Two Weeks in GLP

Well, I am stoked. I head off to GLP (Groton Long Point) tomorrow early, early in the a.m. Mi avion leaves DIA at 7:00 a.m. A.M.! It takes me an hour to get to the airport, which is basically in Kansas; therefore, I have to set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. Argh. Hopefully, my lack of sleep will override my anxiety of flying and I'll just sleep the entire way. There's a connection in Philly and then I finally land in Providence, RI (PVD). From there, I'll rent a car and road trip it 95 south to one of my favorite get-away's in the world: Hodges' Lodge, my Gramps place.

Technically, it's now my mom's place in that Gramps passed away a couple of years ago. He willed it to her and now we (as a family) maintain this precious, little cottage. I affectionately call it a "cottage" because compared to the McMansions that now reside on the Point it is quite small. Oh, sure, we've refurbished the place with updates, but all-in-all the integrity of the place has remained securely intact. I hold these visits extremely near and dear to my heart for two reasons: 1) I miss my Gramps and I can always "find him" out at Sea Flower, watching over us and 2) I miss the ocean.

Robyn kicked my a@@ at boot camp this morning. This is my punishment for oversleeping on Monday, I get it. Although torturous, I felt great afterward. Once home, I flipped on Fox News; and discovered that not even two miles away from my home...there was a bank robbery happening at the Bellco Credit Union. Wow, I thought, so that's what all the cops zooming by me on C470 were rushing toward. Intrigued, I glued myself to the tele, taking occasional breaks to run outside trying to get glimpses of the news choppers overhead.

Then, some guys with bullet-proof vests on and a dog were outside my house, questioning my neighbor across the street...we're talking JeffCo SWAT team here So, being the nosey neighbor that I can be, I ran upstairs to spy through my blinds. I couldn't hear a thing, but I did see my neighbor allow the SWAT team into his house. Hmm. Then they all spontaneously left. Unfortunately, I can't report anymore gossip other than that they put us on "lock down" and told us to be aware of any suspects. Candidly, I thought it was all quite exciting.

Which is why I left my home and went to Starbucks (I listen well, apparently).

Then it got sort of ugly -- no not with the bank robber, but with a stupid, stupid anxiety attack where I thought I was stroking again. Ugh...I hate these darn things! They come out of nowhere, and this one completely and utterly sucked. I started to domino when I felt a similar pain in my neck that I had felt right before the actual "event" in March. The neck pain started to grow up the back of my head, I got dizzy, started to have trouble breathing, and lost complete awareness (in hindsight, all self manifested -- I think, I believe). Ultimately, I got through it, but was completely exhausted afterward. See, the thing is, even though you may be lucky enough to convince your brain that it is not real, your body doesn't always follow suit, so it semi-reacts as if it's the real thing -- adrenaline overload. Exhausted, hell yeah. I hope you never have to understand or even comprehend this.

They caught the guy, the bank robber. He surrendered...somewhere around the lake that I run on a regular basis. Kinda cool that our little neck of the woods was on national news, but I never wish experiencing something so life-threatening and scary as this on anybody (bank robbery or "phantom stroke"). It's a crazy world. Fun one, but crazy.

I'd say it's about time I took a little va-cay to the ocean...to Gramps.