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Gosh, it’s been ages since I had visited Miami and Fort Lauderdale – I think it might have been in 1994 when I had gone there for a NAGVA volleyball tournament. I didn’t get to see as much of the Miami or Fort Lauderdale then, since I was mostly holed up at the gym playing volleyball.

And now, I was heading back to it for a date on the Carnival Valor! Woohoo!

It had been 2 years since I had traveled for a vacation. The last time I did it was a short 4-day trip to Vancouver in between my jobs at Planet Out and VMware. That was in September of 2004. And now, I was heading to Miami/Fort Lauderdale to meet up with Leonel for the cruise that we had been looking forward to since the year began.

I had a little bit of a drama moment the day my departure. Weeks earlier, I had asked dad a favor of taking me to the Oakland airport on Saturday, Sepetember 16. On Friday the 15th, I was supposed to stay over night in Foster City with the family, so that they could take me to the airport the next day at 6 a.m. since my flight was at nine in the morning. However, I ended up with more stuff to do that day – both work and at home, that I wasn’t able to go to Foster city at the original time that I had said I was going; some work issues came in via e-mail (I was working from home), and I had to do impromptu repairs on a toilet seat that had just broken that day as well.

Anyways – to make a long story short, Dennis called me up and said that dad was not in a good mood because I had not yet made my way to Foster City at the supposed time I was going to be there. He suggested I make different arrangements for getting to the airport, since dad’s mood was making him unreasonable.

“I don’t need this shit.” That’s a phrase I said (and always say) to myself when things don’t go as planned.

Well, I was busy trying to get everything ready for the trip, aside from finishing work, that I had decided to take everything into my own hands. I had had told Dennis that I would just stay at home, and make arrangements on my own. In the back of my mind, I told myself that I would just drive myself to the airport, and just pay for long term parking. No drama, no hassle, no incovenience.

I was readying to go vacation. I don’t need the extra drama. End of story? Not quite.

Mom called after Dennis, and insisted that she would drive me to the airport. In the back of my mind, I was telling myself, that I did’t want to deal with this anymore, because if dad was in a foul mood, this would even make him more so.

So I kept on insisting to her that I had made arrangements already. I even fabricated a story that I called in a favor from a friend who I had picked up from the airport before at an ungodly hour, and that she would drive me the next day to the airport (FYI: the picking up of a friend at ungodly hour was true; her driving me to Oakland for my trip was not).

But mom, the person that she is – didn’t listen to what I was saying, and kept repeating the same thing over and over again – that she would take me to the airport, and I kept telling her no need, to the point where I was already raising my voice and getting angry at her (mom hears, but, of late, never listens to what we say to her at face value, and it really gets to me that I have to repeat something a dozen times before she finally shuts the f* up or moves on to another topic).

Finally, she said OK, but insisted that she drop by and see me before I flew. At this point, I just wanted to get everything done with, and really didn’t want her to come. But then, she’s mother – what can you say to her? She doesn’t listen anyways, and by that time, I was too tired to argue.

So, she came while I was having dinner. We chatted for a bit, but it centered around dad’s foul mood. I just let things go in one ear, out the other, and say “uh-huh.” Eventually, she left after “chatting.”

Dad eventually called 30 minutes later after she had left. He told me that things were taken out of context, and was still very much willing to take me to the airport. I had told him everything was fine, that I had already made arrangements. So, he left it at that, and wished me a happy trip.

Ah, finally, peace and quiet. I was so looking forward to leaving already, and like I said earlier – I didn’t need this shit, and needed this break. At that point, I definitely felt good, since now, it was just me-time – no hassle, no worries, no inconveniencing of people, no dealing with drama, etc.  I didn’t even care about how much I would pay for long term parking – to me, it was a great deal for a whole lot of peace and quiet to start my vacation.