Buy Time Don’t Lose It

I have to make this blog a fast one as I’m already late for today’s plans.  As you all know our tour ended Tuesday night in Chula Vista.  Wednesday was all about travel for me.  I flew home during the afternoon but due to the time change I arrived back in Chicago well after 9.  That isn’t totally fair.  I landed before 9.  Then, my plane proceeded to drive around O’Hare for the next 35 minutes or so.  I wish I was kidding.  By that point, my patience had worn very thin as I was tired, anxious to use a bathroom and had people waiting for me.

Typically when I come back from tour, my parents pick me up, which generally means they stop the car long enough for me to throw my suitcase in before hitting the expressway.  This time, though, they parked.  It wasn’t about me, though.  No.  It was about my nieces, their granddaughters.  Earlier this summer, arrangements were made to have my two teenage nieces fly from North Carolina to visit with us here in the Midwest.  It seemed logical to have them fly in on the same day that I returned to avoid an additional trip to the airport as Madison is over two hours from O’Hare.  The nieces arrived about 2 hours before me and they were all waiting for me by baggage, which I admit felt pretty nice.

A normal ride home from a tour includes me trying to convey some or any of what the tour was like to my parents who typically listen and try to understand as much as they can.  This time, I wanted to hear about my nieces, including their trip in, the time spent on their vacation at the beach, my eldest niece’s writing camp, and their school schedules.  Part of me still wanted to talk about tour, of course, but the time with the girls is limited.  The drive home Wednesday was long as we stopped for food and drove through a ton of construction.  I’m not really kidding when I say that the entire state of Wisconsin was under construction.  The two o’clock bedtime meant that part of me still felt like I was on tour despite being no where near the show in Glendale, Arizona.

Yesterday, we went to see Star Trek:  Beyond and played a lot of games as we typically do when the family is together.  In between activities, I slept.  I felt like I hadn’t really slept in days.  Weeks.  Months.  The level of exhaustion was intense.  Even this morning, I planned to get up and do some laundry before today’s marathon shopping (as requested by the nieces).  Alas, I turned off that alarm and slept a good three hours longer than I had planned.

Why am I sharing all of this on today’s blog?  Simple.  Normally, the first few days after a tour is spent not only recovering but processing.  I look through pictures.  I tally up the tour by the numbers.  The tour binder gets emptied and put away.  A lot of time is spent thinking about the shows, thinking about conversations, thinking about the moments that I really want to remember forever.  This time, though, that processing will have to be done later after the girls leave.  Of course almost immediately following their departure, work meetings begin.  Rhonda and I also have a list of things that need to be done for the next upcoming projects.  There won’t be much time to focus on the fabulousness of this year’s tour.

I admit that there is a part of me wanting that time to process, needing that time.  I want to revel in the memories.  Every single second needs to be remembered.  Yet, I also recognize that there is another part of me that would quickly become sad at the realization that the tour is over.  Plus, who knows exactly when (or ever) there will be another one.  Yes, my bank account needs a rest (a serious one).  Emotionally I know that I would be struggling if it wasn’t for being busy.  In that way, maybe, I planned this tour perfectly to avoid the very real post Duran show/tour depression.

-A