Is It Worth It?

My 46" carry on is almost packed, the newspaper and mail delivery have been dealt with and the ice maker has been turned off. My 3oz bottles of essentials sit staring at me from their 1 qt. see through baggie on the counter, practicing for their performance tomorrow morning for the TSA person who will barely bother to look at them.

After the theater tonight we will jump into bed, set our alarm for 4:00 AM and then spend a sleepless night worrying that the alarm will fail to go off. Tomorrow bright and early we will head out for the Blue Line to O'Hare hopeful that the "...we are being delayed waiting for signals ahead" announcements will be few and far between. Once at ORD, shoes and coats in hand, we and our carry ons- we refuse to pay $100 to check our bags - and our baggies of plastic bottles will be carefully scrutinized (or not, depending on the mood of the TSA agent). Then on to the gate to wait for our boarding group to be called. Instead of reading my book, I will probably be sizing up our fellow travelers for their propensity to commit acts of terror.

If we are lucky enough to land in Miami as scheduled, we will jockey for position at the car rental counter in hopes that our car is there and smoke free, as promised. Getting out of Miami is tricky, but once on U.S.1 its a pretty straight shot to the causeway leading to the Overseas Highway and our destination at Milemarker 92.5.We'll have two weeks of no newspaper, TV, Internet, ice or snow. For the last two days of our stay we'll start the process of preparation for travel all over again.

I sometimes think we should just stock up on seafood,unplug ourselves, buy a sunlamp and some Beach Party and Gidget movies, and stay home.