Traveling

Posting disclaimer: This is longer than most posts, and was written prior to traveling but due to the hectic travel and visiting schedule I never got to post it.


I have never traveled very well, ever really. If you ask my Mom, she can tell you how I didn't enjoy traveling far from home growing up. Well, now home is far from there, and I still don't travel very well. My wonderful wife, the beautiful mother of little Q, has been very understanding of this and has indulged this aspect of me by setting out for the airport at the beginning of a traveling adventure several hours early. The part of me that does not travel well seems to be excellent at sitting and waiting.

Now, we are attempting this trip to the airport with the little man in tow. He will be much better at this traveling thing than his father, but for right now, he will simply be along for the ride. We have packed bags (mostly), printed boarding passes, signed copies of the TSA guidebook (practically) and still, I somehow have the "not ready" feeling.

I know that tomorrow afternoon I will be pulling bags through the baggage claim, looking for my brother, the proud uncle, who will probably be standing by his illegally parked car holding his camera and smiling his fun, ever-present smile. Yet, somehow, I still wonder if we will make it through security, or if there will be traffic on the road to the airport.

This isn't a fear of flying; it isn't even fear of travel. It isn't made better or worse by alcohol (even though many people have suggested that it might help), and incredibly, nothing really feels right until I sit and put my seatbelt on in the plane seat.

Now I feel like I need to partition my mind as the first-time Dad, taking his son for his first flight. There is no room for my shenanigans, there is no space for my uncomfortableness. No longer can my beautiful bride be carefree and allow me all the time and space needed while she wanders to and from the little newsstands devouring every magazine printed in the past 3 months. We are both focused on him: what can we bring for him? What do security checkpoints allow for the baby (just about everything, by the way--everyone should travel with a baby)? How will we gate check the stroller and carry the car seat in that little, skinny airplane aisle all the way back to row 25, where they stick the crazy people with the baby, who everyone fears will scream? I know he won't; he is good, and perfectly happy about 95% of the time. The other 5% is when he is hungry and not being fed, or if someone messed up his nap schedule, and he just decides that he will not sleep when it is not his nap time.

No, if there is screaming from the back of the plane, it will probably be me, first-time Dad flying with his son for the first time.