Home Again, Home Again

Hey y'all - 

And before we knew it, it was time for Laney and me to fly MGM>ATL>MSP>MSO. 

We had a three hour layover in Minneapolis, which suited Laney just fine because it meant she could ride the train around the terminal as many times as she wanted. Like Chuck E Cheese, only without the tokens or fear of Ebola. 

After a few dozen spins around the Delta concourse, she said, "This is fun, but you know what would be even MORE fun?" (all together now) "If we ate at a restaurant!" So we went to TGI Fridays, where Laney was so tired, she was basically drunk. 

There was something about our waitress that seemed so familiar to me, and as she was taking our drink order, it came to me: when Laney was only a year old, the two of us - mother and cranky baby - flew together to visit our southern relatives. Our return trip was so horrendous, I wrote a blog post about it called The Longest Day Of My Life. On that day back in 2010, we had eaten at this exact same TGI Fridays, and this was the angel of a waitress who had thought to bring Laney two pounds of Craisins to shut her up 'til the mac and cheese came, and then packed her some extra to go in a plastic bowl so she could keep eating on the plane:

I've probably met and forgotten a hundred other people since then, but I told that waitress that she had stayed in my brain because when someone saves your ass in a moment of need, you don't forget it. 

When we landed in Missoula, Hagen showed his sister how much he'd missed her by hugging her and saying, "C'on, Yaynees, 'et's go pay rocks!" So y'all "played rocks" and were genuinely excited to be back together again. 

The trip to Montgomery had been great fun, but traveling always takes a lot out of us. Luckily, Laney was able to recuperate.

And by dinner time, she'd gotten a second wind and was back to playing "Let's Pretend"with Hagen, assigning him various roles that he was happy to play as long as he could lie down and eat snacks while he did it. I can't even make fun of this, because I invented this move. "Yes, Laney! I'm The Evil Queen (who likes to lie down on the couch and eat chips.") "Of course, Laney! I'm The Pirate Captain (who drinks margaritas out of the side of her mouth with a bendy straw.")

So glad we went. So glad to be home. 

Love,

Mom