Phew… We survived!

After eight weeks on the road this fall, it’s Keryn’s turn to talk about our adventures through all those places Jason has been failing to describe...

I survived eight weeks of travel.

This simple sentence does not even begin to explain all that my traveling has entailed. Imagine visiting 92 (!) high schools over two months, during the school day or as evening college fairs. These visits span six states and four months this fall. Thankfully, Normal Guy (Jason) was able to travel with me for half of my travel season, providing the always-needed foot rub, hug, or quiet time reading our own books in the hot tub in Buffalo. Admittedly, there were days when I felt like being alone and mute for hours after doing two one-hour student interviews, four high school visits and a college fair. Compound this with the fact that Jason often spent eight hours holed up in a small hotel room, writing or reading, both activities done alone. I’d get home and want to be quiet; I’d get home and he wanted to talk. It’s a good thing we are able to communicate with each other, oftentimes about how we don’t want to talk.

It was unbelievable when I learned (months ago) that Jason likes to talk (almost) as much as me!! How is that possible? Rewind nine years to a conversation I had with my college boyfriend:

Me: How’s life?
Him: Fine.
Me: How was your day?
Him: Good.
Me: What did you do?
Him: The usual.
Me: Do you have a lot of work to do?
Him: Enough. (with a hint of sarcasm and a slight narrowing of his eyes)
Me: What are you thinking about? (Apparently, questions that girls under 25 should under NO circumstances ask their significant others.)
Him: Nothing.

You get the picture. Fast forward nine years to listen to a conversation with Jason, and you would hear both of us sharing every detail about everything and anything that we observed in a 15 minute time frame, disregarding the many tangents we go off on while talking. While recently watching an episode of “How I Met Your Mother,” we faced a reflection of our details-sharing relationship in Marshall and Lily. [NOTE: Tried to find the clip on YouTube, but the closest I could get was this clip from the same episode]

Okay, back to the topic of travel.

To recap: I survived. He survived. Our relationship survived.

Being stranded at the Baltimore airport on our last trip of the travel season was infuriating, but as we lay on the floor at gate A8, we learned that we shape the opportunities in our lives. We could spend another night in Baltimore, anxious to get home, or we could rent a car and venture on an eight hour cruise home.

We bought munchies, several Cokes (to keep Jason caffeinated and awake to drive), and stopped at eight toll booths along the way. I have proof, receipts marking our journey through Maryland, New York, and New Jersey, and along the Mass Pike. We cheered the first time we saw Boston on a sign with mileage attached.

“Home Sweet Home” is a phrase I will never take for granted again after traveling to Buffalo, Syracuse, Baltimore, and Woodstock, CT, along with countless other small towns during the past two months.

Thank you, “Normal Guy,” for being my navigator, cheerleader, and stress-reducer while traveling. We survived.

- Keryn Lemieux (a.k.a. "Normal Girl")