En route

I woke up and for a few seconds was disconcerted to find the walls and windows in the wrong place. And then I remembered I was in the bed in my parents’ basement. I stretched and tried to stay in bed – sleeping in is such a rare luxury. Guilt overcame me and I decided I was being too much of a sybarite. Time to get out bed! I glanced at the clock, thinking it was at least 8 o’clock. It was 6:37, or exactly seven minutes after I usually get out of bed.

Last night when I arrived in Arlington a little after 10 pm, my mother had already gone to bed, but my father was on the couch, waiting for me to show up. The minute I walked in the door, he shooed me to bed.

“Now, go to bed! Go to bed.”

“But Dad, we’re not leaving early tomorrow, right?”

He looked me straight in the eye and said impressively, enunciating each word for emphasis: “We’ve called a taxi, and it will be here at ELEVEN am. So GO to bed.”

Sure, whatever…your middle-aged daughter with three kids of her own will go to bed, because you tell her to…And we certainly wouldn’t want to oversleep and miss the taxi that will be out there at ELEVEN am!

I went down to the basement and reorganized some of the things I had packed. A creaking noise alerted me to the presence of my mother. I went to the foot of the stairs to see her pajama clad figure looming above me in the darkness.

“Hi, Mom! I thought you were asleep!”

“I was in bed, but I couldn’t sleep because I was so worried about you, but now you’re finally here. What took you so long? Anyway, GO TO BED!”

I’m on Mom and Dad time now. My parents and my sister and I will be getting into a taxi at ELEVEN am and heading to Dulles to catch our plane to Seoul…

When I got home from work yesterday, I had just enough time to have dinner with the people I order to bed and more importantly, order to pose for photos: