cashing it in....

So our trip to Norway is something that Charlotte Claire and Camille have saved for, for years! They have set aside Christmas and birthday money, cash from bottles and cans, and saved up coins. Yesterday, Camille and I cashed in the coins, and brought back bottles and cans. The girls had lots of rolled coins, which we brought to the bank, and lose change, which we dumped into the change machine at Walmart. $66 dollars, mostly pennies, nickel, and dimes. But the machine takes 11.9%, so next time, we roll all of it.

Bottles and cans: $29!

The girls will use this money for spending money while we're there, so they can get ice cream, go to the candy store, get food, ect.

It's a big trip. I am excited, nervous, apprehensive, but mostly happy. I do not like crowds, do not like going through security or customs. I'm the kind of girl who feels like I've done something wrong just seeing the black and white of a police car. I don't like long lines, because of, well, being heavy. My feet hurt, my knee hurts. I don't like when you have to hurry through an airport, I get hot and huffy and I can't keep my 30 pound purse from sliding repeatedly off my shoulder.

Going through security is almost hell-ish. We usually fly out of Syracuse, where the security people are all really nice. But some of those bigger airports, it reminds me, I hate to say, of the movies I've watched where the people are getting off the trains at the concentration camps, all shocked and scared, and they're being relieved of their luggage and ordered into lines. I know, this is nothing like that was, and the Political Correct police will be knocking at my door, but it still reminds me of it. When you're going through security, taking your shoes off as fast as you can, getting your electronics into a separate bin, taking your sweater off, while being barked at to HURRY, HURRY, SCARF OFF TOO! In essence, you are being treated like a criminal, guilty until proven innocent. And for some reason, I'm always the one who gets patted down, my fingers swabbed for gun powder residue, my suitcase searched.

And I'm a law abiding citizen. I don't even take a Tylenol unless I can't function, so I wouldn't have illegal drugs. I take potassium and magnesium, vitamin D, and fish oil. That's it. As for the rest of it, seriously? Do I look like a threat?

Anyway. I've had some bad traveling experiences too, like when Paul and I went to Dominican, and I developed the migraine from you-know-where on the plane. All through the airport, then onto the transport bus to the resort, I couldn't even speak up to ask the driver to pull over, because if I opened my mouth...then it happened, I barfed right into my jean jacket. I did. Right on the bus. I felt momentarily better, but as soon as we got checked in and to our room, I barfed my brains out, it was a horrible migraine. I got one when I flew to Seattle one time, too, so I get kind of nervous, they don't seem to have rhyme or reason.

So I'll avoid, carbs, and sugar, and try to hydrate, and try not to get anxious. Because it's a HUGE trip for Camille, and we can make it all fun. Even the inevitable pat-down, I guess...