Someone asked if I was keeping some sort of track of my monthly challenges. Probably not as good of a job as I could be doing. In any case, here’s a re-cap of June.
My mom challenged me to go see my cousin run the American Ninja Warrior finals in Las Vegas. it sounded awesome. And like 33 hours in the car. It was both of these things.
At first, just the kids and I were going to go. Yes, without my beloved. But we do a lot of stuff without him. He’s gone for work a lot, he works some weekends, and if we didn’t do things without him we would only do one thing ever. Just one. And it would be at the end of the winter.
This was supposed to be a challenge and it was. We left on Friday and drove until we got to San Antonio. Word got out that we were heading West, and our Tucson framily got wind of our impending. We hadn’t planned on stopping in Tucson, but newborns are only tiny for about 4 months and my friend had just had one. We tool a 7 hour side trip and got to Tucson on Saturday night. We were thrilled to see land. We emerged from the car into the base hotel like we’d been rescued from a mine. We were squinty and funky and exhausted. We were in Tucson for less than 16 hours. Just enough time for dinner, baby holding, half a bottle of wine, two showers and the best ten hours of sleep that could be had by two adults who had just driven a long, long way. The next morning we had brunch at my favorite place in the entire world. They gave me coffee while we waited in the Father’s Day at 8:45am, table for 4 line. My son and I watched a shop-lifting happen and then we headed to my grandma’s house in Havasu.
We spent two days with my mom and my grandma and then headed to Las Vegas. That night at 11:30PM, we watched Nicholas (@moderntarzan) run the course. I can’t tell you what happened. I can tell you this. If he successfully completed the course, he’d run the next night, if he made it through that one, he’d run stage three, and then he would attempt to climb Mount Madoriama if he succeeded in stage three. The course running started at night and the first night there were over 120 competitors.
Our time in Las Vegas was amazing. Let it be known that I have developed some pretty severe anxiety that used to just be average anxiety. The last three months have taken an emotional toll on me because of some #adultbullying and this being someone’s #seasonofhealing in their #momlife. I say those three hash-tagged statements with 100% mockery and disgust. This one person has spent the last 3 years of her life in some sort of pretend victim status and has dragged many people falsely through the mud. This has stoked a once dormant anxiety. So, large crowds, the fear of a missing child, bright lights, loud noise, these are all not my favorite things normally. It was a challenge.
We had a blast! We got to spend an entire week with my family completely free from most responsibilities. Neither of us worked. We went out to breakfast. We ate and both Chik-fil-a and In and Out. We drove around. We saw Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. Utah and Colorado are beautiful. New Mexico is a treasure trove of microscopic map dots. The desert will always feel like home to me. Texas and Nebraska compete for my least favorite states to drive through.
I’m looking forward to the possibility of the same trip next year. We had so much fun and it is always so much fun to spend time with all the family. I’m also trying to figure out what July’s challenge will be. I have a few options on my mind. None of them involve giving up caffeine or learning a second language.
Writer of Life 