I gotta get out of this place, if it the last thing I ever do!

March 7, 2014

All week things have been crazy with last minute trip planning but several events threated to thoroughly derail my plans for leaving the country. Precious, Lilly’s cat was on death’s doorstep when we discovered him lethargic and listless late Wednesday evening. Taking him to the vet early Thursday morning, we were confronted with making the difficult decision of putting him to sleep or possibly a dangerous surgery to repair a tear in his bladder caused by an infection. We picked up Lilly and told her about Precious’ condition. We decided to go visit Precious at the vet’s office and weigh our options carefully. After a long visit with our cat and speaking with the vet, it seemed Precious was starting to show signs of improvement. He was still under sedation but was beginning to show signs of agitation only when I petted him. He doesn’t like me much and I took this a good sign. We called a friend to see if she could help care for our cat while we are out of the country only to learn her husband had a heart attack! On top of all of this, the money I had transferred to cover our trip expenses was still in limbo and may not be available before we leave for our trip! What else can go wrong!

When dawn broke Friday morning, it was fast paced with taking the girls to school and the last minute errands, which included a stop by MPD. We had to drop off a last minute order of Girl Scout cookies with the wonderful ladies in the records department and to make copies of our passports. I had made copies of our passports weeks before the trip but neither Chris nor myself could locate the copies. By this time my nerves were beginning to unravel and I was snapping at everyone and extremely sick to my stomach. I had already thrown up three times as the stress of the previous forty-eight hours was beginning to show.

While attempting to make copies of our passports at MPD Records, the copier stopped working after I made only a few copies. So, I ran over to MPD’s primary building, up two flights of stairs and finally was able to finish making the copies of our passports. I ran back downstairs and over to records to retrieve Chris when he informed me needed cash from the ATM. Well, the bank is on the way to interstate and off we went in a great hurry. Arriving at the bank, we notice the ATM isn’t working and we are unable to withdraw funds! Quickly we were running out of options and tried an ATM at a gas station only to learn the transfer was still in transition. Running out of time and patience, we headed to the airport to join the group and hoped maybe by the time we were supposed to arrive in Los Angeles, we would have some cash waiting there in our account.

Stay tuned as our trip to Vietnam unfolds.