My boss throws me out of the office at 2 p.m. to get home before Chloe. My peeps at work are all in on the surprise too and they all wish me a Bon Voyage!
It's been raining where we live for the past two days. The air is cold and damp but for me, it's full of anticipation! I race home and run inside to try to load the van before the bus drops her off. If she saw that we had two big suitcases, two carryons, a garment bag and two Disney backpacks, she would know that we are not going away for a small weekend trip.
I manage to get the big suitcases, the backpacks and my carryon in the car before she gets home. Chloe arrives and asks when we are leaving. "Now!" She puts a few last minute things into her suitcase and shouts "MOM! You didn't pack anything yet!" Oops. I quickly cover and tell her that I decided to pack my stuff in a different suitcase. Ok. Whew!
Chloe gives her two youngest brothers a hug goodbye and heads out to the car. I offer to roll her bag out to the car for her (to rest her foot). It's really to keep her out of the back to avoid having her see all the luggage. The little boys (the ones that have been to Disney and Sea World with me three times without Chloe) are already busy playing computer games. Every time that I think about telling them the truth about my destination, I want to cry. Intermixed with the excitement and joy of treating my DD to a a well-deserved trip is the guilt and sadness that I am leaving behind my boys that love Disney. Are they going to be sad? Jealous? Mad? In the end, at the moment of truth, I simply give them a crushing hug and a kiss and tell them to have a fun weekend! If this had been a big ride at Disney, I believe that's called the "Chicken Exit."
We get out of the neighborhood and the freshly minted "road trip CD" is already rolling. We go about a mile and I remember that the garment bag is still hanging in my bedroom. Chloe knew that I was taking this because I had told her to pack a dress for dinner in Baltimore for Saturday night. Chloe calls her oldest brother's cell and asks him to get the bag and wait at the end of the driveway for us to swing by. Note to self - buy him an extra special present for
1. Keeping my secret and helping me with his sister's vacation planning and
2. Standing at the end of the driveway, IN THE RAIN, holding a black and pink Victoria's Secret garment bag. Bless his heart! Remind me to buy him a car for his birthday.
We swing by the bank, get some cash "for shopping in Baltimore" and we're off. Fifteeen minutes AHEAD of schedule.
It's raining. It's Friday. It's rush hour. In the big cities, you know what that means, right?! Hours and hours of congestion. That is why, at 4 o'clock, I am streaking down the highway on my way to the airport for a flight that isn't leaving until 9:25 p.m. The trip itself is only an hour and a half. I have mentally factored in the hour or so for dinner at a restaurant, the time it will take for revealing the trip, the Friday night traffic and the obligatory 2 hour preflight checkin time and think that we might just make it.
We sail through at close to the speed limit until we are fifteen miles or so from the airport. Merging on to 95 takes a bit of time. But then, I don't see any clean escape exits. I'm afraid to get off onto another highway. My navigational skills are on par with my technical knowledge of computers. Not wanting to take a chance and end up in Albany instead of Baltimore, I continue driving.
At this point, Chloe has been texting on her cell the entire drive. How do these kids not get carpel tunnel? Can I list this on her college applications as one of her many talents? OMG. I cn TXT @ 45 wpm.
We're about 5 miles from the airport in thicker traffic and she puts the phone down and announces that it's time to stop to go to the bathroom. Now that she's paying attention to where we are, I have to "discover" that I must have made a mistake and I accidentally ended up near the airport. "Since the only thing we ever do in Baltimore is go to the airport, I must have just automatically gone that way and accidentally taken our usual exit. How about if we just stop at one of the airport hotels and use the bathroom and then reroute ourselves back in the right direction." She doesn't even suspect a thing. Perhaps she is used to the way I drive?
We drive and drive and pull into the Holiday Inn BWI at 5:45 p.m.
5:45! We are way early. It's better than sitting on the beltway sweating and hoping not to miss the flight but FOUR HOURS EARLY?!
I park the car and tell Chloe to just act casual. Pretend that we're staying here and we'll figure out where the restrooms are. We breeze in and find the bathrooms just past the gift shop. I contemplate buying Chloe a trinket from Baltimore since this is really the only sightseeing in the city that we'll be doing on this trip!
As I am washing my hands, I start to get nervous. It's time to tell her the truth. The sound on the laptop has only been working about 1/3 of the time when I roll the movie so I'm afraid that in this grandiose moment, it will fail. I thought that I fixed it but the laptop is evidently smarter than I am.
Is she going to be happy? What should I say? What if it comes out wrong? I start to get nerves that I can only imagine are what people must feel when they propose. My mouth is dry as we walk out to the van.
I have to get the camcorder first and get this on tape for my DH. I open the back of the van and Chloe sees all of the luggage. "Mom! How much are we taking to Baltimore?"
I'm finally done so now I have some free time to catch up on the Dis.
