Hello, Monday {Taking Flight}

Hola, Monday.  I'm surprisingly not too zonked by the Daylight Savings Time change, but then maybe I'm chalking it up to all the fun from yesterday.

This girl of mine turned 11:

We celebrated by spending the day at Disneyland, and taking along Lily's best friend. They've been good buddies since they were 5 and 6. Her friend is a year older, and already in middle school. May I just say, regarding the backseat conversation we got to overhear: YIKES.

At Disneyland, we'd agreed that the girls would be allowed to go off by themselves for a couple of hours at time. This freedom and trust was part of Lily's gift for the day. She did a great job, texting and updating and being on time at our meeting spots. (After years of visiting Disney, she's fairly familiar with her surroundings.)

That meant most of my day was spent with the husband and Tucker. It was fun as always (and Tucker loved the solo attention), but it was also odd to have my girl off in the park on her own. 

Above is the "Departures" board for the Star Tours ride.  I'll be gazing at a real departures board later this week. On Friday I'm flying to Seattle, then riding a charter bus to a writing retreat in Leavenworth. 

I haven't flown in over 5 years, when we travelled to Hawaii as a family. I haven't flown solo in nearly 20 years. The whole thing makes me nervous, -- navigating the airport details, flying, being a participant in a small conference of fellow writers.

But that's the point, of course. I'm too familiar with my town, my house, my desk, my routines (which include Disneyland, too).  It's time to shake it up a bit and remind myself of how brave I can be.

So hello to my newly-minted eleven-year-old. Hello to dear and familiar vistas at Disneyland. Hello to travelling and seeing some brand new views.  Hello to saying adios to my flip-flops and warm weather, and hello to packing for cold Washington mountains. (Hello to being flummoxed by the contents of my closet.)

Hello to shaking things up. Literally! There was an earthquake this morning, centered less than an hour from here. It wasn't all that big, but it had been a while. 

I don't really take an earthquake as a sign of anything, but as a metaphor for my week, it works pretty well.

Linking up with Lisa Leonard for Hello, Mondays