Final week we went to Puerto Rico for 3 days with Hailey, their sweetheart Laurel, and Laurel’s mother to rejoice their commencement and spend some bonding time with them earlier than they each go off to Texas State, and it was excellent as a result of I might keep in mattress when exhaustion hit and never really feel unhealthy as a result of Hailey might exit on their very own with Laurel since they’re now adults. And it was additionally heart-breakingly bittersweet as a result of they’re now sufficiently old to have lives with out us. The chest-swelling pleasure of watching my child step out in maturity is tempered with an equal ache of watching our relationship develop into one thing completely different…one thing nonetheless fantastic, however the finish of an period and the start of one other…of letting go and altering. It’s a lot tougher than I believed it will be.

We swam and (flippantly) hiked by a rainforest however one among my favourite recollections was watching a flight attendant named Debbie unfastened her absolute shit when she instructed the final individual getting on that he couldn’t deliver on three baggage and one other flight attendant was like, “It’s nice. We nonetheless have loads of room within the overhead, Debbie” and she or he screamed “YOU CAN’T HAVE THREE BAGS. I TOLD HIM YOU CAN’T HAVE THREE BAGS” and everybody simply stared at one another with large eyes as a result of clearly Debbie was going by some shit and we might all relate to that but in addition it was like watching your mother and father combat in entrance of your mates and for the remainder of the journey every time one thing would go flawed one among us would scream “YOU CAN’T HAVE THREE BAGS” and we’d all chortle and understand we had been being ridiculous and now “YOU CAN’T HAVE THREE BAGS” joins our endlessly lexicon of bizarre personal jokes.

And that’s form of fantastic as a result of I’m at all times staring on the ceiling at 3am fascinated with one thing mortifying I stated 10 years in the past and folks at all times say, “Nobody observed no matter you’re fearful about, you’re being irrational” and perhaps that’s true, however perhaps a bunch of complete strangers who heard me say one thing extremely embarrassing 10 years in the past proceed to repeat that dumb factor with pleasure as a non-public joke that also bonds them collectively. And that’s a sort of immortality you can’t purchase and a useful reminder I would like as I proceed to by chance spew out horribly embarrassing issues in public, like a fountain of mortification.

PS. Bless you, Debbie. At all times in our hearts.