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Vacations: the good the bad and the ugly
To continue on about my vacation time. I told Charles that once he got together the clothes he was planning on taking on his trip to Toronto to bring them on over to my place and I would wash and press them, having them ready for him to pack the night before his trip. It is inevitable that when Charles plans a trip out of town he over packs the days before the trip w/ things he wants to do or feels need to be finished before he goes and ends up finding himself up at three in the morning washing and packing his clothes. I knew this was his normal routine and he know that I knew so he was pleased to say yes. I knew how much he was looking forward to this trip and wanted to make it as easy and enjoyable as I could. So I spent Monday doing his and my laundry and Ironing. With the intention of spending Wednesday just cleaning house and getting ready for my own trip in general.
While Charles was in Toronto for an international swim competition I was going to spend a few days visiting my sister and her family in St. James, a suburb of St. Louis. I had been looking forward to this for several months. She is the sister I was closest to growing up and we hadn't had a chance to really spend any one on one time together since I had left home for university in 1981 so this would be our time to get really reacquainted after twenty years. She also has a four your old daughter that I hoped to get to know better. She is a beautiful little girl and I wanted to take this opportunity to insinuate myself into her life as her favorite uncle who spoils her completely.
Tuesday before the trip, we both planned to leave the morning of the 4th of July, found me still working on laundry, I am horrible about ironing, I iron just about everything except for underwear and socks, so I had set myself a massive task to do both of our clothes. I ended up with six loads containing about five loads of ironing. Two full days of work. Charles stopped by that afternoon and we went to lunch. From there we planned on me finishing my cleaning and packing and him going on to finish some things up at his new place with us deciding later in the day if he was going to spend the night at my place or sleep at his new place.
By the way part of the reason Charles was going to so very busy the days before his trip was because he was also going to be moving to a new house that same weekend. This is something I found out in an off hand way right before he actually started to move. I had known that he would be moving shortly but had thought it wouldn't take place until after he returned. I should have realized that things seldom workout the easy way.
In the end later that night Charles called to say that yes he would be spending the night at my place seeing that we were heading to the air port before six o'clock in the morning. By the time he got there finished packing his clothes for the trip and got ready for bed it was nearly two o'clock in the morning. I can usually tell when he has had an extreamly long day by several small signs but this time I didn't need to look for subtle signs I was able to tell how bad off he was by the fact that he fell asleep on my floor in the process of folding socks. How he was going to make it through the next day with the excitement of flying to Canada, getting checked in at the hotel and meeting up w/ the other members of his team and others I have no idea. Our day ends at two o'clock and tomorrow will begin bright and early a little after five.
Tomorrow was going to be a full day for both of us.
