Transit, filling days, and planning

Had my first experience flying with my dog, and everything went incredibly smoothly. He didn’t make a peep when he was under the seat! The woman next to me on the first leg of the flight didn’t even realize I had a dog with me until the very end of the flight. I was so proud of Jungi. Of course I had to tell people who commented on how calm he was that he had a sedative in him, but I felt like such a responsible pet owner. I would have been so embarrassed had he been carrying on and making the flight miserable for everyone. But instead we had a lovely experience, and made it to my family’s place without a hitch. They were there to greet me at the airport, and we all piled into the car and caught up. My grandmother always has a constant stream of questions, and the ride back is long enough that she got to ask quite a few of them.

We’ve gotten to play quite a few games of cards, and had some really good chicken noodle soup and hot chocolate. We sat outside for a while, and I took a long nap today. We’ve taken the dogs on a couple walks, and I’ve gotten to catch up on some of the local gossip. We’ve also watched a good bit of TV, some news shows and a couple movies. It’s surprising how quickly the days can fill up even when they aren’t scheduled to the limit. At home I feel like between work, my commute, and taking my dog on a long walk in the evening, I only have maybe forty-five minutes to have a little dinner and get some reading in. Of course I’ve started stretching that time out a bit by going to sleep later, but then I get tired at work, and since I cut back on caffeine that’s not been going so well. I don’t know if I’m going to stick to my low-caffeine plan. It wasn’t causing me any real problems, and nodding off is so worrisome, if not downright problematic for my career.

It’s so easy to make plans, and often so hard to stick to them. It’s wonderful when plans work out well, but sometimes it’s just as wonderful when things don’t work out the way you’d planned. I know a lot of things in my life aren’t what I would have planned for, but then, I have an amazing life as it is. I can only be grateful. ‘Tis the season.