Looking out my hotel window in Newark, New Jersey, I was greeted with the most industrial view of a sunrise that I have seen in quite a while. The activity at the airport in the distance was surprisingly quite calm, and the cranes dotting the horizon reminded me of some strange insects waking to begin hunting for their food. All night there were ridiculously loud motorcycles racing in circles around the road that encircled the hotel. I hadn't slept well at all. Coming from a rural area where the loudest nighttime noises are foxes crying and crickets chirping (which actually can be deafening), the motorcycles and the planes were too much. Besides, with Chronic Lyme, I don't sleep well to begin with.
Thinking back at this early hour, I vaguely remember that I have spent the night in New Jersey before when I was very little. My parents used to be friends with a couple who lived somewhere in New Jersey and every so often we would stay with them or they would travel to Maryland to stay with us. It's funny that I hadn't thought about them in so many years until now, when I wake up in the state where they used to live. I don't have any idea what happened to them or if they even live here anymore. I don't remember much about them either, besides the daughter's name, Colleen. I don't remember their house, their town, or the things we did when we visited. I do remember two different times getting injured there, one requiring a hospital visit and some stitches, the other time I got hit in the eye with a side mirror on a car (weird, I know.) Funny how our brains will remember some details and not others.
After watching the morning movements outside the hotel window for a few minutes, it is time to start my day. I have a daughter to pick up in Manhattan today after she's been gone for a week. I miss her. I know her time of living at home is starting to whittle away as she will be a senior in high school this year. Time is the most precious thing we have and I am looking forward to spending it with her today.
Have a blessed Monday.
xo
