Leaving on a jet plane

Moose begging from Norma Jean August 2010

I thought about calling this post "The Last Straw" or something similar, because that's what finally tipped me over the edge this morning. It's not enough that I am so far away from my wonderful sister Norma Jean, but to add insult to injury, her little adorable long-haired Pekingese Moose was run over and killed in her front yard today. Within an hour of the event, my niece Allison called to tell me that, well, it's not been the best week in the Stewart household. My heart immediately broke even more for my sister.

So, it turns out that I will indeed be in Florida for the celebration of Pete's life on Sunday. In fact, I'm staying for three whole weeks and will get a chance to jump my new parachute at the world-class Drop Zone, Skydive City, which happens to be about a mile from my sister's house. Yes, I am taking my gear with me, since I don't know that I will ever be back in the region, and it's been such a wet and rainy season here in the Pacific Northwest that I feel justified. Plus I will be able to take all my blogging buddies there to see what it's like. I hope none of you feel I am being totally crass doing this. Okay, I feel a twinge of guilt myself... but just a little.

Thanks to Allison, I will be using her accumulated Alaska Air miles to fly there. I couldn't get there using my own United Air miles, because they wouldn't let me use them until March 1 at the earliest. My days of flying everywhere are over, but if I compare the frequent flier programs of these two airlines, Alaska comes out tops in every way. I will be flying the "red-eye," however, which allows me to use the smallest amount of her miles. I will leave Seattle at 10:30 pm and finally arrive in Tampa at 1:30 pm the next day, with a layover of six hours in Miami. Not pretty, but I couldn't bear to pay the exorbitant airline prices they wanted to charge me in order to get there within the next few days.

One thing I want to say before my exciting journey begins: I am going to Florida first and foremost to help my little sister rebuild her life. There are pictures in my mind of the two of us talking far into the night, which might be a little dated... we are much older now and might fall asleep in our chairs instead. No matter, much personal history will be written within the next three weeks. Without a doubt.

They went everywhere together: NJ, Pete, Moose

:-}