And I'm an emotional wreck. He's planning on being gone until December. He's never had a real foreign adventure before when he was all alone. His girlfriend can't join him until she gets the cast off her leg next month. Anyway, this is a day I've dreaded for weeks.
His first flight is to Vancouver, then to Honolulu, then Sydney - 26 hours in all. My middle son, the globe-trotter, got back from Mexico at midnight yesterday, so 2 out of 3 at least are on the same continent for a change.
I'll go watch my Y&R tape now between sniffs and nose-blowing.
aww you poor thing....make sure to let us know that he got there okay. Poor guy I hope he took a good amount of Dramamine so he can sleep on the flight
Thanks for the sympathy, Shelly. It's been bothering me for quite a while that he was going so far away for so long. For some reason, I was much better accepting Mike's travels, but my Nicky, well, I guess it's because he's my baby. And then there's my parents - one in the hospital and the other one completely lost and alone. It's a bit stressful.
He promised to buy an Australian cell phone and a C card the minute he gets there and will phone me. It's surprising inexpensive. The Ozzie gal, Emily, that was here for 7 months, used to talk to her mom for 45 minutes a day and it only cost her a few dollars a month.
BTW, the Y&R was a snooze today - just the prayer meeting for Dru. I wasn't in the mood for lots of tears so I FF'd most of it. Some Victor and Nicki arguments over her running for seenate....nothing new.
I'm watching a time-shift OLTL right now. OMG, Jess is going to be dehydrated from all that blubbering. I never thought I'd say it, but I really don't care what happens to Nash and Jess any more. The writing has wrecked that story, mangled it to death. Blech.
KaeEll, that's got to be so tough, with having him so far away for so long. My daughter and I manage to get together about once a month, with both of our crazy schedules, and her trying to wrap-up her college career, but in the back of my mind I know she is only a 70 mile drive away.
I'm not pleased at all that she's planning on moving to New Hampshire after she graduates college, to live with her boyfriend. It's at least a two hour drive, and it's another state away. I couldn't even imagine a whole continent.
Thanks so much, Shelly and Tess. He's still in the air, somewhere between Hawaii and Australia. He's on Air Canada all the way. This morning the house feels so oddly empty.
Tess, after college, my oldest son, Tony, wanted to be near his girlfriend (they both went to Dartmouth in N.H.) so he packed up and moved to Boston. They married shortly thereafter and moved back here after a couple of years. That was an 8 hour drive, and we made it many, many times. Boston's a strange town, isn't it, Tess? I can't say that I dislike it, but I have no fondness for the place at all. The one memory of it that stands out most is being able to see my son's house in Beacon Hill and then taking 45 minutes to drive to it because of all the weird street rules and the Big Dig reconstruction.
kae, i can't even wrap my mind around the idea of either of my kids getting their own places.....locally. i can't imagine one or the other being half a world away!!
how old is your son btw?
kris
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an ABC soap fan since i was a teen. favorte hobby is reading mysteries & legal or medical procedural mysteries
He's 23, just finished the first year of a masters degree in anthropology.
It's a big trend here for kids to take a year off during school and go down under. It used to be the thing to backpack around Europe, but that was replaced by the Oz obsession. There are thousands of Canadian young ones down there, I'm told. When my middle son was there last year, he met dozens of fellow Canucks, all doing the same thing.
Personally, I can't see the point of travel if you end up hanging out with people who are from the same place that you are....I mean, why not take a flat somewhere in town, away from family. But what the hell do I know?
Kris, it hurts like crazy when the kids move out for the first time. Lots of tears and feelings of emptiness, so be prepared, because it does happen. And then they move back in. Sometimes for a month or so, but they come back. And just when you've gotten used to having the place to yourselves. And they bring laundry, and snowboards, and girlfriends, and guitars, and just when you've more or less reorganised the house, they move out again.
At least my oldest son is married and settled into a nice house 10 minutes away. He's past this wander-lust, and besides, he has a little growing family, so I don't worry about that one .The oother two are another story altogether.
LOL, Shelly! He's too afraid of running out of money to be spending it on expensive airplane booze. Although I'm sure he'll find his way to a local tonight for plenty of cheap Aussie beer.
It's fairly expensive in Sydney - the hostile there is $35 a night, as opposed to the average of $28 in Europe. Anyway, if he runs out of money, he'll come home sooner. We calculated that he had enough for 3 months, unless he gets a job in Gold Coast or Cairns. It's all up in the air for now.
