On the Road Again

I once attended some sort of shark seminar at the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the Mr.  They showed us a tracking map of the sharks they had tagged and followed to learn more about their behavior and patterns.  Today, in one of the three airports I found myself in, I wondered what my map would look like if someone were tracking me.  Or even better, tracking me and the husband.

I imagined someone tagging me with a gps the way Walter White helps Hank track Gus in Breaking Bad.  

I don't mean to seem braggart or ungrateful, but I'd have been happy to stay home this week.  Turns out that our new city is really growing on me.  Husband is overseas at school this week and I needed to squeeze some work in, so here I am in the sunshine state.  Even people with no real jobs have to work sometimes!  And I love the work.  I'm just.... tired.

Maybe it's a combination of too many airport scans, or carrying luggage with a mildly injured back, or the changing weather that brings with it the infections and viruses of the season and causes my arthritis to flare up, or... maybe I'm just getting old.  I feel like there are so many things weighing on my mind lately and I know I could be getting a lot done.

Even with my "over it" attitude, I am very excited to see friends and family this week.  I feel myself growing apart from the things that once meant the world to me and it makes me a bit sad.  That's why I was happy to see this:

It's this old unimpressive sign at the airport and every time I see it I think, "Really Orlando?  Some 50 million visitors a year and you can't update your welcome sign?"  (and trust me when I say it looks much more haggard than when this picture was taken).  But then it occurred to me that when the sign changes I'll also feel sad that this one is gone, if only because I take a mental note of it so frequently.  It has a way of saying that amongst constant change, it's still the place I love and remember so fondly.

It reminds me of a video rental store in the little town I grew up in- Cosmos Video on Main Street.  It's the kind of place where you can still rent VHS tapes after you've chosen the cover from the shelf and exchange it for the actual movie in the brown case.  Last time I was in there they still kept records on file via rolodex.  I check to see if it's still standing every time I drive by and sure enough, a lasting memory from my childhood!  It seems like everything else has changed there.  Numerous video stores have come and gone, the local grocer relocated down the street in a new building, about 15,000 more people have moved in, and I've lost count of the traffic lights they've added (to my recollection there was only the one).  My cousins moved out of their house to make way for Wendy's.  But still stands Cosmos Video, a familiar face amongst a sea of strangers.  

To be completely honest, I don't care much if it goes (Cosmos or the welcome sign), but it's been long enough now that I will remember these things forever, resembling a constant amid so much change.