To Travel or Not To Travel

04Oct09

Four large suitcases, two carry-ons, two laptops and a near-empty house. There were just these minimal things left with us and we were all set to travel. It was three days before we were scheduled to board an Emirates flight to India. The travel preparations were done; couch, TV, TV stand, dining table, chairs, water filter and a lot of other stuff had either been returned – exploiting the 90-day return policy – or sold on the ever-dependent craigslist; and disconnection requests for cable, phone and the utilities had been placed.

That fine Friday afternoon, as I walked into what I thought was just another official meeting, I was told I might have to stay back in San Antonio for some more time, and the final word on that would be by Monday.

So there we were. Me and the wife. Surrounded by four large suitcases, two carry-ons, two laptops and a near-empty house. We asked our community leasing office to hold on to our notice for a few more days because, “We might just have to stay back and my office would let me know soon, thank you for your help today”.

A bounty of mixed feelings ran through us – we would miss the smell of the Texas air, the fragrance of what had been our home for the past six months, the nightly walk down the calm streets of our community, the pool side chairs we unwind ourselves on – or we may stay on and miss none of it for some more time. If missing was sad, not knowing if you would miss or not is awkward. Were we to board flight to India or make our weekly grocery visit to HEB?

A coffee would help, we thought, only to realize we ran out of sugar. We drove to HEB to buy the smallest available pack that would last us just a little while, trying to make optimized use of our limited resources. The hours ticked by, as we waited for the day to move over to the next. And then to the next. We walked over to the patio and kept gazing at the Sunday sun setting over the horizon oh-so-slowly until the large ball of fire sunk deep beyond the visible edge taking the trail of orange clouds along with it. Before we realized, it was dinner time. A limited resources dinner.

For the first time, we eagerly awaited the dawn of the Monday. This Monday was going to brush away the blues, or so we hoped.

Luckily, the proverbial Monday morning was anything but blue. It was official – we were staying back. By evening we had our list of things to do – cancel disconnection requests, buy a TV, TV stand, dining table, chairs, water filter and the lot of other stuff, make our weekly grocery trip to HEB, hang the paintings on the wall, unpack the clothing into the closet, and unpack everything else that needs unpacking.

It was suddenly like we just moved in and have to start setting up the house. After six months of living in this city, in this house, it all seemed just like the day we first moved in – four large suitcases, two carry-ons, two laptops and a near-empty house.

Filed under: Life and Living, Travel   |  2 Comments
Tags: San Antonio