The Fibrochondriac

Sharon, my youngest daughter, is a pretty normal teenager. She’s got the usual angst and all that. But she has the most amazing ability to laugh. Okay, giggle. 

I’m in Seaside, Oregon right now. My husband is still up in Salt Lake City for work and won’t be down here until tonight. I’m not sure why I didn’t wait to fly up here so we could arrive here together, but here I am. And boy what a trip.

I hadn’t thought this through, obviously. But here’s what happened. On Saturday Sharon and I packed up everything, dropped my dog off at my sister’s, caught a ride out to the airport with her, waited two hours for the flight, spent two hours on an airplane, rented a car and drove for two hours from Seaside to Portland.

Just saying that made me wonder how my body and my mind managed to hold it together to do that. Me, who sometimes thinks it is a big deal to be able to take a shower.

What was I thinking? Not sure, because today I’m driving back to Portland to get John. Guess I really wanted to get out to Seaside and see my MommaJan.

What would have happened if I had to do that all by myself, without Sharon? She’s only 13 so it’s not like she could help me drive. Although I have a feeling even at this tender age, she is a better driver than me. Has something to do with the way she kicked tail driving go-carts last week!

I can get really spun up when I have to deal with situations which are uncomfortable to me. Loud noises—we had quite a few screaming babies and kids with inattentive parents both before and during the flight—stress me out. Driving—I am so directionally challenged that I can’t find my way out of a paper bag—in unfamiliar territory stresses me out.

And trying to get the car rented was definitely a major stressor. My credit/debit card was the victim of fraud two days before we were supposed to leave and silly me; I don’t have anything else to rent a car with.  So MommaJan had to stop by the rental place on her way out to Seaside and rent the car for me. However this was not the normal way of doing business for the rental car company and they made sure we knew it.

So why did we roll into Seaside at 10pm at night after an entire day of stressful and tiring events… giggling? And why were Sharon and I laughing so hard about the retelling of the story to MommaJan that she could barely understand us?

Because my daughter is a goofball! And I say that with pride! She found things, the silliest things to laugh at. Even during the flight. Even when I was stressing out about renting the car. And especially when I got lost. She made me reframe the situation and see it from her goofy perspective.

The plane ride scared her. She’s not flown much. My driving scared her (it scared me too) but she still managed to make it fun.

She does my heart good.