I fly away...

I fly a lot.  I fly so much that my friends always joke with me about how they never know where I am at.  With flying so much Ive gained a great loyalty status with one airline.  With traveling so much, Ive gained great loyalty status with two different hotel chains.  I actually like to travel, and I realize I am very fortunate.  I travel so much that Ive become an expert at getting through airport security.  I get through in record time, I travel light, and I'm often there and gone before my presence was known.  I'm like a fraternity version of the Navy SEALs.  Traveling so much Ive gotten used to just about everything that goes along with it.  Ive gotten used to people with disgusting feet not wearing socks KNOWING they have to take their shoes off.  I’ve gotten used to airport food, and know which airports have the best food.  I know where the Admirals Club is at almost airport.  Ive gotten used to putting up with the coughing and sneezing person that typically sits next to me.  I know how many movies I need to rent from iTunes for my flights.  I have even gotten used to saying goodbye to the girls in Chicago.  I travel so much, they have gotten used to saying goodbye to me.  I used to see multiple girls standing at the door crying (maybe waving) as I pulled out of the driveway.  Now, its no big deal.  Another week brings another trip to the airport for Daddy.  I suppose them now being used to it is better, I guess. 

With all that I have gotten used to, gained, and experienced, from travelling, there is one thing that I have not gotten used to.  I am not sure I ever will.  Work took me away from Louisville in 2006 when I took a job at UK.  I never thought I would leave Louisville, and even though I was in my college town, and only an hour away, it was still away from “home”.  It was still away from Mom & Dad.  We did the best we could with that situation, and we even worked out a pretty good system.  While we didn’t get to see them as often as we did while we were in Louisville, I maintain that especially towards the end, we would see them for longer durations of time.  Which was nice.  Work again took us away this past December when we moved to Chicago.  Make no mistake, I am so incredibly thankful for the chance that SAE provided me, and I don’t regret the decision one bit.  I do think that if I am any good at being SAE’s ESR, its partially because I love and respect my family as much as I do.  However, that means being away from my parents and brother (who has since moved himself), all of which was all I knew for so long.  Even when in Lexington, they weren’t THAT far away. I could always see them for dinner.  It also meant I would be taking Brooke further away from her parents, something that took a lot of courage on her part as well. 

This past weekend I was lucky that work brought me back to the place that I love so much.  In between working with KYEP, I got to spend some great time with my Mom and Dad.  I think it had been the longest period of time between visits for my parents.  Despite the fact that I hadn’t really lived in their house for almost 10 years now, it is and will always be my home.  The smells, the feelings, the memories, are the greatest comfort soul food you could ever ask for.  I got to watch a little football with Dad, read the newspaper I read growing up, watch the news that I watched as a kid, go to the mall with Mom, pet the dogs (two if which used to be ours), and sort of go back to the way things were…just for a weekend.  I drove the streets whose names I have over time forgotten, streets that I could still navigate as accurately as any GPS.  It wasn’t complete, because I had to leave the girls behind.  I look forward to Thanksgiving when they can see their MaMaw and PawPaw, but it was so nice to be around my parents.  When we drove to the SAE house, I got to run by my old house in Lexington.  The new owners were putting up a privacy fence; something Brooke and I wanted to do.  Unfortunately, they took down the swing in the front tree.  All four of my babies swung in that swing.  The front yard held court for countless of hours of playing by the girls.  Every girl we had was just a little girl in that house, and in my memories... they always will be.  I always complain to my parents that “im not a kid,” “stop treating me like I'm 13,” etc.  Looking at that front yard, I began to understand my Mom and Dad’s point of view on their kids.  I have it now as well. 

It was a great weekend, a somewhat bittersweet weekend, but a weekend full of love. No matter how many times I have gone through Louisville to catch a plane, sometimes faster than Sherman (spit) through Georgia...this time was different.  I am a grown a*s man, and here I am sitting in this airport, struggling to hold back the tears.  I literally can’t get on that plane fast enough.

Ive gotten used to so much of traveling because of my work.  Saying goodbye to my Mom and Dad, leaving Kentucky, will probably never be one of them.  I think that is a testament to the loving and supportive childhood that I had, and how much I love them in return.

I know someday my girls will leave me. If at some point one of them is sitting an airport going through the same emotions that I am now,  then I think I will have done a good job as a parent.  Lord knows I had great examples.