He did a big clothing show in September and decided to wait until after his trip to flog them again. He was going for A's at school so he could get into the programmes he wanted next year, and the clothing business was too demanding. Both he and his gf had other fish to fry this past year, I guess.
I'm still a bit weepy. It's hard having my mom in hospital and going there every day, doing her laundry etc. My dad's kind of a handful, but I'm imprerssed at his efforts to keep things up himself.
Funny thing is, we've had all the kids gone before with school and travels and moving away. This one hit me particularly hard, but I think it's because of my mom. It's just me - no siblings to spread the load and responsibilities around, and I'm feeling pretty drained emotionally. The drive to the hospital takes me on some really fast and busy streets and I don't like city driving at the best of times.
And my husband has decided that this is the perfect time to dust off his "not-nice-guy act". I'm really disappointed in him at the moment. It'll pass, as usual, but it's not something I needed right now. Le sigh.
Thanks for the hugs, Jojo. Much appreciated and needed!!
Is there anything you're NOT dealing with? I would crumble if it were me dealing with all that. You're strong though, and if you ever need anything, you know where to find me!
Hope your mom gets much better soon, and I hope Mr. KaeEll stops being a booger.
You guys are so great! It's like a shot in the arm to visit here and read your encouragements. I dosed Hub last night with my magic pellets and he's 100% better this morrning. I should have done it days ago, but it slipped my mind.
Nick emailed me last night and he's finding Sydney very expensive, twice the cost for food we have here. He says the hostel is loaded with Brits, and they're all quite friendly. But he wants out of the city as it's too much like Toronto (busy streets, polluted air, high energy), so he's looking to buy a car and will drive to Brisbane with a couple of others along for company. I got the impression that he's a bit homesick already! I don't think he counted on that aspect of being on the other side of the planet, alone and with no real concrete plans.
Update - Nick bought a 1994 Ford Falcon from a couple of backpackers that are leaving this week for home, for $1250. He says it'll cost him another $800 for registration and insurance, that he expects it'll break down at some point, too. So he and two others are off to Brisbane.
He's never driven on the left side of the road, so this ought to be interesting. My only experience in driving on the "wrong" side was in the Turks and Caicos where we used to holiday when the kids were growing up. It feels weird, and it took me several tries before it felt comfortable, and there was no traffic there to speak of. I'm not going to borrow THAT worry, groan.
i was in Japan for a short while a few years back and found it surprisingly easy to drive on the wrong side of the road. I actually found it harder to get used to driver the right way when I got back. Is his car one of the kind on the wrong side too...
Yes, probably, Shelly. Having the steering wheel on the right would probably make it easier. The jeep we had in the T&C was a left hand drive car from Miami, so it was awkward.
His gf just called me, says Nick is sick with tonsilitis and feels really awful, so his Brisbane trip is postponed. Her cast comes off a week tomorrow and she'll be moving back in here until she leaves to join him. She's at her parents' house now and they live up in the suburbs.
Argh! And to think I raised these kids to be independent.
i was in Japan for a short while a few years back and found it surprisingly easy to drive on the wrong side of the road. I actually found it harder to get used to driver the right way when I got back. Is his car one of the kind on the wrong side too...
I'm the same way when I go to Ireland! I always rent a car, when I visited last Easter, I forgot to reserve a car ahead of time. My mother met me at the airport, and she snagged one of the last two cars for me. They asked if she wanted standard, or automatic. She said standard...... Thank goodness my daughter took me to the airport, and she was litterally coming from the dealership where she picked up her brand new Jeep Wrangler, which was standard. The only thing was that she did not know how to drive standard prior to buying the Jeep. They gave her a five minute lesson and off she went. She asked me to drive to the airport, since she was not really feeling comfortable about driving into Boston in traffic. So off I went driving a six speed, yes six speed... I had not driven a standard for at least ten years. At least I had the Jeep to give me a crash course. My daughter somehow managed to make it out of Boston after dropping me at the airport. In retrospect, I will now take an airport limo service in the future......
So on top of driving on the other side of the road and having the driver's side of the car on the passenger side, I was shifting with my left hand. Let me tell you that took a bit of figuring out.... Thank goodness the clutch and brake were not changed around!
aww I wanna go to Ireland....I may have you get me a postcard next time you go....ooh and hey Kae if I give you my addy could you have your son send me a postcard from australia
and kae I dont know anything about facebook.....I am a myspace kinda girl
