The other side ..... the sadness and the homesickness ..... it's all part of the journey!

When i initially started this blog, it was with the intention of capturing my doings, thoughts and feelings for the next 50 years so in 49 years time, when i am sitting in my jail cell, after being arrested for public indecency, I could look back and reminisce :)  It was meant to be fun and spunky and depict the side of me that travelled, had fun, met new people and would make good reading for my Special People who I know are following my "journey"


What i didn't realise how badly the homesickness and a sense of such absolute sadness would come to overwhelm me.  This came to a head on my trip to Washington which is why i have been so hesitant to blog about it.  It would have been so much easier to post a bunch of pics in an album on FaceBook and leave it at that.


But, as do most of us, i have 2 sides to me (only 2?) and if this is going to be a true reflection of my life for the next 50 years, then i have to show the other side as well.  The side that causes me to withdraw - my motto being "if you dont have anything positive to say, then dont say anything at all"

I guess I realized what a big world this is, and how small and insignificant I really am. Yet, I know that I matter to my 'tribe",  my children and the small group of people who 'get' me and my somewhat unconventional ways.

Tomorrow will be better, because there is always something to look forward to. So I will allow myself my few minutes of homesickness and sadness, and then I will move on even if it's just five minutes at a time.  

Simple things .....

I have never been able to decide if I was blessed or cursed with my childlike ability to be entertained and amused by the simplest of things.

This evening, a simple shopping trip had me entertained from beginning to end.  

The shopping carts ( yes I am already starting to speak American English lol) in one of the grocery stores are kitted out to simulate a kiddies racing car, right down to the flames painted on the sides, so they can "drive" while mom is shopping. In this case, it was to keep Gogga and Luke occupied while mom was shopping :))

I decided to practice my "driving" on the right hand side of the road in the shopping aisles with Luke "steering" in the shopping cart. 

Needless to say I am as big a danger in a grocery store as what I would be if i even attempted to drive in the USA,  but we had tons of fun speeding up and down the aisles, with me shouting "  Turn the wheel, turn, turn....."  and Luke screaming with laughter and turning the steering wheel like a race car driver and then we would skid to a stop, with screeching brake sounds.  

Years from now I can see this happening in reverse, Luke pushing me around the corridors of the old age home in my wheel chair..... " Brrrrrrm,   brrrrrrrm,   brrrrrrm,  turn the wheel Gogga, turn, turn, turn ......"   

As we were making our way to the check out, a man who had been shopping with his son, stopped and asked us where we were from.  I love telling people that i am visiting from Cape Town and during our brief chat, he mentioned that his son had overheard Carla and I speaking earlier and had asked "Dad, why dont I talk like they do ?" 

Lol, yes I grew up in South Africa and yes, i talk funny !!!!

Then came the next highlight of the evening ...... my first self service check out.

Carla knows how difficult i find technology of any sort, so she says "Okay mom, I am going to show you how to do this, then you are going to do it yourself ......"  

I watched as she hooked a carrier bag over some hook thingies, pressed the payment selection on the screen, swiped her card and then swiped the barcode on the first grocery item over the scanner. Then it was my turn .... the more i swiped, the more excited i got.  I can only imagine how it looked to the other shoppers in the store - me jumping up and down with excitement, grinning like a Cheshire Cat as i am scanning groceries with Carla standing by taking pics.

Welcome to my world, people, where Food Lion Grocery Store can be just as much fun (if not more) than any regular tourist attraction.

 On the way home, Carla mentioned we had to stop to put in gas (another word i have picked up very easily).   

"I want to pump gas, I want to pump gas ....."   "Yes mom" Carla replies as patiently as she would with Luke "you can pump the gas"

So there we are at the gas station ( i dont think that there is such as thing as a petrol attendant in the USA) and Carla is once again patiently instructing me step by step how to pump gas.

It may be a small insignificant thing to some, but to me, I made yet another memory. Who would have thought that on the 1 October last year, i would be pumping gas in the USA a year later :)

 

Sight seeing in New York, riding a camel in Dubai, and back packing around Egypt (all items on my bucket list) will still come,  but for now I have experienced and enjoyed some new simple things, things that i have never done before, in a small town in North Carolina.

My childhood may be over, but that doesn't mean playtime is.  ~Ron Olson