue of getting motivated to jump back into the daily demands and conflicts and responsibilities.
So, how do you get past a wonderful experience and get back to normal? How do you find the inertia to get going again?

Well - I don't know what you do in these circumstances, but let me tell you what has helped me. Anticipation. That's it. To get over the mountain-top experience of a wonderful trip to Italy and re-engage in normal life, I needed to something to anticipate.  And today I found it!

Today I spent the day with my daughter, Lauren Lee Kamal. We've spent quite a few other days together during her 29 years. Early in her life we spent entire days just reading and playing and singing together. As she reached her early teens we spent a few days together playing golf. In her later teens and early 20's we found other ways to spend days together. We made great memories many days (and nights) on Two Week Notice road trips. We loaded the Ford Explorer with guitars and drums and headed to Cleveland, Tennessee or Bushnell, Illinois, or to the Masquerade in downtown Atlanta, or to Under the Couch at Georgia Tech so she and the band could play shows.

But today was special. We spent the day hanging pictures...getting ready for a really big show. You see, my little girl is about to have her own little girl in just a couple of weeks. So, today we spent the day finishing the nursery.  We set up the bassinet. We went to Target  to get picture frames and then went to Home Depot to buy child-proof outlet covers. We worked in Baby Girl's beautiful nursery, hanging the quilt over the changing table - the same quilt Lauren had in her nursery as a baby. Then we hung pictures over the crib and after a few other finishing touches we just paused and looked around and drank in the anticipation.

Yes - it can be hard to come home, but when you have something to anticipate...like grand parenting - well, what can I say? I'm glad to be home.