Transient Transplant

I’m a creature of habit.  And while I used to be better at going with the flow about a decade earlier, now my life has become a series of plans.

If we haven’t planned it out, I probably can’t fit it into my schedule.

That isn’t always true, but my calendar each month tends to fill up quickly.

So after a month and a half of being back in Seattle, I was feeling antsy.

I hadn’t left in a long time.  The weather was atrocious and dreary.

Snowmageddon had come and gone but somehow we couldn’t shake the cold weather in the Pacific Northwest.

I was counting down the days until I would show up at my cousin’s doorstep in San Diego.

The very same cousin who was with me when our lives were saved by a drag queen in Palm Springs, (a classic tale if you need a refresher: Palm Springs Drag Queens) I knew based on our past antics we would have fun no matter what.

And I couldn’t wait to be in warm weather again.

The day before I was going to catch the flight out, I texted her, asking if I could just Uber to her place to make her already busy life much easier.

That’s when I got the text back:

There was a flash flood warning in California.

They hadn’t seen sun in weeks.

She got a flat tire that morning.

Her daughter might have broken her foot.

She and her son weren’t feeling well.

I knew the right thing to do was to cancel and reschedule.

But it was already in my calendar.  And that was essentially like being etched in stone as far as I was concerned.

However I knew I would be an additional problem to them.  So I did what I knew in my heart was the right decision and cancelled.

Luckily my cousin and I both had the following weekend open in some sort of miraculous turn of events.

I re-booked the flight and ventured out the next weekend.

There was actually sunshine, which was amazing.

I even got sunburnt which was all the rage when I came back to Seattle.

“Oohhh.  Looks like someone got some sun!  Where did you go?” they all asked enviously.

I flaunted my new farmer’s tan with pride.  I had something people were envious of: contact with sunshine.  Eat it up Seattle.

And it was yet another glorious trip with my cousin.  We drank mimosas in the morning and talked late into the evening, never running out of topics.

We spent the day at Coronado soaking up the sun on the beach deck laughing about random shit.

We went to an improv show after I was promised I wouldn’t have to go on stage.

We sat at the patio to a restaurant in Old Town once the sun came out, requesting to both sit in the direct rays as well as near a heat lamp, living on the edge of crazy as people who don’t see the sun for extended periods of time tend to do.

I would love to tell you every detail, but overall, it was simply nice and relaxing.  And overall, just spending time with my cousin helps to give me a second wind.

I’m lucky to have her as a friend as well as a family member.  We always have a good time, even if it’s just hanging out over some margaritas shit talking the couple sitting next to us on the beach deck with the wife reading her husband’s texts over his shoulder.

Or the guy who seemed to be wandering around with a hawk on his arm for no apparent purpose.  Did he work there?  Was this just his way of starting a conversation and picking up women?

The world may never know these answers, but we can pass days discussing them nonetheless.

Any trip to see my cousin is always a good one.  And I was grateful that I had the wherewithal to switch my flight on a whim and shake up my calendar a bit.  Carefree Carly with less on her plate from a decade ago would have appreciated that move immensely:  the guts it takes to buy a plane ticket for the very next weekend, planless, and just see how it all pans out.

Plus, it meant I finally got to see the sun.  And have the farmer’s tan that everyone in the city is in awe of.