Flight to Dallas

I am leaving for Dallas on May 28th. Mom and I have decided to fly and I have never flown before. I am very excited!!!! I love visiting my family in Texas. I always make it a point to drive by our old house. I can't help but wonder what my life would have been like if we had not moved and I have grown up there. Would my mom have been a nurse? Would I? .. I try to talk to my Grandma on the phone as often and I can. It makes me sad when she says she wishes I was there with her. I wish I could be. How hard it would be to only see your child and your grandchildren a couple times a year, and if times are hard, less than that. That is how I know I will never leave my Momma. I may travel, but I will always come back home to her.

And so, here I am trying to pack for the trip. I do not want to check any bags so I am trying to fit everything into one carry-on bag (thank goodness I have a big purse). I am a heavy packer, always have been. I like to plan for the unexpected. It is hard for me to only bring what I need, not necessarily everything I want. It reminds me of a quote from a book I am reading by Jodi Picoult:

"You can boil your life down to a single suitcase, if you desperately have to. Ask yourself what you really need, and it won't be what you imagine- you will easily toss aside unfinished work, and bills, and your calendar to make room for the pair of flannel pajamas you wear when it rains; and the stone your child gave you that is shaped like a heart; and the battered paperback you revisit every April, because it was what you were reading the first time you fell in love. It turns out that what's important is not everything that you've accumulated all these years, but those few things you can carry with you."

I just keep telling myself that Grams doesn't care what I bring as long as I "come home". And she is right.