Aloha! Today is Travel Day. Coco and I left for the airport at 4:45 am. Robert got us there with plenty of time so we weren’t rushing around in panic and anxiety mode. I never knew that life could be so calm lol. I had plenty of time to find the indoor doggy restroom, the yoga room (closed), grab my Starby’s Chai tea latte and an egg cheese and bacon croissant from Corner Bakery. I had given Coco her anxiety meds early but she was still such a ball of nerves the entire time. I have to say I was too!
So glad it is September 1! The entire month of August was just the worst month ever. And it really just came out of nowhere and was entirely unexpected! I was cruising along through hot girl summer 2021: Cubs games, Nashville trip, day drinking, new gig as a bartender making Hawaii 🤑, two weeks in a red convertible Mustang!, surprise party for my bestie, Van Gogh exhibit, weekends with friends, old and new. Got hired at Lifetime Oak Brook and everyone knew I was poolside on the rooftop practically every day! Through my reconnection and rehire back at Lifetime Oak Brook, I found a renewed spark in my yoga practice and in my teaching. Life. Was. Fucking. Good.
It all came crashing down at the end of July/early August! 😩 First, I pulled my left hamstrings sliding in a puddle of water! Super freak accident as my hamstrings are super totally open. After a couple of weeks in discomfort and pain, I had to reluctantly slow down my personal practice. Weeks later, I’m still not at 💯percent. Soon after, a dear friend’s brother was put on a ventilator then the ECMO machine literally fighting for his life! Yes, yes, yes … Covid related. Two days after receiving that news, another dear friend completed suicide. I was one of the last people he spoke with and had to be interviewed by the detective on the case.
Then my little Coco had diarrhea for three days and nights straight! Team no sleep. My son went back to his junior year at Vandy and didn’t want me to go with him. My 87 year old dad was rushed to urgent care and is now in physical therapy and not driving. And imma have to do a separate blog on the adventure it was just to get Coco into the state of Hawaii!
Life was crushing my soul. If taken separately, these life events would be manageable. But they all came in rapid succession at a relentless pace. Each day literally brought new absurdities with it! Like random bullshit - touch screen not working at the ATM when I needed to make a quick transaction; my brother booking my mom’s flight to arrive at midnight and not offering to pick her up; same brother having my dad’s meds for 36 hours and me having to rearrange my entire day to pick them up … the list goes on. There were quite a few days I was deflated and defeated. I often thought to myself… just get through this. Just make it to Hawaii.
But there were also so many MIRACLES and beautiful moments of serendipity during that same time frame. My car going in for body work and Enterprise randomly giving me a convertible red Mustang as a rental! My insurance company giving me a final extra weekend with the convertible. Walking into urgent care worried sick about my dad and one of my very dearest friends Lara randomly standing right in the doorway to give me a big hug. Being bailed out of my Mercedes lease by a childhood friend Ray who is a very successful car dealer. The unbelievable generosity from so many of my friends and customers when I was bartending. Stumbling upon my long-lost-and-forgotten pink Hydroflask decorated with all of my Aloha stickers the moment I started second guessing my trip. A late night text from a friend at the perfect moment. Seeing who is truly down for me when I needed a friend. Noticing so many little high fives and pats on the back from the universe urging me to keep going and that I am definitely moving in the right direction.
I am so grateful for the ability to see each tiny miraculous moment of perfection. And to acknowledge that the soul crushing moments bear the greatest gifts of all. As I am writing this blog on the flight from Seattle to O’ahu, this thought was reinforced. My basic seat had been upgraded to ‘premium’ and as I took my 7th row aisle seat, there was a morbidly obese couple in the window and middle seats. As soon as I sat down, the male in the middle seat let out a loud annoyed sigh and asked the girl at the window if she wanted to trade seats. 🥺 to break the tension I jokingly asked if I smelled bad. It did not break the ice. 😑 he sighed with annoyance a couple more times and the Virgo in me 😬 started sighing back. At that point, one of the flight attendants told me he would check to see if there were some open seats further in the back. I gratefully thanked him, because the guy was physically spilling over into my seat.
The FA came back and put me in an aisle seat with an open middle and a really fascinating young woman named Josie sitting at the window. We chatted for quite some time. She’s 18, grew up in the “woods of Alabama,” traces her ancestors back to when Georgia was created as a “prisoner state” and her Garrett ancestor was the first AND third person hung for adultery in the state. The second hanging was successful, as he was left on the noose for four months and literally rotted off of the noose. She also has a Norwegian Ridgeback named Cedar who dragged their neighbor through the woods and up a hill until his drunk ass finally let go. Then Cedar chased down and dominated another dog, chased him into a ditch and peed all over it. Josie is spending her very first semester in college in a study abroad program living at the Kalani Resort on Big Island. I would have never met Josie if the big people weren’t so mean and rude to me!
Ok final story… and still two hours from actually landing! Coco was trembling in our new seats as we were preparing for takeoff and a really sweet FA was speaking to her soothingly. We began talking, and I could tell she was a dog mom. She has three dogs and … one in a million odds here … one of them is a bloodhound named Rupert!! My son also has a bloodhound named Rupert!
Serendepity abounds. So many signs that I am exactly where I need to be.
Aloha and Mahalo!
